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13 February, Wednesday

2/25/2011

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3 days of camping and we’ve realized that we need to change our current set up – the kitchen is not functional as we want it. While Andrej and Hugo are visiting Ephesus Willie and I unpack the car – every single box, sack, container, bag, tents under the trees in the parking lot. I’m sorry I did not think to take a picture of this. 3 times we were approached by Turkish men asking, “Bazaar, bazaar?” pointing to the stuff laid out on the grass.

 No, we are trying to change a stuffed 4x4 vehicle to be a functional mobile home for the next 5/6 months. Everything we need in regards to food, cooking etc are now in the 2 back large drawers.

While I reorganized the kitchen, Willie tried to figure out why our refrigerator does not charge – a concern not for now, but a few weeks from now, we will be sad if we do not have something that can keep food cool.

The boys came back and I’ve asked them to write about their Ephesus experience. By 12 we are back in the car direction of Pamukkale. 

 We buy provisions at a basic necessity store in a small village, because time for finding a campsite is close. The time is determined by the position of the sun! Camping in the wild means we have to find a suitable camping spot: preferably away from people, away from traffic, as private as possible, even terrain, if possible not too rocky. That is a tall order when it gets dark and you have 4 individuals with strong, different opinions about where the perfect spot for the night is!

Therefore, finding a campsite can push our individual buttons in a major way and if one could stick a tension thermometer in the car it would surely explode – especially when the sun is teasingly sticking her tongue out at us as she waves goodbye.

I don’t do too well with camping in the wild. I’m afraid we are trespassing, that bandits will attack us; that the police will arrive, yell at us in a foreign language;chase us away, fine us heavily or even worse lock Willie behind bars and leave us 3 sitting not understanding or knowing what to do...if I allow my imagination to run, I can stir up scenario upon scenario. So, after the first bush camp search, familiar rise of tension and tempers I had a conversation with God...I already have enough that freaks me out and I’ve yielded my right to an opinion to Him. I entrust the camping spot hunt to Him and try to look and agree in a serene way whatever the 3 of them decide. It works well for me and God has found us safe and pleasant spots.

We leave the highway and drive along a 2 track forest road until we leave the track for bundu bashing to exactly the right spot! We are surrounded by tree covered mountains and a strange silence rests in the valley. Sammie is first to explore and he enjoys criss-crossing his new territory marking it thoroughly!

The new “kitchen arrangement” works much better and we eat tuna salad with Andrej’s ‘broykie’ (bread in Afrikaans)  as the cold climbs down from the snow-covered rocks to join us around a minute fire as we did not want to draw too much attention to us being there. We had another disagreement with the cold and end up in our tent 8pm – another long, strange, sinisterly silent night. The silence broken every now and then by Andrej’s hacking cough. Andrej started to cough and we have no idea what causes it, because he does not feel sick, nor runs a fever.

The name of our campsite usually evolves from what we experienced and ‘Eerie Silence' is how we will remember it.

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    Author

    Caren

    "There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne - bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive. One only feels really free when one can go in whatever direction one pleases over the plains, to get to the river at sundown and pitch one's camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep
    beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night." -
     Karen Blixen - Out of Africa, Kenya
    'Of course as I am reading this, I know that you DO get your visas and the container DOES get released, but oh the internal struggle we face even though we should trust (as Hugo does) that God has His hands on all things and is constantly taking care of us.'


    From a Friend:
    :) Crazy to think that we are ALL made of blood, bone and water yet we speak in so many tongues that getting along together becomes a massive task within itself.

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