The Beginning of the End: My Last Week in South Africa

What a whirlwind of a week it's been. I am home now, sitting in bed. It's 5:30 am and I have been awake since 4:00, but I guess that makes sense seeing as it's a little past noon in South Africa. I am working on organizing my 1500 pictures from the trip into different categories to make them a little more manageable: Bap, Cape Town/Obs, and Kruger. I also have about 20 short videos from my digital camera plus 2 hours of handycam video I still need to upload and edit. This will help pass many hours of time over the next week.

Right, so now there is so much to catch up on! This time one week ago I was departing from Cape Town. I ended up being dropped at the airport by Kenan with everyone in the van because it was on the way to take them to shift in Khayelitsha, so it was nice to be able to have everyone see me off and to get to say a proper goodbye to them all. When I got to the airport I was able to switch my flight home from Feb 2 to Jan 31, so obviously I had made the decision to come home early instead of spend two days in Jo'burg after my safari (later I felt I had made a good decision). So I departed from Cape Town around 12:30 pm, much to my unhappiness. I had no desire to leave, not one. I wanted to continue on to my next shift at Bap with the rest of them, but of course Kruger awaited. (Okay, of course a part of me was excited for the safari, which I am thankful I got to do, but understand that Cape Town and Obs and Bap and the people there were my life for 5 weeks and I would have been very content to stay for another 5). Flying away from Cape Town, I remembered when I arrived and saw Table Mountain for the first time from the air, and how excited and nervous I was, and it seemed like a lifetime ago.

Arrived in Jo'burg and was picked up by my transport to Amadwala Lodge (she held up a sign with my name on it, gotta love that). The lodge was about 45 minutes from the airport, which was another 30 minutes or so from downtown Jo'burg, so Amadwala is pretty much out in the countryside. I had absolutely no idea what to expect with this hotel since my flights, transports, hotel stays before and after, and the safari had all been completely arranged by AVIVA. All that I knew was that Amy and Amanda had looked up the lodge and said that it looked very nice (I didn't Google it- wanted to be surprised). And well, I was- hugely, pleasantly surprised. Immediately upon coming through the gate you can tell that Amadwala is a neat place- you feel like you have just entered the rain forest. There are bamboo and stone walkways throughout which lead to the main office and dining room, and then paths shoot off towards seven small bungalows- number 2 was mine. My room consisted of a gorgeous bathroom with jacuzzi tub, a double bed (great sheets & pillows after AVIVA house), and a private deck off the back. Oh, and it had a thatched roof. Oh, and the caretaker that greeted me told me to just call her Gran (everyone does). She showed me around the whole place, which in addition to the bungalows has really nice platform tents and regular tents for backpackers. There is also a huge chessboard, a chapel for weddings (small, thatched roof, no electricity but dozens of candle holders-- probably the most romantic place for a wedding you can imagine), and a great open air reception/braai area. There's an awesome bar that over looks the gorgeous pool, surrounded by rocks and waterfalls and flowers, and then there is a lookout deck from which you can see the whole countryside. In short, this is the most beautiful place I have ever stayed. And on top of that, I was the only person staying there that night. Gran kept saying what a shame that was (I guess the poolside bar can be pretty hoppin') but I was happy to be completely alone for once after living in a house with 10, plus I was tired and planned to turn in early anyways. So they brought my dinner down to me and set it up out on my deck, and then Gran said goodnight and I really was completely alone. As much as I wish someone had been there to see this place with me, I enjoyed it very much.


A shot from Amadwala.

Woke up at 4:15 am the next day (Tuesday the 27th) for my 5am pick up. It was a five hour drive from Amadwala to the point where my safari guide would pick me up outside of the Kruger gates, so Shaun drove me and four other girls (two Scottish, one Japanese, one Brazilian- all picked up from a hostel near Amadwala), I slept the whole way minus a stop for lunch.

So as it turned out, the Japanese girl, Megumi, was doing the same safari as me. We met up with our guide, Henry, about an hour outside of the southern Kruger gates and climbed on board the open air safari vehicle, in which we would spend much time in the coming days. Basically it is a pickup truck with 3x3 seating attached to the bed of the truck, with a roof and plasic sides and front that stayed rolled up and tied the entire time. We sat in the front row, right behind the cab of the truck and could easily speak with Henry the whole time.


The safari vehicle.

I should start off by saying that for the three days of this safari, it was Henry, Megumi and I by ourselves for the majority of the time- three people that probably could not be more different. Megumi was 33, though she looked about 23. She had just spent the last three years working two jobs to support her family, so her parents finally said it was her turn to take a break and sent her traveling for a year- she had just come from Europe and was headed to India after the safari. While I spent every day in flip flops, shorts, and a tank top, Megumi dressed in shoes, socks, long pants, a shirt, sweater, scarf and hat, and generously applied 70 SPF sunscreen to her hands very frequently. Every time we saw a warthog she would call out, "Pumba! Pumba!" (as in from the Lion King). She spoke pretty good english, but there was of course still a bit of a barrier. Regardless, she was a great person to be on a safari with because every time we saw an animal she would get so incredibly excited, which in this type of situation is contagious and made it that much more fun and exciting for me (I have learned on this trip that both enthusiasm and negativity are contagious, and I am glad that she was the former). All in all, it was really nice to meet her and I was happy for her company.

Henry, our guide, was quite a guy. My guess is that he was somewhere around 45 years old, and he has lived in the bush his entire life (after leaving Kruger he pointed out his village in the distance to us). After dinner on our second night, Megumi, Henry, our chef Godsend (I'll explain about him later) and I -what a group- sat around talking and Henry began to tell us more about his life: He was born in the bush, and at 18 he was sent out for 6 months with no clothes or food and had to survive on his own, part of the process of becoming a man (this practice still goes on, but there are now regulations that only allow them to be sent out for 2 weeks). His father was a traditional medicine man, or healer, a gift that (as Henry says) came to him in a dream as a child, at which point he disappeared and was "taken by the big snake", who taught him how to be a healer. His father had 6 wives and Henry is one of 54 children. Another interesting, yet sad, fact- his cousin was killed by an elephant. So yeah, Henry was pretty legit.

(NOTE: I actually wrote this on Monday, February 2, but have since realized there is way too much to say for one post, so it will have to come in increments!)