Advertisement
Published: August 20th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Well what a week it's been! I can't quite believe it was only 7 days ago that I said goodbye to Mark, Mum, Dad and Katie at the airport. It's certainly been eventful. I am writing this in an internet cafe in Nelspruit having just dropped off Sally at the airport for the next leg of her adventure to Cape Town. Hopefully over the next couple of days I'll be able to master the art of uploading photos to the web...then you'll really all be bored!
So in a nutshell...Sally, Mel, Paul, Dharsh and I all met at Jo'burg airport last Sunday morning after waiting ages in the longest ever immigration queue. I wouldn't have minded but the woman stamping my passport was so completely not bothered. We ended up all panicking that we would miss our flight which lead to my having to run (yes run!) to catch the next one. Anyway we all arrived safely into the most picturesque airport in the world (so far) and collected our car.
When we arrived at Kruger we did the typically touristy thing, we all got completely overwhelmed by the sight of about 4 impala 400 feet away in the bush and spent ages taking useless photos. Little did we know how sick of impala we'd get by the end of the week! We were so lucky though and on the shortish drive between the gate and Berg-en-dal we bumped into some elephants (hereafter referred to as ellies), and a pride of lions. We also bumped into game rangers Drew and Tracey McVey (ooohhhh!) which was lovely.
We spend the rest of Monday saying hello to everyone arriving for the wedding and settling into our little hut. Dharsh, Sally and I had a quiet night in....
We woke early on Monday for a game drive and were really really lucky to see lots of exciting things. Heading out of Berg-en-dal we came across the same pride of lions we'd seen the night before, this time with a little lion cub. I've managed to get some lovely film of Simba walking around which lead to much collective "ahhing" in the car. We managed to get off the main road and onto some of the smaller loops where we started to see other game including some rhino, which to be honest don't do much (sorry to all you rhino fanatics out there). The best bit though was coming across a very small herd of ellies quite close to us at the side of the road. As we watched them more and more came into view and we were quickly honoured with one of the most amazing views of an entire herd of ellies, including the cutest baby ellies, crossing the road behind us (after Dharsh managed some pretty good getaway driving - without stalling the car). It was really special and we were all very impressed with ourselves. We then continued on and found our first herd of giraffe which again lead to much "aahhing" in the car (mainly from me). They were just magic.
We then took another "sundowners" driver later joined by Trace and Mel. Dharsh - organised as ever, had packed a full cheese board and the now completely necessary box of rose wine. We set out again, this time on a route chosen by Trace and were lucky enough to come across some more ellies and rhino (still not doing much). We then found another herd of giraffe grazing next to some zebra and generally taking up much of the road. We took the opportunity to crack open the wine and cheese and biscuits. Trust me, you haven't lived if you haven't sat watching giraffe drinking very cheap plonk and eating cheese. It did get a bit more dangerous though, particularly when Dharsh put the car into gear and starting driving off.....
So then to the title of this blog entry. The girls will understand, suffice to say that the one place in the world I never thought I'd be propositioned is in the middle of a game reserve. Drew nearly didn't get to marry Trace, how different our lives would be if she had jumped vehicles and joined the dodgy looking threesome happening in the next car...
We ended Monday (I promise they won't all be this long), with a Braai at the McVeys.
So the wedding day dawned and we went on another early game drive. It's all pretty much merged into one (Sally can remember exactly what we saw every day), but I do know it was fab. We all then went and got ourselves sorted for the wedding. After saying goodbye to a very stressed looking Trace, we made our way to the game viewing vehicle which took us up to the wedding site. I have never before, and will never again, attended a wedding where the most important guest was the one with the shotgun. I was slightly concerned that Solly our game guard was paying too much attention to the actual ceremony and not the leopards tucking their napkins in and warming the plates. Anyway the ceremony was just beautiful, Tracey and Drew both looking stunning (yes hardy game ranging types can scrub up very well) and managed to keep it very together for their vows. Non of us were entirely sure where the priest was going with his sermon but I do now know that a lion has 8 different types of roar. After the wedding we all had champagne at the site and Sally, Mel and I had a pee behind the game drive vehicle (some things never change). We then all climbed on board for a drive into the sunset with little packed lunches and loads and loads of beer.
Unfortunately we didn't get to see much game on our driver but were taken up to another look out point where the girls were allocated one side of the vehicle to pee behind and the boys another (wierdly, finding somewhere to go to the loo in Kruger became the theme of our week). We then headed back to the camp for the reception which was just beautiful in, in hindsight, far too reserved for a proper Tracey night out.
We travelled up to another smaller camp site on Wednesday morning for a post wedding brunch with the whole family. The temperature by that point had started to increase, to the point that driving in the car felt like driving through a hot hair dryer. We had a bit of an incident at our picnic involving 2 very big ellies deciding to join the party uninvited. Admitedly they didn't eat our food but it was fairlt scary, particularly when Drew decided enough was enough and that they were getting too close. It is very strange to be that close to such a massive animal, it definitely lulls you into a false sense of security. We then had another close encounter with a couple of fighting ellies in the afternoon so close to the fenceline we could have passed them a towel at the end of each round. I could describe it in much more detail but can feel you all getting bored.
Wednesday night brought a much more traditional Tracey night out where the "young ones" (yes that does still include me!), drink 8 bottles of wine and spent the night doing some very dodgy moves to Tracey's IPod. I felt really rough Thursday.
On Thursday we all said our goodbyes as most of us headed off in different directions. Sally and I went up to another camp, Skukuza, which to be honest wasn't terribly exciting, particularly as it involved doing our washing. We did manage to get down to yet another camp on Friday, Lower Sabie, where we saw more hippos that you could shake a stick at.
So that was pretty much it. My first week of travelling almost over and it feels like a whole lifetime away I was at work and stressing about getting the Transport Scotland pre-qual in. I wonder how that's going......
PS. Still haven't got a clue about the photos, something about the wrong file format. I'll sort it!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.076s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0455s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mummy Cross
non-member comment
Week One
What an exciting first week! David Attenborough eat your heart out. Its lovely that Tracey and Drew had such an usual and romantic wedding setting. Congratulations to both of themI hape they have along and happy life together. I now have to get on the phone to ring Alice Springs Post Office! Don't ask....... Catherine's tour is providing excitement and education for us two