More crazy weather at Highlander’s Camp. The rain is coming down in buckets, and the wind is howling. We stay inside all day reading and playing games: table tennis, Scrabble, darts with one dart, massage, etc. All our tents are inside the garage on the cement. Only Rowan and Lee-Anne have bravely set up theirs outdoors in the storm.
Toward evening, Highland’s owner, Sparky, holds our wine tasting. It was very casual, but fun and tasty, and included varieties of red, white, rose, sparkling and even a vermouth. The rain let up, and a full-arc rainbow glowed over the river and surrounding vineyards. The vineyards are a cooperative of 120 growers supplying grapes. Most of their wines are bottled under the Birdfield label. Most is exported to the UK, Canada, and a few other lucky spots. The tasting also included a yummy cheese board, which we demolished quickly. The wine kept flowing as bottles were purchased supposedly to go with dinner.
Dinner was a chicken poitje (a small, three legged pot) which is like a stew with meat, vegetables and rice. This was perfect for a cold, damp day. Truck awards were held after dinner. These included Donny as Truck Snorer, my Best Flapping Technique award (presumably for cutting board flapping), Sarah’s Truck Staller (always holding things up), Lee’s Most Argumentative, Bryce as Pisshead, plus Hobo, Most Obnoxious, Powderpuff (Suzanne), Something Happened Award, Nothing Happened Award, and Best and Worst Excuses. Our beloved driver VJ and fearless leader Heath got their awards as well: Heath’s related to leaving all our utensils and veggies behind on the delta trip.
A bit later, the bad taste outfits were dragged out for our last night party (purple dress for Andy, sparkles fro Rowan, leopard tights for Heath). The night ended on a festive note, and eventually we all turned in. Some of us were awakened by an unfortunate incident where the cook (imagine, their own cook!) of the other group staying there apparently got drunk and fell down a hill, getting pretty banged up and involving a lot of blood. He stayed behind in the hospital when they left early the next morning.
We left not long after, and pulling our plates and utensils from the community bin was one more sign the trip was coming to an end.
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