posted by Kirby @ 12:48 PM
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Colliseum in Rome:
posted by Kirby @ 3:44 AM
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posted by Kirby @ 2:56 PM
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posted by Kirby @ 2:23 PM
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My hair straightener blowing up completely threw me off track and I'm really behind in my blogging!! Or at least that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!
Wednesday night we went to the best pizza place ever- Pizza Express!! Soo yummy!! Then to a pub where we met some of Sara's friends. We missed the England v Croatia game but apparently we didn't miss much b/c it sucked and England lost!! We hung out for a while and came home relatively early.
Thursday we went into St. Albans and did some shopping- all of us bought new shirts to wear out Sat. Night (more about that later), other than that we didn't do much. On the way home we picked up some yummy fish and chips from the chippy that we used to go to. Ate that and just hung out for the evening.
Friday Erin and I took the train into London to see some sights, soooooooo we saw Trafalgar Square, Nelson's Column (not to be confused with Christopher Columbus in Barcelona!!) Haha, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Leicester Square, we had tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace- where we did not see the changing of the gaurd b/c the gaurds had been bad and weren't allowed to change!! (Just kidding)Covent Garden- my favorite!!! Some dude approached us and asked about our hair ha, turned out he was trying to sell this package- hair cut etc at a 5 star salon, day getting beautified at a studio and then a photo shoot, and then a years worth of free entry into the London Nightclubs! Apparently its all worth £500 and he was selling it for £50. We told him we don't have that kind of money and wouldn't even be able to utilize the free nightclubs, we bartered with him a little and got it all for £25 each. I still didn't quite trust him so I borrowed his phone called the salon...the dude who answered wasn't too impressed w/ my question, but we booked appointments on the 27th...we'll see how that goes!! After wandering around Covent Garden for a while we decided to go to St. Pauls Cathedral and climb to the top of the bell tower- just to makesure that we go up the 3 tallest in the world!! (Already did the other 2). Well it was 3.50pm and it closed at 4. Note to self- check times before doing stuff. so we went home. We hung out at home and watched some movies- in preparation for a wild night Sat!!
Saturday- Erin and I went into St Albans to go to the market...mooched around there for a while, walked around the St. Albans Abbey/Cathedral and then took the bus to visit my Grandad. Hung out with him for a while then walked back past my old house and Laura and Saras old house to meet Laura at her aunts. We went home and made a stir fry- Sara was supposed to be cooking it but screamed and ran away as soon as the veggies hit the pan! Had a drink with dinner, turned out to be the begining of a rediculously alcoholic night!! After dinner we all got ready- I borrowed Laura's straighteners ha... We headed out around 7.30, picked up Laura's b/f Dru on the way and went to Katie's house warming party. It was BYOB so the girls took a bottle of vodka and I took a small coca cola bottle of rum :). We didn't know anyone there so we were pretty anti-social and very drunk very fast! At about 10.30 we climbed into taxis and went to St Albans...I ended up in a taxi full of strangers, one of which was from Wisconsin- how crazy is that?! So we arrived at The Peahen and I had conveniently taken what was left of my rum with me hahaha so I got a coke and made my own drink :) I'm thrifty...or broke. Paul M said he would meet me out and said he was at a different pub so I went to find him. For some reason I thought he said he was at O'Neils so I begged the bouncer to let me in w/out waiting in line haha, a few people weren't too happy about that! When I got inside I realized that he was at Lloyds haha so I left ASAP and the bouncer shook his head at me and was like "where now?!" So I told him and he pointed me in the right direction....my good charm didn't work for me at Lloyds, they wouldn't let me in. So I headed back to The Peahen. Eventually Paul met me there and we all headed out to a club. We had a pretty crazy fun night and stayed until they turned on all the lights at 3.30am! Good times!! We took a cab home and when we got there I decided I wanted to sleep on the couch, wait, more like a love seat...pretty small haha. The girls thought I'd go to bed pretty soon but uhm I woke up on the couch at 9am hahaha. Then I went to bed until noon! We got up and sat around for a while re-capping the night before venturing out to a sunday pub roast lunch. Yummy!! Katie, her friend Dan and another guy Darren met us there and we hung out for a while. Afterwards we decided to go home and be hungover on the couch for the rest of the day. And that's what we did. The next time we were brave enough to leave the house was at night to go to Dru's pub for "take-out night" where you can order whatever delivery food you want and eat it there with everyone. Soo I ordered a spring roll from the Chinese- this thing was massive!! Like the size of 5 american chinese spring rolls!!- and I ordered a na'an bread and sauce from the Indian. Yummy!! Then we went home and put in another movie but I went to bed.
Monday we eventually decided that we didn't really want to do anything so Sara dropped Dave and I off in St. Albans and we sat in Verulamium Park and hung out haha. We saw the Roman ruins and I fed some geese grass!! Ha!! I love ducks!! We watched a school of little kids play, they were chasing eachother around the bench we were sitting on- soo cute! Sara picked us up about 5 hours later...I can't believe we sat there that long!! Went home, cooked some dinner, got ready and went to a pub in Hemel Hempstead to meet up w/ Sarah W, Katie S and Dan T from school. Hadn't seen them in about 2 1/2 years so it was good to catch up.
Tuesday/today, Dave and I got up, packed our packs and Sara drove us to Luton airport. We flew on a really quick flight- like 40mins, to Amsterdam! Dave's uncle, Marco, picked us up from the airport- its always great to be met at the airport!! And he drove us to their house before going back to work. Dave's aunt, Kristy came home after a while and we sat and talked with her about our trip- she travelled when she was our age too, and travels a lot for business. Marco came home w/ their eldest son, Luca, 7. We hung out for a while before going to dinner at a great Thai place in Delft. I've never eaten Thai before and this place was perfecrt b/c you don't order, they just bring you what they are serving!! So we had a soup and then a plate w/ 4 different types of dishes on it- all very good. Then they bring grapes for dessert...very good. Now we're home and I'm going to read before bed.
This took forever to type...you'd better leave some comments!!
G'night from Amsterdam!
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posted by Kirby @ 1:33 PM
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So I didn't bring hair straighteners on this trip b/c I didn't want to carry them. Big mistake. Had my mum bring them to SA so I could keep them for the rest of the way...used them once there at Singita...started to straighten my hair tonight ready to go out and they blew up!!!!!! Crazy black smoke everywhere!!! I kind of hung them out the window!! Now what do I do?!?!
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posted by Kirby @ 9:38 AM
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Sunday night was pretty uneventful, we had Indian for dinner- not my fav. But it was ok. Dave Sara and I went out after to find a pub or something fun, we ended up at an Irish pub (go figure! The irish are everywhere) there was live music but it was pretty empty- sunday nights aren't all that popular for getting wasted I guess. Monday we bought a ticket for the hop on hop off bus around Capetown. The first stop we chose to see was a local market- I think everyone except me bought something crafty-esque. We got back on the bus and I got off at the SA Museum, arranged to meet back on the bus at whatever time. The other 3 kids went to the District 6 museum and my parents went to something to do with jewellery. At the museum I ran into 3 women who were at Singita (in Kruger) with us!! Crazy small world we live in!! The museum was ok, nothing exciting. I got back on the bus and picked the others up along the way. Next stop: Table Mountain. The weather had cleared up- it was still windy and kind of cold but it was semi-sunny. We took the cable car to the top and it was sooo much colder up there haha. We took pics and then took cover in the coffee shop!! After Table Mountain we drove aroiund the coast to Camps Bay where it was rumored that there would be hot surfers but I didn't see any. It was beautiful though!!!! Mountains and beach and huuugeee waves, beautiful. I climbed some rocks and dodged the water, Dave clampered up after me and we posed for some great pics! We grabbed some lunch there before heading back to the hotel area. There we wandered around the craft markets and made random purchases. I bought a little hippo head necklace like my fish one from Barcelona...I think I'm going to collect random pieces of jewellery like this as we go- I have the sea turtle anklet from Santorini too. Anyways, the hippo's name is Wyclef after the guy who sold him to me haha. Ummm after that we didn't really do anything, then met up for dinner.
Tuesday I stayed in bed for a long time, we didn't have to check out until 11am so I took advantage and lazed around for a while. The girls wandered around I think, and then all of us met up, got some lunch/bfast and wandered around some more. The weather was beautiful, we sat outside and read for a while and got a tan :) hooray for sunshine!! Didn't realy do much, then packed up and headed to the airport. Mum and dad dropped us off as if they live there ha it was kind of funny. B/c of what happened at the begining of the SA trip Dave, me and the girls came to England about 4 days early, but my parents are in SA until Saturday. Soooo we went through, Dave and I looked at buying liquor in duty free but eventually decided against 2 litres!! got on the plane surrounded by old people and little kids! The kids were cutu, the old people were not, and they were crabby. The flight was about 12 hours, overnight, so it wasn't too bad. We watched "The Lakehouse" which I enjoyed. Then we passed out. I woke up at about 4am with 3 hours to go...couldn't sleep so I dunno what I did but the time went by haha maybe I fell asleep again.
Arrived in London this morning- Dave had some issues getting through customs but it wasn't too bad. The 3 of us with British passports breezed through customs haha, Dave got 20questions, but she also got a stamp!! I didn't :( this is country #6 and I only have 1 stamp!!
Jamie (Sara and Lauras cousin) who I grew up with too, picked us up from the airport bright and early this morning. Although it wasn't bright, it was dark and raining! We came back to Sara and Laura's house, changed and ambitiously took off to London on the train. We hit Oxford street for some quality shopping, only to find after the first couple of shops that it was pouring with rain! We dodged it for a while but eventually got soaked!! We called it quits and came home, peeled off our soaked clothes, made piles of laundry EVERYWHERE! Started some washing, showered etd and now we're just hanging out. Tonight we're going to a pub in St.Albans, where we grew up, to watch the England v. Croatia friendly, hooray England!!
Cheerio!
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posted by Kirby @ 8:50 AM
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Saturday morning we got up, I grabbed some breakfast and went over to the stables. Mum and dad had booked me an hour ride! Hooray!! I haven't ridden a horse in about 5 years but I guess its something you don't forget. My horse's name was Pepsi, she was pretty cool, a polo horse; and the guy who took me out was called Lucky. We went out and walked around the perimeter of the hotel grounds which border the Tsitsikamma national park so its realllly pretty- very green and lush. Lucky asked me if I knew how to ride so we could go a little faster haha I told him ithat was fine, haha he said that people say that then they trot and can't get the horses to stop haha...Pepsi trotted, Pepsi stopped, we survived haha. We rode accross a couple of the polo fields- there are 5 there in total...we galloped accross a couple of pieces of open ground, (and Pepsi slowed down and stopped at the end...survival!) It was great! At one point Lucky told me not to loosen the reins b/c there were babboons around and Pepsi doesn't like babboons haha I've never had to worry about babboons when riding a horse before- it was pretty funny.
After the ride I went back, showered, packed and met up with everyone else...we left pretty quickly to head to Capetown. I started the drive and drove the first 250km- about 2 1/2 hours, we stopped for some fooooood and dad took over and finished the trip- about another 350km. We went to the airport first and sorted out mine, Dave's, Sara and Laura's tickets home to London...so we're heading to Hertfordshore on Tueday the 10th- for those of you who are reading this in England- be ready to hang out and party!! From there we drove to the waterfront area and found a hotel which is prety much in the middle of a huge shopping area. We walked around a little and found something to eat. Its cold down here!! And raining!! Its supposed to clear up tomorrow- let's hope so.
Today we just wandered around some shops, then I got some food from the supermarket and split from the group for a while...now I'm watching Misty May and Kerri Walsh play beach volleyball! ...they're winning of course :)
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posted by Kirby @ 6:12 AM
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This morning we got up early-ish but late compared to safari... 7.30 today. Dave Laura and I jumped on Sara b/c its her B'Day today- she's old now, 24! Haha. She didn't get out of bed since only mum Laura Dave and I were going to the tree top canopy slide thing...I can't think what its called...I drove us about 20mins east to the office of this thing- stone river adventurest (I think...too tired tonight)we put on harnesses and then got driven to the Tsitsikamma (try saying that drunk) Indigenous Forest where we got hooked up to wires and we flew through the canopy...it was fun, not quite as fun/cool as I thought it was going to be, but it was good. We drove back to the hotel, ate lunch and sat by the pool for about an hour. Then we went to an elephant sanctuary, we learned a lot of cool facts- all of the elephants there have been rescued, 1 of them was a house pet, no joke!! Who does that?! A couple of them were caught wreaking havoc in a village in Kruger, and I can't remember the others' stories... We were shown the grounds and then introduced to 3 of the 6 elephants. 3 of us went over to them with their handlers and we said hi and pet them hahaha I pet an elephant. Then they told uys to stand in front of them with our hand behind us and fingers turned up, the elephants placed the end of their trunks are our fingers!! It was a really strange feeling when they breathed in/out, super cool!! We walked for a while like this, then we stopped and learned the stories of the elephants and they showed us some tricks...nothing crazy. Then they had the elephants open their mouths, they're crazy cool!! They have 4 huge molar-type teeth and they get 5 sets of these over their lifetime, when 1 falls out it is replace from the back and they're all pushed forward, kind of like an escalator...super cool...I have a picture, its crazy!! After this we walked them around a little more, then we got to ride them...this was kind of crazy but they're kind of comfortable ha, although if you're going to ride an elephant then I reccomend wearing long pants b/c their hair is very rough! The whole trip was very interesting although kind of sad after seeing the elephants in Kruger in the wild. But it was good. We came back and since we were pretty gross we figured we'd take out the quads again, the 1 Sara and I took yesterday wouldn't start so only Laura and Dave went out. Sara and I hung out for a while, then I took a shower for an hour! Ha j/k but it was long, and great! After hanging out with elephants you're pretty gross! Thennnn we got ready and went to dinner! The food was yummy again but none of us really ate much, we're all pretty tired. Another early night... Tomorrow we're moving on to Capetown...
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posted by Kirby @ 1:04 PM
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Tuesday night after dinner we retired to the bar and had a lot of fun! Difference- our butler- poured us more rediculously strong drinks, doubles all round- sweet!! Haha we were the only people drinking, all other guests went to bed- booooring!! Eventually the secretary type lady came over and told Andre she was leaving ha. Laura took Difference's name tag and pretended to be the butler/bar tender and Dave stole Andre's name tag and also made drinks...eventually Difference came back from clearing the dinner table and we told him that it was going to be a long night and that he didn't have to stay, he could go home to his kids...he did- after he got his name tag back from Laura..and my parents went to bed too. 2 weird guys showed up and sat with us as if they wanted to be included in the party, they weren't that lucky, they could only watch, although I think Dave got them some drinks...with Andre's name tag on. So we drank, drank, and drank some more...Sara revealed some things about her that we didn't know haha and stories which were pretty amusing, and she doesn't remember telling them to us so its even better! We finidhed 2 bottles of vodka, I finished a bottle of Captain and started on Malibu which was eventually finished in shots taken in wine glasses by Dave and Andre, then we found cider haha..mall the while we have to keep an inventory of what we're drinking so we added a lot to other peoples rooms haha we don't get charged for them, its all incusive so it was fine and hilarious- I have a picture of the inventory, its pretty amusing. We eventually went back to mine and Dave's room where we caused more trouble and a lot of mess! We also brought 1/4 of a bottle of vodka with us haha and we had the free mini bar...it was trouble. Dave liked another guide- paul- and we tried to call him to get him to come join the party haha soo funny...Andre was in charge of this and he called the other lodge but that got us nowhere and we couldn't find Paul. Good times had by all...although it didn't quite feel as good in the morning when we had to go out on drive at 5.30am. Although I think we were all still drunk, the hangovers didn't set in until we'd been out and about for a while. We explained to Barney that we'd had a rough night and he just laughed at us, no sympathy there, not even for Andre. Dave asked Andre what we were looking for, he replied something to the effect of "anything, bark, lizards, trees, flowers, birds, anything that moves, find something so that we can just sit there and look at it" haha hung over safari drives are rough. We did find a Cheetah though and there are only between 150 and 350 left in Kruger National Park which is massively humungous! The Cheetah was just laying around hanging out so we sat there in a hungover stupor for a while looking at it...and Paul hahah he was there with his group too, Andre had previously radio'ed him and told him that Dave liked him haha so everytime we saw him he was looking at us trying to figure out which one of us liked him. Barney also told Paul's tracker the same thing so we were the subject of conversation. After the Cheetah we went to see a pride of 8 young-ish lions wandering down a road, we followed them for a while, and ran into Paul again haha good times. We stopped for a "comfort stop" and when we asked Barney if he had packed us any food he said yes, muffins, we all got excitedn thinking huge muffins for our hungover bodies but he pulled out a pan with muffins about and inch in diameter haha it was soo funny, we all looked in the pan and then at Barney and we all just laughed- Barney too. It didn't take long to devour those!! While we were there Sara made a comment about how we could hear a lot of birds but couldn't see them, Andre responded "yes we'll we've heard a lot of stories about you but we wouldn't want to see them" haha too funny, we all cracked up, even Barney and he hadn't heard many stories. Good times... This drive was the same as a morning after recap with all of your friends, we all just started laughing at random times. Andre made another comment after randomly laughing "you look at Sara and she looks inocent, and then you hear the stories and she clearly isn't at all" haha so true!
Anyways, we kept going looking foir basically anything that moved...Barney spotted a giraffe up ahead, kind of up a hill in the brush so we were all looking for it, some said they could see it too, but when we got closer it was just part of the road!!! It was soo funny, Barney was kind of embarrassed but it was soo funny especially considering we were all hung over and some said they saw it aswell...soo funny! We did find a couple of elephants, and even though we'd seen plenty, they're still amazing animals and their size is just unbelievable. This one was fine while we sat and watched him but when we drove away he got grumpy and was flailing his head around and running, Andre stopped the car and then so did the elephant, but he did it again when we tried to leave again...perhaps he had a rough night too!
We eventually headed back to the lodge, it was pretty sad, I didn't want to leave the animals!! And definitely didn't want this part of the trip to end :( We ate a fried breakfast in the hope of killing the hangovers, then went back to the rooms. We had to pack and be out in an hour and a half so Dave and I opted for a nap and then shower before packing...well even though we slept on the floor, we overslept and ended up with 10 mins to pack. Needless to say we had 2 rediculously badly packed packs which felt heavier than they really should have. We took our stuff out and checked out, then hung around in the lobby area for a while. I lost my checklist of animals we had seen so I started to fill out another. After a while we ate another amazing lunch before Andre and Barney came back to take us to the airport :(
Barney took our luggage ahead of us and then Andre drove us. Dave sat on Barney's seat and spotted the airport ha. It was a prety quiet ride, no one wanted to leave Singita. Once we were at the airport...which isn't what you might think of as an airport- more like a hut on a runway, though fully stocked with alcohol ha we bypassed that! We had to wait a while for our plane so Andre helped me fill out the checklist, so now its definitely right!! One of the other guide's, Derek, showed up to collect new people...he was the guy that everyone thought was cute on the first day or something- before Paul- so Andre strategically tried to get him in a picture with Dave, it was pretty funny b9/c Derek kept walking away...eventually Andre told him he wanted a picture...so now Dave has a pic of Derek but not Paul...perhaps one will arrive in an email from Andre.
Our plane showed up eventually and it was pretty hard to say goodbye to Barney and Andre, we had soo much fun there and we definitely haven't stopped talking about it since! Andre and Barney stayed by the runway and waved to us as we took off...cute, we're going to miss those guys...good times.
I forgot another quote- Andre stopped and turned off the truck to point out an animal, Sara looked at the petrol/gas gauge and it was on "E" b/c the engine was off and Sara freaked out "we ran out of petrol!!!!" Haha we all laughed, Andre said "in this vehicle F means empty, E means full!!" Haha.
We flew into JoBerg and then connected to Port Elizabeth, I slept the entire time, landed there and it was sooo cold!! We hired a car, well more like a van, and drove to a hotel...it was pretty nice but I passed out w/out even eating dinner.
Today we left Port Eliazabeth and drove towards Capetown (west), about 2 1/2 hours and found our hotel...except we passed it and hit a roadblock...it was Animal Disease Control, and they were checking for pigs or something b/c of a disease outbreak?? I can't remember exactly.
This hotel isn't really a hotel at all, more like a home, and that's what they said when we got here...its a huge ranch with polo grounds, about 100 horses, a couple of pools, a library :) quads/4 wheelers- for free!! Its cool. We took full advantage of the quads and went out on our "Self South African Safari" it was going pretty well until Dave drove her and Laura through a bog and got their quad stuck! So we had to pull it out haha it was really funny..shin deep in mud!! We even spotted tons of animals!! A frog, a shetland pony, egrets, butterflies, dalmation, ducks with red heads, some kind of stork or heron with huge beaks, horses, cows, we heard an owl haha, donkeys, people, mud, a cat...it was great!! We went through a fence that said "Alsation on guard, enter at own risk" but it didn't say no trespassing or anything so we went through hahaha next thing we know, 2 dogs came running at us barking hahaha so Sara and I spun around hit a tree and kept going hahah soo funny!! Dave and Laura couldn't reverse and were freaking out haha Sara and I just took off out of the fenced area!! Laura and Dave followed soon after, Sara and I were practically peeing our pants, the looks on their faces were hilarious...priceless.
We came back and hosed of our feet and legs and now we're just chillin by a fire on the veranda.
Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day...lots planned!!
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posted by Kirby @ 10:04 AM
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Tuesday we just kind of hung out until afternoon drive at 4. This was soooooo good!! we saw tons of cool things and had alot of fun...we went down to where we saw the 3 male lions earlier and actually drove out on to the peninsula type thing that they were on. It was tough getting in, through all of the bamboo and brush but we made it eventually and it was great. At first we only saw 2 lions- older ones with manes, they are part of a group of 6 males who have been travelling together, nomads...we drove around to the other side of them, killed a few more trees along the way, Andre says that the trees will just pop back up, some do, some don't. Once we got to the other side we saw that there was a third male there...we hung out with them for a while before making the treck back up the embankment...this was the exciting part. When we drove in we pushed all the trees in one direction which made things a little difficult to get back out, it was also a little slick because of the rain in the morning. After several tries, many trees which didn't pop back up, and alot of laughing we finally made it up the embankment. Mum took a video of it on her camera, its pretty hilarious. That was definitely a highlight haha. We stopped along the way somewhere to have a Poop Spitting Contest, yes, poop spitting. Barney picked up some Impala poop- pellets- and Andre drew a line in the dirt...we couldn't go over the line and I forget what the winner/loser was supposed to do but it involved alcohol. After 4 attempts Dave finally made it more than a couple of feet, Barney's went pretty far, as did Andre's, and I can't remember if one of them won or if it was my dad, but it was pretty amusing and now I can say that I've spat poop. Nice, I'll tack that onto the bottom of my resume. After this little escapade Barney offered to let me sit on his tracking seat on the hood/bonnet of the truck, so of course, I did :)
It wasn't long before I spotted a Leopard! haha!! no joke!! So I climbed back into the truck and we went to go see it. It was a large male and he had his eyes fixed on some Impala that we couldn't see. We watched him for a while and then he stalked off towards the Impala so Andre positioned us so that we could see if the leopard decided he wanted to eat one :) We sat for a while but the Impala must have heard him or seen him because one of them snorted (their warning that something is going to eat them) and they took off. So no chase and no eating but it was still pretty cool to see. After this we went to go see the 3 lions who had moved to the side of a road and were just chillin, grooming, yawning and getting ready to go hunting. They were wrestling around and grooming eachother, it was cute. From there I think we headed home, and we weren't far from the lodge when Barney pointed his flashlight at a Jackal in the road, it looked at us, almost as if it was just going to sit there- deer in headlights style- but then it took off, Barney followed it with the flashlight and it caught a Hare!! "A Kill!! A Kill!! We just whitnessed a kill!!" haha it was pretty exciting and kind of strange that the Jackal was in the road one second and eating a Hare the next! We went home, decided on a time for dinner and then went and showered etc, Laura and Sara came over to our room and we started drinking before dinner...we warned Andre that it was going to be a big night, and that it was! Dinner was amazing once again, the food here is unbelievable!! I ate Eland which is a large ummm thing, like a Buffalo or something like that. It was realllllly good! Oh I think I forgot to say that I ate Ostrich steak at lunch and that was delicious too! Anyways, so after dinner and alot we migrated to the bar and thats where the real festivities began!
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posted by Kirby @ 2:44 AM
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This place is really just stunningly beautiful- the landscape, the animals, the resort, the people...everything.
Yesterday during the time between morning and afternoon drives we hung out on the deck and in our private pool!! Sooo nice, and the sun is rediculously hot!! While we were out there a herd of elephants walked by on the other side of the river!! And a giraffe was hanging out there too!! Soo cool!! When do you ever see elephants and giraffes from your pool?! Great!! Before we went out again at 4 for the afternoon/evening drive we were grabbing water etc and heard someone talking about being chased in the morning drive ha, turns out they had stopped to pee and grab a drink and a lizard ran into a nest of killer bees and disturbed them!! So the group had to run for about 200m before the bees left them alone but they each got somewhere around 10 stings! Crazy! Barney usually asks us what animals we want to find so I told him I wanted to see a kangaroo (and before you say anything, yes I know there are no kangaroos in S.Africa) so he laughed but went along with it and we went looking for kangaroos! No such luck but we did find 7 young lions hanging out, waiting for their mums to come back and get them for lunch! They were all pretty skinny, Andre didn't think they had eaten in a while and that they possibly even were suffering from a diease such as tuberculosis from Wildebeast that they eat. So that was kind of sad but they were still cute, one of them was trying to catch a fly buzzing around his head and another rolled over and stretched her arms over her head, super cute!! (Pics of all of this to come later of course). After we left the kids Barney spotted the mums not far away laying in the shade of a tree. 1 of them didn't look so great, she was really skinny, the other looked better but kind of mangey. I guess when you see this stuff on TV the animals all seem to be in good condition, even if they're being eaten!! But in reality these animals get sick just the same as any other and there aren't vets here, just nature. After this we found a couple of rhinos which were only the beginning of the amount we saw on that drive, we probably saw 10 in total. We stopped for a quick pee stop in "a semi safe area" as Andre said...sweet now I feel safe!! But I had to pee soo bad it didn't matter, I hopped out and wandered over to a termite mound haha probably not the best idea but that's where I was sent and I survived!! There was a Praying Mantis of the car when I got back so Andre picked it up and showed it to us, it was kind of cool. We kept going but didn't really see much else and it got dark but Barney did spot another White Faced Owl and that's only the 2nd Andre has seen in a year and a half! And the 1st was with us too :).
We got home and decided a time for dinner, got changed etc and met back then. Andre joined us for dinner too and heard more stories he probably didn't really care to hear but they're funny. Dinner was outside aeround a fire pit with lanterns and candles everywhere, it was really nice. As usual we drank our fair share of alcohol before dinner even started!! Dinner was delicious as usual and consisted of several different meats, so I tried Ostrich sausage and Wildebeast! I felt bad about the wildebeast but it wasntmuch,!! Andre tried some of mine too so I had even less!! Haha and that was the first time he had tried it too. Firsts all round! After everyone had eaten locals who are also staff came out and brought Sara a birthday cake!! They ang her happy birthday and then did some traditional songs and dances around the fire, it was beautiful and really fun!! They dragged Sara up to dance so that was pretty amusing and my mum joined in, of course!! After eating the cake we called it a night..man early one for this family!! We went back to our cabins with a storm rolling in. As our cabins, which really aren't cabins at all but I don't know what else to call them... Anywyas they're pretty much made of glass so you can see out into the wilderness but you can't be seen by others, so the lightning was amazing it was lighting up the whole area and the thunder was crazy loud b/c there is nothing here like building etc to buffer it!! But I was so tired I passed out ASAP.
This morning I woke up to the sound of the dude banging the cowbell on the door, but I think he was doing it for a while before I heard it ha, I was out! The weather today is kind of dull and it rained, well, misted while we were out on the drive- the day I wear a skirt, go figure. But there are blankets and rain jackets in the car so its fine :). Andre and Barney take good care of us. Today the car was facing a different direction when it picked us up, Barney said this is the direction that the kangaroos are!! Haha it was pretty funny. We didn't see many animals out today, we went looking for a leopard but couldn't find her, on the way we saw 2 seperate hyenas...I still think they're creepy. We saw a couple of male elephants, one was digging up a tree b/c they like to eat the roots- I took video of this on my camera and its siuper cool, you can hear some crazy birds in the background too! Another elephant was picking up sticks and stripping the bark off in his mouth and eating that only. We went back to where the hippos were (and the croc), the hippos were still there and there was a baby too!! Only a couple of months old, super cute! The croc wasn't there though. We went to a place close by where another group had spotted 3 grown male lions- with manesu hanging out on the edge of tjhe river but we couldn't get very close b/c of the terrain and the weather. Other than this we saw and named a lot of birds- Andre seems to know the name of EVERYTHING which is cool but I guess he could be lying since we wouldn't know the difference, but I trust him :). I spotted a golden tailed woodpecker ha. Andre pointed out a Goliath Heron which is the largest heron in the world, and he said their legs are steel and would break a crocs teeth, you can believe that if you want. Andre had us adventurous ones (Dave and I) pick a leaf off of some tree/bush- a Red Spikethorn- and chew it, it tasted like the peel of a Granny Smith Apple and it made our tongues and lips go numb! it was crazy! Aparently its good to chew and eat if you have an upset stomach...good to know?
We headed home and all ate a hot breakfast or at least a hot drink...its about 60degrees but wet and a little windy so it makes it kind of cold. So now I'm hanging out in bed haha. I think I'm going to nap and we're going to play Scrabble or something at some point before afternoon drive...hopefully we'll see more new animals...
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posted by Kirby @ 2:22 AM
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Sunday afternoon the shit hit the fan within our group and there was a lot going on which disrupted the trip. We decided to stay an extra night in JoBerg and find a new safari to go on. Went out to a pretty quiet dinner accross from the hotel and had an early night. Sunday dad phoned and woke me up at 9.30 to figure out what we were going to do...I made a lot of phone calls and at 10.30 woke Sara Laura and Dave up, told them to be dressed, packed and in the lobby in 15mins. We piled into 2 cabs and drove 35mins to the private part of the airport. From there we caught our original 11.50 flight to Singita Game Reserve in Kruger National Park. The plane was tiny, maybe 20 seats!! The flight only took about 25mins and we landed on this tiny airstrip in the middler of nowhere. There our guide, Andre picked the 6 of us up and drove us to Boulders Lodge where we were greeted and introduced to Differnce who is our butler :). This place is absolutely unbelievable, check it out www.singita.co.za each 'cabin' is ridiculously nice!! And has its own pool, huge shower surrounded by sliding glass doors to the outside deck and surrounding African wilderness!! There's and outdoor shower which can't be seen by anyone else but it feels like you're in the wilderness. Looking from the deck there is a river where animals drink and hang out. The babboons run around everywhere- even drink out of our pool!! The only aninals that cannot come near the lodge are elephants and giraffes, as it is surruounded by an electric fence which is about 10ft off the ground- allowing lions leopards etc to come in. This means that at night and in the mornings we are escorted to and from our cabins in case of animals!
Yesterday at 4pm we went out on our first drive, just the 6 of us, Andre the driver/guide/sarcastic joker, and Barney the tracker...he seems to have a 6th sense of where animals are! So we went out and saw lots of Impala everywhere!! And a Klipspringer which is like a little deer. But our first cool animal was a giraffe!! 2 females just chillin eatin some leaves :). Then we saw 3 hippos chillin in a stream, we didn't really see much b/c they were submerged but they were cute.. Next we found a herd of elephants with some babies, soooo cute. Its really surprising how quietly they walk!! One of the babys tried to show off, he lifted his headn stuck out his trunk and his tail and pranced past us, then got scared and started yelling haha, he was cute. We were on our way back through the stream and I spotted a crocodile tanning on the bank in some reeds, Andre and Barney didn't believe me, we reversed, it was there and I subsequently won a shot at dinner later :). We stopped to look at tracks and stretch our legs, next thing we knew Andre was pulling coolers out and a ledge-like table on the front of the Land Rover, there were sodas waters beer alcohol, meat balls, olives billbong (like jerky) pretzels....crazy!! Haha it was pretty amusing and delicious. We also got into a poop war with elephant poop hahaha gross. Then Andre offered us 'berries' which only the gullable ones took- Laura, Sara, Mum- b/c they were actually giraffe poop pellets. As it got dark we started to head in and on the way Barney spotted a white faced owl in a tree, it was super cute!!
We arrived back at the lodge and decided a time to eat dinner, went back to our cabins and got changed...no showering outside b/c it was dark and we might get eaten!!
Andre joined us for dinner which started with a shot of something minty and Amarula Cream which is like Baileys...yummy. Dinner was delicious and all inclusive!! I tried crocdile meat, it was pretty good but I stuck with lamb and chicken. We were given a mint melon pallate cleansor and Laura took it like a shot and soon regretted it! Hahah too funny. We were at dinner the longest and stuck around for drinks after...good times and Andre is super cool. On the way back to our cabin we saw a little frog!
This morning we got woken up at 5am (ouch) but none of us really slept last night- not sure why, possibly the sliding glass doors that are the wall to the ouitside...the moon was really bright and the wild is right on the other side!!
We ate a snack and some fresh juice and went on our way. First animal today was lions!! 2 2 year olds, a male and female! Very cute and cuddly haha right. There was also a hyena hanging around, he was creepy and definitely ugly!! Then we went looking for a female leopard but found her cub first sitting on a rock waiting for mum to bring breakfast back. Then we found mum after plowing through trees and bushes! She was beautiful!! Then we saw more giraffes a mum dad and 3 babies (frm different mums). Then we saw a group of zebras which were crazy cool, the stripes on their faces are amazing!! Next we found some big deeer type things, maybe Caracal? I can't remember their names but they had huge curly horns. Barney then spotted an elephant and some rhinos so we went to find them... There were 2 mums and 2 babies one about 3months and one 2 years old. These were White Rhinos but not whjite in colour, just b/c of thelir wide mouths (different language translation or something). On the road back Andre dodged a tiny tortoise, maybe and inach and a half accross, super cute, so we moved it out of the road so it wouldn't get run over! We then saw a couple of Warthogs which are pretty ugly. There were some eagles flying around and some other birds- yellow billed hornbill like Zazu from the Lion King (but he was orange billed). Oh, we saw mongoose too and Squirrels!! :)
Came back for breakfast and there were tons of babboons hanging around wanting food, they're pretty crazy and not cute! When I came back to tjh cabin there were 2 on our deck by the pool!! Crazy little buggers!!
So now we are just chillin before lunch and another drive. I coukd live here, this place is unbelievable!! Check it out online for real!!
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posted by Kirby @ 2:21 AM
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This blog started with my trip around the world w/ Davies, to avoid entering the real world of work & instead entering the real world of foreigners, while only being armed with a back pack full ... not much! But now, 4 years later, I'm living in the real world, I even have a mortgage!! I'm going to try and keep up with this blog a little... I hope you enjoy...
