Today is Saturday, it is 10:30 and I have arrived in Cape Town. I arrived in Johannesburg last Friday morning. Met my friend at the airport where we got our lovely "soccer mom" car and had breakfast with one of Lauren's friend. Drove to a town called Hazy View. Somehow managed to make a "wrong turn", which really turned out to be the amazing scenic route through who knows what village. Beautiful, lush. Children running around everywhere, some even without shoes but with ipods! Women selling fruit and avocadoes on the side of the road (delicious!) and carrying large packages on top of their heads. I had arrived in Africa! Made it to our hostel, the Gecko Lodge. Lauren brought a bottle of wine from a winery down south. Took that to our lovely and very cheap dinner before passing out to the sound of pouring rain on our tin roof.
Saturday we met our guide, HANZ who took over driving duties towards Kruger National Park, one of the largest parks in Africa. I can not even believe what I have seen over the next two days! The photos will not even do this place justice! I will make the long story short, but basically this guide knows EVERYTHING there is about the park, from the ants on the ground to the birds in the sky... He drives us through this stunning diverse vegetation that seems to change every few minutes and goes on forever... Your driving, you're driving and BAM! Giant elephant in the middle of the road! BAM! Giraffes and zebras camoflauged in the bush!!! SILENCE! There is no one else around, you roll down your windows and all you hear is these AMAZING animals chomping on the grass and the wind blowing. I literally teared up. Over the next two and half days this continued- I saw Lions (2 HUNTING!) Zebra, Giraffes, Elephants, etc, etc. Just amazing.
Thursday night we dropped Hanz off and headed to ThornyBush, a private, more luxurious reserve. Here we slepped under a mosquito netted bed, had a private back yard, etc. etc...These safaris were a bit different in that we drove around with 6 other people in open 4x4 vehicles... I saw some incredible sights on these game drives!! I was literally inches away from a lioness. I saw a male lion inches away sleeping next to the zebra carcass that he had just devoured. I saw three lionesses try to sneak up on a group of White Rhinos (so many of them!!)- the lions ran away! I saw a leopard, probably the most beautiful animal I saw the whole time. Today, before we left, we saw a female cheetah and her cubs. As I am writing this, I still can't believe the things I saw. I will hopefully upload some photos soon, although they will not do any justice to the beauty I have witnessed.
Around ten am today (saturday) we left the reserve and drove through some mountains and farmland to catch a plane in Johannesburg. This drive was stunning. Both Lauren and I turned to each other at the same time and said, "I feel lucky to be alive" It was that beautiful out there. I truly hope that everyone reading this is lucky enough to make it out here sometime...
So, now I am in Lauren's AMAZING duplex in Capetown. Apparently, there's a view of teh ocean off the balcony, but it was night when I arrived, so hopefully tomorrow I will see it-yay! Then, Monday we are on the road again, along the coast to do many things... Stay posted, I hope to upload pics before we're on the road again.
Miss you all! Keep in touch!
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