The End

Well, we all made it home safely, and with just 48 hours back in the states, I think I’m ready to go back. Spending the last couple of days sharing stories and pictures with my family have made me a little nostalgic and start to miss everything about South Africa – but mostly the children (and Amy and Laura, who I didn’t spend one second away from in 2 months. I didn’t think I would miss them so soon!)

Although our time in South Africa has come to an end, I truly believe it is only the beginning of how this will affect the rest of our lives. The ways in which this experience has changed us will only now start to become apparent, and I believe the changes will be profound, continual and immeasurable. Now it is time to see what we will do with this unique experience.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed sharing our stories with everyone through writing and am grateful to those who have followed along. Sharing such a personal journey so publicly isn’t something I would usually do, and I have been extremely encouraged by all of the positive feedback. So, thank you.

I would like to believe that this wasn’t my last jaunt overseas, and perhaps after the completion of my degree I will be more qualified to help individuals like those in South Africa. But until then, it’s back to school for me.

Cheers!

Safari

Remember all that rain we experienced on our 35 mile bike ride? Well, we didn’t know it at the time, but it was the best thing that could have happened to us. It flooded the campsite that we were originally supposed to be staying at, forcing us to be relocated for our safari. It just so happened that the nearest place to stay was a 4 star, all inclusive lodge. (As opposed to where we were supposed to be staying: a zero star tent.) Thank you, rainfall.

We arrived at the Amakhala Game Reserve on Friday afternoon, not knowing exactly what to expect at this point, but prepared for the worst. We showed up a little disheveled, none of us possessing any more clean clothes, our towels and muddy shoes strung from our backpacks, and enough Doritos and wine to last 3 girls (or a small village, really) a weekend in the wilderness. As we stepped out of the car and took note of how nice the lodge was, it was immediately apparent that we didn’t fit in. They gave us two rooms and we tried to explain that this was way too much space for us, but they insisted, and we were in no position to argue. Each room had a deck overlooking the game reserve, a bathtub, a heated bathroom floor, heated blankets on the bed, and a fully stocked (free) mini-bar. It turns out that we wouldn't be needing the 6 bottles of wine that we brought with us. None of us could believe how lucky we’d gotten; we were in heaven.

Each day we went on two 3 and ½ hour game drives, one in the morning after breakfast and one in the afternoon before dinnertime. We spent a lot of time inour safari vehicle, an open air truck resembling the cart I used to drive around the golf course selling beer one summer. I used to think that a safari included herds of animals running past your car at all times, which wasn’t exactly the case. You really have to hunt for these animals, and all of the rangers are in constant communication about where they’ve spotted certain species. We got really lucky on a couple of our game drives and eventually we were fortunate enough to see all the animals we had hoped to see, including rhino, buffalo, lion, cheetah, giraffe, zebra and elephants.

We had a close encounter with an elephant as we were viewing one of the babies from about 3 feet away. All of the sudden we heard a noise to our left, and it was his father stomping his feet and giving us warning to get out of the way. The only times we really felt nervous about being so close to these animals was when our guide got nervous, and she was very evidently uneasy at this point. We were able to get out of the way in time for the elephant to calm down, and after we realized we were no longer in harm’s way, we all laughed about how awesome it was. Talk about an adrenaline rush – I couldn’t feel my legs for 10 minutes afterwards. On another drive we spotted cheetah hunting and our guide drove us right into a pack of 6 of them. They didn’t seem to mind our presence, and it was unreal being within 10 feet of these stunning creatures. Our ranger was right around our age and really informative, so we got to bond with her as well as learn a lot from her.

Each night after we got back from our game drives, we sat around the campfire and had drinks while we waited for dinner. We ate dinner around one big dining room table every night with families from Norway, Whales, Cape Town, and Michigan. Having all of our meals together, we all got to know each other quite well, and we explained to them how we’d gotten so lucky to be staying at the lodge. They served 3 course meals every night and an onlooker could easily assume that we’d never seen food before with how much we ate and drank. We couldn’t get our wine glasses half empty before the server was filling them up again, and we like to think we at least added some entertainment to these families’ vacations. The owner of the lodge joined us for dinner one of the nights, and by the end of the meal he was talking about how he wanted to start marketing to backpackers like ourselves. Although one night at this lodge cost more than the entire safari that we had paid for, we still think that they were happy to have us. We were very sad to leave, but if we had stayed just one more day I don’t think we’d be able to fit in our pants anymore with the copious amounts of food we consumed. I would say that we took full advantage of the situation.

  

We flew back to Cape Town this afternoon and everybody is dragging, dreading the 30 hours of travel we are getting ready to embark on. Thanks to the Lunds, we are going out in style as we spend our last night in a beautiful hotel near Cape Town right by the water. (Thank you!) Everybody is getting really sad about leaving, but we are trying to keep our spirits up and enjoy our last night in town.

 This is the elephant that wasn't enjoying our company.

A sunset on the game reserve

Amy and I on one of the game drives

Each night on our game drive we got to stop and have a glass of wine and some snacks. This is us co mingling with the Norwegian family.

One of the cheetahs

All of us with our guide, Amy. She was amazing.

Two of the rhino on the game reserve. We learned that poaching is a huge problem here and two of their rhino were poached in November. Apparently the horns are used for medicinal purposes in Asia.

Our ride

A mother and baby giraffe

Giraffe

A bunch of zebra checking out our vehicle

All of us on one of the evening game drives. When the sun goes down, it was COLD.

Sitting around the campfire before dinner

One of the cheetahs overlooking the river on the reserve. Up until a couple days before we arrived, this river had been completely dry for 5 years. This rain was much needed.

The male and female lion on the reserve

Contrary to popular belief, lions are actually really lazy and spend about 18 hours of the day sleeping.

A herd of buffalo. Our guide informed us while we were viewing them that buffalo give no warning before they attack and will continue to attack their prey until they can no longer feel a heartbeat. We think she could have told us this information at a different time.

A coffee break on our morning game drive

Bundled up for a morning game drive

Another up-close encounter with an elephant