Our Safari in Africa is at its end and we are now back in Cape Town. Early Saturday morning we took a plane to Johannesburg and then a hot 4 hour bus drive east of Jo’burg to a small town called Nelspruit. My mom and I stayed at this backpackers hostel called Funky Monkey for the night and it was a cute hippy looking place and was comfortable after traveling all day long. At Funky Monkey we met a girl who was working in a township nearby. She was here for the Peace Corps and has been there for about a year a half. Ironically, she’s from a town near Pittsburgh where my old roommate Adrian is from, and she actually knew her. Small world right?
The next morning, Sunday, we got picked up at 5am and took an hour drive to the Kruger National Park. Right when we arrived, we hopped into a Safari truck with 5 German girls and 2 guys from Italy and took a 3 hour game drive. This was our best game drive of our trip because we saw so many animals, including giraffes, zebras, and elephants. After this game drive we had breakfast, went out for another game drive, came back and chilled by the pool, had lunch, went for another game drive, then came back and had dinner. This was pretty much our schedule the next day also. The entire trip we did 7 game drives and fortunately we were able to see the BIG 5, which includes the elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and buffalo. Personally I liked the giraffes because of their long curly eyelashes and also the impalas, hence the Chevy Impala. These antelope/deer looking animals are very pretty. Their skin looks so soft and smooth and they leap very high. I’ve included some pictures of my favorite animals. I also enjoyed the baboons even though they are naughty and mischievous. While we were out on a game drive, a baboon went into one of the German girl’s tent, went into her bag and opened a bag of cookies. Also on the second day while my mom and I were by the pool, a bunch of baboons came into the area and were digging through all the trash cans for food. And…during a game drive we stopped to take pictures of the baboons and they were throwing nuts at our truck. Our tour guide, JJ, informed us that they can be very dangerous.
We camped out for two nights at this camp site, Pretoriuskop, which was right in the middle of the Kruger Park. Not only were baboons in our camp, but also impalas and different types of birds. On Tuesday morning, after our last game drive, we took the same route back, a bus ride to Jo’burg then a flight to Cape Town. We came back to the ship where I made my mom work out with me; we had dinner on the ship, and are now at her hotel resting up for our last two days in Cape Town. Tomorrow we plan to visit a township, which is a euphuism for ghetto/projects, then to the wine lands, and our last day I am plan to go skydiving!! Cross your fingers I don’t chicken out!
PS: Thanks for the mail Grandma Dina and Brook!
4 comments:
Very nice pictures. Happy birthday Ericka. Take care of yourself. Miss and love you, Grandma Dina
Hi Girlfriend! I just got home a couple of hours ago and thinking about the great time we had together. Thanks for being such a good sport about the whole sleeping in a tent excursion, it ended up to be a highlight don't you think? Well, I guess the jump from 9000 ft was probably the best part. Have a happy 22nd b-day! luv u mucho y un beso grande. MUM
Wow - sounds like you didn't chicken out on the sky-dive. :) I'm jealous of all the fun you are having. I'm glad that you got that letter... I mailed it right at the deadline, but the post office seemed to think that it would make it with time to spare. I'm glad to hear that it did. I can't wait to see the pics from the rest of your trip!
Hi Ate, I am waiting to see your skydiving picture. Love, Grandma Dina
Post a Comment