Newsletter of Love from South Africa

Birthday Girl!

Hey Everyone! 

Email yet again fails me and isn't letting me send pictures the way I want to go I will just send them via the blog.

Hope all is well with you all! Much love from South Africa!!! 

I had such a wonderful week. I was thinking of you plant lovers the whole time:-) I made some new friends in yoga class on wednesday and we all went and slept under the full moon in this beautiful pine forest on thursday night. The weather was perfect. In the morning we collected pine ring mushrooms and had a picnic breakfast:-) 

On the forest sleep over I made a wonderful new friend Emma who brought me with her up the West coast to these massive flower reserves that I've been dying to go visit. It has been a mild winter and spring is already here so flower season has commenced in the western cape. For 3 weeks a year the nature reserves are erupting with flowers. I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. Orange, white and yellow so thick that the hills look painted. We also saw a Kudu, tortoises, flamingoes and ostriches and went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.

Family photo! (Alex and Emma in the back. Theo and I in the front)

Flamingos!  

It was Catie's birthday this sunday so I organized a braai for her Saturday night and breakfast Sunday morning. It was a rainy day so Henna, Catie, Emma and I went to butterfly world for a special birthday where we played with parrots, fruit bats, marmoset monkeys, snakes, tarantulas, guinea pigs and huge rainbow coloured iguanas. Turns out Emma is a bird whisperer. She had all the parrots singing and dancing with her to Rihanna and Adele.

Emma working her magic:-)

Lot's of Love! 

Don't worry school and life is going great as well!

xoxoxo

Sarah

Sarah's Done Skiing and Trying to Fund School SALE!!!

LOTS AND LOTS OF GEAR!! I'm trying to get ride of everything. I'm willing to negotiate and would rather all this stuff be used than sitting in my closet so PLEASE just ASK. Any questions or interests please email me at sarah10freeman@gmail.com. THANKS A TON EVERYONE!!  

NATIONAL TEAM SPYDER DOWNHILL SUITS 2011-2012

BARELY USED 

$450 

I have several large

 NATIONAL TEAM SPYDER DOWNHILL PADDED SUIT 2011-2012

BARELY USED 

$550 SOLD!  

 LEKI SPEED POLES 

LIGHTLY USED 

$70

ROSSIGNOL NEW RADIUS GS SKIING AND WORLD CUP BINDINGS

REALLY GOOD SHAPE

LENGTH 189 30 meter radius

$350

LEKI SHINNERS

USED 

$40 SOLD

ORTEMA WORLD CUP BACK BRACE

BRAND NEW

$125 SOLD

 SPYDER SOFT PADDED STEALTH

Never been used, Size Men S

$50 SOLD!

 LEKI SHINNERS

USED 

$70 SOLD

 NATIONAL TEAM SPYDER DOWNHILL SUIT 

 USED 

Lookers left 50$ SOLD, Lookers right $100 SOLD 

 PROVINCIAL TEAM DESCENTE DOWNHILL PADDED SUIT and ONE NOT PADDED 

 USED Large 

$115

DAINESE HARD STEALTH

BRAND NEW

$100 SOLD

 DAINESE GS BACK BRACE

BRAND NEW

Length 38-44 

$120

PROVINCIAL TEAM DESCENTE SHORTS

 USED 

Size 34

$40

PROVINCIAL TEAM DESCENTE SHORTS

 USED 

Size 34

$40 SOLD 

SLYTECH ARM GUARDS

 USED 

$30 SOLD

 PADDED SPYDER PANTS

Size Small

BARELY USED

$75

PRETEC BACK BRACE

USED

SIZE SM

$60 SOLD

  DESCENTE SHORTS

NEW 

Size L

$20 SOLD

LONG DAINESE SHINNERS 

USED

$70 SOLD!

 KARBON SHORTS

USED

SIZE SM

$20 SOLD 

CROSS BLOCKERS

USED

$10 

DAINESE GOGGLES AND LENSES 

NEW

$30

UVEX HELMET GOGGLE AND LENSES

NEW

$60 SOLD

UVEX GOGGLE AND LENSES

NEW

$50 SOLD

Weekend in the Tetons

Hey family!

Thought I would just send an update report about my activities. I’m just riding home from my first weekend in the Tetons and it turns out they are completely breath taking in more then one way! Yesterday (Saturday) Adam and I hiked up to the lower saddle of the Grand Teton, which is a four hour trek to around 1200 something ft and spent the night there.

There’s the peak!

And this was our view that evening..

Even though the hike to the saddle wasn’t anything special we had a couple exciting events along the way including running into a really small bear cub and having to sprint out of the path of a rock fall that was triggered from the peak of the middle Teton.

We woke up at 4:30am to summit before the afternoon thunderstorms that are notorious for sneaking in unannounced. I was told the freakiest story by a mountain guide, whom we met at the saddle, about one storm two years ago that was suddenly upon the grand while he was still on the summit. Him and his crew ran the descent, passing groups and telling them to turn around. One group of five from Bozeman ignored the warning and continued up until the lightening storm was surrounding them. At one point they were all thrown by a ground charge and one of the men, whom was accidently clipped into the wrong part of his harness in the panic, fell 1000ft to his death. Needless to say we were very careful, roping up on technical scrambles that were exposed but we couldn’t have picked a better day in terms of weather!  

Sun rise over the middle Teton

We picked a route that has apparently been ran from car to car, to the top and back in less then three hours but for us mere mortals it took around the same amount of time to get from the saddle to the peak. We made it!

One of those exposed areas

13700+ft looking over Idaho and Wyoming.

We even got to watch Old Faithful go off in Yellowstone National Part from this vintage point! You can also see some smoke still lingering from the forest fires in the NW Territories. After an hour on top there was a group of five 60+ year olds that joined us and all instantly whipped out their Iphones to take pictures, text their wives and make phone calls… can you believe the senor generation these days?!

 

From the top the best way down was to repel off an over hung cliff face. I’m still new to repelling and was told by Adam, “I get a twisted satisfaction seeing you so uncomfortable, I didn’t think a world cup downhill racer could be scared of anything.” Well I beg to differ when I’ve never had the experience of free-hang (no limbs on the wall) dangling like a worm on a thread.

 

Turns out it is not only bungee jumping that gives you that feeling!

After that the descent was mostly glacading/butt sliding. We met the wives of the men from the peak waiting for their hubbies in the meadow with cookies and watermelon, which they shared with us when they found out we had summited at the same time as their husbands!

 One of the most impressive things about the Tetons were the lazar cut fault lines that caused huge dikes which ran up the front of the mountains. There were also mica and quartz that made the mountains sparkle. It made me miss all my geologist-hiking partners.

Check out that dike!

Can’t wait to see you all this Thursday! I have another math exam and will leave right after, about noon Thursday, so will be some around supper-time! Love to all!

Xoxox Bear child