There’s an old pearl of wisdom that goes along the lines of “no man steps into the same river twice, for its not the same river and he’s not the same man”. And the annual Keurbooms pilgrimage is exactly that. A moment to reflect on what’s changed in the last year, and to let it all go as you immerse yourself in the river’s warm embrace.
The Keurbooms is a beaut, wrapped in indigenous forest ravines, where trees grow long beards and the rocks fold and turn, where the golden waters light up the bottom as you glide over the homes of crabs and thingamajigs and startle the fish. What’s up ahead around that corner? Is this cold patch the mountain waters or the sea pushing in, can I jump off that rock (yes you can), what’s in the lunch pack, check that beach out, is my stroke ok like this, or like this, hey was that a fish? These are the important questions you ask yourself on the 5-km swim upriver.
And this was the “year of the jellyfish”! Not because of close encounters of the bouncy kind, although the beachball warmup was hit, but because the creative talents displayed at the crazy hat party post swim was blown away by the jelly fish ensemble of one of the pilgrims. There were some great hats, but wow, the veggie potjie bubbled and churned in appreciation of the “jellyfish”. Check the pics to spot it.
And that’s the lekker thing about the Aweh-lets-swim Keurbooms, people drove all the way from Jozi, and Standford village moved up for the weekend, just to chill and jol and swim and share space with other genuine folk that have this open water swimming thing in common. The Forever resort is a great little place on the river, just the place Goldilocks and her three bears would hang out. And when the first Knysna loerie (aka turaco) flashes its crimson wings at you there’s a kinda “I’ve come home” feeling to the place. You’re not the same person you were a year ago, and perhaps like the river, the changes are subtle, but here you are doing what you love with people that are top-drawer awesome.
And then the cherry on the top, is the Sunday swim in the Nature’s Valley lagoon. Just a short warm-down swim up the river, as the waves crash down on the other side of the sand mound, you glide into a most awesome landscape scenario and go… wow.
Wow. Wow. Wow. What a privilege. We get to step into some of the most glorious rivers, we get to swim in its waters, to be part of it, enmeshed in the waters of the forest and the far mountains.
Aweh good people, what else is there? Next year, neh?
