getting lucky - het vervolg

So. I tried typing the whole story, but decided halfway you'd probably be bored before you got to the end, so here's the shortened version:

So Nynke and I spent 5 days in the Southern Drakensberg, which is incredibly beautiful. We went off on a four day hike, carrying our stuff and sleeping in Huts. Big adventure, storm and cold (seriously freezing), snakes and getting lost etc. But a load of fun. Then we spent half an evening debating the difficult decision of going home one day early (the hike is actually 5 days), thinking it's a shame not to be able to say you finished the trail, but timewise with the Baz bus and our plans in Jo'burg (rugby!!!) and Northern Drakensberg (supposedly even more stunning than southern), it seemed better to come home early. So we decided in the end to be sissies and come home a day early. Then we needed to arrange transport from the trailhead to the lodge. unfortunately, we had no reception on the trail, so couldn't arrange beforehand. When we finished the trail it was afternoon and we were feeling very accomplished and pleased with ourselves. But that's where it started going wrong. We tried to call mobile (no reception),  tried to get a minibus to take us but we were too dutch (cheap), tried to hitchhike but we were too white, panicked and tried to call again, still no reception, and then it was getting dark and very cold. Finally asked a random stranger for help, called at their house, got transport but couldn't arrange for the next day. Luckily the owner of the hostel ios resourceful and arranged for the next day for us. then we were on our way out, half way to Pietermaritxburg where we would take the baz bus on, when we found out there was no bus. forgot to check that one... so we went on, thinking it was too depressing to go back. but then we were in pietermaritzburg witghout any transport further, and the hostel we wanted to go to is off the beaten track, especially public transport wise. So we were quite worried. We tried asking at a hostel in pietermaritzburg, wanting to use their card phone (nyn's idea), and the guy was starting to explain to us how we could get there ("minibus, cross town, next minibus, connect to a new minibus, and maybe even a fourth one, I'm not sure"...) when he remembered: wait, there's someone going up there this afternoon. So he arranged this ride for us, and without any effort or worries we got up into this remote area. We even got to spend the morning in Pietermaritzburg, using the internet, doing groceries and heading to the Art Gallery, which was great! Caught a ride with this girl that was heading up, she turned out to be dutch and working in the community up here for her thesis, and there were so many interesting similarities with the masaai. So we got to this place we would never have gotten to, for free, spent a great morning seeing a bit of pietermaritzburg and had a fascinating conversation in the car up as well. For such a disastrous, misplanned trip everything turned out pretty well.

By now we're leaving the Northern Drakenberg to go to Jo'burg and Pretoria, going to watch a rugbymatch, see the apartheidmuseum, some lions... pretty exciting!

Funny note: I just proposed a plan for the next 4 days to nynke; let's do it like this, and she was dumbfounded. I said 'Can youi believe this? I'm proposing a plan for the future, thinking ahead.' And she said: "yeah, I'm stunned.". She didn't know what to say, because I never ever plan ahead. If she wants something planned, I'll say: sure, I'm happy, sounds good. So this was hilarious;). Gives a view of the small things that we do differently that make this trip bizar but fun.