Relaxation
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2008
1
6
18
Trip End
Jun 06, 2008
Pretoria,
South Africa
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Then the morning of Feb 9th i got a cab and went to find the meeting place of my next tour. This tour being with Explorer. When i arrived i quickly found out i was by far the youngest. We were almost all there and got the paperwork out of the way. We were just waiting for one more person that was landing on a later flight and we would pick her up at the airport on the way out of town. Several people only arrived that morning as well but earlier. There was 14 of us and 12 were British, 1 Aussie and me. It was a great group of people again and we had fun.
Our fist night was in Dundee and in the morning we went to the the Anglo Zulu War Battlefields One of them being Rorkes's Drift from the War of 1879. It was quite interesting and the guy that gave us the run down was completely into the history of it all. Which likely made it that much more interesting. You could tell he loved to tell the tale. But looking out on the fields at the one location it makes you think about all the people that gave their lives for that war and any other war for that matter as there were piles of white stones that marked mass graves. The bigger the pile of rocks the more people under them. Those all being British Solders, that were left where they were.
On to St. Lucia were we spend three nights. Fun filled and packed with stuff to do. We did a game drive during the day and of course saw lots, We actually saw most animals from big to small, where some days you would only see some. We drove behind two Rino's that were running, likely didn't like us around much but they were already running before we saw them and they seemed to stay on the road. During the drive we saw all animals the animals, the white and black rino, (black ones' harder to find) and elephants, giraffes, antelope and monkeys, those ones are everywhere. But in the middle of the day we came across a lion kill. Right on the side of the road there was a Zebra that two Lioness took down not long before we drove up. But as we drove up we scared the lions. They went and hid udder the brush. There was a car there and they had been watching the lions feeding. But we did manage to see the one lion through the brush a bit and could see her relaxing then the other one did come out a bit but didn't see her to much. But then to top off the day though we finished with watching a family of Cheetah's. (mom and 3 cubs) They also had had a recent kill as you could see the cubs fighting over the food. One especially wanted it himself. After a bit of break we then went on a night drive and i did the spot lighting. And while i was doing that i found a Hyena, so we watched him with the spot lights (the driver had one too) and he went after a herd of Kudu. He didn't get one that night, but it was fun to watch him try to sneak up on them with us holding a spotlight on him. he he he. That was the first Hyena we had seen. Don't know how he saw them but the driver stopped and showed us a couple Chameleons as well, they are very small lizards.
The next day was quite relaxing, not that the others weren't. But we drove out around St. Lucia and to a point were you are standing and can look at 5 different eco systems from that spot. One being the Indian Ocean, which later we went down to the beach and i went snorkeling. Saw a few very colourful fish, sorry no pictures of them, i didn't bring a water proof camera. But i could use one. hint hint.. :-) on our way out from Cape Vidal we got a glimpse at the Samango monkey, but it is on the endangered species list, so we were very fortunate, and they are very quick. On to Kruger park again and more animals. I could watch them lots. The highlight would be the Hyena's, we found a family of them and they had some older and very new pups and they just wondered around the cars. They really are homely looking things though. Still waiting to see the Leopard then i will have seen all of the big five... (Elephant, Black Rino, Lion, Leopard, Buffalo) Oh the Buffalo and also the wildebeests are homely looking things too. On our way back to Johannesburg our last day we stopped at Bourkes luck potholes, God's Window, and Blyde River Canyon, talk bout a view.
Now this round trip tour took me from Johannesburg through KwaZulu Natal area of South Africa, and also into Swaziland. We stayed in hotels or Thatch huts and real beds, it was a nice change from the tents. We also didn't do any cooking, we ate out or at the B&B we were at. Some places even had air con in the rooms. My rommie and i didn't use it, except for one night the hut was really stuffy, I also wasn't as impressed with that one place, (our last night). It was all very cute but i had a couple ants on the bed and i couldn't relax. I went to bed sweating but wearing pants, socks, and a long sleeve shirt. I did manage to get some sleep. All the other places were great and it was very relaxing trip and a nice one to change things up a bit.
Oh and for those that know me so well. I am not that picky with food apparently. There was one other person on this trip that was way way more picky then me (I happen to be liking the food here) and she DID bring her own catsup. So there.....
I am sure i have forgotten so much more but i have no idea at this point what it is.
must come back and talk about airport and getting to pretoria.
