South Africa Update

Happy New Year! When you were celebrating at midnight, I was riding elephants at 9am.

We arrived last Sunday, and dad and Uncle Bob were immediately forced to learn to drive on the left side of the road… at night… In the pouring rain! Luckily we rented GPS so we got to our lodge safely and without getting lost.

For those who don’t know, this is South Africa’s summer. Also it is very green with lots of trees and mountains, nothing like the Sahara my ignorant self imagined!! It’s very, very beautiful.

Tuesday we headed out to our second place which was a lodge on a wild animal reserve. The road was terrible, but the setting was well worth he journey! Shortly after arrival we went on our first safari. My crew didn’t see much, but the other half saw lions! Fortunately they videotaped their encounter.

The next morning we went on a 5am safari. This time we saw giraffes and a “not at all relaxed” young bull elephant. There were also many impalas and a cool chameleon. Our guide seemed to enjoy educating us about all of the birds too. We also went on an evening safari which had similar animal results. Afterwards, the chef had prepared a “braai” which was a bbq. It tasted great at the time but I was sick throughout the next day.

Yesterday was when I was sick, and it started when we were on the early morning safari. The road was very bumpy which didn’t help things. However we did see a cheetah which was very rare, especially since she was with her two cubs!!

Then we had to pack up and travel about 3 hours to where we are now. On the way, we stopped at several scenic outlooks which I didn’t enjoy too much because I just wanted a bed 😦 I opted out of celebrating the new year and slept instead to get better.

As I mentioned, today we rode elephants. We first received a very thorough education about their anatomy, eating habits, and how they were trained. It was very cool and everyone loved the experience, especially Grandpa!!

And that is all I have for now 🙂