Our boys attended yet another horse camp at Mooikrans Equus this past week with it being their fourth since discovering these camps in 2010. Clive had suggested earlier this year that I join them this time, so for the first time in my life I ventured out of my 50km radius comfort zone to conquer the 246km drive to Mpumalanga on Sunday morning.
I must admit I was rather nervous about the long drive after having Clive do all the long distance driving for the last 20 odd years. Getting to sleep early was quite a challenge & I couldn’t resist wondering what I was thinking agreeing to do this trip with the boys in the first place.
We left home around 8h45 on Sunday morning. Fortunately we had no incidents on the road & arrived safe & sound at about 11h45. That left us just enough time to unload & get ready for 12h00 camp start. Gavin took us on an informative tour. I’m sure he had some of the kids quite puzzled with the stories he told… Lunch was followed by some games & activities. After supper there were some more fun activities & then a late bed time after 22h00.
Being able to sleep late at home, I’m surprised the boys keep returning to a place where they have to be up at 6h30 to feed the animals as part of their morning chores. Chores are followed by coffee and then breakfast at 8h00. After breakfast the different groups head out to their activities for the first session. For our boys, this was “Sheep Sheering”. At 11h30 they had a break & then from 12h00 to 14h00 they had a second session of activities, this time an outride, but not before Jesse had me stroke his horse, which had me rather nervous. 14h00 was lunch time and thereafter I joined them for a third session of “Spruitjie Stap”. 16h00 was shower time after which the kids played rugby & netball. At 19h00 we had a delicious supper & then Bible time & the kids split up into their different courses which they attended until it was time for bed.
On Tuesday, session one was milking the cow for our boys. They finished rather early & got to do some sharp shooting to pass the time until break time. For session two they went on an outride from which they got back at 14h30. After some lunch it was time for some fun on the obstacle courses. Shower time was followed by games, supper and courses.
On Wednesday morning all the kids got to do some exercise & self-defence practise. Then they had another round on the obstacle course until break time. After break, Jesse was moved up a class & from then on they were both off to some more riding, although in separate groups.
Jesse started Thursday on the obstacle course whilst Misha was out with his group. They did a lot of horse riding in the afternoon as they started practicing for Saturday’s formation. After supper they did some line dancing as practise run for Friday’s sokkie. Initially Misha, didn’t want to join the dancing, but then after being sent into the circle, he too seemed to enjoy it tremendously.
On Friday morning Misha started off with some paintball whilst Jesse was out on an outride. I snuck away to go watch another group riding. Jesse was on my case all week to ride & for the first time since I was thrown off Blackie at 6 years old, I too had an opportunity to get back on a horse. Ironically, I too had Bakkies, the one Misha had for his very first camp. Who knows, maybe this will finally help me conquer my fear of horses… I caught up with Misha doing obstacle course & later got to see the two of them doing their “Leermeester” practical. The kids all loved the dancing until late after supper.
On Saturday morning I was up early & for the first time during the week it wasn’t freezing & promised to be a lovely warm day filled with activities & followed by a long drive home.
I must I was rather apprehensive at first after discovering that there were no power plugs in the jailhouse. Fortunately the iPad has awesome battery life & thus kindle reading was still possible to get me to sleep at night. However, my plans to make Misha’s birthday invitations were not going to materialise this time. I did however have a lovely time visiting with the other moms & although I expected loads of hayfever hassles with all the dust, grass & trees, Monday’s migraine was about the worst of all my symptoms all week.
We left Mooikrans just after 13h00 & returned home around 4pm on Saturday afternoon from an awesome week of work, fun & horse riding. They are already anticipating the next camp which is scheduled for April next year.
Below is a selection of my photos that have not been included on the photo DVD. The remainder of my photos are available on my facebook profile.
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