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Published: November 18th 2010
I got to spend 3 days in Joburg before heading off to Madikwe. We were out in The Bush and I had no internet soooo, I will split them into a couple blogs so it is not too overwhelming!
My first couple days here were spent visiting family and friends. We went to see Anton at the factory(“The Factory” as we call it, is a large warehouse filled to the brim with set props for movies. Tots{My Aunt} runs everything there and she has Anton and Orin to help her organize and load and unload orders). We didn’t get to stay long because we were invited over for drinks, to a friend of the family, Marie and Hansie’s house. We met their 2 sons for the first time, JP and Justin. They are all wonderful people. Justin, his friend Sebastian, Sam and I hung out outside and drank much of the night. Hansie came down and told us some of his crazy stories about being in Botswana and work, he is one of the funniest people I have ever met! After us 4 polished off a bottle of Rischlu(best brandy EVER!), it was time to head over to Grandma’s House
for dinner. Sam and I made us late…. Oops 😊 We had a lovely dinner and chatted a while, then Sam and I tucked Josh(our cousin) into bed and went and sat and talked with Tots, in her room for a bit before heading back to Grandpa’s house where we are staying.
Wednesday, Sam was up with the sun at 5:30. We are sleeping on an air mattress in the living room under a window with no curtains so the sun shines in bright and early, Sam was up due to jet lag but the early morning sun doesn’t help that either 😊 Even though I woke up as well I refused to get up and kept trying to force myself back to sleep till around 7:30 when I gave in and got up too. That afternoon we went over to Grandma’s for a while and Mom and Dad took her out to lunch. Sam and I stayed behind and hung out with Francina. Justin an Sebastian came to pick us up a little while later and they drove us to Hartebeesport Damn. It was an awesome drive, we listened to a lot of great music and saw some
beautiful country side. We drove down to the water’s edge for a bit and then they took us to the Zoo there. This particular zoo had 40 different deadly snakes! We walked around for quite a while looking at all the animals and staying longer by the animals still active in the mid afternoon heat. The Chimpanzee called Pugu was sitting at the side of his cage which was near a set of stairs. We stopped for a bit to hang out with Pugu. He would stick his arm through the mesh fencing and grab our hands or fingers. At one point he picked up a soda can tab and stuck it in his mouth, once we realized what he had we tried to get it from him and he ended up handing it to us! We also got to see them feed the wild dogs… Not the most pleasant thing to watch…. Just think of chicken intestine, stringing along like spaghetti – haha, now you have a pretty picture in your head I’m sure! After that lovely sight we decided we were hungry too, although not sure why that made us want to eat… We had to walk back
past Pugu’s cage to make our way to the exit and as we did so he threw water at us out of a plastic water bottle, that someone must have given him, and then he threw the bottle at us once we stopped to look over and see what was going on. None of us were hit, he was just playing, he had a big smile on his face and just wanted attention, it was pretty cool though. We all had hamburgers with chips for lunch and then headed back to Justin’s house. We ended up staying over there till about 11pm drinking beer, listening to music, playing foosball(which I am quite terrible at haha), and of course lots of talking.
We were up early on Thursday because we had to finish packing and get ready to leave for Madikwe. We met Uncle Chris and Aunty Nan at the Lanseria airport… in the private jet section!!! It was so awesome, when we arrived they came out to greet us and take our bags. We were taken to a waiting room where they made us cappuccinos and had a fridge stocked with everything from soda, to beer, to juice and
water. Once Chris and Nan and their friends Bruce and Jennifer arrived our bags were loaded onto our plane and we got ready to head out. The plane was a Cessna Caravan single engine turbo prop with retractable gear. It seats 8 people and has the pilot and co-pilot chair for a total of 10 people(but is capable of carrying 12 people total). The wings sit above the cabin of the plane and there is a big propeller at the front of the nose! The ride was exciting but not long, around 45 min, through which we experienced what I would relate to a rollercoaster ride. The plane swayed and waved side to side and bounced up and down. Sometimes there would be a big sudden drop and I would get heart tickles! Once we were above the clouds the ride was fairly smooth. Landing was a bit crazy we went in at a steep angle forwards and slightly crooked, we bounced twice before being able to stay on the ground and stop. We landed on a dirt runway which was a bit nerve wracking in itself! When we landed the vehicle that we would be driving around in to
see the animals was there along with a closed SUV that they loaded our bags into to take to the lodge. (*** Just have to put in here that right now I am sitting in Sam’s and My room while I write this and out our back door type area there are Zebra walking past!***{Written Saturday}) We didn’t realize that when we arrived we would be out on the road looking for animals already and therefore were completely unprepared. Without sun block or our recommended hats we headed off into The Bush. Right after driving away from the plane we saw Giraffe and Kudu. The entire drive turned out to be quite successful we saw; Zebra, a White Rhino, Antelope, Brown Hyena, Steenbok, Guine foul, a Scrub Hare, a Puff Adder, Termite Mounds, lizards and Shongololos(like a centipede). It took us, I think, around 2 hours, maybe more I don’t know for sure, to drive from where the plane landed to our lodge. Around half way through we stopped in a shady area and Aj(our guide) pulled out a big cooler packed with all sorts of drinks mostly of the alcoholic genera! We had a drink and relaxed a bit
and then headed on our way again. When we arrived we were showed around the lodge, there is a small pool, a large covered deck with 2 big sofa type chairs, and off of this deck is a small watering hole (that has already been visited by many animals since we arrived{Written Saturday}), off to the back of the deck and pool area is a Braai(BBQ) area and a fire pit, this is where we had dinner. The main building of the lodge has an inside sitting are, a large kitchen with a fridge packed with drinks only, there is also a small upstairs area with a tv and books, another deck and then there is a bathroom to the side of the outside deck. The rooms are all detached in little buildings and are absolutely wonderful. Sam and I had a room to ourselves with a little back patio with a table and chairs for 2. There is also a large window seat which is perfect to sit and read on and a wonderfully nice bathroom and an outdoor shower! We took small naps after driving around in the heat all day and then when we got up we
went out again for a drive around sunset. We stopped again mid-way for drinks and watched the sun go down. When we got back to the lodge there was a large bonfire lit and dinner was being prepared. We stayed up around the bonfire drinking and catching up on life before calling it a night.
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tom
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pics
Looks a lot like the photographic opportunity of a lifetime. tg