The trip

South Africa is maybe one of the most amazing places that I have ever experienced, not visited, not seen, but experienced. I went in thinking, this is going to be a hard trip, I'm a little scared but I know it will be fun. I came out feeling as though I have never met so many amazing people in one place at one time and had such an amazing experience climbing, drinking tea, drinking wine, sight seeing, everything was magic!

When we first arrive to the climbing area also known as Clanwilliam or Depaukys Pass we were a bit taken back not only by the view, the vast amount of boulders, but we also thought that we were supposed to be staying in our own private guest house. When we arrived we soon found out that we would be sharing this house with several others and to day the least we weren't exactly psyked.



When our roommates arrived we immediately fell in love with them. We had been starved for attention for days, we felt like we were living on the moon because we were the only climbers in the entire area. Once Bernd, Manu, and Belinda arrived we were so happy to meet them and climb with them and soon became close friends after many delicious dinners and several bottles of wine.

I feel like the relationships that were made on this trip really made it what it was. We later had a close friend from the states come without plans of staying in the house that we were living in but we kidnapped him and made him stay with us which later formed Team Honey Badger.



We celebrated my birthday to fullest extent with full brai, Champagne, Michael Jackson, Baker Man, and many other classic jams in a small hut/house/coffee shop which was later reincarnated into a sweat shack/dance hall. It was a real hit to say the least.

The worst part of the trip was seeing Team Honeybadger dissipate as we all had homes to go to and families to be with and jobs to actually work.

Team Honey Badger minus Bernd, Anelia, Becky, and Belinda

 And worst of all my Nana had passed within a week of my return home. My Nana, Gaye Paul Keeney, was possibly the most amazing woman on this planet. I don't say this just because she is my Nana but because she really was a presence that everyone learned to love unless of course you didn't love her within the first second of meeting her. She was smart, witty, fresh, read about 5 novels a week (yes the ones with Fabio on the cover,) loved the beach, loved to cook, loved to use to word "dope" as much as possible, she made me goulash every Tuesday night as a kid, she always had instant powder Nesquik in her cupboards at all times just in case, and she had the most amazing blue eyes.


This was a true, utter, complete devastation for me. I always worry about being out of the country for fear that something like this would happen. From that date the trip was over for me. I still certainly enjoyed myself and was still incredibly grateful to be there but my heart was broken and all I wanted to do was be with my family. So mentally my climbing trip was over. I forfeited my projects and stuck with a light hearted attempt at certain things to avoid getting frustrated and just tried to have as much fun as possible with the people around me.

In Loving Memory of Gaye Paul Keeney 1.29.28 - 6.26.11