The title of this blog was spotted at the Swazi/South African border where free condoms are to be had in abundance. HIV issues and all...It made me laugh.
We had the most amazing couple of days. In our last episode we were just preparing for our long drive to South Africa and Kruger Park. Kruger is a massive game park where all types of African plants, animals, etc are free to roam in the wild. Actually I doubt the plants roam...but you never know... We got up and were out of the house before 9am. Our destination was the Whiteriver area and Mercy Air, an organization that flies missionaries and other humanitarian flights all around the continent. They rent out apartments there for the equivalent of 10 bucks a night. UM and AD have friends that live on property so we were to have dinner with them and stay in the apartments. We stopped for shopping and lunch at a place called Castorbridge. It had some nicer stores and restaurants. We managed to get a book in Afrikaans for my weirdo friend Tabitha and some really good chocolate. After lunch we headed to Mercy Air and got a tour of the grounds and operation. While AD went for a walk with her friend, UM, Shan, and I rounded up pecans. We managed to fill an entire bag with fresh pecans...which, until I was shown an example, would not have known to be pecans if you'd pegged me in the face with one. They come in green fruity type skins and a shell you have to crack before getting to the butter brown pecan-y center. It was a trip tramping around in the brush and woods...I forget how much of a city girl I've turned into until I get out in nature again and then my Alaska upbringing comes rushing back. After getting nice and dirty we rested for a minute in our phat apartment before being called to dinner. Dinner was butter lettuce from her garden, fresh feta, chicken skewers and steamed fresh broccoli. It was divine. We had to be up at 3:30am to make it to the park at sunrise and I was exhausted anyway, so we went to be at 8pm. yes, you read that right. I haven't been to bed after 10pm since I left home.
We still got a full nights sleep and I wandered around the field trying to see the Southern Cross while waiting for everyone else to be ready. The stars down here are amazing, it's like being on a completely different planet as none of the constellations look familiar. Finally we get on the road at 10 after 5am and we're the 3rd car in line at the gate when it opens at 6am. The sunrise was fantastic and the whole park glowed in the light. We had our first sighting of some impala and then a lone hyena. I didn't know what to expect so I didn't expect much. We were in the park for a total of 11 hours and there are too many words to describe the experience. Running into the 'big five' or any of the animals is such a strange combination of dumb luck and chance considering you're not allowed out of your vehicle except at certain guarded campsites. In order to get great pictures they have to be close...so it's really a gamble. My Aunt has been complaining that she never sees the big cats when she goes and Shannon is relatively unlucky with celebrity sitings so I hoped that my good luck would counteract both of theirs. When we stopped for lunch we left AD alone for 5 minutes and in that time she saved our stuff from a rogue monkey but got a bad scratch in the process. i told her that in order to see the cats that life was making her pay the price. LITERALLY 5 minutes after we pull out of the campsite we and one other car spot a leopard with its cub on the side of the road waiting to cross. All of us freaked out and then I laughed and laughed at how correct I had been. If she hadn't gotten that monkey scratch which delayed us we would never have seen the leopard. There were a ton of other experiences but for me, none can ever top the first sighting of an elephant in the wild. It lumbered through the bush and across the road to join its friend. We turned the car engine off and watched them pull up bushes and shrubs for fun. Later that day we got caught in a heard of adult and baby elephants that were scattered behind and in front of us all on the road and beside. It was beyond description. Other sitings were giraffe, monkeys, baboons, various deer-type creatures, black and white rhino, hippos, crocodiles, wildebeest, warthog, and so many more. The drive home seemed to take alot less time and we all snoozed our way through a quick dinner of leftovers before passing out from a very long 15 hours in the car.
Today we had nothing on the official agenda I made up so after a frustrating call to Orbitz to try and fix a ticket issue we had breakfast. Breakfast ended up lasting for about 5 hours because we got on some rather serious and inflammatory topics. There is alot of history between my dad's family and my mom and all the things surrounding their divorce. We got to correct some of the misnomers and learn quite a few things about ourselves and our family. It was a really good talk and I had a really big personal breakthrough of my own about my dad. Finally we shutup long enough to get ready and head out for the last bit of shopping we hadn't finished. We stopped by the famous candle factory here in Swaziland and got some really cool shaped candles after watching how they were done by the workers. Batiks are also a big thing to buy here. Those are a kind of textile where they put wax on areas not to be dyed, then the material is dipped in color, the wax is removed in hot water, then put back on in other places, then dipped in a new color...at the end of the process you have a really cool wall hanging, tablecloth, etc. The quality of the artwork here is phenomenal and I've been really restraining myself by reminding myself whatever I do buy needs to be carted around Paris for the next month. Afterwards we ate dinner and UM pulled out the home video collection. Shannon and I laughed until we cried at our Dad's 80s bouffant and porn-stache.
Tomorrow we have church in the morning then we're going to go somewhere nearby to braai, or have a braai...not sure which. It basically means BBQ.
Pictures: Giraffe, leopard, rhino, baboon, Elephants as seen from the car for perspective, African sunrise
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