Aubree (my 17 year old daughter) and I are nearly 90 days away from our trip to Europe. Like Curtis last year, this is her trip. Mikayla still isn’t sure where she wants to go (I promised them each a trip one-on-one with dad). It hasn’t been easy to follow through, financially, but it’s working out. And based on my experiences last year with Curtis, it is one of the best investments of time and money I have ever made.
It has been stressful to plan this one. I knew South Africa: what to do, where to go, how to get around…last year took a lot of planning, but at least it was easy in the sense of deciding what to do. All I know about the Italy trip is that we’ll land in Rome and fly out of Barcelona 12 days later. Buying the tickets is the only concrete planning I’ve done so far. We picked up some library books, researched online, and have ideas…but I’m not prepared.
(If you have Piclens, click the bottom left hand corner to jump to the virtual gallery.) It was tough choosing under 100 pictures from nearly 4,000 that Curtis and I took on our trip. Click the photo above to jump to an album with of a few of our favorites shots. In case you missed it….you can read more about the trip starting here.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
We were up and ready to go early, as usual, but then were turned away for breakfast because we were too early. There was a bowl of peaches and yogurt out ready to go, and I suggested that we grab a bowl of that and take it to our room because we were heading right out. But Gordon said no, that would confuse his employees. He likes to run things strictly by the book here, it’s a nice place and he’s very helpful and friendly but there isn’t much variance from standard procedures.
Gordon got our Internet up and running yesterday, but based on my experience last week and this week, he didn’t really understand how important it was to us. It was more like, oh well, it’s not working…no big deal. I still recommend you stay here, just tell him well in advance you want an Internet login, and perhaps even remind him the day before and you should be good. And remember that breakfast starts at 8:00 on weekends instead of 7:00.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Today was education day. Curtis wasn’t so excited about touring a gold mine and then Soweto, but I know he will never forget the things we saw today. We started off the morning by finally getting online and posting all the entries wrote every night but couldn’t upload. I had them already to go so it went fast. Then we rushed through email and hit the road for Gold Reef City.
I can only imagine the letdown it must be for a kid to go to an amusement park and only get to ride one ride…and not a very exciting one at that. But we went to tour the mine and learn more about the history of South Africa than ride the rides…and time didn’t allow us both. Curtis was disspointed, but a great sport about it. In the end, I think he really liked it and I don’t think would do it differently. We saw a video of how gold mining shaped South Africa which had footage from throughout the last century. Johannesburg was built on gold. The gold rush boomed the population and industry…at one point 33% of all the gold in the world came from South Africa. We also toured an old inactive mine. They loaded us up in the cage and dropped us down into the earth. Some of the mines go six kilometers deep (we weren’t nearly that far down) and get very hot and uncomfortable. We walked through the tunnels and saw the tools that were used to break apart the earth and collect the rocks into the carts. I’d been down this same mine before and also an operational mine in Welkom where we were dropped a mile into the earth, but I wanted Curti to see it.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
It’s late, I’m exhausted, and frustrated. The whole drive back today Curtis and I were looking forward to getting online to talk to Sandi and the girls. But we couldn’t get online. I tried to send Sandi a text message to let her know we were okay and that didn’t go through…so I decided to call her. I thought I had enough for at least 10 minutes of talking but after she answered we barely were able to talk one minute before it cut us off. So I hadn’t really told her anything, didn’t get to say goodbye, and now I have zero credits on my cell.
Today was a long day of driving, from Lower Sabie to Joberg. We stopped on the way out of Kruger and watched some monkeys with new babies. They were nursing and we got some very sweet pictures. Some of the little ones wanted to play but their mothers kept hauling them back in close. Another tiny one was trying to learn how to climb a little bush but kept falling over, it was very cute. A few miles down the road we saw a mother lion with two very small babies. It must be that time of year… But she was quite far and so the pictures aren’t so great with the lion cubs.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Early on in the trip I was worried that maybe 9 nights in the Kruger Park might be too many…and that we might actually start to get bored. But that hasn’t been the case at all. Every day has been exciting and offered us something new. If I didn’t get bored, I was sure Curtis might, but he has been right there with me mentally on all of it. With the exception of the moments he was feeling sick, of course.
It was nice to sleep in this morning, until about 6:00. We had breakfast and I couldn’t help but feel sad that the wilderness trek had come to an end. Not so much because I would miss our little hut and camp area, although I will. But because of the wonderful friends Curtis and I have met during these three days. We exchanged emails and in fact are going to meet our Joberg friends on Sunday for a braai before we leave, but I can’t shake the sad thought that I might never see Obert and Andre again. I will certainly try and keep in touch with all of them, it was a magical experience and the opportunity to meet and get to know everyone is certainly the highlight of the experience.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Today was pretty much a repeat of yesterday, except when they took us out for our morning walk they stopped near where we had seen the lions. Orbit said to stay very close and quiet today because this area was an active lion area. We found many of their tracks and fresh dung as we hiked, but no lions. After a short while, Andre stopped us to play a game. I seriously would not have played but everyone else went along with it so I decided it must be safe. He drew three lines in the sand, one close, two further away, then picked up a small handful of round dry buck pellets and gave us each two. The idea of the game is to put the pellet in your mouth…yes, you read right…and yes a pellet is poop. Then you spit it as far as you can. The South Africans went first, then Curtis. I got him laughing at one point and he almost couldn’t spit the second one…so I told him he better hurry before it gets soggy. My first attempt didn’t go well but my second one sailed way past the far line. I think I got a nice spin on it or something…lol. Afterwards I thought what I should have done was pretended to put it in my mouth then pause and say, “hey, this is pretty good,” as I was mock chewing.
We hiked further and ended up having breakfast on the same rocks that we’d watched the sunset the night before. Then we hiked to the dry river bed and the bamboo stocks and sandy base. As I watched Obert in front of me carrying is assault rifle and dressed in khakis, I couldn’t help but think about the soldiers in Vietnam. We veered out when we hit water and were standing on the bank looking at an elephant when Andre whispered, “Lion!” He pointed across the river and 40 yards away under a palm tree was a large male lion watching us from the shade. Everyone fell silent and moved in close and I fumbled with the camcorder. Once we’d spotting him, he didn’t stick around. He stood and vanished into the palm trees, then reappeared moving to our right. Then he roared, an elephant trumpeted, and we heard brush being crushed. We didn’t see nor hear the lion again, but we heard the elephants and could see the tops of their trunks sticking above the trees, sniffing around. It was pretty funny looking. With the lion on the move (and they said there were most likely at least 2 others with them), the rangers moved us away and we then continued our hiking.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
Obert knocked on our door at 5am, while everything was still dark. I fumbled for my light but didn’t get right up knowing I had 45 minutes before we left. They had coffee and rusks for a morning snack but Curtis and I don’t like either, so we headed out with empty stomachs (breakfast is on the trail). They drove us out to the starting point and we marched out in single file in the early morning light through the bush. It was pretty exciting being on foot in an area rich with African wildlife. They stopped and explained the tracks we were seeing, the spore we found, and the birds we were hearing. It was fascinating to learn how to identify male or female by viewing the dung alone. We found evidence of both black and white rhino, which was exciting because I’ve never seen a black rhino in the wild. They can be quite aggressive and are very few in number.
Andre stuck his finger into the dung to determine how warm it was, then licked his fingers to see how wet it was. I had noticed he used one finger for sticking and the other for licking and I thought it was something Crocodile Dundee might do. But then he told me I had to do the same because I was an American. So I played along and, like him, used one finger for the sticking and the other for the tasting. He laughed and seemed surprised I had noticed his little trick. Hehe…I think he figures us American’s are pretty clueless in the bush.
Note: I have posted a small selection of the nearly 4,000 pictures we took on the trip. You can see them here. If you didn’t start reading on Day 1, you might want to start from the beginning…
I was sad to leave Gomo Gomo, even though the morning game ride was completely uneventful. In fact, I was actually dreading the wilderness trail and part of me wished I hadn’t booked it…which is really strange considering I had been most excited about it in the beginning. But, I can tell you now that I am here on the Sweni trail…there are absolutely no regrets.
Curtis and I are sleeping in a tiny A-frame hut. Mosquito netting hangs from the ceiling and surrounds each of our cots. My bed was covered in ants when I got here…little tiny ones. I must be mental to think that is kind of neat. I brushed them off and sprayed a bit of bug spray on the edges and it seemed to do the trick. I did like the luxury of Gomo Gomo, but I also really like roughing it too. There are six of us on this trail; Curtis, me, and two very nice couples from Joberg (Jannie and Christelle and Bernard and Odette). Our two rangers, Andre and Obert, seem like very cool guys, they will be leading us on the walks. The camp is small and rustic. It sits on a small hill that overlooks a watering hole right below us, and then another one in the distance. The kitchen area is right on the edge of it. As we talked tonight around the fire, the a hippo 20 yards below us was grunting, snorting, and rolling around in the water…at times only his pudgy pink feet were visible sticking up out of the murky pond. When he grunts, it is loud. I mean, he’s barely 20 yards away from us and bellows out a brusk deep grunt. We also saw a rhino walk though the plain in the distant (the first we’ve seen and the last of the ‘Big 5′ for us). Right now as I lay here, I can here hyena calling not too far away. I still have my fingers crossed that we’ll hear lions.
Aubree (my 17 year old daughter) and I are nearly 90 days away from our trip to Europe. Like Curtis last year, this is her trip. Mikayla still isn’t sure where she wants to go (I promised them each a trip one-on-one with dad). It hasn’t been easy to follow through, financially, but it’s working out. And based on my experiences last year with Curtis, it is one of the best investments of time and money I have ever made.
