weekend away

this past weekend i went up to my friend's lodge near the southern border of kruger park, in a town called hazyview. it was hotter than hell up there and i got a nice sunburn despite preventative measures, but it was a very good time. incredibly relaxing right before exams.

we cooked a lot. we braai-ed (i am again reminded of why i need to be a vegetarian, ugh). we drank an enormous amount of booze for three people. we snuck into the resort pool. there were trampolines. there were towns nearby with nationally famous places to eat pancakes, and waterfalls to see, and 90m drops you could bungee off of if you paid some people some money. there was a pick and pay right nearby to furnish us with things i do not eat in johannesburg like fresh herbs and sesame buns and chickpeas and fancy cheese. it was quite nice. the whole area is economically driven by logging and forestry so there are a lot of man made forests and logging wastelands interspersed in the hills surrounding the nearby towns, as well as curvy, cop-free roads that would make the stig from top gear whoop with joy.

here is the house and its backyard:

the river behind the house up-close, at dry season size. the river at high ebb is so nice for hippos at night that the resort actually employs hippo guards whose job is to walk around looking for hippos with a radio. one kind of snuck up on me as i was on a run and scared the crap out of me, unintentionally.

slightly blurry shot of the little balcony on the 2nd story of the house.

view of the river behind the house from the patio.

view from the patio down the row of backyards (all the lodges on this street were the same).

i owe this particular friend who drove us up to his place a lot because he has shown immense hospitality for the whole trip. we joke that when he comes to see new york, i will take him to my old neighborhood at metropolitan and bedford ave, ground zero of brooklyn hipster kids, and he will finally feel at home. apparently almost no one he knows shares his music taste here, although it is the uniform taste for most brooklyn college kids; not to mention all the shows we have in comparison to south africa. i can't talk about the shows too much because he gets filled with jealously right away: "you saw sigur ros when you were fourteen? aw, man, go to hell!" you can see why we get along!