Better late than Never. A story from Africa...
Our first day at the Drakensburg Amphitheatre. After being shown around and eating some lunch we rented bicycles and went on a ride. First off, the bikes s u c k e d. (i'm trying this new spacing thing on words I emphasize...we'll see how it goes). My bike had a flat tire and the brake would constantly rub on the wheel, Tedder's tire went WAY flat and couldn't change gears, and our new friend Mohinder (not his real name...i don't remember his real name), his bike had a bad seat, tires rubbed on the brake, and his gears didn't work. Yikes.
Riding along the grass in the open field was rough, with bumps and holes all over the place. Tedder and Woodard had a bet to see who was going to fall first. Woodard both lost the bet, and was the one who fell. The field was tough to navigate through because our map was hand drawn and had things like "fence" and "pathway" as markers (the whole place was filled with fences and pathways). Eventually we made it to a gate and canal where we stopped and took pictures. We stood on the ledge that bridged across the canal. Woodard, slightly afraid of standing on ledges, thought death was imminent if we fell. I disagreed, and led to me discovering just how deep the canal was. The only way to discover...experiments!
I don't know why stuff like this makes me so happy. I love the random side adventures that come with traveling. Tiny moments where you have to decide to do something a little dumb and a lot of fun. Jumping in lakes fully clothed, going up to strangers and talking to them (not attractive girls though, that's too terrifying), being the first to jump off the cliff at Pillsbury...moments like that. They are tiny moments that remind me that life is supposed to be fun and experienced.
So after getting into the canal, and discovering it's well over my head, we adventured onward. I put my clothes back on and started riding down a dirt road. We were all separated by about 50 yards or so and I was in the front. While I was riding, all of a sudden, I felt something sharp poking me in my leg. It felt like a sharp object poking me in my inner right thigh. So I adjusted, but then it felt like a sharp object in my inner left thigh. It hurt like hell, so I stopped my bike and got off. Then something started poking my hand. It freaked the hell out of me!
As the rest of the boys caught up to me I heard them all saying things like "ow", "what the hell", "something is stinging me". Then we all looked up. We were riding under some MAJOR electric lines. These are the heavy duty ones with about 20 wires, thick wires, going along a highway. The electricity from those wires, over 6 stories above us, caused us to get shocked by any metal we touched. So the metal just under my seat was touching my thigh and when I braked, my hand touched a tiny metal screw next to the hand brake.
We sprinted away from under the wires. Still a little spooked. It's scary to think that you are getting poked or stung all over your body without seeing the reason.
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