Xtine's South African Safari

Going Home!!

2009-07-21T06:23:00.001-07:00

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I'm in the taxi to the JoBurg airport to head home. What a trip!! I loved every second. My cab driver is cool too. He's from Limpopo and he's never left the country, but if he did he'd want to go to New York, london, Singapore and Dubai but NOT egypt, Nigeria or china! Too many people in china he says.

See you on the other side!

2009-07-20T04:08:00.001-07:00

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Leaving Swaziland

2009-07-20T04:05:00.001-07:00

Yeah when I said we were taking the scenic route back I really meant we were going completely out of the way to drive through Swaziland! Nice little side trip-- picked up some cool carvings at a small stand on the side of the road which I liked both because they're cheaper than places we've been in SA plus the guys was carving them right there so I was happy to pay :) On to Pretoria!

Bye Bye, Barberton!

2009-07-19T23:35:00.001-07:00

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We're off! Taking the scenic route to Pretoria before I fly out tomorrow. The picture above is of Trevor's house :)

Escape to Chimp Eden

2009-07-19T07:24:00.001-07:00

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We finished the afternoon at the Jane Goodall Chimpanzee Eden. Basically they rescue chimps from all over the world and rehabilitate them into chimp culture. They were a blast! The babies were rolling over eachother and doing somersalts. Very cute. We heard all of their back stories (there are about 30 chimps there currently) and they were all pretty sad. Some had been chained up in front of clubs or restaurants for entertainment, some were put in circuses while others were accidently mistreated by owners keeping them as pets. They've all made awesome progress in their rehabilitation :)

Gold Mining!!

2009-07-19T04:13:00.001-07:00

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We took a tour of the old Barberton hold mine and then went panning for gold!! Very cool. Barberton was the first place they found and mined gold in South Africa.

2009-07-18T10:49:00.001-07:00

2009-07-18T07:39:00.003-07:00

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2009-07-18T07:39:00.001-07:00

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What country am I in again?

2009-07-18T07:38:00.001-07:00

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Trevor and I were driving from Pretoria to nelspruit and we spotted some pagodas from the highway. We drove towards it and found the Nan Hua Temple, an exact replica of the temple in Taiwan. I spoke to a monk inside ( who knew the first time I'd speak Chinese in like 2 years would be in Africa??) and it turns out this is the Fo Guang Shan temple for all of southern Africa! There's also an African Buddhist seminary here so I was very surprised to hear Africans speaking Chinese!! From what I understood, there are some changes they've made to localize the temple. The biggest one I saw was that the buddhas carved out of wood had black skin, which I thought was cool. Anyway, the monk said he came here 4 years ago from taiwan and much prefers the weather here since it rains so much less!! Crazy thing, globalization.

I'm in Bloemfontein

2009-07-17T23:43:00.001-07:00

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We stopped here on our way to Pretoria after visiting the Addo Elephant National Reserve. We got to drive around looking for animals like a safari. We saw a bunch of antelope- like animals, ostrich, water buffalo, warthogs and finally some elephants at the end. Then we went horseback riding through the park (not the part with lions) which was nice... Anyway, just giving an update. Now we're back on the road to Pretoria to drop Steve off and then back to Trevor's township area to see where he lives/works plus there's a chimpanzee reserve and the gold mine where gold was first discovered in South Africa!

2009-07-17T00:35:00.001-07:00

Lions on the move!

2009-07-17T00:15:00.003-07:00

Lion pictures

2009-07-17T00:15:00.001-07:00

The geotagged one disappeared from my last post I think so here's the picture again.

Lions and Tigers and... Lions!!!

2009-07-16T23:57:00.001-07:00

Ohhhhh my gosh today was crazy!!! We got a tip from another peace corps volunteer in cape town about a lion sanctuary near port elizabeth. We initially paid 45 Rand to get into the park where we could drive through and see zebras and wildebeast and stuff. Then we parked and could walk around outside the lion enclosures and oh my gosh were they pretty! They had this huge male white lion pacing around that was just beautiful. We went by the area where the 14 month lions were and they were really playful. We could run along side the fence and they'd run along with us. Then we went and paid am extra 50 Rand and they let us in with 3 male 7 month old cubs (pictured above) who were VERY playful. They're just like kitties except you have to be more concerned when they 'playfully' bite or claw you haha. Apparently we came at the end of the day when they're about to be fed and get really restless. The rest of the day they tend yo be calm and just let you pet and cuddle them. It made for a fun experience, but not as many photo ops!!

Trevor's Alive!!

2009-07-16T23:56:00.001-07:00

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We've just had a successful bungeed bridge jump!

PB&Js at Jeffreys Bay

2009-07-16T23:55:00.001-07:00

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We walked down to see the "super tubes" since apparently this is one of the best surfing spots in the world.

Sunrise at Buffalo Bay

2009-07-15T23:00:00.001-07:00

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Boy was it chilly out but we got up early and walked out on the beach this morning :)

Comments

2009-07-15T13:03:00.001-07:00

So I've only just noticed that people have been commenting! I thought I would get them in email but I guess not so I'll respond to some here:

Mom: no worries, I'm not bungee jumping! I'm keeping warm, in fact we all bundle up so much we don't want to get out of bed! And yes, the first landscape picture I posted was of cape town

Carol: I'm glad you're following the blog! Trevor's still injury-free and I'll be sure to post the results of the jump tomorrow.

Stephen: the penguins were definitely a big draw for the trip! Baby lions will be good too... Haven't gone to the sanctuary yet but I'll post pictures when I do!

Thanks for reading! Now back to smores and cards by the fire :)

Buffalo Bay Packers

2009-07-15T09:13:00.007-07:00

So we didn't make it as far as we thought we would so we stopped near Knysna for the night. Above is the view from this awesome hostel we found in the Coast to Coast guide book. It's right on the beach in Buffalo Bay and we're surrounded by mountains and the sunset looked amazing. Right now we're chilling by a fire in the open air living room while puppies scamper around us. Heaven.

2009-07-15T09:13:00.005-07:00

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Mossel Baii

2009-07-15T09:13:00.003-07:00

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We stopped to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on the beach in Mossel Bay. Yum!

Cape L'Arghulas

2009-07-15T02:55:00.001-07:00

We made it to the southern tip of Africa this morning! We decided to make today a leisurely day driving along the coast and staying in Jeffreys Bay tonight. Trevor says i get to drive soon! Look for a post later to make sure I didn't crash driving on the wrong side of the road ;)

2009-07-15T02:38:00.001-07:00

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Bed Time in Struiss Bay

2009-07-14T14:53:00.001-07:00

We drove to a small town about 15k from the southern tip to sleep. It is COLD. The 3 of us are in a dorm for 8 so we stole extra covers from the beds around us. I personally am wearing 2 pairs of pants, 2 shirts and 2 hoodies to warm up. We made tacos for dinner so now it's off to bed! Tomorrow we go to the coast, Trevor's going bungee jumping and then we're going to a lion sanctuary where we can play with lion cubs! I wish I had more time in this region of Africa... I'll have to come back!

Robben Island

2009-07-14T06:58:00.001-07:00

After a very cloudy visit to the top of Table Mountain this morning (you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you), we caught a boat over to Robben Island to take a tour of the prison where political prisoners like Nelson Mandela were kept by the British and Dutch over the last 200 years. Once you get on the island they put you on a crowded bus and tell you information about/make terrible jokes about all of the things you couldn't see on either side of the bus due to the crowds. It was hard to stay awake... I did see the limestone quarry where the prisoners had to work each day, which was interesting.

Once we got off the bus, a former prisoner gave us a brief tour of some cells (including Nelson Mandela's).

THEN we wandered around trying to spot penguins from the largest African penguin colony in the world! There are over 30,000!! We saw about 12. Still cool, though.

2009-07-14T06:46:00.001-07:00

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Picture Problems...

2009-07-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

For some reason my app for posting blog posts no longer likes it when I include text with my pictures so I have to post them separately. Very annoying.

2009-07-13T10:44:00.001-07:00

Hitting the road

2009-07-13T10:43:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we leave Cape Town and head along the coast to Cape Agulwas (the southernmost tip of Africa) so we picked up this little guy for $30 a day. It's stick shift, but the driver is on the right side of the car and you drive on the left side of the road. I don't think I'll be doing any inner-city driving any time soon!

2009-07-13T10:37:00.001-07:00

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Noon Gun Tea House and Restaurant

2009-07-13T07:07:00.001-07:00

The picture above was taken from a small restaurant in a house on top of Signal Hill in the Bo Kaap part of Cape Town. Bo Kaap is the Muslim part of town. We were looking for the Auwal mosque (the oldest in South Africa) and found a blurb in my book about this nice little restaurant at 273 Longmarket St and we were at 209 so we thought it'd be close. Turns out it was quite a hike practically to the top of the mountain, but the breathtaking views of the town, bay and Table Mountain made it totally worth it! Plus I hear the samosas are to die for.

2009-07-12T17:54:00.001-07:00

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2009-07-12T17:53:00.003-07:00

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2009-07-12T17:53:00.001-07:00

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2009-07-11T09:03:00.001-07:00

335 days to go!

2009-07-10T03:30:00.001-07:00

Until the opening of the world cup, I mean. We're on our way to Soweto to take a bicycle tour and we passed the FNB stadium where the games will be :)

Landed!

2009-07-09T15:09:00.001-07:00

Yay! Met up with Trevor, got all my luggage (which is lucky! Most other people's delayed from the day before didn't make it) and got to the hostel. Chatted for a few hours and now off to bed! Bike tour tomorrow!

The Most Beautiful Thing in the World

2009-07-08T15:58:00.001-07:00

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...a boarding pass!! An hour before take-off and I just got a seat! Phew!!

Flying Vegetables

2009-07-08T13:10:00.001-07:00

This concourse has a theme. I'm not kidding, that's the name-- there's a plaque and everything. Very inspiring stuff.

Rain Rain Go Away

2009-07-08T09:08:00.001-07:00

There's nothing better than painstakingly hand washing and blowdrying your clothes to re-wear the next day and then proceeding to dump diet coke all over yourself. Sigh. Another rainy day in Atlanta... Let's hope it clears up by 8!

Delta Sucks Big Time

2009-07-07T22:38:00.001-07:00

GeoTagged, [N38.95408, E77.44955]

I'm writing from the fabulous and romantic city of, er, Atlanta. Not only was the flight out of Dulles delayed, we had to sit on the runway forever waiting for our turn since there were SO many delayed flights and THEN they said some little light for the cargo bay came on and we had to go back to the gate. Turns out it was nothing and we missed our turn to take off so I missed my connection to Johannesburg... So I'm here until 8pm tomorrow. Lame. Delta wouldn't even give me vouchers since the official reason for the delay was "air traffic control" and therefore not their fault. I pouted my way into a hotel room at the Red Roof Inn bit no food :(. My luggage is being held somewhere to be sent tomorrow. So I go to wait for the shuttle. And wait. And wait. Finally I called the hotel. Turns out their shuttle says "Drury Inn". Well, duh. I don't know why I didn't figure that out sooner. The shuttle was crammed full of disgruntled Delta so we all got some griping out of the way, someone gave me a food voucher they weren't gonna use and I found a pizza place that delivers! In fact, all of the places advertised in the lobby proclaim in huge letters "We Take Delta Vouchers!!!" I guess this happens a lot.

Luckily, my parents managed to get in touch with Trevor. PLUS I got the sweet above pictured gift overnight pack complete with a Delta t-shirt! Awesome, cuz all I want to do right now is give them some free advertising. Yup.

Flight Delays

2009-07-07T13:18:00.001-07:00

Boo for storms in Atlanta! Hopefully my connection is delayed too or else I won't make it.

Here I go!

2009-07-07T13:00:00.001-07:00

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I'm all checked in and on a shuttle to my gate for the first leg of the trip (Atlanta). This photo doesn't show the huge carry on backpack I also have carrying stuff for the flight, a laptop for Trevor and the encyclopedia brittanica sized book about South Africa my dad got me to read. Honestly it's more likely I'll end up clubbing someone over the head with it than actually finishing it, but I did need something to put in my front pack to offset my back pack, so thanks dad! Haha :) Only 45 minutes until boarding!

Testing 1-2-3!!

2009-06-22T12:25:00.001-07:00

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Im leaving for South Africa on July 7 and have set up my awesome iPhone to post directly to blogger! I can also post pictures... Must test that capability as well. Apparently it'll geo target where I'm posting from too!! Crazy.