22. Cederberg Days 4 & 5

On Thursday, we went on a hike. It was a very long hike that took the entire day. We left the campsite at 8.20 in the morning. We had to take as much water as we could because there wouldn't be places to refill your water bottles. 

First, we hiked up the mountain, near the top of the mountain we had to climb through narrow cracks. Some parts of the cracks had been given names such as "The Birth Canal" and "The Coffin". These two passageways were so ridiculously narrow that people even got stuck. When we finally arrived on top of the mountain, we had a little break. 

We continued our hike to the arch, this was a huge arch out of rock. We had lunch underneath the arch and we all climbed on top of the arch for a group picture. 

After we saw the arch, we went to the radar beacon. At the radar beacon is a jar that was put there by Bishops. Every Bishops group that visits, writes their names on a piece of paper and leaves it in the jar. So did we. In the jar we found the names of last year's Rijnlands' exchangees. This was cool!

We kind of got lost at the beacon but eventually we found our way. We were able to walk back in our own pace, so the Dutchies got back at the campsite rather quickly. :)

That night we had a nice braai with the whole group.

On Friday, we packed our stuff and left the Cederberg. We arrived at Bishops at five and everybody was very tired.

Here are the last Cederberg pictures:

Last year's exchangees' names, found in the jar at the beacon.

21. Cederberg Day 3

On the third day of our stay in the Cederberg, after our solos, we went to a little school next to the farm. We helped the kids with their English workbooks and did some creative stuff. We also gave them lemonade and biscuits and we played touch rugby with them, it was great fun! 

After the school, we went back to the campground. We had two hours to relax, and so we did, as everyone was tired after their solo nights.

When the break was finished, and everybody had had their lunch, we went to the bushman paintings. These were basically paintings of elephants on rocks that were really old. Then, we went to a cave-like thing called Stadsaal or city hall. This was a place used by the bushmen to come together. 

After the visit to the bushman paintings and the Stadsaal, we went to the Leopard Trust. This is an organization that is trying to help the Cape Leopard survive. They showed us a powerpoint presentation and took us on a walk. We hiked to a spot where we were going to set up a camera that captures everything that moves. The Leopard Trust uses these cameras to see where and when the leopards move around. We also saw some bok tracks and loads of dassy (rock hyrax) droppings.

When we came back to the campsite, we all got a pizza base, we had to put our own pizzas together and bake them in a pot on coals. My pizza had tuna, tomato, cheese, and peppers on it and tasted really good! :)

Here are some photos of Cederberg Day 3:

The school kids

The school 

Stadsaal 

Bushman paintings

The motion camera