Days 109 and 110

Day 109

Well, it's a good thing bad experiences make for good writing. Don't get me wrong, the safari was a lot of fun, and dinner was great...but New Year's Eve itself, wasn't so great. After playing a game of scrabble with Heloise, I was in my room, alone, at 11:15 I think? I didn't have a clock in my room, so I wasn't exactly sure of the time, but what I do know is that it was before midnight. Missing family and friends, I jumped into the shower. The water ended up being ankle deep, I guess due to a draining problem. I clearly wasn't thinking as it rose, cuz when I looked down, I realized the door wasn't stopping any of it from running out. It didn't make a difference now...everything was soaked. So I finished up, and stepped out into a very flooded bathroom. So flooded in fact, that part of the bedroom carpet was wet as well. If this was any indication on how my year was going to go...I thought "I'll just sleep the whole way through 2010". I'm hoping though, that that was the bad luck running out before the New Year began. I sat down in bed and wrote out what I would write in the first part of tonight's blog, and then watched some TV, and fell asleep. Happy New Year.

...Now that you know how my New Year's Eve was, I'll tell you about the events leading up to the lonely part. It was great. I woke up at 6 and got ready. Checked the e-mails I could, but didn't have time to reply to many...then I went out to grab a yogurt before we hit the road. Just after 7, about 6 minutes past...we piled into the car and were off on an adventure. We drove along and saw some beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I couldn't help it, and fell asleep for part of the journey. - That's what happens when you only have about 5 hours of sleep for about 4 nights in a row - We eventually got to a little town and stopped for breakfast. We sat at a picnic table and as we ate, we watched one of the ladies make fresh bread. The boys played on the play structure, and when we were finished we walked up the street to the grocery store. We got a few essentials for a picnic, and were on our way again.

Not even able to think about food at that moment, we drove a bit further. We went to the Bontebok (A type of antelope sort of animal) National Park in Swellendam (Western Cape). Unimpressed at first, we drove in anyway. Everything looked really dry and as though there wasn't too much going on. As we drove further however, we saw some heartebeests and some bontebok with their babies. We took some pics and video and moved on. Still not hungry, we pulled over at a river that we thought would be our picnic spot. None of us wanted to eat though, so Heloise and I sat on the beach while the boys went swimming. You should have seen the fish jumping around in the water. Well...we didn't actually see them, but the splashes they made gave us the impression that they were pretty big. After a while we all got back into the car and drove to our destination "The Garden Route Game Lodge".

We pulled up to the gates and immediately saw wildlife! ZEBRAS! This was going to be cool...I could tell. We headed for the parking lot and were met by an employee who described our activities for the next 2 days and gave us directions to the bars, the pool, and our rooms. We looked at the chalet first, and then went to the hut. They had it set up so that it would be 4 people in the chalet, and 2 in the hut...but after some conversation and Tim speaking to the front desk, it was changed to 5 in the chalet, and me in the hut. I loved my little cabin. It was so cute, and to me, felt like more of the Safari experience than it would have if I stayed in a chalet.

We put our bags away etc, and everyone had a picnic on my veranda. Then the boys decided to go for a swim. I freshened up, charged my camera, and then went out to meet everyone. I jumped in the pool quickly, and then got out and changed. We then all went outside and got into the safari vehicle. I think we were put on the best one, because our guide Piet was awesome, and wasn't afraid of getting too close to the animals. I was able to take some great pictures. We saw Rhino's first, Zebras, Birds, Springbok, Buffalo, Eland, Black Wildebeest, Ostriches, Lions and Cheetahs. We also came across a tortoise who was lucky to not get crushed by our vehicle. Our guide stopped, and those who wanted to, myself included, got to hold the tortoise. He was great. Josh decided he wants one, and I told him I'd help him take care of it. We'll see what Heloise and Tim say when we get home. After the Safari, we were dropped off at the lodge, and decided we would go change, and then head off to dinner. Knowing we had just a little bit of time, I went into the lobby and thought I was going to get to sneak onto the computer. Unfortunately Heloise and the boys had just come out when the guy on it before me finally told me I could go on. I asked Heloise if we were leaving for dinner right away as I wanted to send an e-mail, and she said I could meet them there. Well I certainly wasn't doing that. We were standing around waiting for Tim though, so I got on and sent the quickest e-mail ever. It wasn't long before Tim realized I was on the internet, and was looking over my shoulder with the boys. I decided to log off. We walked to the lodge for dinner, where I tried Eland, Kudu, and Wildebeest. It was pretty tasty, although I did feel bad about the Eland, having heard earlier that our guide had one as a pet.
You know how the rest of my night went.

Day 110
I woke up to Josh knocking at my cabin door. When I opened the curtains, he was standing there in the rain. I turned around to get the key so that I could let him in, and when I turned to face the door again, he was gone. I know I had only asked him to wake me up...but I expected him to come in for a bit. He told me later that he didn't think I wanted him in there as he was dripping wet. Poor guy.

I got ready and watched the ball drop live from Time Square. They were playing it on the news. It was then that I realized New Year's hadn't occurred in Vancouver yet, so technically 2010 had yet to begin for me. This meant that I wouldn't be alone to celebrate, and I'd be on my 2nd Safari to celebrate. It also meant that the shower incident wasn't even close to my New Year, and I could leave that in 2009. I walked into the lobby to meet the rest of them, snuck on the computer to send an e-mail or two, but was discovered...again...and we all went outside to jump in our guides truck. We were early so we went into the lodge to grab some coffee, and then came back out. We were very happy that we were able to go with Piet again. Josh, Nathaniel and I sat in the first row, as yesterday Josh, Tim and I sat in the back row. Today there were 3 people in the middle row, and Tim, Heloise and Zach in the back.

Off we went for another amazing experience. We saw Giraffes, Elephants, some more Eland and Springbok, Zebras, and revisited the Cheetahs, and the Lions. The lions were a little more active this morning. The female at one point, started coming towards us so the guide got in the truck, turned it on and put it into reverse. She gave up on us soon enough, and we could approach the others to get some better pictures. Apparently the other day, one of the guides took a guy who wanted more pics of the lions into their area, and the vehicle got stuck. The lioness began to approach them, and it was a scary situation for a bit. They ended up getting out ok though.

We looked at more birds, saw some Cape Hare, and some Yellow Mongoose. We also saw what I think Piet said was a Jackal Buzzard. Apparently it's South Africa's largest flying bird. We saw some other birds, saw some skulls and carcasses, and then found another tortoise. This guy didn't scratch quite as much as yesterday's, but they were both just as cute as the other. I held him too.

We drove back to the lodge for what turned out to be a very good breakfast. After eating we walked up to the reptile house where a different guide showed us around and spoke about snakes etc. He also told us some stories about the terrible spiders around South Africa, but I won't go into detail, as I don't want to give you nightmares. All I'll say is there's one he spoke about, called the baboon spider, who didn't do nearly as much damage as some of the others, but was the size of his two hands put together. EW! He had been holding a snake when we arrived and asked if anyone else wanted to give it a go. I watched Nathaniel do it...he wasn't such a fan of this one, and then I watched one other guy and a lady do it. It was then that I decided, as much as I hate snakes, that if I didn't do it, I'd regret it. I do after all, want to have a full South African experience. I held it and felt it's tongue on my hand. Not my favourite experience, but an experience nonetheless. We walked outside and looked at the crocodiles, and that's when he began telling the horror stories. When that was finished, we walked back to our rooms, packed up, and I went online while waiting for the others. When they were ready, without them knowing I was on the computer this time (A lot of my family on the British side don't understand why the internet is so important, so sneaking on is what you do if you don't want to listen to them discuss ones need to be around it all the time). I logged off as the boys were getting out of the pool, and when they were ready we went up to the Cheetah enclosure.

Now this, was an experience. The trek there wasn't great. It wasn't too long, but the ants biting my feet made it seem like a lengthy walk. They were everywhere, and when the big one stuck to you...it was hard to get them off. One of the little suckers ended up making me bleed on the way back. Anyway, we were walking by one of the Cheetahs in the enclosure, and all of a sudden Nathaniel went running past me. I stopped him and told him he had to be careful, he was to walk and be quiet when he was around the cages. Well, the warning was a little too late. The Cheetah had locked her eyes on him and was watching like a hawk. What happened next was incredible. She stood up, and within seconds she was as close to the gate as she could get. I could not believe how quickly she moved. Luckily I had yelled at Zach and Nathaniel to move away from the fence. I saw her coming, their backs were to her, and I'm not sure if she would have tried reaching out. She calmed down and walked back to her spot, but she continued to watch Nathaniel as he walked around the fence and to the next enclosure. She had her eyes on him the entire time. When we reached the guide he said the boys would have to be quiet and walk slowly...he hadn't seen what had happened but told us the Cheetahs can smell vulnerability so while the ones in the "wild" are ok with him, and listen when he tells them sternly to go away...when it came to kids, they thought of them as prey. We told him what had just happened and he was a little surprised, not that it happened I don't think, but that he didn't see it happen. Don't worry though...he had a second chance. When we were walking to the next enclosure we had to pass the same Cheetah. She had yet to take her eyes off Nathaniel, and when he got close again you could see her getting ready. She leaped out and went for a run at the fence again, stopping just before hitting it. I got it on camera this time as I could see she was just waiting for the perfect moment. It kind of freaked Nathaniel out. I can completely understand that because you really don't realize how fast they are, until you've seen it going after something it wants. I can't remember how fast it is but they can get up to crazy amounts of speed, in 2.3 seconds.

We were standing looking at a Mom Cheetah and her cubs when the ants got worse. They were biting like crazy, and I wasn't the only one that couldn't handle it. As much as I wanted to look at the Cheetahs, I had seen some before, and much closer...and this was just ridiculous. Zach and Heloise weren't enjoying it either, so we all headed down the path, ants biting at our toes until we arrived at the car. We hopped in - Tim had already checked out for us - and we drove away. Zebra's on our right and a HUGE tortoise drinking from a puddle in the middle of the road. We slowed down for him.

As we drove, I fell asleep. I couldn't help it. I was exhausted. We weren't hungry at all as we had eaten soooo much at the buffet earlier, so we could drive for a couple of hours. Eventually we stopped in Hermanus. We sat overlooking the water. The boys had some lunch, I grabbed an apple and we drank coffee's and hot chocolates while I enjoyed the view. Nobody else seemed too impressed with the area, but it was very touristy and had the youngest people I had seen in a long time. I loved the atmosphere and was taking it all in. I also bought myself a pair of sunglasses. I had tried them on and Nathaniel and Josh both told me they liked them...unsure of how much they were, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to afford it. They didn't have a price tag, and normally that's not a great sign. Heloise asked the guy, and he said 40 Rand. That's about 4 pound, which is about 8 dollars. I could afford these :p Plus they were playing my Mom and my song when I saw them, so it was a sign...I needed these glasses. I bought them and was happy. After enjoying the view, we returned to the car and drove home. I slept for a bit again, probably a good hour, and then enjoyed the next hour and 40 minutes just gazing out the window and singing along to the songs on the radio. They played everything from O-Town to Michael Buble. I was happy...I can't say the same for Tim though.

On our way home you could see fires on the mountains. Not the flame, but lots of smoke. It filled the sky, and at one point you could even smell it as it seeped into the car. We arrived home, the boys went for a swim and had dinner. I dumped the videos I had taken onto my computer, spoke with Tara (My sister) on Skype, and then had a quick dinner, answered some e-mails etc, and came in my room around 10. I had my shower and crawled into bed to write my blog. Now you've read about the last 2 days, I'll be back on track tomorrow. I'm not sure what we'll be doing yet, but the temperature is supposed to be 39...so I can't see us moving very far from home. We'll see though. And for now, I'll say Good Night xx