South Africa (Day 1-5)

Greetings from Durban, South Africa!

So there is a lot to write about!  Logan and I have been in Africa for five days now.  To make this easier and less like a novel I'm going to break it down into sections...

Arriving

Holy wow.  I hate flying.  At 5:00 AM we left to the SLC Airport to catch our 7:15 AM flight to Washington DC.  The flight was four hours long, and we had a three hour layover once we got there.  We met a lovely older couple named Polly and Allen.  They live in Florida, but Polly had a relative in Durban they were going to visit for two weeks.  She gave us their contact information in case we got into any trouble or needed help.  It was nice to have a contact in S. Africa.  We boarded the plane at 5:30 PM on Friday.  This is where the fun began!  At first Logan and I were very impressed with everything on the plane.  TV (with good movies playing), excellent food, and awesome customer service.  But that quickly died down after four or five hours of flying over the cloud covered ocean.  It was impossible to get any sort of sleep, I felt pretty nauseous for most of the flight, and Logan had a pretty nasty headache.  Luckily, however, we didn't have to sit next to any stinky or overweight travelers!  The flight was about 18 hours long overall.  By the time we got off the plane it was 5:30 PM in Johannesburg, S. Africa on a Saturday.  
We were driven to our lodge for the night at 7:00 PM.  We were under the impression that we would be staying at MoAfrika, but for some reason we were upgraded to stay at its sister lodge named Safari Club (it was much nicer).  We had a nice dinner and went to bed shorter after.  In the morning we were picked up at 8:00 AM to begin our three day safari in Kruger National Park.

The Safari

We could not have asked for a better safari!  The drive took about five hours to reach Kruger National Park.  We saw a lot of interesting things on the way there such as a huge cactus farm, a lot of poverty, and beautiful scenery.  When we arrived we were again told we would not be staying where we thought we were going to say (Mark's Camp).  Instead we would be upgraded to stay at the resort because they camp did not have room for Logan and I due to a group of 45 that arrived two days prior.  We didn't complain!  The facility was AMAZING!  

That's my hand!!!

At 5:00 PM we went on a sunset game drive.  We saw the following animals: elephants, zebra, giraffe, impala, kudu, a chameleon, a helicopter bird, and...a leopard.  It was really neat :)  We got fortunate to see a leopard.  Not a lot of people get to see one.  

We had an African dinner and went to bed shortly after.  Needless to say we were still recovering from the flight the previous day.

The following morning we left for a full day in Kruger National Park.  We saw so many animals!  It was also really nice because it was just Logan and I, as well as two other people (who really didn't care to be there it seemed).  We saw a pride of lions (with cubs), many elephants (at a very close distance), giraffe, zebra, impala, kudu, water buck, many different species of birds, warthogs, springbok (which taste delicious!), ostrich (also very tasty), hippopotamus, Cape buffalo, Gnu, and crocodile.  I may have missed a few, but you get the point.  We saw A LOT and at an incredibly close range.  One of my favorite moments was when we approached a medium sized elephant herd and a three year old calf started rushing towards our jeep with his ears out and was trumpeting all over the place!  He was trying to be so big but he was still very small and had barely started growing his tusks.  

There was also a bird named the Banana horn bill that is quite common.  They are my new favorite!  I love their personality and how they look.  On our drive out I looked perfection in the face.  The African sun was beginning to set over the umbrella thorn trees.  The sky was blue and orange and dotted with puffy white clouds.  Three birds flew over my view out of the open jeep.  I started smiling and actually laughed at how perfect that moment was.  My description doesn't do it justice, but it is something that will stay with me for a very long time.

We got back to the lodge around 6:00 PM.  That night we had the option of going to Mark's Camp or stay at the resort.  We decided to go the camp because we wanted to experience the tent camping we originally signed up for.  When we got there, we were, yet again, upgraded to sleep in their highest and most highly booked tree house because the tents were not ready.  Again, we didn't argue!  The tree house was flippin' awesome!  Views to die for and a beautiful room were just a few of the fabulous things at this camp.

A male and female Nyala

At 3:00 AM Logan and I got up to make our way to the bathroom which was a short walk down and out from our tree house.  On our way back we saw a Nyala (a small, striped deer).  We got within five feet of it and it didn't even care as it continued eating in front of us.  We woke up at 5:30 AM to go on a nature walk where we learned about the rocks, trees, termites, and anteaters in the area.  It was quite educational :)  We left at 8:00 AM after finishing a light breakfast.  On our way back to Joburg, we stopped at Blyde River Canyon--the third largest canyon in the world, and the greenest!  Unfortunately it was covered in a thick fog and we couldn't see a thing (quite disappointing!).  So instead Logan and I went shopping and I bought a wooden rhino.  He bought a very cool ostrich egg that was painted.

We were dropped off at Safari Club and learned that we were actually having to stay at MoAfrika for that night.  We began getting a bit frustrated because no one had communicated to us, or our driver, that we were staying somewhere else.  So every night that we had been in S. Africa at this point, we had no idea where we were actually going to be sleeping.  We got our luggage back in the vehicle and went to MoAfrika where we had a terrible experience...I had to take the coldest shower of my life because the water heater broke in our room (and they didn't do anything about it even after we complained), they failed to give us directions on how to order dinner, and we needed to confirm a reservation for Thursday by telephone and was so much more difficult than it had to be thanks to the employee working there, not to mention the breakfast sucked.  We were VERY happy to leave this morning!

Although we arrived in Durban today, I'm going to save that part for next time.  It's 1:00 AM here now and we have another full day planned.  It's been a blast, and I really don't want to leave!

Goodnight America!

 

PS)  I do apologize for any typos or errors in this post.  I'm too tired (and lazy) to proofread it a million times before hitting the publish button.