culture – The Solo Geographer

Way back in July, I booked an amazing trip through a company called G Adventures. This trip was a 3 week tour around 4 countries in Southern Africa. I actually added a 5th country, but I’ll talk about that in a later post. I hadn’t taken a trip this long since I went to Hawaii/Australia/New Zealand several years ago with an old friend Kayla. And this one wasn’t going to be in my friend’s cushy Hawaii house or in cute cabins and hotels in NZ. This was going to be a camping trip.

And friends, it was amazing. I left two days after Thanksgiving. I was nervous right up until I got to the airport, really. So many things can throw a wrench into the logistics, but it worked out well. I went to a travel doctor, got shots, saw my GI doctor who prescribed me a steroid in case I had a Crohn’s flare (spoiler alert, I didn’t need it), bought a compression bag for my sleeping bag, packed like mad, and counted down the days.

When I arrived in South Africa, it was amazing. The main reason? It was HOT! I flew into Cape Town on November 26th (I traveled overnight) and crossed into the Southern and Eastern hemisphere. This also meant that it was late spring! Or more like summer, meteorology, in most of the places we went to.

It’s always fun walking down those stairs off a plane! I don’t remember too much of the super long flight, except that I didn’t sleep and the food was okay. Also there was no one in the seat right next to me so that was nice!

I did not expect to be put on a shuttle to get to the terminal but there were worse things that could have happened! Thankfully customs was fast and my driver met me past security. He was a cool guy and pointed out cool places along the drive. I didn’t get a photo as I was really tired, but he showed me Robben Island where Nelson Mandel was held as a political prisoner.

I made it to the hostel for my first night in South Africa, right in time for the opening meeting. The first person I met was actually the young woman that I shared a tent with the whole trip. Her name is Laura, and she’s also a geography student! She’s from Berlin, and we got along very well the whole trip. We went down to the meeting and we did some get to know you stuff, and talked about the trip, how things would work with camping/driving around in the Lando/who the leaders were, etc. Lots of logistics I won’t get into, but it was a good meeting. Then we all walked to a restaurant nearby for dinner. I was a bit nervous, but getting to know everyone that first night was great, and I kind of smile at how the relationships developed after that first night! We also learned that first night that the majority of the people on the trip were from Germany! There were 2 others from the U.S. I was also the oldest person in the entire group (not counting our driver/guide Robby). The tour was for people aged 18-39. The next person in age to me (initially) was 33.

After that first meal, we all went back to the hostel. It was LOUD. Not the hostel, but the bar next to us. Thankfully they shut off the music after awhile. That was also the last time we’d be in real beds for awhile too!

The next day we got up and put our luggage outside to be loaded on the bus (see at the top of the post) and went to breakfast. I decided to not drink too much coffee on this trip as I didn’t know if I’d get stomachaches from it (it’s always touch and go with me with coffee) and as the Lando didn’t have a toilet, I didn’t want to be stuck. So I only had coffee a handful of times the entire trip! The breakfast was good, and then we went back to the bus, chose seats, and headed off! We were supposed to change seats every day but that didn’t always happen (though we did rotate every now and then). That first day I sat with Michelle, from Switzerland, and we both discovered we were fans of How I met YOur Mother (that might have been a later day but it all kind of blends together considering how many hours we were on the Lando!)

The first sight we saw was Table Rock!

Check out the parasailors!

We didn’t stay too long, as we needed to get to our first real excursion. We went to a cultural center for the San people. They’re also called Bush people, but they’re trying to move away from that term. They are the last hunter gatherers in the world, and their way of life is disappearing because the governments don’t let them hunt anymore.

It was a very cool excursion, and I wish we’d had more time to look around the museum.

It’s a little hard to see, but this is how their click language is written out. We learned a couple of clicks, and we got to practice a bit! It was SO cool to learn about their language (and other languages, which we learned more about later) and how the clicks are written out. The exclamation point is a click with the tongue against the roof of your mouth and the front teeth. And the double lines are a click on the side of your cheek.

Our guide explained the different plants they grow to make their medicinal tea. It includes wild cannabis (which does not have the same effects as cultivated marijuana).

We also got to sample the tea!

I think I was the first one to actually sip at it. I have a really good poker face sometimes… I didn’t make an expression after trying it so I think a couple of other people in my group didn’t realize it was EXTREMELY bitter! They all grabbed for the honey (I took the rest as a shot, It was not good!)

We got lunch to take on the Lando after our tour, and headed off to our first camp site. It was at a lovely vineyard!

A few of us decided to do a wine tasting! It was fun (and we got a cheese plate halfway through). Some of the wines were okay, some were good!

It was hard focusing my camera!

This one was infused with rooibos tea! It was interesting. I can’t remember how much I liked it.

Ha, I thought this was the actual toast but, oops! We were with another group for the wine tasting, so someone from each group gave a toast. It was a really nice time and a cool way to start getting to know the other people on my tour.

I have a lot more to write about on this trip, with so many adventures and sight seeing and friendships made! I can’t wait to tell you more about my African adventure!

I might have mentioned this before, but I’m a seasonal employee at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. This place is amazing, and I’ve discovered a lot of people have never heard of it. Even some local folks haven’t actually visited, not even on school field trips.

If you’re one of those folks who haven’t heard of Cahokia Mounds, allow me to give you some fast facts! Cahokia is considered the first actual city in the United States, but it predates the actual country of the United States by hundreds of years. It was permanently settled by a Native American culture that archaeologists call the Mississippians around 800 A.D. They flourished and built a city in this location until the site was abandoned around 1350 A.D. They didn’t have a written language, so we don’t know what they called themselves (although there’s a lot of evidence that it was probably multicultural) or what they called the city. Cahokia came from a tribe that was living here with European settlers came in, the Cahokians. So it’s a bit confusing.

Anyway, population estimates say that at it’s peak, the numbers could be anywhere from around 10,000-20,000 people living on about 4,000 acres. They also built the largest earthen mound in the Western Hemisphere, Monks Mound. It’s 100 feet high and has an estimated 22 million cubic feet of earth contained within it, give or take.

I’m tempted to spout all of my tour information right now, but I’ll spare you since it’s not a general post about Cahokia, but about one specific event, which I’ll get to in a minute. I’ve loved working here since 2021 and I wish my job was a permanent one. I may not be able to work there next summer since I’m applying to grad school, but I’ll definitely volunteer!

Painting by William Iseminger. I see Bill at work regularly and he’s an amazing archaeologist and I’m very lucky to rub elbows with him. This is what Cahokia might have looked like during its initial occupation.

This is the view from the top of Monks Mound. The two mounds you can see through the trees are the Twin Mounds.

One interesting aspect of Cahokia is Woodhenge. Generally acknowledged as a solar calendar, this structure was discovered during “salvage archaeology” in an area that was set to be demolished by highway 70/55 in the 60’s. Dr. Warren Wittry conducted an excavation and discovered, among neighborhood homes that predate it, post pits that formed circles. I’ll spare you the technical details, but these pits corresponded with significant sunrises, and also Monks Mound itself. Those sunrises happen to be the Equinoxes and the Solstices. The equinoxes line up with Monks Mound quite nicely. And this past Saturday was the Autumnal Equinox. At Cahokia, we hold observances of these astronomical events on the Sunday closest to them. So the very next day we held an Equinox Observance. Bill Iseminger gave a little talk, and we got to watch the sunrise. It was a bit cloudy, but the sky was beautiful. Keep in mind, out of respect for Native Americans, we don’t do any rituals or ceremonies or anything, we just watch the sunrise and enjoy it.

I was slightly peeved this person wouldn’t turn off their headlights because the sky was soooo pretty. This was around 6:15, half an hour before the talk started. You can see that flat line in the middle of the trees there? That’s monks mound. Hard to see if you don’t know what you’re looking at.

More headlights, but you can see the poles from our reconstruction.

Selfie!

Y’all, the sky gave us its all that morning. It was so intensely beautiful! Monks mound again just barely visible.

Bill on his Ladder.

Monks Mound is a little easier to see in this photo. It’s just off center.

Now you can start to see the mounds in the lightening sky! There’s a smaller mound right behind the Woodhenge poles, and Monks Mound behind that to the left.

My apologies to Angela for the photo of her messing with her sleeve and her coffee on the ground (and Bill again). BTW she’s wearing the same sweatshirt I was wearing, our new Cahokia Mounds sweatshirts that were being sold at the event. They’re warm and handsome.

The clouds look so beautiful.

And this was the shot! You can see the glowing sun just to the front of Monks Mound! A day earlier, and the sun would be right at the front of the mound, but because of the rotation of the Earth it was slightly off. Regardless, I was very excited to get this shot. There’s a cloud right above where the sun is so we couldn’t see the whole of the sun once it rose, but I didn’t mind. The sunrise was so beautiful nonetheless.

And the sun has risen and a new season has begun.

If you’re ever in the St. Louis area and want to know more about Cahokia, give us a visit! Sadly our interpretive center has been closed for renovation, but we’re running tours through the middle of November, and hopefully we’ll be reopen next year. There’s also a lot of information online about the site. Some random blogs (like mine haha) don’t always have accurate information, so definitely take some with a grain of salt. Also our website has a lot of resources as well. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I can provide documentation to prove I am an employee if you’re concerned (again, always gotta be careful if you’re not sure if someone is telling the truth or not!), or you could always call the site or contact the site through the social media avenues.

Okay, I’ll leave you with one final video, if you would like to watch! It’s an award winning video we play in our theater (well, when we’re open!) and it’s less than 15 minutes long. It doesn’t have quite the same effect watching it on a computer as opposed to our theater, but I like it anyway! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed my sales pitch about Cahokia. 😉

Tag: culture

She’s Coming in 12:30 flight

The Autumnal Equinox