Obstacles pave the way

It was Monday morning and two days before our guests would arrive to join us on our next Inventure experience along the Gats river in the Great Karoo. As I was driving behind Steffan and Jeffrey, looking out over dark clouds, snow on the mountains and witnessing the icy wind tear through Karoo bossies or bushes, I thought “I am sure it will be okay”. Until we emerged from our cars and the wind nearly took off the driver’s door.

To say it was freezing cold down there would be an understatement. The three of us looked at each other with that ‘dear in the headlights’ expression knowing that we couldn’t cross the river to our original site, and needed to locate a new campsite for this experience due to the rain and flooding that had occurred the previous week. As we walked and spoke through various options, I could feel a heaviness grow in my heart. I knew that it would be, first and foremost, unsafe to bring people into this environment and it would turn into a survival experience instead of an Inventure experience.

In previous years, we have had intense weather conditions preceding an Inventure but none that have resulted in us been required to adjust, change and have contingency plans to this degree. Driving back to the main road that afternoon, I was cold, stressed and unsure what to do; cancel or make a call to go ahead. After many phone calls to farmers in the area, family and friends who could offer a perspective and checking every weather app known to man, we decided to go ahead.

Over the next 48 hours, all of my perfectionist ways were significantly challenged. I lay awake at night thinking through different options, possibilities, and every potential scenario that we may encounter. Once you commit, you commit and that’s it, what will be, will be.

I woke up on Wednesday morning to clear blue skies and melting snow. We headed down once again and I crossed the river on foot to explore what was possible, for hiking trials at least and things started looking up. I can’t remember the last time I exhaled with such relief. The Karoo had transformed overnight to a green lush wonderland, a land bursting with life; and the blessing of a full river flowing through what is called by the Khoisan as the “land of thirst”.

*Wednesday afternoon and a meander through the river*

Our guests arrived and from Thursday morning to Monday afternoon, the exact length of an Inventure, the conditions were perfect. Beautiful warm days with clear blue skies and no wind were intertwined with the usual cold mornings and evenings. We had caught the tail end of the moon cycle which meant that the milky way was beautifully suspended in the night sky in all her glory. On those cold evenings, gathered around a low fire and encircled by mountains, all it took was lifting your head and there she was, vast and unhurried, moving slowly across the sky in a way that reminds you, that you are part of something much greater than yourself.

Our Inventure concluded on the following Monday afternoon. Later that day, Steffan and I witnessed the most magical sunset over the expansiveness of the Karoo; a moment that felt like a silent conversation with the land, of both gratitude and remembering of what I tend to forget.

As I was driving back to Graaff-Reinet early evening, the clouds rolled in once again, lightening lit up the night sky and the rain came later that evening. There is no other way to explain the gift of those days than to say that it was a combination of the lands blessing and my parents prayers.

In conversation with two friends post this experience, both said in their own way that ‘obstacles pave the way’. I am not always sure what that phrase tends to mean, but when I sit with those who joined us out in the Karoo for our debrief conversation; listen to their stories, experiences, reflections and decisions that emerged from our time out there, it is clear that what gets in the way, often is the way.