Real Life LION KING

This weekend I went on a Safari and it was AMAZING! I knew when I came to Africa that if there was anything “extra circular” that I wanted to do it was going to be a Safari! So before I left I worked and worked to have the money to do this. I even scrubbed a Meth house top to bottom. Our Safari was 4 days long and we went to Kruger National Park!! So basically I’m gonna break up our trip day by and day and go over the highlights!

DAY ONE: FRIDAY

• We (Brooke, Mallory, Kelsey, Molly and I) woke up at 4:00 a.m. to catch our taxi to get to Cape Town International Airport by 5:00 for our 6:15 flight to Joburg.
• Got to the airport in plenty of time and went through the most UNSECURE security I’ve ever been through. For example I walked through the scanner thing with a full water bottle in my hand, shoes on, jacket on, and a ball of aluminum foil from my muffins in my hand. Nor did they ask me to take my liquids out of my bag. It was bizarre.
• 2 hours later we landed in Joburg and were picked up by a really little man named “BIG BOY” who was politely holding a sign for us. This is when we met our other Safari friends who were going to be in our group. They were another group of volunteers here in South Africa and their names were Lisa(Manchester), Kara(Ireland) and Alex(Spain).
• After a very long 6 hours mini bus drive and one stop at Steers for lunch we finally arrived at our Game Reserve!! IT was beautiful. We checked in to our rooms at the “Gazebo” got settled had dinner and headed off to bed. We were exhausted.

DAY TWO: SATURDAY

• Friday night was ROUGH. Turns out the tap water isn’t safe to drink at our Game Reserve and in Joburg  which made for a really long night for Molly and I. Thankfully though my prayers were answered and we both woke up feeling fine!
• TODAY IS KRUGER DAY! We woke up at 4:00 a.m. once again to be on the road by 5:00 and in Kruger National Park by 5:30. Why so early? Because that’s when the animals wake up!!
• For the first 3 hours we didn’t see anything except A LOT of poop and animal tracks. I was starting to think that the whole KRUGER Park being awesome thing was just a made up Myth and that really no animals lived there.
• After we stopped for breakfast though things really started picking up. Throughout the day we saw everything!! We were lucky enough to see all 5 of the BIG FIVE which is almost unheard of. The BIG FIVE includes: Elephants (my favorite animal ever), Rhino’s, Water Buffalo, Lions and Leopards (which are the hardest to spot).
• On top of the big five we also saw Monkeys, Baboons, Crocodiles, Zebra, Giraffes, Impala, Kudu etc. etc. basically everything.
• Basically we were at Kruger from Sun Up to Sun Down and it was incredible. If you ever have the opportunity to go there I highly suggest you do it!!

 5 AM might be a bit to early for pictures

 Here all all the footprints...but where are the elephants!!

 Dear Animals, please show yourselves!

DAY THREE: SUNDAY

• By far out busiest day yet.
• We were awoken at 4:00 a.m. again because we had our Sunrise Safari at 5:00 a.m. This is the first time we got to see Lions, Giraffes and Rhinos up close and personal. It was incredible. We also stumbled upon a dead Mama Giraffe that was in the process of giving birth when the lions took advantage of her and killed her. L But that’s what we call the Circle of Life.
• We also had our BUSH WALK which was about an hour and we walked around and looked at different types of plants, footprints and dunge (which is a fancy word for poop). We also saw some wart hogs aka Pumba’s and we were able to get pretty close to them before they ran off. “are you achin… for some bacon…”
• Then I got to go have my ELEPHANT INTERACTION. Which I’ve only been dreaming about since like … Forever. It’s going to get a blog post of it’s own because it was kinda the highlight of everything for me.
• After dinner we then had our Sunset Safari. They are supposed to be really good to see Lions in because that’s when Lions hunt. Well remember that Giraffe that had been killed earlier that morning… We went back to it knowing the Lions would be around guarding it from other animals, but we never expected to see what we saw.  Which was 2 lions eating the Giraffe and the baby Giraffe that was still partially inside the SAC.
• This may sound intensely gross, and now that I’m writing about it I even kind of think that it’s gross. But in the moment it was literally the most incredible thing to watch. It was 100% natural. It’s life for these animals. And oh boy were we super close.. so close we could hear the bones crunching and we could smell it. EW.
• On our Sunset Safari we were also able to see Hippos out of the water. Holy Shizzzz they are the most giant thing in the world, other than Elephants of course which are the largest animal on this planet.

 Dead Giraffe... baby coming out of it..

 Thats poop in his mouth.. He's having a spitting contest. Gross

DAY FOUR: MONDAY

• Traveling day!!
• Started our day off with breakfast and then packed up our rooms, got picked up and headed back to the airport.
• We got to the airport about 4 hours early, so we found a good spot to sit and played some nice card games while we waited. We really looked like true back packers.
• Then of course because we had only been sitting for 4 hours of flight was delayed.
• At last we made it on the plane, 2 hours in the sky and we landed safely but exhausted in Cape Town.
• A quick cab ride home and we were in bed, our safari weekend over L

 Overall I must say that it was amazing and worth every cent that I spent. I loved every second and I don’t think there would be one thing that I would change. Seeing the animals was amazing. The food was delicious. The service was fantastic and our guides were hilarious. And I even made it threw the weekend with only getting 6 mosquito bites! Such a success.

 Our favorite guide Luxon. Quote "Giraffe's are BORRRING"

 Yea, you can go to the bathroom with that view