Ice Cold Bodies.

I have seen some pretty neat (neat as in weird/interesting) things during my stay in Africa that I didn't have time to mention in my previous blog post.

I saw a semi-truck driving down the interstate, and on the back it said "Ice Cold Bodies" and there were pictures of cut up meat on the side.  I thought it was kind of weird.  I've also seen some "unique" slogans on business vehicles.  For example, one said, "We know how to turn you on."  It was a TV company.  Another one said, "We remove your shorts."  That one was an electrical company.  I found them a little amusing!

Driving in South Africa has been...well, terrifying, to say the least.  Thank God Logan was behind the wheel the whole time because I would have certainly gotten us killed.  The drivers here have no regard for the safety of other people on the road.  They literally cut you off with no warning, weave in and out of traffic, run red lights (nearly got us into an accident), and are just over all rude.  The tour buses and shuttle vehicles are the worst.  You cannot trust anyone either.  Nearly everyone we spoke to told us to never ask a stranger for directions, as they will most likely send us to a place where we would get robbed and have our lives threatened.  Google Maps really disappointed us on this trip.  Nearly all of the maps were inaccurate and we ended up having to ask for directions to most everywhere we went (we were safe about it).

Durban was a really fun city to visit.  People say that all cities are the same, no matter where you go, but I beg to differ.  JoBurg is an incredibly dangerous city and you would be foolish to walk outside alone or without some form of protection.  It is also very dirty.  There is trash everywhere.  Durban, on the other hand, is a very well rounded city and people are actually nice to each other for the most part.  There is still a large amount of poverty and lower class citizens but they tend to keep their distance (besides the occasional begger who stands in the middle of the road asking for money when you stop at a traffic light).  The city is much cleaner and you can see people managing it at all hours.  The Indian Ocean was beautiful.  We stayed in a hotel that was right on the edge of North Beach.  We thought the water was warm, although the locals thought it was freezing (it is winter here, after all).  

The first night we arrived in Durban we ate dinner at Beluga.  We had ostrich and Springbok.  And no, neither of them tasted like chicken.  They were both delicious!  The ostrich is similar to a steak and the Springbok is a unique meat of its own.  Beluga is a very high class restaurant.  The manager came over to our table and spoke to us for a while.  In the end he ended up giving us a white chocolate shot on the house as a welcome from Durban.

 






 The next day we went down to the ocean and took a nice stroll.  We were supposed to go horse riding, but we ended up getting lost (thanks, Google) and then it turned out the wind was too strong to go riding on the beach when we finally got there.  We eventually made it to the people's horse facility and they let me ride a horse called the Basuto Pony bareback.  It is a horse native to South Africa.  Its gaits were so weird, but I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We rescheduled for the next morning instead.  That night we went to the huge ass mall they have in Durban.  I got to spend time with some baby African Grey parrots and then Logan and I ate at the Cape Town Fish Market.  We ate deep fried baby squid (SO GOOD), real calamari, amazing fish, and even better endless fresh sushi.  It was worth every penny.

We arrived back at the horse facility a nine and got the horses ready.  Logan's horse was named Moon and I rode Jet.  Jet was a seven year old anglo-arab.  We rode passed a huge oil refinery before we got to the ocean, but once we got there, WOW!  

Talk about a dream come true.  Galloping on the beach so freely made me have to catch my breath.  Jet loved the beach and he seemed to love running just as much.  I think the pictures say it all, however.  I could talk all day about it, but I won't bore you!

We left South Beach in Durban around 1:00 PM to head back to JoBurg.  We didn't want to leave :(  

 





When we got to our "hotel" that changed.  This place is just...incredible.  This is a resort, no doubt about it.  It is also a botanical garden.  The room we are staying in is called a Budget Room, and yet it is better than any five star hotel I've seen in America.  Africans know how to do lodging and food the right way.  We could learn a thing or two from them!  Today we had a splendid breakfast before leaving to the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve. 

I was very disappointed with this "nature reserve."  The herbivores (Blue/Black gnu, rhinos, several kinds of gazelle, etc.) were all fed hay right by the road so seeing them was no problem, but they definitely weren't having to take care of themselves.  They had all their carnivores in separate fenced areas as well and were all fed pre-killed meat.  We did see African Wild Dogs, the "rare" white lion (which is total bull shit because in the wild these animals would not survive), and cheetahs (which were penned in separate enclosures in another enclosure.  Basically, there were a ton of fences.  It was far from a reserve.  Logan and I did get to hang out with a giraffe for a good while though.  We got to pet her and look at her with just a small fence separating us (pictures to be posted later!).  

Around 2:00 I took an amazing nap out by the pool on a swinging bed (literally a bed that is hanging from the ceiling).  It was nice to catch up on some sleep.  Tonight we ate at the famous Carnivore restaurant that is located on the Misty Hills Country Hotel property.  Just to give you an idea of this place, the chefs bring exotic meats out to your table on a spear and slice off the meat onto your plate in front of you.  We ate so much meat...so...much...meat.  Crocodile, kudu, impala, pork, chicken, beef, and lamb were a few of the things we tried.  Again, nothing tasted like chicken besides the chicken.  Now we are back in our room.  Logan is "watching" (more like making fun of) rugby and I am writing this blog.  Tomorrow we are going to sleep in, have a late breakfast and check out around 10 AM.  We were going to go to the lion park, but after today's adventure at the Rhino and Lion Reserve we have no desire to go.  We will have the opportunity to pet listless baby lions and see a bunch of adult white lions in a row of cars.  Not something of interest to us.  We gained so much appreciation for the wild animals in Kruger that everything else is just plain sad.  I guess it's a good thing though.

Tomorrow we are leaving JoBurg at 5:30 PM.  We will fly to Washington DC and have a 12 hour layover from 6:30 AM to 6:00 PM.  We are going to see the Smithsonian Museum and possibly some of the other attractions in the area.  We should be back in Utah at 8:40 PM...then school the next morning at 9:00 AM.  I am going to be tired I think.  I can't wait to see my kitties though :)

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.