Johannesburg!

Smooth flight and transfer to my hotel in Johannesburg (City Lodge Katherine Street in Sandton, and I definitely recommend it). First thing I did was take a super hot, super long bubble bath and scrubbed my nails clean. Followed by a shower. I think I used more water on Monday than I have in the last three weeks combined. After unpacking everything in my bag and shaking it to make sure I was not carrying a scorpion with me (I don't know if I mentioned that we had found one in our tent on Sunday !!!) I headed to the restaurant attached to the hotel, the White Boy Sheeben. I believe a sheeben is a place where black people used to go to drink during the time when they weren't allowed to drink, and the restaurant celebrates the combining of cultures. It was great and I enjoyed catching up on the news with their free wifi (the NBA is going into a lockout!?!).

I booked a full day tour for Tuesday covering Johannesburg, Soweto, and the Apartheid Museum. I'm glad I did it, but as with the Nairobi city tour it was a bit disappointing. The highlight of Johannesburg was a traditional healer shop (the only place we really got out of the car) where there were dead animal parts hanging everywhere, furs, calabashes for drinking traditional beer, walking sticks, and tons of other cool and spooky stuff. We also saw Constitution Hill, Mandela's current house (we could actually drive past because he is living in the countryside at the moment), their huge soccer stadium, and the general streets of downtown.

Soweto was originally short for South Western Township and was an area where millions of blacks were forced to relocate during apartheid. It's still almost exclusively black, and poorer than Johannesburg, but does have some nice areas. It's also bigger than Johannesburg in terms of population and is the most densely populated city in South Africa. We saw everything from shacks stealing electricity from street lights to Winnie's current house, Bishop Desmond Tutu's house, and Mandela's previous house. It is the only road on which two Nobel Prize winners lived. We also spent an hour at the Hector Pieterson Museum which commemorates the 1976 student uprisings and deaths. Interesting but detailed and full of annoying school kids.

Finally we made it to the apartheid museum. Your ticket assigns you to either a white or non white group and you have to go through the corresponding entrance. After this exciting start the museum was a bit dull. Heavy on details and black and white photos and footage, light on any sort of differentiated exhibits. The special exhibit was on Mandela's life. All very interesting to me, but combined with his book a bit heavy.

After that I was lucky enough to meet Chad (the leader from Bush Camp) for dinner at a pub he liked right around the corner from my hotel. We had a great time; he introduced me to a bunch of shots popular in South Africa. This morning he took me for brunch (so much better than the city tour the day before!) and then we went bowling and played pool! Who would have thought I'd be doing such normal things in Africa? It was tons of fun to stop being a tourist at last and just hang out with someone interesting! We also walked through the botanical gardens (a good thing to do with a ranger I figured!) - funny story here. We stopped to sit on the grass and these cute dogs came over to see me....I leaned over to pet one and it started jumping on me and knocked me all the way over and was all tangled up in my hair...Chad was collapsed and laughing too hard to help me. My wonderfully clean plane clothes and hair got covered in grass....which made it so much funnier to him....it was pretty amusing.

He was so sweet to drop me at the airport and have dinner with me here. Am now settled in the lovely SA lounge and will be boarding in a few minutes. 17 or 19 hour flight...can't be bothered to figure it out. All I know is it is long and I will be home in 26 hours!

What a trip....definitely sad to say goodbye to Africa and all my new friends here, but lots to look forward to at home!!

Siyafunda Bush Experience (Hoedspruit, South Africa)

Monday, July 25
Traveling from Naankuse to Siyafunda

On the plane to Johannesburg, flight one of two today. Had to wake up at 3:30 am to be ready for a 4 am departure. Confirmed many times last night that I'd be leaving at 4. No one showed up to get me until 4:40. Had to stand in freezing cold outside in the dark until then. Positives were that the sky was beautiful and Sable set her alarm to wake up and say bye to me. Her friendship was definitely the best thing about Naankuse (awww). She braved the cold with me until my ride came and kept me laughing. Then we had to go to the Lodge and pick up a mainstream customer to go the airport as well. We didn't even leave the property until 5:15, which is when they said I was supposed to be at the airport! Of course a mild panic set in as we were still 45 minutes away, but I reminded myself that we were in Africa, which means (a) nothing is on time and (b) that the airport would be tiny and quick to get through. Of course made it with tons of time to spare. Was glad we were in a Land Rover because we passed a school bus stuck in a huge muddy puddle!

Flight has been fantastic, although the airport was freezing and we had to walk outside the entire length of the airport to get to our plane. Best breakfast I have had in two weeks - included fruit and yoghurt! Stuffing myself with mango and papaya in Kenya seems like a year ago, the way I savored my four pieces of melon and two pieces of pineapple! The safety video made me laugh - they said you could use electric razors (and computers and iPods) once we were in the air. Can you imagine how gross it would be if the guy beside you started buzzing off his scruff in his seat? I would barf.

Not supposed to have hot water or electricity where I'm headed (Hoedspruit, South Africa) so fairly certain this won't be uploaded for quite some time....Mental note: research programs fully in the future, don't be so damn cheap, and don't pretend you like camping and roughing it, even for great animals or scenery!!

Tuesday July 26
Siyafunda Bush Camp

This place is great! Got picked up yesterday from the airport by a super funny guy - already way better than the last place! Stopped to pick up some vital beverages at a grocery store and meet the rest of the bush camp group. My roommate is great - Maria from Australia. The rest of the group is great too, a wide range of ages and personalities, but only 9 of us in total. The funniest are the two 17 year old boys who love to hate each other and are roommates. One is the eager type from the US and the other a rugby playing gang member from Scotland.

We got to the Makalali Reserve (a private one, not a national park) and changed cars into our safari vehicle and headed to our campsite. On the way we saw three young male lions that our ranger / tracker Chad didn't know. Everyone was saying how amazing it was they were so close to camp, but I was thinking they were exaggerating.....no exaggeration - we rounded the corner and were right at our campfire and tents! But no one seemed too concerned.

Camp is super cute - just four tents, a kitchen tent, a campfire, and a covered table. Each tent has it's own shower / toilet behind it. Really nice actually! It's cold here, just like in Namibia, but at least I'm used to it! The best part is there is unlimited food! Tons of apples and actually tons of avocado too! And no work to do here, we just have to cook dinner and do the dishes on a rotation.

This morning we went on a bush walk starting at 7am. They are really big on education here, and it was really informative. Mike, whose family owns a big chunk of the reserve, took us. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Big hat, safari shorts and shirt, hiking boots, and an old school rifle that he carried like we were going to see a lion around each corner, stepping over palm fronds We actually saw basically no animals, but learnt a lot about plants (don't eat anything that looks like a tomato or cucumber). The coolest was the marula tree, which is what they make Amarula from. It also is believed to help people reach consensus so village meetings are held under it, and fighting couples have to sit underneath and work out their problems. We also looked at lots of tracks and learnt how to tell direction based on termite mounds, lichen, and the sun.

Lunch is great because we can make whatever we want for ourselves. I'm going to become a grilled cheese and avocado master!

The afternoon was a game drive, but we didn't see much. A new antelope for me called a nyala was seen, and they have a slightly different type of zebra. The game drive went well into the evening and turned into a night drive, and we saw a giraffe in the spotlight right at the side of the road! Night time is a camp fire and marshmallows! Life is good!

Thursday July 28

This is the fifth continent on which I am celebrating my birthday! Looking forward to a big BBQ tonight and a party with all the bush camp people.

Yesterday morning we had another game drive - freezing! Saw elephants, a really cute family of warthogs, and a jackal. Chad got stung by something as he was driving us, which was a bit scary and he had to go lie down, so we had a long and lovely break. We all boiled water and had hot bucket showers. Lovely! There is something about bucket showers that just doesn't compare to regular ones!

After another delicious grilled cheese and tomato sandwich we went rhino tracking. I was a bit skeptical...first we found the dung....then we found the prints....then we detoured to the most beautiful spot and watched a mother and baby hippo in the water at the river. Had to hop along big rocks to get there. It was pretty special. Then back in the car and we got a call from a tracker that he was following white rhino not too far away. We hopped back out of the car and started walking. Suddenly the woman behind me (another Emily, from Australia) gasped, and Mike in front of me raised his gun. There were two big rhinos and a baby 20 meters in front of us. We had to slowly back up and go behind a tree, but there was no danger. It was pretty amazing, I hadn't seen them at all close up before.

We had a fantastic dinner and sat around the fire chatting until 9:30 - late night by my recent standard!

This morning we had an early game drive and had a big elephant encounter. A smallish one decided he didn't like our car and did a little trumpet and charge thing. I have definitely not gotten over my fear of elephants!! We also went down a road that was not really a road - I think it was an animal path - and after dodging a bunch of thorns we saw two male impalas fighting. It was amazing!

Right now it's lunch break and I just died the hair of two of the people here - Lewis and Leena. I didn't know it came with gloves though and now my hand is super red. I'm going to treat myself to a hot shower and Maria is going to make grilled cheese and avocado for me. Birthday is off to a fantastic start!

Friday July 29

Fantastic game drive yesterday afternoon after an interesting but difficult Zulu lesson (has three or four different kinds of clicks for the letters p, c, q, and sort of h). Saw a huge family of giraffes including a really little one - maybe just a month old - and two other small ones. Thought we were going to see some fighting and mating action as the male giraffe was very interested in the female, and then another (darker and more handsome) male ran out of the bushes and chased him off...but that's where it ended. Drove past a hole that Chad has been wondering about for weeks and stopped beside it. A ton of baby warthogs (yes, there are babies here, unlike in East Africa!!) came squealing out of it and a couple ran right into the car, followed by the mother. Very exciting and badly scared everyone on that side of the car!!

Stopped for a sundowner and had a beautiful sunset over the mountains in the distance. Enjoyed a beer while taking pictures on the car. Then went to Twines, the non-camping place here for dinner. They had cooked a traditional meal with beans and some part of the corn, called san pan I think. Very hearty and good. Headed back to our camp for some partying and had a great fire, marshmallows, and some drinks. Matt (17 year old from the US) gave me a fantastic toast over marshmallows and sang a death march version of happy birthday that was very special.

Around 9:30 or so Lewis went to the bathroom and all we hear is him shouting "get the fuck away from me" and clapping his hands. He'd obviously seen something. We were very worried it was a leopard and all huddled behind the fire while Chad set lanterns around us like we were in some pagen cult or something. Our ears kept playing tricks on us and scaring us so we went to bed soon after. I tied our tent shut with a shoelace in case the animal was really hungry.

This morning we were on bush clearing, which is the only real work we do here all week. I was worried we'd have to walk through big thickets and cut out exotic plants or something, but we just had to walk down the road and trim or saw off anything that was growing too close. Quite enjoyable actually, but did have to give myself a good look over to ensure I had no ticks. So far I haven't had any, but we think a couple of people here at the Bush Camp have tick bite fever, which is just like an achy flu that lasts a few days. Really don't want it!

Here are a few pictures of camp!!

Monday August 1

If you're reading this it means I've made it to my hotel in Johannesburg and survived all wildlife portions of my trip (!!!)
I've been having so much fun at Bush Camp I haven't had much time to keep this journal up, but let me try to recap the last few days:

Friday afternoon we went on a drive / walk with another ranger named Robin. He's really great at his job, but actually used to be a consultant in Europe! He pointed out lots of birds and trees as well as tracks and poo of course. Another fun fact about the Marula tree - if you give someone the seed of the fruit it is a sign of friendship, and of course he gave each of us one. Kind of like a Facebook tree! Driving back at night we saw some eyes across the river but couldn't tell what they were. Maria made us a great carbonara pasta for dinner Friday night.

Saturday morning we went on another drive / walk with Robin. We first drove to find some leopards that had recently been sighted (maybe what we had seen the previous night) and found a mother and two cubs crossing the road. We did some awesome off road driving to try to continue following them, but didn't have much luck. Then we watched a massive male elephant eating right outside our car for awhile before driving to another area for a little walk. We turned over rocks and found a pretty big snake, we brushed our teeth with the tree that locals used to use for tooth brushes, and we saw a bunch of holes made by warthogs and enlarged by elephants. I also got smacked in the face by a knob thorn tree: when Andrea got her shirt stuck on it and pulled it off it rebounded right into my face. I have a very cute scratch on my nose but it scared me pretty badly and bled enough at the time. I really really hate all the thorny bushes around here. Then I fell into a hole which was luckily unoccupied. This was the first time I thought I was really ready to come home!!

Saturday afternoon we drove to an AIDS orphanage to play with the kids and bring them donations of juice, flour, rice, chips, etc. Over 70 kids live there from babies to 17 years old and most are HIV positive. But it wasn't sad at all - it's a really nice place and it was a lot of fun to play with the younger kids. After that we went to a pub for dinner where I had one of the best steaks of my life for about $12. Amazing.

Sunday was a totally free day which was fantastic. We hung around Bush Camp and ate, chatted, and did absolutely nothing. Robin made us an amazing BBQ at night which was a great way to end the week. And today I've just been traveling so far!!

Overall Bush Camp was a ton of fun, super relaxing, and with really great people! What a fantastic last stop! Now I'm just two nights in Johannesburg before coming back home! The first thing I'm going to do is take a long bubble bath - I haven't had clean nails in three weeks!!