Day 1 Wednesday, November 17th, 2021 Renata and I finally booked a trip after 2 years. The past two years have been crazy. With the stress of work and boredom due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Renata and I needed a few days to get away and enjoy life in another city. We decided with our good friend Andrea to travel to San Francisco. I have never been to San Francisco or California in general, so it was all new and exciting to me. San Francisco is known for Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and nearby Napa Valley, three places on my travel bucket list. Furthermore, San Francisco is relatively close to home and fairly safe that if anything happened due to Covid-19, we were close enough to medical assistance and a flight back home. In order ... read more

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary We woke up from our accommodation at Sondzela Backpackers to discover in our backyard warthogs grazing the grass. It finally dawned on us that we were in a sanctuary where animals had the right of way. The Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary is Swaziland's best known nature reserve. In 1961 Ted Reilly took action to save what remained of the kingdom of Swaziland's wildlife, converting his land into a sanctuary and rounding up animals from elsewhere around the country. In the sanctuary there are no large predatory animals like lions and cheetahs or leopards. Therefore, it is safe to walk around the sanctuary as long as you stay clear of the animals and let them mind there own business. After breakfast, Renata and I walked all the way up to the base camp where we ... read more

iSimangaliso Wetland Park In the afternoon the VESA African Unearth group headed of to the nearby iSimangaliso Wetland park for a nature walk with Johan, one of our group leaders at the Crocodile Centre in St. Lucia. Johan is very knowledgeable about Nile crocodiles and also about the St. Lucia wetland area. iSimangaliso Wetland Park is a huge protected area along the KwaZulu-Natal Province. It is also Johan's favourite place as he shared with us some childhood stories such as the time a tourist went swimming in the Lake, which is not allowed due to crocodiles. The tourist was banned for life from the property. In another story, there was a bride cheating with another man swimming in the lake. A crocodile got her and she was later found downstream in pieces. After the walk we ... read more

Hippo and Crocodile Cruise Today, the VESA group got the opportunity to enjoy a hippo and crocodile cruise along Lake St. Lucia. St. Lucia estuary park is home to around 1200 Nile Crocodiles and 800 hippopotamus. I find hippos intimidating as they are one of the most aggressive animals in the world. Nevertheless, I felt safe on the boat as I watched the various hippos interact with their families. There were baby hippos and their moms and dads as well. It was really interesting seeing the hippos families interacting in the water and also seeing them sunbathe on land. Hippos make this really distinct and interesting sound when they are trying to communicate with each other above water. I was really cool and a great experience overall It was more difficult to spot a crocodile as ... read more

Night Safari at iSimangaliso Wetlands Park On our last day of volunteering, we had the opportunity to go on a night safari at iSimangaliso Wetlands Park. Some of the interesting wildlife we saw on safari include monkeys, guinea fowls, zebra, cape buffalo and kudus. iSimangaliso Wetland Park is South Africa's third largest protected area and the word iSimangaliso means "a miracle" in Zulu. The park is now a world heritage site because of its rich ecosystem and natural beauty. Other animals that you can see in the park include elephants, African leopards, black and white rhino, whales, dolphins and turtles. In December 2013, African lions were reintroduced into the park. Mission Rock Beach Halfway through our safari, we got the opportunity to leave our safari vehicle and go for a walk in the park. We walked ... read more