Day 1 - African Safari

I am in love…..

with South Africa!!!!!  I can’t even believe everything I have seen today…antelope, giant eland, hippopotamus, lions, warthogs, zebras, elephants…and I wasn’t even at the zoo!!!! I was in South Africa!!!!!! In one of the most beautiful places in the world!!!

Kosa (South African tribe) Drummers

The morning game drive began at 6:30 (with a 5:30 wake up call)…and to tell you that I was having the time of my life is an understatement….I was having the time of 10 people’s lives!!!!!!!! Guy went on the kids’ game drive with them and I got to go out on my very first ever SAFARI!!!!!!   The reserve we are staying at has five different eco systems: valley bushveld, savannah grassland, fynbos (Afrikaans for fine woodland growth), riverine forest and acacia woodland.  For this reason, it has hundreds of animals living on this reserve, and I got to see some of them today!:)  We saw plains zebra….. they have an extra light brown stripe in between the black and white stripes to help with camouflage…

Antelope….

South Africa’s  national antelope…

  

One of the “big five” animals…the elephant or nglove in Kosa!!!  The “big five" are the elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, and the rhinoceros.  I was so surprised to see how graceful the elephant is.  You cannot hear him move through the grass at all…They can live up to about 40 years old, and the males leave the herd and come back only when it’s time to mate with a female…our guide called it “clubbing” for elephants!:)

These two lions are brother and sister…and the reserve has named them, Kat

(female) and Mohawk (male).  Our guide told us that Female lions live about 20 -21 years and the male lions live only about 13 years.  They are only "king of the jungle" for a short time!  They were sitting in the grass sunning themselves when we came upon them…..they are GORGEOUS!!!!!!

Then, we saw some ostriches. ( Little known fact:  An ostriches brain is even smaller than it's eye)

We even saw hippos in a shallow pond nearby....

The weather was a bit cold and rainy....but it was amazing to see all the animals.  We came back to the lodge for a delicious brunch and we could relax by the fire place...see Guy relaxing????:)

Then, in the afternoon, while the kids were with the on site nanny, Guy and I went out together on the adults game drive!:)

We saw wildebeests...

There are termite mounds everywhere all over.  Our ranger told us that the termite mounds here at this reserve get about 1 meter high.  but the mounds at Kruger can get up to 15 meters high...and the termites there are much bigger.  In Fact, he said that the termites there taste like peanut butter!!!!  The termites here taste a little like vinegar.:)  So, Guy decided to try them out

and just in case you're wondering....he said that they do taste like vinegar.:)

Dave also showed us a few trees which the bush men used to make spears...he tried to throw a spear....but it just didn't go that far!:)

Then, it was time for sunset drinks in the bush...

During drinks, we cold here a male lion roaring over the next ridge...so after we were done, we hopped back in the Land Cruiser and found him!!

We were even lucky enough to see a female lion and her two lion cubs eating after their evening kill!!!

And then, it started to rain, and we headed back to the lodge for more great drinks, food ( the food was AMAZING!!!!!) and dancing from a local tribe!

And everything was like it had always been there…..

I could live like this…. I honestly didn’t care of it was a bit cold.  This is a once in a lifetime experience that I don’t ever want to forget!!!! And, as our ranger, Dave, said…. TIA…”This is Africa!”

Arriving in South Africa

We left for our holiday in South Africa on Thursday, March 29.  Little did we know that the Lagos Airport would be undergoing much construction and computer systems would be down. Let’s just say that a usually “headache” situation escalated to a severe migraine.  There were fights in the check in lines because people were “cutting the line”. I had to laugh when one man had passports in his hand and kept trying to convince other people in line that he was there on a diplomatic matter. “For who and what??” People would ask, and he had no answer for them at all.  It took two and a half hours to get checked in at the ticket counter and another hour to get through the security line. Guy and I couldn’t believe how well the kids did, and we were more ready than ever to go on our South African holiday.:)

 We finally got on the plane and we were just waiting to take off….two and half hours behind schedule…

When the plane finally took off (and our armpits started to dry out because the air conditioning wasn’t working at the airport) we felt like our holiday had finally begun!!!!  We landed in Johannesburg at 6:45 a.m. and our connecting flight to Port Elizabeth was leaving at 7 a.m.  Needless to say, we missed our flight because of the late take off in Nigeria.  We weren’t panicking until one of the supervisors for South African Air told us that Friday, March 30 was the worst day we could have possibly missed a flight because all flights to Port Elizabeth that day and on Saturday were completely booked, and we were going to have to go on stand by!!!!!! We had already paid for our safari and it was supposed to start that night!!!  I got the supervisor back to the counter and asked him if there was anything he could possibly do for us at all to get us to Port Elizabeth that day.  I left to take Elizabeth to the bathroom, and when I came back, Guy was holding 4 tickets for the 1:10 p.m. flight!!!!! I asked him what happened, and we looked at the tickets and the supervisor had put us in business class!!!!! Woo hoo!!! Our vacation was saved!!!! The supervisor was nowhere to be found, and I actually wrote him a thank you note to be delivered to him.:)

We finally made it to Port Elizabeth at 3 p.m. that day!!!!!

Ready for our safari!!!:)

So, we can now say that Elizabeth has been to Port Elizabeth!!!:)  It was also Guy’s first experience driving on “the other” side of the road…and he did great!:)

The Indian ocean…first time we ever saw it!!!:)

After about an hour’s drive from Port Elizabeth, we arrived at our camp for our safari!:)

And, there was even a rainbow!!!! I knew that was a good sign!!!:)

It occurred to Guy and myself that we had never been anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.  From what we can see so far….the Southern Hemisphere looks pretty good!:)  We can’t wait to begin our “Once in a lifetime trip” in South Africa!!!:)

I'm Still Alive!!!

We are still alive...and in love with South Africa!!!  I've been writing my posts on the computer since we left, but I need to do some editing on them before posting.  I am trying not to be on the computer too much so I can enjoy our time in this gorgeous country!:)  Our safari was AMAZING!!!!! Knysna was beautiful and we just arrived in Cape Town today.  I'll be uploading posts after we get back to Lagos on Monday!  I hope everyone is doing well, and have a Happy Easter Holiday!!!:)