A Southern Hen Night

While the phrase is never used in the states, bachelorette parties in South Africa, the UK and most of the rest of the English speaking world are referred to as Hen Nights or Hen dos. Appropriately named if you think about it-- this is the last time that said hen gets out of the coop before she settles in for a long period of egg incubation. So much like the metric system, the logical name "hen do" has been scoffed in the states, but after my experience on Saturday, I fully intend to resurrect this fantastic bride-to-be name along with many of the traditions that go along with it.

The day started innocuous enough. The theme of the evening was to be "Glitter, White Safari," so I headed over to my friend Liesel's to prepare. After exhausting her full supply of glitter powder and glitter stars, we packed up our gifts and headed over to MoFam, the starting place for our hen extravaganza. Arriving, we were greeted by a large green punch bowl and glasses

with special straws. Nothing like starting off your early afternoon with a bit of cream soda concoction.

The first official activity of the party was the bride-to-be dressing. With all the attendees dressed in white, it was our prerogative to make Zaren, dressed all in black, stand out as much as possible. Everyone contributed to the ridiculousness and we ended up with this (see picture to the left.) Thank god Zaren is an amazing sport, she was able to rock the hat, the garter, the shot necklace and all the rest in classy, elegant style, (or at least style...) Not wanting Zaren to feel completely exposed in her conspicuous get-up, we all decided to step up our game with some face paint. Everyone chose a phrase for their cheeks and forehead. There were many different slogans ranging from Wild to Mother of the Bride, but by far the best was "Kaptein." An inspired forehead tattoo, these words came to be the mantra of the night, and every time that Zaren blew her whistle, all the ladies and anyone else who had been taught would yell out in a chorus worthy of admiration, "kaptein." (Also doesn't hurt that this is the chorus of a very famous South African song that I have taken quite a liking to: Kapetein span die seile...)

From here, it was a very steep jaunt down to the bottom of the hill where our chariot

was waiting. Playing on the safari theme, and just to make sure we knew we were still in Africa, Shereez and Tash had organized an overlanding truck to be our transport for the night. As if this high, two decked bush vehicle wasn't eye-catching enough, they expertly adorned all the windows with special, anatomically creative cut-outs and put a giant banner across the back. Definitely the most inspired action of the evening, the banner read "Hot Bride, etc, etc" and also included Zaren's cell phone number. For the rest of the night, we would turn down the music every mile or so to take a call from someone stuck behind our slow, lumbering safari bus. You really couldn't have chosen a better bachelorette for all of this, Zaren was hilarious as the bride-to-be secretariat!

The first stop of the hen-mobile was a little pizza place in a small town called Bot River. Perhaps even more country and back-woods than Elgin, you can imagine the local diners' surprise when a giant safari bus rolled in and 11 girls in varying bachelorette array descended upon the wooden decks of the pizza parlor. I think all of the locals were amused by this band of women, but none as much as the three guys who happened to be occupying the other side of

the deck. Turns out it was one of their birthdays, a visiting Canadian winemaker, and he thought it was a pretty great magic trick to turn their 3 man birthday party into a 14 person all-out bachelorette bash.

Having sufficiently shaken up the pizza place at Bot River, (conveniently and appropriately named the Shunting Shed,) we headed back onto the road to head over the mountain to Hermanus. Certainly larger and more cosmopolitan than Elgin or Bot River, this is still a rather small beach town that largely serves as a weekend getaway for Capetownians. So while it was not quite as shocking to have a bachelorette party in Hermanus, I still wonder how often they get such a spirited group arriving in complete African safari style.

True to my pledge as a participant in the bachlorette party, little else needs to be divulged except to say that we loved Hermanus and I'm pretty sure Hermanus loved us. Except for one last eventful stint on the bus (wink), we spent the rest of the night dancing through the bars and clubs. There is really nothing quite like a giant, impenetrable ring of women in white with a bachelorette twirling in the middle.

All in all what a fantastic night! As often happens with these things, the best times were in the bus transit, when loud music and free-flowing karoake ruled the day. Even when in the clubs or the bars, it was truly being with the girls that made it so fantastic-- the venues just provided us with great music and a big dance floor! What an amazingly singular night, it certainly will be hard to ever top this Hen Do!