Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz! I realize this is a bit belated but I figure late is better than never. So, this much overdue post will try to summarize my post month, although I doubt a few paragraphs will give an eloquent explanation, I will try my best.
I should firstly say I feel very, very lucky to have had the opportunity to gallivant around South Africa; from the South Western wine region, amazing Cape Town, Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape and all the way up to Kruger National Park (world renowned for viewing African wildlife!), there’s not much left to my imagination of South Africa’s beauty and diversity, although I know there’s still lots to explore and experience!
The first week of my holiday included a trip to Addo Elephant Park where I saw more elephants than I imagined possible, then myself and 5 other Canadians from the same program headed down the coast to spend the next week in Cape Town and the wine region. It was a blast, very beautiful and fun. After a fun new years on chaotic Long Street of Cape Town I bussed up the coast the next day to finally meet Shawn after a long 3 ½ months of not seeing each other! Our holiday was amazing to say the least. We drove all the way up the coast to Durban and then up to Kruger (where all the African animals roam wild!)
Shawn quickly became acquainted with life in Africa, and it definitely reminded me of some of the cultural differences I have become immune to, including racial disparity, crime, driving, and much more. I realized some of the aspects to life here I have just began to accept or even turned a blind eye to, so having someone here asking questions and pointing out differences was enlightening for me. I did warn Shawn a bit about driving here since I knew we’d be doing a lot of it, however, nothing can really prepare anyone for torrential downpours and cows on the highway – yes, in some areas cows roam freely along the highways. Our tires lost a bit rubber one day from this unexpected obstacle. I think my friend Michelle says it best, ‘driving in Africa is like driving through an obstacle course’ animals, people, other vehicles, random speed bumps and various road conditions ensure every drive is an adventure. Anyways, Shawn now understands what it’s like to drive here, and not to mention he quickly had to become comfortable driving on the left side of the road, but us lefties like to think it’s finally something advantageous for us.
1500 km and 3 nights later, loaded down with more groceries than can feed an army, we found ourselves at the Berg-en-dal Camp in Kruger National Park, prepared for 4 nights and 5 days of safari expeditions! We were greeted by monkeys at our camp, and our very first excursion out we saw hippos lounging in a water hole, many kudu and impalas. After just a mere day of safari sight-seeing we realized that kudu and impala’s would be old news to us (they run rampant and at times there were so many they blocked the roads and reminded me of some sci-fi movie.) Every day (ok, I admit once we slept in) we woke up before the sun rose (i.e. 4 am!) and hit the dusty trails to catch those animals finishing off a night of hunting and those just beginning their day, and a bonus was watching an African sun rise! We spotted zebras, giraffes, elephants, wart hogs, wild dogs, rhinos, hyenas and…drumroll please….cutie pututie lions! Two of our very early morning excursions paid off immensely when we turned down a trail and low and behold there were three lions just lounging on the road in front of us. We suspected they were resting after a hard night of hunting and were relaxing while digesting their supper. Absolutely adorable cats and seemed very tranquil considering they’re lions. One evening we went on a “sunset” safari with a group of people in the classic safari style vehicles; it was an adventure of its own, regardless of the animals we saw. It started to rain, not a lot at first so everyone thought it was kind of fun, and we did some animals: rhinos, hyenas, and one massive elephant. But then it started to seriously rain, thunder and lightening. It started to get pretty intense right as the sun set and sky turned to a sheet of blackness. Our driver started to speed up as the storm intensified and by this point everyone was completely drenched head to toe, it was actually even cold, the first time I had felt cold since travelling up North where daytime highs were in the mid 30’s. Because we still had driven away from our camp for about an hour and a half and then the storm hit we had to drive through the storm the entire way home while it gained momentum gradually along our drive. The feeling of travelling through the night of the African wilderness with lightening, thunder and rain soaking me was quite the experience I doubt I’ll have again, so despite being sopping wet and a bit cold it was definitely unique in every way.
A few other highlights of the holidays include golfing in the open wilderness with a risk of leopards and lions roaming the course at any time (and worrying about crocodiles in the water where unfortunately our balls ended up frequently), kayaking down a river with a group of people from Holland (and watching one couple tip their kayak 3 times, hehe), playing an interesting game of jenga with some kiwis, trekking down a completely deserted beach, swimming and surfing in 20˚C water, feeling scorching hot while it’s raining out, and watching Shawn bungee jump off the world’s highest bungee jump!
