Simply AMAZING!!!!!

Well I am back from probably four of the best days of my entire life!!! I can’t even begin to describe in words how amazing the safari was…but I’m going to do my best! I think I’m going to try and do a little day by day description.

Day One…

We left Jo’Burg at 6am and ventured northwest to the state of Mpumalanga (which means “where the sun rises,” I’ve become obsessed with that word). We stopped in a town called Pilgrim’s Rest to have lunch, this town was filled with history! Our next big stop was at Blyde River Canyon to see the potholes…but not the potholes you’re thinking of! The potholes were created over millions of years from the running of water through the canyon. All I can say is that it was the most gorgeous site ever!!! It was like the Grand Canyon, but it was SO green with water flowing…just one of God’s most beautiful creations, I swear!!
Then we went to the Three Rondawels (which look like huts, except they’re enormous mountains)…and it was so surreal, because for about five minutes Alison and I were the only ones at the lookout point. We were still in Blyde River Canyon, and we could see much further from here J
We stayed in a little town called Graskop for the night. The hotel was lovely and even had it’s own little art gallery in it! We ate at a restaurant (that I already forgot the name of) across the street from the hotel, and were stuffed! We went to bed pretty early because we had to get up early to go to a site called God’s Window…

Day Two…

Well, we were pretty bummed because it was incredibly cloudy/foggy…we were about a mile above sea level at this point, so apparently it’s quite rare to find a day where you can “clearly” see through God’s Window. But when you can see through it, you can see all the way through the canyons and into Kruger Park!!
Then, you’re not going to believe what I did next…I zip-lined across a part of Blyde River Canyon! Can you believe it?! I was absolutely terrified, but the view was AMAZING and I would’ve regret not doing it!
Next up was the drive to Kruger National Park, now the safari was really going to begin!! We were driving past a private game reserve when we spotted our first animals…some giraffe and zebra!! We were already off to a great start….and then when we entered the park we were greeted by an entire herd of zebra along with some impala! Our tour guide told us he was surprised with how lucky we were this early on in the search. We drove around for three hours spotting everything from giraffes (which have become my personal favorite) to warthogs (pumba!) to waterbucks and then a solo elephant just walking down the road! We were amazed!!
We settled into our lodge in an area called Satara, which was just the picture of a safari campsite! We stayed in a little round bungalow J We went back out with our tour guide and went to the eastern most edge of Kruger so we could see the country of Mozambique, which was just as gorgeous as South Africa! We barely made it back for our evening night ride, and I’m SO glad we made it! We saw some ostrich and jackel at one point and then we some hippos that were not so excited to see us…apparently hippos are incredibly dangerous if you’re anywhere close to them, so they’re faster than you may think. But luckily we were far enough away, and they just gave us a lot of great poses (the photographer in me LOVED this trip)!!
We went back to our bungalow and went to bed…because our wake-up call the next morning was even earlier than the one we experienced on this day.

Day Three…

We woke up at 5am but it was TOTALLY worth it to see the South African sunrise in Kruger Park!! Ahh just gorgeous!! We started off the drive by seeing two hyenas, which are incredibly hard to come by apparently. At one point we came across an elephant on the side of the road, and we just kind of sat by and watched for awhile and then he turned and faced us and did a sort of “charge.” Needless to say, it freaked all three of us out a little bit, and we maintained our distance from there on out! Driving down the road we came across probably thirty baboons in the road…they basically owned it. Some of them were fighting; it was quite entertaining to watch!
We came to a look out point and got out of the car…with the windows still rolled down. Whoops! There were lots of little monkeys around and next thing we know there are three IN our car and then they’re out…with Alison’s bag of chips and her cough drops! I was just so glad they didn’t take my smaller camera because it was sitting in the seat! It was hilarious though and we couldn’t stop laughing! The monkeys were jumping in and out of people’s cars and people were completely oblivious to what was happening because they were busy looking out into the distance!!
We had breakfast at another campsite before leaving Kruger and heading to our next destination, Tshukudu (which means “Rhino” in some South African language!) Lodge which is a private game reserve and by far my favorite place we went to! We were greeted with tea and cookies (I’ve become quite the hot tea drinker since being in South Africa)…the people here were SO nice! We laid by the pool for about two hours before heading out on our evening night drive.
We went out with a family of four from London and a couple from Canada…they were all super nice and all really good spotters! We ran into a family of elephants…mom, dad, and baby. Well, the mom wasn’t too thrilled we were there. Alison and I were sitting in the back of the jeep and the elephant was so close we could have reached out and touched it! It kind of charged our vehicle and our tour driver stepped on it! The best part is, I got this all on video…my screaming and all!! We had a great outing though…we saw a lot of rhino and a lot of waterbuck. The sunset was GORGEOUS, our driver took us to a great spot to watch the sun go down J
We came back for dinner, and oh my goodness I don’t think I have ever had such a delicious meal. They feed you VERY well at this lodge. The chef prepared everything from ostrich steak to ribs to mushroom pancakes…all of which I tried, and loved! After dinner we went to watch the porcupines eat our left over food! Now when I think of a porcupine I think of a little guy, but these porcupines were huge!! With their needles (or whatever you call them) spread out, they were probably about the size of a grown golden retriever!! A couple of jackel came out to see us as well while we were there.
We went back to our little room and slept under our mosquito nets…the bugs were kind of bad here which was a bummer. We had another early morning, so it was an early night for us as well!

Day Four…

We woke up at 5:45am and set out on our morning walk in the bush with two lion cubs. This private game reserve has some domestic animals that they have rescued from various villages and such so these two cubs were five months old and walked alongside us the entire time. It was SO much fun! Plus, they were the first lions I had seen since being in Africa! The morning walk was more about learning how to find animals via their tracks and poop! It was actually very interesting!
We came back to eat breakfast (amazing) and then headed back out on our jeeps to the leopard and lion breeding farms. So again, this isn’t like a zoo because these animals still hunt for themselves but they have these separate areas for certain leopards and certain lions because they were brought up around humans so therefore they have lost their “fear” of humans and can’t hunt for themselves (at least that’s what I was told). So we got to see two leopards and then a family of lions. We found the male lion first…Simba!! Oh, I was SO excited…it made me think of my Charlie J Then we finally found the mama lion and two of her cubs. These cubs had to of been like two months old, they were so tiny!
On the way back to the lodge we came across so many groups of giraffes! I was in heaven! We also found some more impala and waterbuck and zebra…geez, the more I think about it the more I realize just how lucky I was that I got to see all of these amazing animals!!
We left Tshukudu Lodge around noon…we were incredibly sad to leave. We absolutely did not want to leave to go back to Jo’Burg. But here I am, typing this out to all of you…at least I’m reliving it just thinking about it!

I sure wish all of you could have been there with me. I’ve never done anything like this before, and I’m sure I’ll never get the opportunity to do it again…I just think about how blessed I am to have this opportunity! I’m going to try and find a way to put ALL of my pictures up on a website and then I’ll post a link. Are you ready for this?! I took 800 pictures!! Oh and I also took almost 50 videos!

Okay, this was super long and I apologize. But I swear it could’ve been like ten times as long and STILL not have done this trip justice! I hope all of you are doing well! Love you and miss you!!!