Cederberg, South Africa

Our time in Cape Town was split in two—we were waiting for Kelton to show up after completely transforming his life in a matter of a few days.  He “only” had to finish contextualizing Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisements with the Cold War among other important topics to get that diploma, pack up his apartment, say farewell to D.C. friends, move his junk to North Carolina, re-pack, and fly to Cape Town to meet us.  How hard can that be?  Kelton, isn’t three days enough? 

In the middle of the pack and move, he got bumped from his flight to Cape Town and re-routed over 4,000 miles and many hours out of his way.  Surprisingly, he was handsomely compensated.  This happened the moment he joined the ranks of the unemployed.  Yep, it’s true, this kind of thing only happens to Kelton. 

“Dear Airlines, Thank you for the graduation present.  Certainly, we’ve had our differences over the years, but I appreciate your acknowledgment travel funds are needed. I will likely move from unemployed to underpaid over the next few weeks.  You should know, while the payment seemed like a lottery win, I did suffer, as this was a long ass ways.  I am just now getting feeling back in my legs, and thanks to you, I know the value of a dollar.  Sincerely, KM”

So, while we waited for Kelton’s spin move to adulthood and detour around the world for the cold hard vouchers, we drove up to Cederberg with our new wheels to enjoy a bit of the western side of South Africa.

Cederberg was an unexpected treat and a nice refuge from the big city.  Cederberg is a remote desert-scape surrounded by mountain vistas and unusual rock formations with an intangible vibe of mystic peace.  I think it has Sedona beat in the vortex category.  This eerie peace was so noticeable, one morning Channing woke up and said, “They should have a rehab here.”  Beyond staring at the views, our days were spent hiking, making new friends, kayaking, soaking in the wood fired hot tub, watching the world cup, catching up on homework, olive oil tasting, and gazing at the stars.  This is a special place to be sure, and we are glad we made the three hour trip from Cape Town to experience it.