After lunch, we left around 3:30pm to go on our sunset safari! It started off pretty slowly, but then the animals started emerging. We saw a honey badger, and our guide said was an extremely rare sight. Then one of the other groups found two cheetahs resting after their meal, so we were able to go watch them for almost 15 minutes. Their bellies were so big that we thought they were pregnant, but our guide said they must have just eaten not far away. Up next was a male lion, who was lounging, and we were able to drive right next to him. (He was 10 feet away) The best part of our night was seeing a leopard, and he cubs. I got an accidental picture of her right before they disappeared into the woods. We ended our safari by drinking a beer under the clear night sky, and watching a few jackals play nearby.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Safari Day
We woke up at 5am this morning to start our safari at Kruger National Park! It was a brisk 36* F, so we basically froze our butts off until the sun fully came up. Who knew that South Africa would get so ridiculously cold? We bundled up together in the back of the land rovers, and were on our way. We got to wear some super attractive, warm ponchos, which saved our lives. The sunrise was absolutely amazing to watch, and we were able to see the animals slowly wake up. We started off the safari with some elephants, impalas, and spring buck. Then our safari started to slow down, until we saw some baboons, hippos, crocodiles, and vultures. It finally got warm enough to take off the ponchos around 11am. The most fun part of our morning safari was watched the impalas try to find a way around the sun bathing lions to get to the water hole. The lions were about 100 yards away from us, relaxing in the sun, and didn't even seem to care about the herds of impala. There were two males & one female, which is unusual, but the guide said one is most likely a son. We watched them until the impala found a safe route, and then we were on our way back to Timbavati for lunch. On our way back, our guide pulled over to show us a huge herd of buffalo! So during our day safari we saw 3 out of the 5, Big Five animals. (The Big Five is composed of lion, elephants, buffalo, leopard, and rhino. They are the most poached animals in Africa.)
Travel day to Timbavati
We woke up at 6am, to get a nice, early start to the day. We were picked up late from our tents again, so we rushed to eat breakfast. We ended up riding on the back of the bus again, which is absolutely terrible, especially with the winding roads through the mountains. I've taken a lot of Dramamine so far on this trip, so thank you mom for making sure I had a full bottle. On our way to Timbavati, we made a quick stop in Pretoria, which is where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratic & black president. Pretoria is also one of the three capitals of South Africa. We took some fun pictures with his statue, and then continued our 7 hour bus ride. We were able to see all the embassies on our way out of town, and the American Embassy is obnoxiously huge compared to all the others. We saw some great scenic views, and watched the mountains turn into the beautiful plains. It finally started to look like what I expected Africa to be.
Adventure in Magaliesburg
We woke up early today to eat breakfast, and we thought the workers forgot about us. Since we aren't allowed to walk from our tents to the breakfast area, we were stranded until they came to get us a half hour late. We rushed to eat breakfast, then hopped on the land rover to go meet the elephants!!
When we pulled up, the three elephants were munching on some trees. There was a mother, her daughter, and then another baby that she adopted. All of them were rescued from Kruger National Park. We were able to follow them around, and pet their sides & ears. I got some awesome pictures of all of us on my camera, but you can get the general idea of our experience below. Our guide told us that if we blow into the elephant's trunk, they will remember you for 8 years. I tried to do it with one of the babies, but the mother stuck her trunk right in my face so I was able to. It was an amazing experience, and I was very sad when the hour was over.
Our next stop was the Chameleon Village for some shopping! It was very interesting to get a chance to barter with the shop owners, but I don't need to do it again. Right when you walk in, all the shop owners try to pull you into their shops, ask you questions about yourself, and try to make you feel terrible when you pass them by. I'm a bit of a sucker, so it was very hard to walk by anyone. I ended up getting some very good prices in the end, and some awesome souvenirs!
After we were done shopping, we headed to Lesedi Cultural Village. We had a brief introduction, then we were taken on a tour of the five major cultures in South Africa. We had another refresher lesson on the Xhosa, which made our group really miss our project weeks. They had example villages of each culture, and they explained the basic practices. It was nice to learn about all of them, and really see how different they are from each other. When we were done with our tour, we sat down for a show of the cultures' songs & dances. It was a lot of fun to see everyone really get into it, and then we joined them at the end. They also served us a delicious dinner, with sample foods from each culture. I tried ostrich, which is like a very tough beef, and crocodile, which is chewy & fatty & disgusting.
Magaliesburg Mountains
We road from Jo'burg airport in our 50 passenger bus to our next location in the Magaliesburg Mountains. It was nice and spatious with our 10 people, because the other groups met us at the lodge. We were the first to arrive, so we were placed in the tents. Someone thought it was a good idea to put the 7 girls from our Community Development group in the most remote, and secluded area of the park. We stayed in platform tents, that were supposed to be 2-3 people in each. (We ended up moving more people into our tent) We were only allowed to walk from tent to tent, and had to get picked up if we wanted to get to the other groups.
After we dropped off our bags, we get a ride back to the lodge to eat lunch. The other groups finally arrived, so we were able to meet the people we will be spending the last two weeks with. Everyone immediately went to the bar to get some beers to go with lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out with our new group members until we had to go to the Brie (BBQ).
Before the Brie started, we sat around a campfire to talk about our itinerary for the next few days and expectations. The food was amazing (big surprise right?), and we hungout to drink a few beers before we went to bed.
One of the park rangers dropped us off at our tents around 9pm, and the reality of our situation really hit us. We started to hear the different animal noises, including the lions from their enclosure which wasn't very far away from our tents. Our bathroom was attached to the back of our tent, but the walls were made of sticks. (Which you could clearly see through while you're going to the bathroom) we had a shower which was all clear glass in the middle of the room, a bathtub, and two sinks. Basically there was no privacy, but it's not like Emily and I cared about that. We ended up helping Victoria & Emily (2) move their mattresses into our tent, because we knew we weren't going to be able to sleep with only two people in each tent. After running with the mattresses between tents, we were settled in. Emily and I shared the double bed, and the other girls slept on the floor. Luckily we had heated blankets, but they didn't seem to stay consistently warm. We made some hilarious video diaries of our reactions to the sounds we were hearing outside, But hey, we survived! (In the morning we for sure heard some mystery animals doing it behind our tent.) on our way to the tent for the first time, there were zebras grazing between our tents.
Safe in Johanessburg
Our flight went smoothly from East London to Jo'burg. Our goodbyes to Kelly were very difficult, but there weren't too many tears shed. She told me that we are always welcome to come visit her in Cape Town whenever we return to South Africa. Our new ISV guide, Graham, is hilarious and has an awesome mustache. We have a 45 passenger bus all to ourselves (our 9 person group), until we get to Magaliesburg. That is where we will meet up with the other volunteers to start our adventure tour!
My stupid Chase card also wouldn't let me take out money, so parents if you read this before I get in contact with you for some reason, please figure it out. I'm going to have some very mean words with the employees at Chase who said they put the alert on my account saying I would be international. Luckily, I have Emily here to take care of me money wise until I figure it out. Other than that little set back, all is continuing to be beautiful in South Africa!
Thursday, June 11, 2015
6/13
We had to say goodbye to Cinsta today, which was very sad. Mila drove us to the airport, and we said our goodbyes. I don't know how much wifi I will be getting in the next two weeks, but I will post when I can! We are about to fly from East London to Johannesburg! (The plane is super tiny, I'm not a fan) here is Mila (our VA 32 leader), and our Brie (BBQ) last night
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