Walter Family on Safari: Take 1

Safari is a word that means AWESOME.  I just made that up.  I have no idea what it really means, but the safaris that we have been on the past couple of days were really so amazing!!!  The tour we booked has kept us going 24/7 so everyone is just beat to heck.  We all smell like a safari as well...totally ripe!  It all started yesterday morning after a lovely breakfast.  Themba, our guide for the day, picked us up at 8 and we went straight to the iSimangoliso Wetlands Park.  The park is huge...goes all the way up to the Mozambique border and is now protected by the government so it is really well kept.  Although it is large in size it really doesn't have a huge amount of the predatory animals found in most other parks.  There is plenty to see, but it's mostly about the landscape here.  There are lakes and wetlands and the Indian ocean within the park boundaries.  We were able to see lots and lots of hippos and zebras, also a few Cape Buffalo, many Bush Bucks, bush baby monkeys, and blue butt monkeys, Kudu (like an impala), wildebeasts and tons of cool birds.  The highlight of the trip was during the half way point when our guide dropped us down on a beach called Cape Vidal.  There is a reef where we were able to snorkel and swim in the tropical waters.  It was heaven!!!  By that time we were all so hot and sweaty that it was just a treat.  There is an endangered Somango monkey down that coast that is super cute and super naughty...it stole our cookies right before lunch.  Evil monkeys!  Our guide was very knowledgeable and was from a Zulu tribe so we had a great time asking him many things about the animals and Africa in general.  By the end Jake was smitten with Themba and followed him around whenever we left the jeep.  There is also another couple on tour with us, Sebastian and Bobbette, who are from Zurich and are very nice and have tolerated our children very well.  The trip ended around three or four in the afternoon so we had some time to shower and relax before dinner.

Dinner is a whole post in and of itself.  The place we are staying cooks breakfast and dinner for us then the tour group provides the lunch.  The food in SA up to now, except for a couple of yummy meals in the Cape, has been underwhelming.  But the owners of our hotel are true blue Afrikaners, so each meal has been superb.  Dave almost peed himself the first night because the guy brought out all of his most favorite dishes from the past.  We ate gem squash (just a sqash but so tasty), bobotie (meat with curry sauce, rice and chutney), cucumber salad, and for dessert: a pudding Dave has spoken of with reverence for the 20+ years since his mission.  Tears were forming as it was brought out...and it really was delicious.  The kids were real troopers, tried it all and really liked it.  Especially the malva pudding dessert.  We topped the dinner off with a nice cup of rooibos tea...yum!

Next on the agenda was a night safari.  That evening, after dark, our guide named Theo picked us up to take our family, the Swiss and some Durbanites back into the wetlands park.  This was really the coolest experience, even though it was a bit unnerving.  We were taken through some large back gates that reminded me of Jurrasic Park...double thick with all kinds of fencing and wires.  Both of the other gals were really nervous to come and spoke openly about their reservations.  A couple of my children were a bit freaked out as well.  Hippos can be very dangerous and there are just loads and loads of them in this park.  We drove for what seemed like forever without seeing much except for hippos (Ben was working the spotlight on one side of the truck and Theo was on the other).  Theo stopped at a little road on the side and said he spotted some cat tracks...there are no lions in this park so it would have to be leopard tracks.  He starts down the road and soon it becomes very bumpy and hard going because it is so sandy and rocky.  And then we got stuck...really stuck in the sand.  He tries to back up like a thousand times...until there is a smell of burning rubber and we all start getting concerned.  You could tell that Theo didn't want us to get out of the jeep but by then it was obvious that we were going to have to help push.  We had just seen a hippo who was bloodied from fighting something and Theo had also just pointed out small poisonous spiders that make their webs in the reeds right on the sides of the road.  So...with those things in mind we all hop out of the jeep.  Then Brooke tells me she needs to pee...really bad.  Allll righhty then!!!  Don't worry...it all ends well...Brooke pees in the woods unmolested, the men push the jeep out and we go on our way.  We have almost given up hope for seeing anything of real interest when all of a sudden a leopard jumps right out in front of us an on to the road!  What a sight to behold!  We followed him around for a bit, coaxing him into view a few times, then lose him in some tall grass.  To see him in all his glory was a real treat and pretty rare according to our guide.  We left that night super pumped for our big safari the next morning....and very glad to be alive as well!

Which leads me to today and our safari at HluHluwe iMfolozi Park. The oldest safari park in SA.  Our Safari started at 5am....so I've been up since 445 and had insufficient sleep the night before...so I will leave you here with this cliffhanger until tomorrow.  Does the Walter family get to see the Big 5?  Is their truck nearly tipped over by a rhino?  How many times does Robynn mistake a tree or a bush for an animal?  Stay tuned for answers to those provocative questions and more...tomorrow!

Our crazy hotel...it's so wrong that it's right, ya know?  From the albino geckos that slither all over the place, the feral cat situation, and large/flying/birdlike insects...we almost feel at home!

Cape Buffalo...one of the Big 5, considered to be the most dangerous of all the African animals to hunt.  I don't know why this photo cropped out the hippos and zebras that were drinking on either side....you'll just have to take my word for it!

Tripple selfie at Cape Vidal

Delicious lunch overlooking Catalina Bay...hippos swimming in the distance...awesome!

Ben with the zebras...that's his impression of them i guess?

Jake with his new friend Themba and the rest of the fam