Ok right after I finished that rather depressing blog, I thought of something fun that happened recently. On New Year’s Day (happy 2010 by the way), a group of us made the 2-hour drive to elephant rock. I had heard about this rock shaped like an elephant ever since I arrived here. I figured you could just walk up to the rock, take a few pictures, and head back. Like a lot of time…my expectations were completely wrong.
To get up to the elephant part of the rock…you have to climb. So I’m looking up at this rather steep rock face, and my first thought is how am I gonna do this in an ankle length skirt and flip flops. Right after that thought, I made myself rally like when you have a full count and runners on base, or when it’s game point, your serve, and you know everyone in the gym is thinking don’t put the ball in the middle of the net and choke on us now. So I begin the climb in my flip-flops and carrying a bag with my camera in it. A local boy starts the climb with me and about every 30secs asks me for money or a gift…not exactly what you need when you’re trying to rock climb. It didn’t take me long to see that my slippery flip-flops were not gonna help me out at all, so they had to come off and go in my bag. After all, I live in the desert of Africa...who needs shoes?? After some tense moments and heavy breathing I made it to the top, which is actually at the base of the elephant’s trunk. It was like reaching the end of any other summit…beautiful, rewarding, and totally worth it. I hung out at the top for a little while, still ignoring the kid asking for money. Unfortunately, there always comes the time when you have to go back down. The only way down safely is to sit down and scoot yourself along the steep parts, and remember…I’m in a skirt and it’s windy on top of a big rock. I’m sure the local kids ran home and told how much of the white girl’s legs they saw, but it was a fun day nonetheless.
To get up to the elephant part of the rock…you have to climb. So I’m looking up at this rather steep rock face, and my first thought is how am I gonna do this in an ankle length skirt and flip flops. Right after that thought, I made myself rally like when you have a full count and runners on base, or when it’s game point, your serve, and you know everyone in the gym is thinking don’t put the ball in the middle of the net and choke on us now. So I begin the climb in my flip-flops and carrying a bag with my camera in it. A local boy starts the climb with me and about every 30secs asks me for money or a gift…not exactly what you need when you’re trying to rock climb. It didn’t take me long to see that my slippery flip-flops were not gonna help me out at all, so they had to come off and go in my bag. After all, I live in the desert of Africa...who needs shoes?? After some tense moments and heavy breathing I made it to the top, which is actually at the base of the elephant’s trunk. It was like reaching the end of any other summit…beautiful, rewarding, and totally worth it. I hung out at the top for a little while, still ignoring the kid asking for money. Unfortunately, there always comes the time when you have to go back down. The only way down safely is to sit down and scoot yourself along the steep parts, and remember…I’m in a skirt and it’s windy on top of a big rock. I’m sure the local kids ran home and told how much of the white girl’s legs they saw, but it was a fun day nonetheless.
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