My South African Birthday

So it's been just over a week since I turned 29. I am not upset about this birthday, it just seems completely implausible. Although, as my mom has reminded me on numerous occasions, I've squished a lot of life into the past 29 years, especially because it didn't start out so cheery. Anyways, my Durban family took very good car of me in celebrating the beginning of the last year of my 20s. Ellie was wonderful and organized a bunch of people to head out to Barnyard Theatre on Saturday night, which is a dinner theatre that I find quite fun. At the theatre Willene surprised me with an amazing chocolate cake with my favourite colour as the icing.  

Behind me, that's Emma, and she is clearly thinking - that is a big friggin cake. And it was a big cake. I finally finished eating it 6 days later. 

This is what Barnyard Theatre looks like - reminds me of New West Theatre at home. 

On Sunday morning we were up bright and early to introduce Ellie's parents to one of our favourite places - the Drakensberg. While her parents went ziplining which we had done previously in January, Ellie and I went to the Birds of Prey show. At the entrance the guy asked if we had been to a birds of prey show before. I said yes, we always had to go with school when I was younger. He laughed and said well at least this time it is your choice. It was a beautiful setting and I actually learned a lot. But I have to say, lots of the birds look really similar to the ones we have at home.  

But my favourite part of the show was the dogs. They made me miss Peggy. 

See - don't tell me that doesn't look a little like a great horned owl. 

Bahaha - loved the dogs. 

After fetching Ellie's parents from ziplining, we headed off on a hike and the weather was great. We had done this hike before in reverse with Cesar, but the clouds cooperated a bit more this time. 

And we weren't rushing so much so we got to see some more waterfalls. 

This part reminded me a bit of one of my favourite places in Waterton Lakes National Park. The rock was worn really smooth and it felt so nice to dip your feet in the very cold water. 

Ellie's dad takes a lot of photos and is regularly looking for the best shot. Sometimes he gets himself into precarious situations because of it. 

So beautiful. This will likely be our last official trip to the Drakensberg as we leave SA in about a month. We will be taking a trip to Lesotho though, which is really just the reverse side of the mountains. But anyways, I will say again that I just find this place so incredibly beautiful and have had many of my best days in South Africa in the Dragon Mountains.