Safari!

Hello!
   Well, somehow last week I lost my gigantic email before I sent it and then we didn't 

have enough power to send it later so I'm even more behind than usual....  Oh Kim, oh Africa......

   Two weeks ago, we took a little vacation to South Africa. It was a birthday/anniversary/mostlyforsanity

 trip and it was AWESOME!!!  We thought Africa was Africa and were amazed at the difference 

between the two countries.  Where one has buildings crumbling from disrepair, the other 

has modern, gleaming buildings; one has narrow roads with potholes and sinkholes when

 paved, and dirt roads otherwise, the other has smooth asphalt roads with wide shoulders; 

 one has garbage everywhere, the other is clean and garbage-free; one has a perpetual 

coating of dust and dirt, the other was fresh and green.  The contrast was startling and 

we kept saying things like, "Look at these roads!" or "Wow, what a nice building!" or 

"It's so pretty here!"  And going shopping for food (first time I've ever bought food as a trip souvenir...) was 

overwhelming.   I told Dad that I felt like I was on "Supermarket Sweep" and I had 10 

minutes to decide what things I wanted very most out of the whole, huge store. We wanted

 to bring back the whole produce section.  I bought nuts because I miss my morning almonds. 

 Dad bought, what else? chocolate chip cookies.   They didn't sell chocolate chips - you had

 to go to a specialty baking store for them - so he bought cookie mixes and cookies. 

It gave us a small taste of how weird it'll be when we come home.  Hmm...
   But I'm yakking too much. :)

 Here's what we did: 

 On Monday we flew to Maputo, where the Hobsons picked us up, and then drove to Kreuger Park. 

It's about a 3 hour drive from Maputo and the scenery was really beautiful along the way.
 

It was too early to check in, so we went and got something to eat. Food is probably the number one thing we miss - besides consistent water and electricity - so we were stoked. Our first 'real meal' was at a Wimpys Burger. We had chicken wraps and I had a salad and Dad had a chocolate shake. We felt like we had won the lottery. Then we drove to Kreuger Park to drive through on our own, but it closed in an hour and it was $50 to go in, so we decided to wait for the next day. Then we checked into our B & B and that night we had BBQ ribs. Ka-ching!!! By Outback standards, they were so-so but for us they were fabulous.
We crashed early because our safari started at 5:45 am. 

The next morning, we rolled out and and climbed in the safari jeep. We had a family from France with us - parents and two boys. They didn't speak English, so we didn't talk too much, but our guide was Becky from England. She likes wildlife so 3 years ago, she came to Africa and now is a guide through the park. Wow!! There is nothing like being one car-lane away from an elephant or a giraffe! It was so cool!!! 12 feet away from us!
These guys were fighting!

Love this pose!

Hippos 

 

Zebras

Baboons

This mother baboon was struggling to get her baby on her back. Dad said that she needed a capalana!

Pumba

Waiting for the water buffalo to cross the road.

Impala

Beautiful countryside!

 

There's a herd of elephants down below us.

That night, Dad said that he wanted to go back into the park on our own the next day. So we got up at 5:15am the next morning and headed back to Kreuger. We didn't see as much as we had seen the day before, but we did see a mother giraffe and her baby and I decided to get a few pics WITH the animals.

 You're not supposed to get out of your car but I thought 'when am I ever going to get a chance like this?' So when we saw this giraffe so close to us, I told Dad I was going to get out. He took my picture (from the safety of the car) and while he was taking it I heard movement in the brush and thought "LION!!" so I dove in the backseat of the car. It was just another giraffe coming out of the trees, but it got my heart pumping...

Me and the Zebras

Me and your Dad ;)

 

It was still darkish here, but this is a mother giraffe and her baby.

This guy was watching us for awhile before he ventured super close to eat. It was so fun to watch him!

After Kreuger (and a trip to the giftshop ), we went back to the B & B, packed up, and headed to Nelspruit. It's only an hour and a half away. It's such a nice city - so pretty, green, and clean. We loved eating yummy food! I had fish 3 times and we both had lots of salads because we miss them so much. And soup! They don't know how to make soup here. It's so weird!! They only make one kind - a very watery potato soup that they call vegetable soup. So, we had a food marathon!! 

  It was kind of like being on a cruise because we ate whether we were hungry or not just because we could. :)

I felt like I had just eaten Thanksgiving dinner the whole time but didn't want to miss a meal because I knew it was my only chance for a long time. Burp! I mean, sigh....
And I got my hair cut so it's not so lop-sided (it's still going to be a few months until it's even). 

Here I am with Lydia from South Africa who worked on a Greek cruise ship a few years ago for the heck of it.

Another big, big difference between the two countries is the cost of things. In Mozambique a regular hotel room is $225, pension is $125. Our room at Kreuger was $80 and Nelspruit was $90. A meal that would cost us $15-$20 in Mozambique was $7-$10 in Nelspruit and it was delicious!! We kept saying, "This is so good - and so cheap!" 

They have a botanical garden in the middle of the city so we went there one morning.

  

 Here's Indiana Jones at the waterfalls.

Only a few flowers, but we spied this gorgeous one.

 We left there Friday morning and drove back to Maputo where we met the Tidwells and went to the Arte Parque where local craft people sell their things. They were closing but when they saw us coming, the ones that were still there swarmed us.

We got a few things and then headed to - where else? - get dinner. Maputo has some good restaurants and this Mexican one is owned by an American and would give Cafe Rio some competition. We were still so full, we could only eat half so we got it to go and took it on the plane with us. It made a great lunch the next day. Later, I told Dad that I wish we would have gotten a couple of meals 'to go' for Beira. It was fun hanging out and visiting with the Tidwells! We compared notes and swapped stories. They're troopers!

Then back home to Beira. Saturday was mega laundry day and food shopping. Party's over.....
Sunday, the new teacher (and none of the presidency) showed up so I scrambled to get a lesson together. We have two teachers so someone is supposed to teach the first hour, then I do singing time, and then the other one teaches the second hour but they are so unpredictable, I'm just going to start preparing the whole enchilada and if somebody shows up, it's a bonus!:)

Well, that was our super fun week!
Sure do love all of you!