September 8, 2007: Sheena and Chad's Wedding!

“You could wrap the Milky Way of joy around your heart, let the moon paint a smile on your face, catch a star for good luck and have beautiful dreams.”

Today is Sheena and Chad’s wedding and it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up. Technically when I woke up at 5:45am it was still Friday in New Prague, so the night before their wedding day! As I’ve been getting ready this morning I keep thinking about Sheena and hope that she is sleeping well and is nice and relaxed. The sun is shining here, but it’s a little chilly, so I hope that the weather is equally as nice for pictures outside! I would give anything to have enough money to have been able to flown back to Minnesota for the day…or to be able to be in two places at once!

The reason why I was up so early is because we wanted to see the sun rise, but right between the two mountain peaks were the only clouds in the sky, blocking our view of the sun. That turned out to be a tad disappointing. So right now we are waiting to be picked up by our driver so we can go back to the B&B for breakfast. When we arrived at the B&B breakfast was ready to be served. We had scrambled eggs, homemade bread, cereal, oatmeal bars, and Kudu sausage. After breakfast we packed up and hit the road for our second B&B of the trip in Graaff-Reinet. On the drive we stopped in Jansenville at a gift shop and I bought some of the tomato jam to bring home for my family to sample! We arrived in Graaff-Reinet and we sent to the Reinet museum where we walked through the old home in the city and saw the history of the town. We did shopping in the little shops along the way. Parts of this town remind me of when I went to Mackinaw Island this summer, the quaint feeling of a small town with bed and breakfasts on every corner made me feel that I could be anywhere in the world! One of the stores that Carrie, Alex, and I went into had a ceiling made from the thornbushes that you see growing all over South Africa! We ate lunch on the veranda at Coldstream and were served chicken in a honeymustard glaze, potatoes, and a Greek salad. After lunch, we moved into our home for the night, and Carrie, Katherine, Ashley and I all stayed in one room together. We called our room “Under the Sea” because it felt like we were living at the bottom of the ocean with all of he blue that was in the room! After we unpacked, we went as a group to the only tequila distillery outside of Mexico. We walked through the distillery and were given a lecture on how tequila is made from the plants that they grown and harvest in South Africa! We even were able to sample the gold and silver tequila that they make! All of us sat in a circle and took the two shots! We then went and bought some things from the gift shop and we were on our way to a wild game reserve. We saw TONS of kudu, springbuck, grey duiker, gemsbuck, and wildebeest. We also have some up close pictures of monkeys that came right up to the Kombi! After going through the game reserve, we made our way up the mountain to hike and see the sunset over the Valley of Desolation. We hiked up part of the mountain for about twenty minutes to get to a flat overlook to view the Valley of Desolation. Everything up there was quiet and still. After taking pictures of everyone, we sat in silence on the rocks with our feet at the end of the cliff. Looking down you see different rock formations and Rupunzel-like rock towers. The sun was setting behind a mountain and the only sound that we heard came from the breeze rising across the valley below us. The name describes it valley perfectly…there are no lights, people, buildings, or cars to see as you are sitting up there. All you can see are mountains and the grasslands. Our guide described it as such, “It is so quiet, you can hear God think.”

After sitting at the top of the cliff we made our way down the hiking trail back to the Kombi to go back to town for dinner. We ate at Kliphuis where I ordered pasta served in a cheese sauce with bacon and mushrooms. Alan, our group guide had wine ready at our tables that were secluded into a study in the house with candles lit and a fire blazing. The meal was delicious and at 11:00pm we finally made it home to the B&B to get some rest. After a little girltalk, the four of us were out like a light!