Burn, Baby Burn

Five months ago, I hardly ever did anything outdoors-y. I was more into life’s luxuries than worrying about being one with the Earth. Although I could easily buy into hippy ideology, in practice I was the furthest thing from a hippy.

All that changed in Cape Town. I stayed in my first set of hostels; I’ve done more adventure activities than I had in such a short amount of time (probably combined in my whole life, honestly); I’ve actually camped outside.

The highlight of my outdoor experiences in Cape Town? Afrikaburn.

Afrikaburn is, for lack of a better description, an art festival. However, not your average kind of art festival. Massive wooden structures are thrown up in a day, only to be burned down later that night. You refer to locations, for instance, as “between the Shoe and the Cactus”, and no one questions your sanity. You walk around completely naked, or in a strange costume, and no one questions your sanity. You do whatever drug you want, and no one questions your sanity.

Afrikaburn is basically just a place to go be yourself, whatever that self may be.

Rather than taking the bus/camping trip that was advertised to us, 10 of us decided we would trek up there all together. I drove with Lacey & Jules (and by I drove with, I mean was driven by), with only a minor inconvience in the morning when we got to the car rental place (I may have accidentally ordered a manual instead of an automatic, but by the grace of the Lord and Marlisa, we were blessed with an automatic minutes later). We decided to caravan with some South African friends-of-friends, only to disappoint them with the fact that we were American college kids, prone to American college problems. One broken clutch, one flat tire (ironically neither thing happened to Lacey, Jules, and I who were perhaps the least adept at working with cars), and 2+ hours on the longest, darkest dirt/rock road through the Karoo desert in the middle of the night, and we had finally arrived at an oasis; a sea of lights in the middle of the desert. The South Africans, however, were not pleased. We, as the newly Cape Townian “chilled” individuals we were, were totally okay with it, excited to be there, and not bummed to have left our 2 tents with Anders & Co. in their broken down car. Luckily, after some walking around, an interesting ride on a pirate ship/car float, a new South African friend (Jordan, god bless you for being so entertaining), and an ocean buoy around my neck, I happened to be returning from the middle of the desert to hear calls of “GERIK WHERE ARE YOU?” I was positive there was only one Gerik in the middle of the Karoo, and sure enough, it was our last car, arrived at midnight, tents and all. I drunkenly helped put up a tent – highlight of the evening, as it solidified me (in my mind) as an outdoorsman officially.

The next day was spent doing a series of wandering around, returning to the tents for toke breaks, and some sleeping in the desert. The heat out there, man it can get warm! Sometimes it can get as high as 37ºC (110ºF!!), and then it quickly returns back to the freezing cold. All in all though, there were some great highlights, including:

• ·      A delicious breakfast sandwich, courtesy of some folks from Rwanda
• ·      A giant heart, on which people wrote letters to deceased loved ones, which was ceremonially burned after a Buddhist prayer/chant session
• ·      A tent with incredible love poetry, all written there
• ·      A giant shoe that was actually a slide
• ·      A giant cactus that played trance music and was a dance floor on the inside, complete with 2 swings
• ·      Trucks: a pirate ship truck, a truck with an entire living room set up inside, a truck that had a treehouse attached, including swings
• ·      The most relaxing lounge tent, where they played what can only be described as literally the chillest music ever
• ·      Probably the first and only time 2 30-somethings will come over to me and ask “is this where you can buy mushrooms?” Sorry, but no
• ·      An opportunity to nap in the desert, starting out the warmest I’ve ever been, ending up the coldest I’ve ever been
• ·      Too many little kids for me to feel comfortable seeing at such a strange festival

The nightlife was also great. The trance cactus was probably one of the most entertaining places I’ve ever been, and the roving party truck was really enjoyable as well.

Saturday night was sufficiently draining, so I decided to sleep in the driver’s seat of the car (steering wheel? not all that conducive to sleeping near), and accidentally almost smothering Jules in the backseat when I decided to recline my seat (sorry Jules!).

The next day was more of the same, albeit slightly different as much of the stuff (including the giant Afrikaburn ‘monument’, three giant wooden wheels, and the COOLEST burning dancer exhibit I’ve ever seen) had been burnt. We decided rather than staying the full weekend we were really burnt out from those two days, and since Lacey was feeling sick (and was also nice enough to drive for almost 9 hours two days before) we were going to leave that afternoon around 4. Although staying would have been really fun, I definitely enjoyed the ability to head back home in one piece, as one more day there may have just done me in.

Afrikaburn will definitely stand out in my memory as one of the most entertaining things I did while in Cape Town. Certainly not my scene, certainly doesn’t inspire me all that much to head out to Burning Man (although, I can’t say I wouldn’t ever do that), it was something I never anticipated I would do, and something I can honestly say that I absolutely loved for what it was. Never again will I get such a chance to let out my inner freak, to not judge anyone based on what they’re wearing/what they look like, and to just have fun with friends in literally the middle of nowhere. Although I might be Afrikaburntout right now, it was certainly worth every moment being spent tired.