This Time for Africa

*cue Shakira*

I have just a few minutes to write this, so please pardon my brevity!

We have just arrived at the Johannesburg airport, having just leaving Kruger Park, undoubtedly one of the most stunning places I have ever seen. The past three days have been a blur of safaris, sunsets, and tiblicious food.

The weather here is phenomenal-- it's been in the low 70s. In many ways, South Africa isn't all that different from the U.S.- David and I agree that although there seems to be a general dislike of road signs (we got lost a fair amount), the roads are just as nice as any you'd see in Texas.


It's really hard to describe South Africa because you can really see several different biomes- the range of weather, foliage, and plant spacing is massive. There was one point where we drove through a savanna and within 3 hours, we could have sworn we were in the northwest US for all of the pine trees and curvy roads.

Every single day is a sensory overload, and I simply do not have enough time to cover everything, so I will highlight a few of my favorite moments from the past week.

My favorite memory from this leg of the trip is without a doubt being smacked across the arm by an elephant's tail. Apparently he did not take kindly to our safari vehicle, and kind of charged us before turning around and hitting me in the process. This happened during a sunset safari on the second day- possibly the greatest 2 hours of my life, elephant anger aside.

The following day we drove to Blyde Dam, and later to Echo Cave, which is an out of the way cave that neighbors the questionable Museum of Man. Unfortuntely the Museum of Man was closed, much to my dismay and David's amusement. Upon our arrival, I had my very first encounter with "Bus Toilets." Bus Toilets, in this instance as I came to find out actually means "sketchy shack protecting a hole in the ground, with a toilet seat around the edges of said hole, located at the top of some very delapidated stairs." So to effectively use the toilet seat, you'd have to sit on the ground. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and my bladder was calling the shots. It was only after I had begun to utilize the Bus Toilet that I noticed I had an audience of about 20 spiders. This led to a speedy finish and run down the stairs. After my Bus Toilet trauma and the tour of Echo Cave, David pointed out the perfectly functional (with regular plumbing and seats at the regular height), spider free facilities a mere 200 yards from the "Bus Toilets."

Echo Cave also exposed David and I to the word "braaiing." Near the Bus Toilets was a sign that read, "Attention: No Picnicing and No Braaiing." David thought this could be a spelling error, while I chose to go with the zombie theory, in which zombies actually inhabited Echo Caves, and got confused while making the sign and realized that they did in fact want brains, and added a "g" so humans wouldn't drive off. There's also the donkey theory, that Echo Caves is actually an anti-donkey speak establishment, but David pointed out that that couldn't be the case because donkey braying is spelled with a "y." It turns out it's South African slang for grilling. I'm still keeping an eye out for zombies though.

Overall I have to say that I really enjoyed my time in South Africa. It's a beautiful country, the people are friendly, and Bus Toilets aside, it has most if not all of the conveniences one would find in the U.S.

Well folks, that's it! I'm in Madagascar right now, so I will try and post on my week here when we move on to the Comoros! Please pardon any spelling errors- my computer is French so I can't run spell check. Sigh.