Road Trippin'

Wow! What a week it’s been. Since I don’t know exactly where to start, I’ll begin with well, the beginning. It all started a couple days before break. I had been planning for two weeks to drive out to Durban and surf along the way. Two days before we were planning to leave, the guy I was going to rent a car from more than doubled the price he originally quoted. I scrambled to find another car, all the while having to research and write two essays in 48 hours. Magically, I turned everything in on time and got the car just in time to leave early Friday afternoon. I hadn’t had much time to plan our trip, so my co-pilot, my good friend Leah, and myself were wingin’ it the whole way. The car rental company gave us a little 4-seater VW city car, a bit of a tin can, but dependable enough to get us to Durban and back (although my heart skipped a few beats along the way). I couldn’t (and still can’t) believe the rental company actually gave me a car, and most of the drive out I would be asking myself “what the fuck am I doing?”

The drive out in fact would be a comedy of errors (and generally poor planning/travelling):

Firstly, I couldn’t figure out how to put the car in reverse until we reached J-Bay, making sure along the way not to pull the car into a tough spot. I actually had to push the car (thank god it was small) out of the rez parking lot as people on the street stared and laughed. We made I to Jeffreys Bay without having to use reverse, where, after pulling into our parking space at the backpacker, we finally had to ask. After a morning surf and a quick breakfast we hit the road again. The drive out to Durban was at once scenic and soothing while also tremendously stressful. The view from the car was mostly stunning, either because of the country’s natural beauty (such as along the Garden Route) or from the rural squalor that we don’t normally get to see in Cape Town (see pics). The drive was stressful for several reasons:

a) I was driving on the left side of the road for the first time.

b) Sections of the road were very foggy and rainy and hard to navigate, especially in the mountains at night (again, poor planning).

c) I had to dodge cows (in the fog – “hey what’s that big black blob up ahead in the middle of the road???”), goats, sheep, sheepherders, monkeys, people, cars, rickshaws, dogs, potholes and hawks eating road kill.

d) We didn’t have a map (“dude, you just take the N2 all the way – it’s a straight shot!” Oh, how we would be wrong).

e) We got lost (see reason d, above) in one of these odd cities along the way that would pop up every 200k. Isolated from the countryside around them, every couple of hours or so we’d pass through these 5-block long cities overflowing with people but the cities themselves had very little housing. After a few traffic lights, we’d be back on the two lane country road. We got lost in one of these cities and thought we found our way until suddenly the road we were on stopped – as in it disappeared into nothingness. Add to the fact that just down the road there was a flaming landfill spewing smoke into the air and you can imagine we were both pretty creeped out.

f) I, the frugal traveler, had neglected to write down an emergency number or check to see if we had a spare.

g) Hey, at least we had an ipod!

Point is, we finally made it to Durban, a sun-soaked, industrial, decaying, dirty, bustling and oddly charming port city in Kwazulu-Natal. Spent a couple days surfing and roasting on the beach (our skin, not food) before heading out to the Drakensberg Mountains, which are about three hours outside of Durban, past these remote villages that, despite my aversion to using the expression T.I.A. (although it is the inspiration for the title of this very blog), had me thinking to myself “fuck… this really is Africa”. See pictures for examples of the beauty, majestic peaks and soft rolling hills etc. of the Drakensberg. After one more night of fine dining and lounging in Durban, I was back on the road to Cape Town. The friend I was originally planning to drive back with had a last minute rowing tournament, so I was left to do the drive solo. It was actually quite pleasant; I drove it all during the day, staying at some interesting backpackers along the way. I spent one night in East London at this beachy, bohemian spot with a decent surf break outside. The next day I stopped in Mossel Bay after a brief surf/taco stop in Jeffreys once again (man that place is heavenly. Since I had a car I surfed tubes, one break down the point from supers, with only two other people out and a solid 3-foot swell. Clearly not the best day at JBay but good god, what a wave! It’s spectacular – consistent, fast, breaks perfectly and is super meaty – orgasmic, really) and stayed at this really eerie backpacker in an abandoned train car. It might’ve been cool if there had been anyone staying there, the train weren’t rusting and falling apart, it weren’t in a seemingly abandoned part of town, there weren’t trains going by every hour and the restaurant hadn’t just burnt down. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep very well that night, but I did catch the SA – England rugby match at a cool seaside restaurant. The next day, to my shock and disbelief, I pulled into rez alive and sane. I sat in my car for a couple minutes to debrief and decompress since later that day I was headed to Earthdance, a trance party/celebration of the earth.

The festival was very cool. There were two stages spinning prog house, dub, break beats and psychedelic trance (obviously the most popular). The vibe was very mellow, no one trippin too hard and the beats had me dancing almost all night (I had to crash eventually - can you blame me?) We’d be up by 7am though and went back to the stage where they were still spinning psychedelic trance (mmmmcht mmmmmcht mmmmcht) and the place was packed with people who I can only imagine had been dancing all night (thanks I’m sure to some shrooms, e, and/or a few cases of red bull). Of course there were the obligatory light shows, trippy blacklight paintings everywhere, booths selling all sorts of stoner/raver/hippie goodies and a diverse array of psychedelic costumes (my favorite were “The Real Estate Agents” who played their set dressed in a chicken costume and the Cat in the Hat outfit). There is photographic evidence of my attendance, but I’m still debating whether they are suitable for all audiences/could get me in trouble.

Well, that was my week – probably the craziest 10 days of my life, and well worth it. Oh, after getting back from Earthdance I went (tried?) to go surfing, started to get hot flashes then went to sleep for 48 hours (I’m sorry body).