Domesticating Michael

Michael has been getting into the rhythm of chores and cooking - something we all know he doesn't do when he's home. I thought it would be useful to provide a few updates on how well he's fairing.

Let's start with his diet. Michael has taken quite nicely to tuna in a can, I have even seen him drink the packing water as a part of getting more protein in his diet. Along with the tuna comes many boxes of 'Tuna Mate'. When I first arrived the shelves were well stocked, we had More-ish Mushroom, Garlic & Herb, Cheddamelt and Creamy Mushroom. In addition to Tuna Mate we also had options for tuna & mayo sandwiches. Our bevy selection included Nescafe which Michael fondly refers to as coffee. At this point, as you already know, we have a blender and I make fruit smoothies for breakfast. We also have a more varied dinner selection with vegetables, carbohydrates such as pasta and rice and protein from chicken, avocados and other meats. Tuna Mate isn't gone but at least its only once per week.

BEFORE

AFTER

A foray into dish cleaning resulted in a semi-flood. When washing dishes it is advised to involve some washing action, not just piling the dishes in the sink and running the water for a few hours. I'm sure he'll improve with practice.

Note the water line in the sink

More Rainy Day Activities

The same massive storm that we used to test the rainy day crag also had other uses. The rain adds a good volume of water to the Elandsrivier churning up a great flow and numerous sets of rapids. I'd only been white water kayaking one time prior in Laos and that was really an open deck affair. Gustav however owns a couple of fast water boats and invited me (Chris) to experience African white water kayaking. I didn't need much convincing and after a brief recap session in the Tranquilitas pool, we set off to take on the mighty Elandsrivier.

Over a 6km stretch of the river it alternates between tame flat sections through grasslands and brief rocky rapids. Gustav says we were a little late and missed the high water by a few hours. This added the challenges of more rocks and tighter shoots. Hints for future adventures include leaning into obstacles with the boat, always keep a transversly oriented boat tilted down stream when entering faster water, lean back thru the rapids, avoid obstacles by not only turning the boat but also paddling like mad in the direction one wishes to go and finally when chasing large bananas keep your feet up and out of the water and lay on your back.

Michael used a video camera to record and these are stills from the video. Getting the camera close to but not into the Elandsrivier proved tricky too. He did a great job racing ahead after each section to continue to shoot more footage.

In the distance, across one of the dams of the Boven trout farming operation, you can see the Toyota chase vehicle that Michael used to follow Gustav and Chris down the river. Chasing the kayakers involved much running through soggy long grass, camera in hand.

Chris leapt from his boat to capture the elusive Giant Mpumalanga Banana for tomorrow's smoothies.

"Dude, where's my boat?"

Cruising into Boven in a thunderstorm and the last light of the day. Perfect!

Creating the Rainy Day Crag

Based on previous rainy day blues at Boven, I decided that we need to have climbs that can be ascended soon after a rainstorm or after several days of continuous rain. Most crags are wet during the rain and many of them seep water for days afterward. I wanted to "solve" this issue.

While this may not look like the ideal day to stroll off and find the Rainy Day Crag, we know bettter.

We found this great corner with a crack in the back. With a little work, I made it big enough to get my fingers into. It seemed like a great candidate since it had a giant roof above it to keep the rain off and no signs of seepage.

Some trad climbing got me above the corner and below the massive roof. I was placing this anchor bolt while holding on with one arm and protected by cams in a slot surrounded by suspect blocks.

My handhold broke which send the block toward my belayer's helmet. Gustav caught my massive winger on to above mentioned suspect cams despite the rather large tap to the head from my handhold block. My first action at the end of the fall was to remove the drill bit and toss it to the ground. I then lunged for our 2nd line, expecting my cams to pop at any moment. They held.
Gustav top-roped the line to verify and adjust bolt positions. We then handed up his drill and he proceeded to bolt our first rainy day route.
Caesar was on standby to supervise Gustav as needed.
Bolts in place ready for Chris to test. Notice the white spots on the wall where the alternate options for bolts could have been. It is always tricky to strike a balance between safety and aesthetics. Keep the rope out of the way of the climber and out of the crack. Avoid nasty clips and ground fall potential. Etc.

Michael testing the bolted version of the climb.

Chris looking where to run to if Michael falls on the last bolt. Sometimes airspace and easy ground lead us to bolt more sparingly and leave some excitement in the climb: just the right amount though, nothing to crazy.

As promised, soon after we finished equipping the route, the mother of all thunderstorms let rip. The concussions from the thunder blew the air in our direction with such force that we actually got a bit wet under our massive roof.

You can see our top rope on the route in the left of this photo and the temporary waterfall beyond our roof. Dirt just pours in from above ..

And now for a test of the Rainy Day Crag while the storm is still raging and with parts of our rain proof wall actually wet from the spray. These great pictures were taken by Gustav.

Under normal conditions, heading out to the Rainy Day Crag a few hours after a big storm, this would be a perfect rainy day climb. During a massive downpour: well, you can make it work but only just.

The climb is rated 18 and is called Jamani.

Dexter's Lab 22 (5.11b/c)

Dexter's Lab is a 22 at the Hallucinogen crag. At first glance it looks like a bolted offwidth crack but in reality, it is an opposing lay-away and bucket affair. Here is Chris in the tricky bit lower down on the climb.
The route also has a sting-in-the-tail boulder problem sequence near the end. This is Gustav pretty much through the final power pulls.

Blending In

In an effort to get Michael to eat fruit, we bought a $30 blender. Obviously we should have gone for the $100 version since this product probably has a return rate of about 94% (The 5% who don't return it are just too lazy to bother dealing with the returns process). Chris fits in the 1% of all customers who re-engineer the product so that it actually functions, to a point.


That stonking bucket of whey protein cost us a whole $13. Notice the fruit content in the blender's first run. Will the motor be able to handle the strain - stay tuned for our blender abuse report.

Note Chris' ingenious on/off switch in his right hand - can anyone say knife in the blender?

Smoothy central is now fully operational and taking orders. Operators are standing by to take your order, all you pay is shipping & handling.

Why not submit a recipe for our master smoothie maker and we'll tell you how we like it. CHEERS!

Biking in Boven

This morning Chris headed out at 5:30ish for a "Standard Loop" North of Boven with Glenn and Gustav. One must rise early to beat the African heat or suffer the tandoori oven effect.

It was his first bike outing since getting here. His ride starts with a 5km stretch down the dirt road into town to meet Glenn and Gustav and ends with a 5km climb back up the hill to Tranquilitas. This is a shot of me just getting in from the loop. A wee bit dirty and wet from the uphill grind.

Glenn managed to score a Giant NRS for Chris while he is here. It's a fine fully suspended ride just like the one at home so there can be no whining about a strange bike setup.

On this part of the 10km single track, apparently the actual single track is under the water.



This loop offers it all: it has not-track (open field), single track and multi-track riding (otherwise known as "dirt road").

Glenn informed us about a few of the dangers that he has encountered while riding in Africa. Here they are in order of importance:

1) Black Mamba - nasty, nasty, nasty! Neurotoxin venom will kill an adult human if not treated within an hour of the bite. These nasty, nasty, nasty buggers can move along at 12-15mph and on average measure 8 feet long. They typically rear-up into a standing strike position about 1/2 their body length. Imagine cruising along and then be almost eye-to-eye with one of these, yikes!

2) Mozambique Spitting Cobra - nasty, nasty! This one has a venom which is a cytotoxin and the bite rots the flesh. However these nasty, nasty buggers like to spit their venom up to 3 meters and often the victim ends up with a gob of it in the eyes.

3) Puff Adders/Berg Adders (also called Vipers) - nasty! Another cytotoxin venomous snake, these guys are ambush predators and like to wait for their prey before attacking. When annoyed, it strikes vigorously in all directions and has the capability of a lightning-fast sideways strike. Oh look Vern another mountain bike approaching...

4) Bulls - No shit! The trails we rode cut through some farm fields which have cattle grazing. Sometimes the cows are fairly close to the trail and as we blaze thru the bulls get a bit miffed as they sense our manly presence. Glenn has obtained certification as a matador from Spain but if the bull eyes you up and Glenn is too far ahead, you may be on your own!

Cool cruising the downhill back into town.

Baboons

Count the baboons. Closest entry wins a prize (probably a banana). Click on the image to enlarge:

After enough time is spent chasing baboons one may actually get a picture of them.
This is our local tribe that lives near the crags. Anyone want to play with the monkey?

This rather large baboon is either back from a day working on the trail from Baboon Buttress to the Hallucinogen wall or he is simply a coal miner. Perhaps his personna as a dirtbag climber is just showing thru. (Fabio beware: we are working on the red eyes ..)

Doing the Tourist Thing

Still recovering from our failed Christmas tree quest, we headed into the lowveld to tick off some tourist destinations. Mac Mac falls looks great in the pictures.

But like everything else in South Africa, either it or the people need to be caged:

Next stop was God's Window (we forgot our squeegee).

Chris and I were underwhelmed. After looking at a few more "destinations" we retired to an excellent late lunch break in Graskop instead.

Lisbon falls: seen one waterfall, seen them all. I think people who spend as much time outdoors as we do are a bit jaded when it comes to "Scenic Points". Living at Boven is like being part of the amazing scenery already so driving 400km to see views similar to the sunrise we get from our breakfast table every day doesn't really work, especially when we are isolated here and the "destinations" come complete with tourists.

Heading back we made a wrong turn which sent us over Longtom Pass (named after a Boer War era howitzer): that proved to be the real highlight of the day with an amazing view.