Road Trip! -- Oh My, Darling!

Hiya!

So last weekend, we took a quick trip to a small town about 1 hour north of Cape Town called Darling.  Yes, Darling.  Isn't that the best name for a town, ever?

The initial reason for going was to hear a talk about mole rats that Aaron wanted to attend.  Mole rats (well, their skeletons) make up a substantial part of the collection that he is analyzing, so this talk was important for him to attend.  And you know, it was amazingly interesting, even for a non-scientist type like me. 

So that was Friday.  We stayed that night at Waylands farm.  It was gorgeous:

We took a walk that evening ... look at this countryside!:

Here are Sam, a Rhodesian Ridgeback and Andy, an Australian Sheepdog who accompanied us on our walk:

Darling is also well known for its wildflowers ... look:

Then on Saturday, we did 2 of the coolest things we've done yet in South Africa.

First, we went to !Khwa Ttu, a San Culture and Education Center.  The San people are the indigenous people of Southern Africa, and were traditionally hunter-gatherers.

Of course colonization, disease, apartheid and modern living have put horrible pressures on this people and their culture, so this center focuses on education and training -- young San men and women are trained in cultural tourism so that they can make a living while sharing their culture with visitors from around the world.

Unfortunately, the main center was closed for a special event. 

Although we did have a look at this incredible photography and sculpture gallery: 

But fortunately, very very fortunately for us -- and in such a typically friendly South African way -- one of the !Khwa Ttu staff member invited us to the event!  And guess what?  The event was a poetry book launch!  Sadly for us, the book was in Afrikaans ... What I wouldn't have given for a translator!  I so wanted to understand! But the atmosphere was amazing, everyone so lovely and welcoming.  Did they look at us weird English-only, party-crashing Americans askew?  Nope, they asked us what brought us here, directed us over to the wine table and were so lovely when I mentioned that I was a poet too.  In fact, the poet gave us some amazing gifts:

(By the way, that is my patented smile-so-big-my-eyes-disappear smile.  And there's Michael, from !Khwa Ttu in the back, he's the one who invited us.)

What we're holding are empty ostrich eggs that he has enscribed with his poetry.  Isn't that just frigging cool? And he just gave them to us!  I keep saying this, but it's just so true, South Africans are just the most welcoming, generous and lovely people!  Really but really.

This is what a poetry book launch looks like in South Africa:

Um.  Can I say jealous? 

As an extra bonus perk, Michael encouraged us to go wander the grounds, where they have ...

ZEBRA!

And once we had taken like 100 shots of the zebra, we turned around and found out that all along eland had been watching us from the bushes!:

At first we thought it was just a few of them ...

 

But there turned out to be at least 30 of them!

And then a big male came down to check us out and then ran off -- it was stunning to see him run across the fields:

Oh, and to finish up what was an absolutely amazing experience, Aaron found bones!:

We got permission to gather them and he was so happy to add a Springbok to his comparative collection.

We have plans to go back to !Khwa Ttu when it's open and go on San-led hikes, learn about indigenous plants and their uses, etc., etc. ...

OK, this post has gotten wicked long ... I'm gonna save the rest for tomorrow.  I'll give you a hint ... it has to do with a certain cookbook ...

PS:  The zebra and eland pictures are courtesy of our new camera!  We have been wanting an SLR camera for a while now and we finally bit the bullet!  It's a Canon EOS 600 (in America I think it's called the Rebel Ti3).  Apart from our house, I think it's the biggest single investment we've ever made ... and we're completely in love!  Can't wait to take this baby to the Kalahari!