Girly conditioning

It's the Royal wedding tomorrow and, like many other girls, I'm going to be glued to the set to watch the procession of horses and marching soldiers and the carriage and, of course, her dress, hair, tiara or not-tiara, flower girls and bridesmaids...

Guys seem quite oblivious - and I think it is all because girls have been 'princess conditioned' from the day they are born. Indoctrinated may be a more appropriate word.

I have vague recollections of watching Prince Charles and Lady Di's wedding on telly - of course I saw that movie/doccie subsequently (a few times, no doubt). I also remember Prince Andrew and Fergie's wedding, but it didn't have the same fairy-tale sheen that Charles and Di had.

I grew up listening to - and reading - classic stories of princes and princesses. Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea, The Frog Prince, Snow White, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, Rumpelstiltskin... And who could forget dear Sleeping Beauty. I was brought up on the real, non-Disney versions - books with hand-drawn illustrations. I had a lovely book of Hans Christian Anderson's stories and another of Brothers Grimm's tales.

Little girls are affectionately called princesses, they role-play as princess - dolled up in tiaras and pink nailpolish, they have princess parties and their Barbies come with princess dresses and accessories, including a castle and prince. Yes, a charming (and handsome) prince, everlasting love and 'happy ever after' are part of the princess package.

The prince and princess thing is just not a part of little boys' education, which is probably why male humans will be the only ones roaming the streets, while their female friends and relations are grouped around teevees. A lass on the radio today said that she and her friends are having a princess party, while watching the wedding tomorrow. They're dressing up as their favourite princess - tiara and all. Sounds fabulous. I'd go for that ;)

Although I'm a nonbeliever in the reality of the prince and princess fairy tale and I'm certainly not a royalist, I have been sufficiently indoctrinated to like the idea of the whole lot of it.

I loved these classic stories as a child; and I still like them now. I love going to friends' weddings - I always get misted up with happiness for them. I'm just as bad with chick flicks when the ending is a fairy tale one. These movie characters may not be princes and princesses, but the recipe is the same.

So, as a result of my girly conditioning, I'm looking forward to tomorrow's spectacle and I'll delight in every aspect of Prince William (I remember when he was born) and Kate's wedding.

Lovely Drakensberg

I had a lovely weekend away in the Drakensberg with AR and orienteering friends, Alex, Sarah, Nico, Salome and Tony. From the moment we drove out of Jo'burg, we hit nasty traffic on the N3 South - crawling. We expected traffic but couldn't believe it could be so bad. Being adventurous types, we navigated off the N3, past Suikerbosrand and on to the R59, heading South past Vereeniging and then detouring through a handful of small towns (Petrus Steyn, Reitz, Kestell) - places I've never been. It turned into a long, but interesting road trip through to the Monk's Cowl area of the central Drakensberg.

Alex and Tony looking at route options to keep us off the N3.

Lots of potholes and stop-go interruptions past Harrismith

We stayed at the Dragon's Peak campsite, which is about 5km from the Monk's Cowl trailhead parking lot. It's a huge place that caters for campers, caravans and it has chalets. It is quite a family-orientated place with jungle gyms and trampolines and horse riding activities. We had a good sized campsite, which Nico and Salome has established the day before. We were lucky to be in a good position near the showers and with neighbours only to our left and right. And although there were loads of people around, we didn't feel boxed in at all.

This venue, like others, hike their rates over Easter weekend - from their usual R90pppn to R175pppn - for camping! Personally, I think it is greedy to hike rates, just like South African hotels, airlines and others did during the World Cup. But, when you want to go away and they're the only place still with space... To their credit, we had hot water in the showers and the bathrooms were kept spotless by the cleaning staff.

On Saturday we took the morning at a leisurely pace before heading up the Blind Man's Corner trail, below Cathkin. The morning started out with a blue sky dotted with white clouds but by the time we were on top of the Lower Berg clouds descended to obscure views of the nearby peaks.

My play buddies. (L-R) - Tony, Sarah, Alex, Nico and Salome.

10-second self-timer... 3rd time lucky. Posing with the new edition of Outer Edge, an awesome Australian magazine.
The mag did the rounds this weekend, passing from one to the next. Clouds obscuring Cathkin Peak behind us.

Instead of taking a big, wide trail along the contour path and back to the parking lot, we decided to scale the hill at the junction (no trail) to eat our sandwiches and enjoy the view. This was a real treat.

'Lunch Hill', at about 2100m. Clouds rolling around.

Sarah and Salome almost at the top of 'Lunch Hill'. Previous photo taken from where the blue arrow is pointing.

It was pretty windy and chilly on 'Lunch Hill'. Snap! Alex and I are both wearing our First Ascent rain jackets. When my old GoLite jacket needed replacing at the end of last year, I bought this one.

Sibling pairs on 'Lunch Hill'

We took the Kearnsey (name?) trail back down, stopped to see two waterfalls and walked back to the parking lot to meet up with Nico and Salome - they did the waterfalls the day before. We spent the late afternoon drinking tea and trying some acroyoga before the rain arrived.

Sterkspruit Falls

We extended our patio by rigging a shelter from groundsheets and we played 30 Seconds in sibling teams. Alex and Sarah are siblings; Nico and Salome are siblings; being an only child, Tony was my adopted sibling for the weekend. We won ;)

The day dawned clear on Sunday morning. Alex and Sarah made a breakfast cookup and then we headed through to the Drakensberg Sun parking to do the walk to The Grotto and Barry's Grave. All nice and leisurely.

We got back mid-afternoon and lazed around on our camp chairs drinking tea and munching rusks. Alex and Tony cycled through to Mountain Splendour, to try the 10km mountain bike route there. They met the Don-Wachopes (Iain and Sue) and came back muddy. While they were away the girls took a nap, Nico went walking around the camp and I did a good yoga session. I'm really chuffed with my headstand (25 breaths) and L-shaped headstand. Awesomeness!

Nico and I got to making a fire for our dinner braai and had roaring flames by the time the guys returned from washing their bikes. We had a little help from a neighbour, who contributed some dry wood to our pile of not-so-dry, recently-purchased logs.

A real fairy forest leading to The Grotto.

Lunch at The Grotto

And so, another night passed and we woke up in no hurry on Monday morning. I love 10 to 11 hour sleeps while camping. By 10h20 we had packed up and were on the road. The N3 back was busy, but swiftly flowing.

And that was that, a weekend zapped. Super to go away and play with friends in the mountains. Thanks friends ;)

Non-event weekend away

I'm going away for this long weekend. And it isn't for a race - it's just for fun. Like a h-h-h-holiday.

I've never been much good at holidays and at least since I started university in 1994, my vacations have been very much around sporting events. First, intervarsity and interclub underwater hockey tournaments, and then adventure races, ultra runs and other similar events. I can count the number of non-event getaways I've had on one-and-a-bit hands.

About three years ago I tried to take a five-day holiday. Although I did lots of super road and trail running, I didn't like the place where I was staying (pre-booked and paid in advance); I came home a day early. That was disappointing.

I also rarely go away over Easter or xmas and New Year, preferring the quiet of Jo'burg to busy roads and venues. This weekend I'm in for it all hook, line and sinker. Easter. Busy roads. Busy venue in the Drakensberg...

But, I'll be playing with five orienteering and adventure racing friends in the mountains, which is the lure that got me. I haven't been to this area of the 'Berg for a few years so it is going to be wonderful to run trail after trail. I've got my Salomon Crossmax and Hi-Tec Infinity trail shoes packed - they haven't had much opportunity for testing on good trails so the next few days they'll see lots of action. My friend Ray has lent me his GoPro camera so I'll give it a go making a little video of our runs in the mountains.

I've also packed my yoga mat for some self-practise sessions. I'm now just over two months into my regular (like twice a week regular) yoga practise and tonight in class I took note of some of my advances since I started. I can almost do a seated forward bend with my tummy flat on my thighs (I couldn't two months ago), my hands can just grab on to each other during the seated twists (they couldn't touch before) and my headstand is rocking (I've always been able to do headstands but with less discipline). I can get into headstand with straight legs and just this week I've managed to lower my legs into an L-shaped headstand, tipping my toes on the ground and bringing 'em back up again. Yoga. Mountain scenery. Ja, a good mix.

I've also packed in my acroyoga manual. Friends, your acroyoga initiation is about to begin ;)

One of my camping buddies, Sarah, has packed the boardgame 30 Seconds. I've got a deck of cards (Snap!, Go Fish, Blackjack and Rummy being my favourites). I've also packed some magazines that I've been wanting to read... And my picnic blankie (for a post-run nap) and my camping chair for being a lazy-ass while I read my magazines.

Rain is pretty likely but, as I've heard said, there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear. I've got my rain goodies packed.

I also think that I'm going to sign up for the beginner kayaking classes (white water plastics). I've never been in one and I fancy learning to eskimo roll. Brrr... water is going to be freezing.

OK, so I'm not much good at sitting around doing nothing, but it is a progression from event-only 'holidays'.

So... I'm outta here in the morning and actually feeling pretty excited about my first proper holiday in a few years ;)

The scents of running

I mostly run in the late afternoon / evening. It's a time when there are so many wonderful (and sometimes, not so wonderful) scents around. I was reminded of this yesterday evening when I ran past a guy who was a smelly smoker and then past two women who smelled of coco butter lotion. Further on I ran past houses where aromas from dinner were wafting out on to the street and then past an open piece of ground where the scent of wet highveld grasses dominated. And then down a main road where a queue of cars were waiting for the lights to change: nasty, choking car fumes.

Scents are, for me, very much part of running - whether on road or off. Fragrant flowers in bloom, animals - horses, cows, buck, droppings, dinners cooking...

Some of my strongest - and fondest - memories from races are of scents. There's the incredible memory I have of a surprising, fresh citrus scent that I noticed as we rode through a little settlement in the Cederberg in the early morning. There were no people around, just this lovely scent surrounding the few homes. This was the Cederberg 500km adventure race. And at Jungle Marathon in Brazil, a staged-ultra, I remember clearly the rich, fertile scent of the jungle floor. It was one of those smells that literally hit my senses as we started the first stage, moving from the clearing near the river into the jungle proper.

Smells also stand out for me in normal everyday interactions. I got a giggles a few weeks ago while picking out a DVD in my local store. A woman walked past me and I thought that she smelled like toilet air freshner... The smell persisted for a while after she passed so I looked around and spotted one of those automatic air freshener dispenser things. It must have dispensed just as she first walked past me.

I've never quite understood room air fresheners because they smell like toilet air fresheners, which never really smell like 'ocean fresh' or 'green meadow'. Toilet sprays are designed to transform the odour of poop and when they're sprayed in rooms other than the toilet, they still smell like toilet sprays. Ja, room sprays are meant to be different to toilet sprays, but they're not really. And, as a result, I though that poor lass smelled like a toilet. Hahaha.

When you go out for your next run, open your nostrils and give some attention to the scents around you. I do find that taking in more than just what I can see makes my runs more enjoyable and memorable.