Merry Christmas Bloggers! Sorry, it's late, I know, but better late than never!
As the Christmas period draws to a close, one seems to always find one's thoughts wandering to just how over-socialised they have been over the last week and just how over-fed they have been within that same time frame. I, in particular, have been running around from function to function, all of which require a great deal of eating, and it's really taken its toll...
...or so I thought...
Last night I didn't sleep very well. I'm currently house-sitting for my cousin and her husband. They recently moved into a new house, which is enormous by the way, and have yet to actually move in, in the sense that all of their worldly possessions are still in boxes, strewn across the floor throughout the house. While this doesn't bother me in the least, the sheer size of the place does somewhat. It is just so big, and everything gets all creaky at night! To add to the sense of unease, last night it rained, while I watched a movie called 'Turistas' about Brazilian organ trafficking, which didn't ease my nerves at all, and thus, I didn't sleep very well.
Normally this wouldn't be a problem, I'd just go about my day feeling tired, potentially grumpy, and hit the hay early the next evening. But today, my parents and I had decided to go on a 7km hike at an amazing place north of Pretoria, called Tswaing Crater. It's a meteor impact crater with a salt-lake in the middle of it. It's really beautiful and, apart from the foul-smelling salt lake, very interesting.
The amazing part about the whole thing was that despite my lack of sleep, recent over-eating and complete absence of exercise I managed to do it all with ease! I am most impressed with myself! The only down side to the day was not taking enough water with and the resulting headache that I now endure. That, and the fact that my mother nearly passed out from exhaustion...
PHOTOS!
Fooling around with the camera in the car on the way there
The view from the crater rim
The plaque of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, a brilliant scientist, according to the plaque anyway...
A typical, dramatic, stunning and beautiful South African scene
The view from the bottom...
For all your previous-drunken-night-can't-remember-how-I-got-that-cut brawl needs...Puncher repairs! :D
Wow! This place looks amazing (aside from the "puncher repairs", although perhaps it only adds to the scenery)!
ReplyDeleteI hope that both you and your mom have recovered! :)
(my word verification is "latived", which is the technical term for the last endive crop of the season)
Beautiful pictures! I especially love how majestic the clouds look in the fourth photograph. I can't wait for the winter hike there! (I figure I should take your advice of waiting for a cooler season to attempt it)
ReplyDeletePS - out of interest, I just googled the Doctor's name, and it seems we was a rather important guy (well, in the field of astrophysics...). I actually remember when his comet was in the news 15 years ago and Sandringham took the school to the planetarium for a show(Shoemaker-Levy)
dr shoemaker! ahahahaaaa. i once had an optometrist called Dr Super
ReplyDeletei am climbing Fuji in the summer! (japanese summer) want to come?
there are vending machines at the top!