Safari + Julia= Fantastic Easter Vac

           They call Spring Break Easter Vac here, which is cute, if not a little reminiscent of a pastel-colored vacuum. It seemed like everyone had a great trip planned; a big group of my friends went on safari in Kruger National Park (about the size of Israel, if you can imagine), another big group did an agency-sponsored trip up to the Ocavango (sp?) Delta in Botswana, hitting up Zambia and bungee jumping off of Victoria Falls as well. Cool, no? For my vacation, I was thrilled to have my Aunt Julia and KT, her friend and co-worker come visit me here all the way in Africa. For the first leg of our trip, I flew from Cape Town to Jo-burg to meet them both at the airport and spend a night in Jo-burg (eek!) before taking off in a little plane for Madikwe Game preserve up in the Northwest province of South Africa, literally across a fence from Botswana. The one-hour or so ride in the twelve seater plane was a lot of fun, if a little intense at times, and when we landed on the red dirt runway, I felt like I was in another world. We were promptly greeted by khaki-clad safari rangers, driving impressive Land Rover combi things, and they took us to our lodge.

            The Madikwe Safari Lodge, where we spent the next four days, might be my favorite place on earth. The staff was overwhelmingly nice and helpful, the food was inspirational, and the lodge itself was breathtaking. Each guest had their own house kind of thing, each equipped with a swimming pool, indoor and outdoor showers, and really anything else you could ever want or need. Not really roughing it at all, we enjoyed the bushveld immensely. 

    Every morning we woke up at 5:30 to go on the day's first game drive. We hauled ourselves out of bed, a feat made easier by the promise of coffee, and climbed into the combi for a morning look at nature's glory. For some reason, our morning drives were not as stellar as our 

evening drives, which we took from about 4pm to 8pm. We always did manage to see something, though, thanks to our fantastic and adorable guide Greg. Over the four days we were there, we saw lions, elephants, rhino, giraffes, hippos, impala, wildebeest, kudu, springbok, gennets, monkeys, and many exciting and rare animals. That does not, in fact, include the foot long millipede that Greg made me hold. He said I needed to get over my fear of bugs. 

I'll let the pictures that I post do most of the explaining for me- we got really, really close to the animals. Often, just a couple feet away. They often posed for us, too. 

   My most favorite afternoon was our last one. A really great family from Australia was on our safari with us, and they had two adorable boys, ages 6 and 4. Marcus and Liam were really great little boys who loved doing all of the little boy things, like collecting bugs and driving through mud puddles. Greg willingly did all of this, as I am convinced that he is a perpetual little boy himself. He decided to take us fishing on his afternoon off, so he grabbed some fishing poles, put them in the combi, and picked us up from the lodge. The little boys were clearly thrilled about the prospects of fishing and having to catch grasshoppers for bait. When we got to the fishing hole (which was actually outside of the reserve), we were greeted by some guests who were already enjoying the spot. 

Five hippos were lazing around in our fishing hole! We let them be, not really wanting to take our chances with Africa's most dangerous animal. No fishing, but still a great afternoon. 

          The next day we said a sad goodbye to Madikwe and made our way back to the mother city- Cape Town.  It was nice to come to the city and have it feel like a home. The hotel that we stayed in was right in the middle of town, which made it really easy to get around. We went to Cape Point, Stellenbosch, Hermanus, and all around Cape Town. It was really fun to show KT and Julia around a place where I had been living. We ate well, as all of the restaurants around town are really great, and enjoyed spectacular weather (besides the strong wind that prevented KT from abseiling down Table Mountain, sadly). It was a blast having them both here, and I sincerely hope they enjoyed South Africa as much as I do. 

           Now that vac is over, it's schoolwork, schoolwork, and more schoolwork. There is a little chill in the air, and it seems like Fall is right around the corner. Maybe the cooler temperatures will keep me from going to the beach when I should be studying, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on how you look at it.