Kloofing with baboons

So I just got home from South Africa on Friday! Missed only a whole week of school, but was gone almost 3 weeks! --Our school shut down because of the elections and the unrest--There really wasn't anything too major that happened in Congo besides the Supreme Court being burned down... but it was good to get outta the country for a bit anyhow!My birthday celebration went on for a long time! One of my gifts was to get to go Kloofing. Kloofing is like SA's word for canyoning (canyoneering?). Canyoning is hiking up a gorge, rappelling down a cliff, and jumping off high rocks into water. I guess that's a good definition for it. So I went with Todd and Shannon, and the night before we did it, we stayed at a Backpacker. A backpacker is a very cheap hotel (this one cost us like $11!) with bunks and not much else. They gave us bedding but they are made for people with no money like hikers or backpackers to rent them out, and usually a backpacker would have his own sleeping bag and whatever he needed. But we got soft pillows and blankets and i slept like a rock, even though this place was located on Cape Town's main street, and had a very busy night life! When we got there, it was midnight and the guy said he was just about to "lock up and light a joint." Todd apologized we interrupted THAT! The place was decorated all hippy like, and there was a Masai warrior eating something in a bowl. He had his spear and red uniform, and BIG hair with cow dung in it (looked like it!)!! I was like duuude... there's some african security for ya!We slept safely.In the morning we walked down the street a little ways to Abseil Africa, the office of the adventure place that was taking us out kloofing. Abseiling is the south african (and apparently british, and maybe everywhere else except america!?) word for rappelling. We met the rest of our group there. It was the Stones, me, Ms. Sarah Ewbanks (an elem. Teacher @ tasok), a british girl, and 3 british guys. We were supposed to be ready to leave at 7:15, but it wasn’t before 7:40 that anyone appeared at the Abseil place to let us in the door. Finally we went up, and by this time Todd had gone and got us all some coffee. It was raining outside!! But people were saying “Don’t worry, it’ll probably clear up, and it may not even be raining where we’re driving!” so we didn’t worry. We met our guides – Shane, LoLo, and Chip. Chip was from Gombe in Congo, and he had walked from Congo to SA 9 years ago!! Well walked/hitchhiked…but can you imagine? LoLo was I guess South African, but he had lived some years in NY, and he was really funny… Shane was a different story all together. He was about 24 I’m guessing, and from Texas and MA (well kind of all over but mostly from texas). He graduated high school in 2000 but never went to college. This might be kinda harsh, but you could tell. Not one sentence out of his mouth went without at least one cuss word! And at first, I kinda liked the guy, .. kinda thought he was funny, but after that first hour in the car, I just got plain TIRED of all the swearing he did. He was a nice guy besides that, but just a little too much. So anyway, we rode in a van to Sunbird or something Bed & Breakfast. The owner of the B&B (a crazy adventure-loving guy named Philip) works together w/ Abseil Africa—packs lunches for them and serves them breakfast. So that’s what we did. We had fruit, yogurt, cereal, juice, croissants, muffins… but I really didn’t feel like eating so much. I’ll admit it, I was pretty nervous to start out, because the name of this trip is the Kamikaze Canyon trip. The motto is “For the slightly insane.” Well I just didn’t know if I could handle everything and since I heard it was all day, and I’m not the biggest hiker, I was nervous I wouldn’t be able to do much. The drive to the B&B took like an hour, so by now it was 9am and we’re all thinking “shouldn’t we be starting by now?” LoLo said he’ll start the ‘safety briefing’ as soon as he felt we were about done eating. So we had a long leisurely breakfast and finally he gave his short speech, which basically was, “if we don’t get to abseil today, we’ll give y’all a free abseil down Table Mountain.” He was saying we might not be able to do a lot of things if the weather stayed like it was because it would be too slippery and dangerous. Part of the trip was to abseil down a really high waterfall cliff, and that they said we probably wouldn’t get to do. We finally set out at like 9:30…maybe it was 10 even! Me & Ms. Sarah were in a t-shirt and shorts with our swimsuits underneath. We weren’t prepared at ALL for the rain! I did bring my jean jacket, and put it in a grocery bag and gave it to someone carrying a backpack so I would have something dry for later. In the car ride to the B&B, we heard stories about the baboons which attack groups frequently! Like they will come down the mountain and grab at your bags, unzip them (they’re very smart), and take whatever they want. So we were warned to be careful. Shane said he took this one group and there were a bunch of girls with their boyfriends who were bombarded by baboons. The guys jumped into the water, and just watched, scared, as their gf’s got pulled on and tickled by the baboons!! The man baboons would put their arm on the girls’s arms or wrists and wouldn’t let go when the girls tried to pull away. The young baboons would try to tickle them, and the more the girls tried pulling away, the stronger the grip the older baboons put on them. I prayed that we wouldn’t see any baboons!! Well that’s the first thing we saw, walking out of the B&B down the road. The hike started down from this bridge, and across the road were 3 baboons. 1 big one, and one mom holding a baby. Chip went back to the owner of the B&B and he brought out a gun, but it was just a pellet gun. Crazy! The owner shoots these baboons whenever they come on his property, and you could tell the baboons had seen the guy before and knew who he was. The guides also told us other stories about a baboon they named Scarface. He was huge and one day tried breaking in to Philip’s place, so he shot him 3 times. The first in the skull, which didn’t kill him, and the next broke his jaw…he showed us the skull after our trip and the two big teeth that stuck out of the jawbone were as long as a box of cigarettes! Philip told us he could go to jail for killing baboons, but it wasn’t like he cared. I wouldn’t either! Enough about baboons though… all that happened was Philip shot near the ones we saw across the road and scared them away. We went on our merry way in the cold wind and wet rain. I was soaked to the bone immediately, but I was kloofing and it didn’t matter! :-p The hike wasn’t nearly as bad as I had been imagining. It was on a really nicely cut out trail, and we didn’t see any more baboons. The only hard part was that it was cold and cloudy…the rain didn’t let up until we got to our first pool, but the whole time the British guy walking behind me was making funny sarcastic remarks like “There is nothing in all of Cape Town I would rather be doing…” and “I haven’t had this much fun in years!” totally sarcastic though… he was hilarious! He was just touring SA on “holiday.” SO the first hole/pool had a big 7m rock that we jumped off of. I slapped my feet hard on the water because 7m is over 14 feet… and it hurts if you don’t point your toes! I was just thankful I didn’t slap anything else that hard. I jumped it twice, my feet stung both times but that pain didn’t last. There was a 10m jump right above, but I was too cold and a bit too scared. It doesn’t help when you’re the only girl jumping 7m and only guys are jumping that with you and higher. So we hiked a bit further, to a bigger pool, with higher rock cliffs to jump off of!! One was at least 70feet but only our guides did that one. Todd jumped from about 50-60ft I think! I wasn’t sure if I could do it. I had a bad experience jumping 30 feet once, so I waited. We abseiled down the cliff, which was really cool, but harder than it looks! We went right down into the water. I wanted a little more instruction but all I got was “Keep your feet well spread apart, lean back, and walk down.” Well what about when there isn’t any place to put your feet? I kinda struggled, and smashed my leg a bit once against the rock. Wasn’t so bad, though, and was pretty fun, just hard! When I got into the water Shane swam over and unattached me and was like “I love my job” lol…then he continued to flirt with me a bit. I decided then that I wanted to get my money’s worth and since the British guys had done it, I could. I climbed up the rock and went up to the 40foot jump. I kept my shoes ON this time, but when I walked out to the edge and looked down and around, I hesitated big time. Do I really wanna do this? It’s a looong way down! Wonder how many seconds I’d be in the air. What if I squat at the last minute and break my tail bone? What if I spread my legs apart too much? What if my arms go up and I hurt my shoulder like that one Brit?! …. Etc….! I went up to the edge again. Todd started cheering for me and Shane was there encouraging me. He goes “would it help if I went off with you at the same time?” I wanted to say no way! I don’t need you! .. so I went. I got up my courage and just jumped. Perfect Landing!! I had such a rush of adrenaline. You can get high on the feeling I had after jumping. What an awesome feeling! I had done it. But I didn’t get my courage to go off again and I didn’t have enough courage to jump from higher. Now I wish I had! I kinda regret that but all those what if’s were in my mind… and I knew you can’t always repeat a perfect landing. The day was going great and I didn’t want it ending bad! The sun was finally starting to peak out, but I was still shivering almost uncontrollably. I got jackets from 2 people and put on my jean jacket after I took off my wet t-shirt! Then I was nice and dry. We had lunch up there, then hiked back down and walked back to the B&B. Philip had a bar there, and he served all of us drinks. He gave all of the jumpers shots. haha! Lol, I still don’t know what was in it, or what it was called, but it was something south African that really burned! I had something called a Savannah Dry which wasn’t bad – it was like a cider. Then Phil told us all these stories about him, people he had known, and baboons…. He went on for hours (it seemed) and most of it was unbelievable. Todd said most of it probably was bs—it was too crazy. I went over to talk to the girls and then we decided we’d be there all night if we didn’t get up and tell the guys we should go, and we got back to Cape Town at like 6 or 7. I bought an Abseil Africa tshirt and they gave us a free poster. Said bye to our guides, and went out to eat at an Irish Pub! They had good food, and don’t worry, I only had water! J We ate with Mr. Ligon, Ms Sarah & the Stones, then Sarah & I drove back to Porterville where we stayed the whole 2 weeks, which was 2 hours out of Cape Town. I slept really well that night – I was worn out big time, but that was probably one of the best times/experiences I had on this SA trip and definitely the most adventurous/extreme!!