Week 131, Prague + Buddapest

We decided to do a whirlwind tour through two very inexpensive European cities.  Both cities are well known for their fun party atmosphere and their historical depth.  Yeah, so we explored the first part of that sentence quite well, the historical part, well, you can just wikipedia that stuff I suppose. We did a few touristy things, but not too many.  The short version of the trip can be summed as: wake up, eat, drink, drink, walk, drink, eat, drink, change, and party.  Multiply that by 7 days, and that was pretty much the entire trip.  I'll note a couple of things and places that stood out, as well as some of my favorite spots, and we'll call it a night.

Prague:
http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Europe/4Jul14-Prague

From KSA it is a very short trip to Prague, taking less than 6 hours, but it did have a layover in Turkey to arrive there.  Turkish airlines was the first airline that I flew that actually said the Muslim prayer on a flight in English, so it was nice to know what they were saying for the first time.

We arrived in afternoon, and proceeded to the main square, the square with the famous Astronomical Watch Tower.  It is currently the worlds oldest working clock.  Pretty cool looking, very crowded.  We didn't hang around for the moving figures to move.  Pretty cool looking square though.

When in Prague, there are two main sections, the town square side, which is where we stayed, and across the bridge, about 20 minutes, which is where the Prague Castle is.  During the day, we made this 20 minute walk, stopping to enjoy the views, and the many bars, and grocery stores which may have had beer.  We must have tried at least 6 beers, and this is just from the grocery store.  Mostly pilsners, including Duff beer, which apparently is a copy-written brand name.  I couldn't find out much about it on the web, except that it's not officially sold outside the US or UK.  Apparently you can get away with that over in Eastern Europe.  Who is going to stop them?   In either case, Homer's got good taste.  I never thought I'd ever say that.

The bridge that connects both sides of Prague itself is fairly famous, and full of singers, and people selling all sorts of knick-knack stuff, like jewerly, paintings, photographs and lots of live singers and bands playing for some cash.  This is Eastern Europe, so they don't fall under the EU, and have their own currency.  Rounding off, it's approximately 20 CZK or Koruna to one USD.  Most beers were 25 CZK, for example.  Nice.  Anyways, yeah the bridge is old, and was completed in the 1400's.  It is called the Charles Bridge.  A really really old bridge.  There were quite a few statures and monuments as well of Saints and important figures on the bridge.  Many people were praying and touching certain statures.  Good way to polish the statues I suppose.

The Prague Castle itself is quite big, and stands out in the landscape.  However, before we could get to there, we had to go to the Absinthery.  It was basically a bar, but did sell Absinthe. And absinthe flavored ice cream.  Interesting concept. Now whether absinthe actually does things to the body or not, I'm not sure, i'm not risking it.  I did know that the absinthe that was sold, was around 90% alcohol, and needed to be cut with water.  Good luck to whoever tries that.  I'll stick to the duff.

The castle itself has a few little areas that you can visit, mostly restaurants, and a fairly big square looking area as well.  You can also climb all the way to the top.  It's only 208 steps.  A little more tiring if you've had a few beers, or like some in my group, who drink and smoke.  Yeah, pretty exhausting.  But once you're up there though, it's gorgeous, Prague is pretty small, so you can end up seeing the entire town.  

A little past the Prague Castle was a monastery that made their own craft beer.  It was quite a bit more serene, and quite a bit more flavorful than the canned beer we had been drinking.  It was a nice change of pace.  

On the square side, there were two places that caught my eye.  The first was an American classic; Hooters.  Right next to our hotel, by coincidence, not by design, there was a Hooters right next door. Great place to watch the world cup for sure.  The food pretty much tasted the same too, so that was good.  Hey, I do like the wings, regardless of what you may say.  We ate there twice.  

The other place was a different take on bar food and drink.  They had computerized the waiter/waitress.  When you came in, there was a touch screen, in which you ordered from.  If you wanted beer, there was a tap on the table, and you each picked a number.  When you wanted to fill up, you selected your number, and there was a flow meter that measured how many liters of beer you drank.  There was also a scoreboard that tallied up how much your table drank versus those around you, and those at other locations of this bar.  It became a contest pretty quickly. We hit 63 half liters.  That's a lot of beer.  That's a lot of pride.  That's a lot of pee breaks.  

If you can't see the number, that's a 50.  We weren't done yet.  

During the night, there were very cheap beer tours you could go on, which involved going to 3 or 4 bars, and the first one being a all you can drink shot bar, and the last being somewhere, in which no one remembers how they got there, or how they got home.  

Overall Prague lived up to what it was famous for.  It was a very inexpensive party town.  I might go back to do some more sightseeing, but the trip as it was, was quite fun, and anywhere where you can order food like this, I'm easily sold.  

Buddapest

http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Europe/7Jul14-Buddapest

We took a train from Prague to Budapest.  It was a 6 hour train ride, but it only cost $30, and that was with us paying to arrange our own seats.  It was a pretty long ride still though.  There was a drink train.  We nearly drank all the beer on the train.  

Budapest was even cheaper than Prague, with the currency change being 242 forint to the dollar.  Just multiply by 4, and divide by 1000.  Close enough anyway.  It was a much larger city, with two distinct sides, the Buda part and the Pest side.  We stayed on the Pest side. We had a three bedroom apartment in the middle of the city, which was quite nice.  As with most of Europe, there is no air conditioning, but we were lucky enough that they provided us with a portable air conditioner.  It was really really loud, and was in the living room, where I was sleeping on the futon.  The air conditioner was used sparingly, i.e. once everyone else was asleep, I'd turn it off so I could get some rest.  

Whereas Prague felt like a town, Budapest definitely felt like a city.  Lots of high end shopping, and everything just seemed very trendy.  It was a much larger city as well. We had to take a train if we wanted to go somewhere quickly, it could be walked, but it was a bit rainy for us to do that very often.  During the night, we stayed on the Pest side.  Travel blogs mention the same as well.  Pest seemed more modern, with office buildings, and a more modern feel.  

Of course, my favorite bar.  

We had lunch at a knock-off version of a Chipotle, and visited St. Stephen's Basilica.  It was a pretty neat looking church, It was named after the first King of Hungary, so it has significance to the people in Hungary, and is in contrast to what we saw over in Prague, being Neo-Classic, rather than Gothic. The King's hand is in the church too by the way.  Literally.  Behind glass.  No pictures!

The night scene was a bit different as well, there were two types of places that we went, one was what they would call a "ruin bar," which meant that they had converted an old abandoned building into a bar, keeping some of the "ruined" parts as a hip and trendy display.  We went to a couple, both were very popular, filling up quite quickly.  One looked and felt as though you were going on a weird psychedelic trip in a run down hotel.  

As you walk the parliament building also appears in the background, and is huge compared to anything else on the Pest side.  We couldn't go in, but it's size showed up very easily once you got up close.  

On the Buda side, aside from the giant castle, there was a very big park as well.  We didn't spend too much time in the park, just enough time to find the one bar in the park, and get some ice cream.  We went to the castle on a separate day, and it was a very nice place to take in the scenery.  The Castle is on a hill, so you had a pretty spectacular view of the river, and the two sides of Buda and Pest.   

Buda side

Pest Side

The castle was pretty neat as well, very clean compared to the other places we saw.  Lots of rennovation I would think to keep it as up to shape as it was . 

There wasn't too much touristy stuff to do in Budapest that we could find, we spent some time watching more World Cup, including the infamous Brazil-Germany game.  There was a super sketchy guy who kept on trying to sell us drugs for a while.  Very annoying.  Pretty obvious, since it was really warm outside, and he's wearing a sweater and a leather jacket, while lurking in the shadows.  The bar in which we watched one of the games actually was closed down early to host a private party for a famous Hungarian adult film actress. She wasn't very friendly.  They wouldn't let us take pictures or get an autograph either.  Darn!  The video camera guys were pretty cool to talk to, at least they told us what was going on.  

We might have been burnt out as well, when we got to Budapest, as we ended up sleeping a little earlier, and not staying out to party until 5 in the morning each day.  I must be getting old.  On the way back home, we bumped into a beer festival, which provided some different types of beers, which made them easier to drink.  I think.  And they also had the iconic "I love _insert your city here" sign, so I got to check that out too.  Budapest doesn't really abbreviate as well, unless you want to say you love BP.  Too easy.  Or maybe BP has a patent on it already.  Who knows.  Oh, and check out all this meat.  Easily the best part of the trip, the fact that pork is served for all meals.  

Budapest was a neat place, it is a place that I'd be happy living in, as there is quite a bit to do, places to eat and drink at.  As for a touristy place, not so much.  It was a short trip, but a long 7 days full of partying, and eating.  A fun trip, even though we had such a large group going.  Eight guys going out and partying every night, and we we probably one of the more calm big groups.  I'm glad we didn't have a hangover moment, and lose someone.  

Week 126: Zanzibar and South Africa

So there we were, trying to figure out what to do on the next trip.  One of the married couples tells me that they're going to South Africa.  Hey, if you guys are going, I'll go too!  How does that sound?  Kinda like a third wheel?  Ok, well who else is gone at this time?  Hey buddy, you ever been to Africa?  No?  Want to go?  Sure, why not.  OK.  Oh, well the timing's off, we'll be there early one week.  What other African country can you think of?  How about Zanzibar?  Where's that?  I dunno, but it's in the one song by Tenacious D.  I guess the foods' gotta be good right?  Isn't the guy from Queen from there too ? No way!  Really?  Cool.  Yup, that's basically how the Africa trip occurred.

So we started off leaving from Bahrain, it's always a little easier to go through the customs line, you have a few drinks, and you're feeling much better about heading into the heart of darkness.  Well, not that dark.  Just one of the more dangerous cities around, Dar Es Salaam.  

Approximate Location Shown

Flight was pretty normal, nothing too crazy, arrival was a bit different.  When you arrive, you are required to show your yellow fever papers (got them for free in Saudi!) and stand in line.  What they don't tell you is that you have to give your passport to one of the security people, so that they can then give it to the customs clerk.  You can't just stand in line to get one.  So 15 minutes later, I get the clue from the others, and we go through.  

When we get outside, we do the one thing you're never supposed to do, which is to randomly choose one of the people standing outside the taxi stands and try to hitch a ride.  We get out the gate around 8:15AM, and tell the guy we are going to go take the boat over to Zanzibar.  He then replies for 80 bucks, he can get us over to Zanzibar by plane, which is leaving in 45 minutes.  Sure, you look sketchy enough, let's go!  

We give him the money, he goes into a little booth, writes our names on a piece of paper, and heads over to his taxi.  He takes us about 10 minutes into the regional airport, and drops us off in front, and tells us to wait.  There's kinda an office there, if by office you mean a room with a desk, and a bunch of mean lookin dudes.  So we wait there for another 10 minutes, and one of the guys wearing a t-shirt tells us to go with him into the airport.   He walks through ahead of us, as we go through security. We meet him behind a desk, where he tells us to give him our passports, and 10 dollars.  As we ask him, he looks at us with blood-shot eyes and say tourist tax.  No reason to argue.  We hand him the 10 dollars, and go to the "waiting area."  

The waiting area was comprised of probably 20 chairs, in a big room, with a bathroom.  The tourist tax guy drops us off in front of a new guy, a little nervous looking staring down at us.  No names, no introductions, he tells us to just wait until our flight is ready.  It's 20 minutes until departure, so we're as calm as we can be for two guys who obviously haven't been manifested on a plane.  I go ahead and spill apple juice on my pants, which kills another 10 minutes.  I ask to take a picture of the guy just just in case he runs away or something.  He was reluctant, but didn't openly say no.  

Thanks Buddy!

At about 5 minutes until 9, they make a boarding announcement.  We wait.  Second announcement, we fall in line with the other group.  No tickets required.  It's a 11 seat Cessna anyway.  We get on the plane no questions asked, and see the captain and his co-pilot.  Wait, what does that sign say?  Oh, it says "Do not touch the instrument panel."  The co-pilot seat is an actual seat for a passenger.  Great. 

We finally take off, after the pilot finishes texting, and we make it to Zanzibar in one piece.  We arrive at customs, write just our name on some piece of paper at the airport, and head into town.  We made great time, and did it in one piece!

Our hotel was a bit north of the airport, perhaps 30 minutes or so. The taxis were flat rate, based off of destinations. We stayed at the Kendwa Rocks.  Not a bad place at all, very spacious, you have your own little house, plenty of space to sleep 3 comfortably, 4 if you had a couple to share a bed.  The view was spectacular.  By this time it was beer time, and a nap to get over the jet lag.  Not a terrible place to take a nap, with the warm breeze and a drink by your side.  No pictures unfortunately, I was tired.  But here's a sunset from when I was there though:

The night was buffet dinner with a pretty cool act from some of the staff.  It was pretty impressive, just the fact that the guys were moving and dancing for an hour straight without stopping.  But then they had to be impressive and perform acrobatics, balancing acts, and this weird thing where they balanced random items on a wooden spoon in the mouth.  Oh, and some cool little thing with eating fire.  Couldn't have been that bad, they had some of the guests at the beach do the same thing.  Well, each person was eating different fire, not sharing the same.  That would be just gross.  Unless the fire killed bacteria.  I dunno.

So we did go and get a tour operator for knowing a little bit more about the area.  The first day was a tour of a spice farm, a visit to the historical stone town, and a boat trip over to "prison island."  The spice farm was pretty standard, lots of spices that were hard to identify until you tasted, or smelled them. The spices were fairly intense, from the ginger to the cinnamon to the hot pepper, my mouth was on fire.  Some of the other higlights was the "lipstick plant."  It's a very red dye that comes from the plant.  Our guide pulled one of the farm hands over, and made him put on lipstick.  Kinda exploitative, but hilarious.  And then there was a guy who sang a welcome song in a coconut tree, a bunch of fresh fruits, and then the cheesy palm leaf hat and tie.  Good times, I bought some coffee.  

Stone town was one of those places where a guide really helped out.  It was pretty easy to get lost, even in a small town like this.

We learned a lot about David Livingstone, and his influence in stopping slavery in Zanzibar.  We visited some of the holding cells for the market.  Pretty sobering.  It's always amazing what one person can do to influence others.  One of the interesting thing was the proximity of the mosque to the church.  This was done on purpose to signify how easily it is to get along with each other, even with some ideological differences.  It was interesting to hear, that although he spread Christianity around wherever he went, he only successfully converted one person in his presence.  Nice guy mentality i suppose.

We checked out the market area afterwards.  It was home to a great number of smells, we went through the market, including the fish market and the meat market.   Amazing amount of fruit, and boy was the fish fresh.

We walked around the area where the world's shortest war began and stopped.  Lunch was at one of the local restaurants.  Lots of curry flavor, greens, and beans.  Pretty filling.

We then headed out on a boat to prison island. Not what you thought at all. Plus turtles!  This was an island which actually became a quaratine island.  If you were able to stay on the island for a week, without showing signs of yellow fever, you and your goods could then head over to Zanzibar.  Kinda neat, and like everything else so far, beautiful views everywhere you could see.

While we were on the island, there was a giant turtle sanctuary.  It was pretty much that, giant turtles just hanging out.  A few fences, but nothing that is going to stop a half ton turtle from doing what it wants.  And they are just as slow as you'd think.  But fast enough to freak you out.  And they like to be petted it seems.  All in a normal day's trip around Prison island on the way back to Stonetown.  Well, might as well throw in some snorkelling to on the way back!

The second day was a trip out to Safari Blue, which was basically an all day snorkeling trip.  A bit cold at the beginning of the day, but it did warm up.  It was fairly well organized, and we felt safe the entire time.  I got a chance to practice swimming to some depths, to get a close up view of some of the coral, and Andrew saw a sea snake.  I think I saw a lobster.  Not too many pictures, since we were in the water most of the day.  We stopped at a nearby island where they had made lunch for us, we got to see some really big trees, and sailed back on a dhow, which is was our boat, modified with a sail.  Quite a bit of work to set the sail.  Just a fun day, full of little surprises, and places to explore.

We made the next day a free day, which happened to work out pretty well since it was Saturday, and club night at the resort. We chose to go on a more cost effective snorkeling trip, which worked out the same way. Imagine a mix between the airport story and replace the car with a boat. This time, i wrote my own receipt to show the guy on the boat that I had reserved a place on his boat. Go figure, he didn't seem to mind anyway.  When we headed out west from where we were, we did see a waterspout in the water.  A bit scary to see, but I'm glad I only had to see it with a zoom lens and not up close.

Once we reached destination, the water calmed down quite a bit and we could snorkel.  The colors were just completely different than the day before, which made the trip a completely different one.  It was quite a bit of a ride to get there and back, which let us see how some of the other people lived.  Well, the people who stayed at the Hilton anyway.  My favorite part of the trip was watching one of the guys there who couldn't swim.  He had a life jacket on, a floaty, and a guide pulling him around.  I wonder if he had to pay extra for that.  

The night was fun, the club in the resort was entirely packed. I was glad that it was outside, it would have been a hot mess. We held out and partied as we could, I retired a bit earlier than Andrew, but neither of us made it to the after party. It was all good, we had one more place to visit before we headed out to South Africa anyways, "early" in the morning.

So we checked out of the hotel, we paid our "cards." In order to spend money, we basically had plastic cards assigned to us, with a credit limit. It made it easier to spend money, since you weren't tracking it as closely, and it allowed you to walk on the beaches without getting your wallet wet. When you're paying a buck fifty for a half liter beer, it's not a huge deal. The beers were all African names though, I wonder if that was on purpose or not, there was Serengeti, Lion, Castle, Kilimanjaro and Safari beer.  All lagers, all delicious.  Well, the final visit before we had to take the trip to South Africa was a visit into the forest, specifically the Jozani forrest.  Home of the rare Red Columbus monkey.  So rare, that if you ran over one by accident it would cost 500USD.  Yup.  That's the price of a endangered species in Zanzibar.  I don't know if they take credit or not.  The monkeys were very accustomed to people, so it was kinda cool to see them so up close.  Their bushy fur provided a pretty funny facial expression no matter what they were actually doing.

The monkey visit ended with walking through a forest as our guide told us what every tree was used for in.  I can't remember much, I zoned out after a bit.  We ended at the Freddie Mercury cafe for lunch, not as exciting as I would have thought.  The menu had a description of him, and that was it.  Very basic table, and a pretty view.  It was a very quiet and serene way to end the trip.  Maybe that's what Freddie liked so much about this restaurant, maybe he saw it the same way as where he grew up, a quiet little piece of heaven.  Well, until the port authority moved in.  Lots of loud container movements now.  

Zanzibar was beautiful, it was fun, and cheap, and I'm glad that I visited an island like that on a whim, it was pretty cool, and full of great memories.

http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Africa/30-May-14-Zanzibar

South Africa

So on the way back, we had a lay over in Dar Es Salaam for a night.  When we were checking what to do, there were not many things recommended to do at night.  In fact most noted to either be somewhere very well lit up, or stay inside.  Well, we decided that the best thing to do would be to stay near the airport.  It was fairly inexpensive as well.  It also took a couple blocks through a sketchy blocks to get there.  They didn't take credit card though.  It was interesting, but secure.  The burglar bars were a nice touch.  It was fine, it was only just enough time to have our last Zanzibar beers before getting to the airport early.

We arrive into South Africa into Cape Town.  It was a very modern looking airport, and we were picked up at the airport, on a rainy day.  The tour company that the couple took, Jon and Kate was a little different than your normal tour guide.  It's basically a completely hands off approach.  You get the itinerary, and you show up at the designated times.  If things get cancelled or changed, you find out when you show up.  But the location and hotels were amazing.  Beautiful views for sure.

Jon and Kate missed their flight, so they missed the introductory dinner.  Unfortunately for them, the food was awesome.  Unfortunately for us, it was also very romantic.  A bit awkward.  We tried to make small talk with anyone else in the restaurant, but they were looking to have their own romantic nights.  Dam.  Good steak though.

So we had a free morning, there was a helicopter ride, but J and K (JK) were coming in early in the afternoon, so we moved the ride to the afternoon.  We decided to talk a hike up Table Mountain instead.  It was a good hike.  A bit rough if you're out of shape.  So really tough for me of course.  It look most of the morning, we got a taxi to the base, and climbed up.  You can take the cable car up, and we were definitely planning on taking it down.  It took a couple hours to hike up, with quite a few breaks, and a bit of water.  The clouds hang fairly low, so it's nice to look down on clouds.  Makes everything seem a bit surreal.  And there's always time for funny pictures.

After the hike up, and the decidedly fast ride down, around 10 meters per second, we headed back to meet with JK. We joined them for lunch, and headed out to the helicoper ride. Nice views, it was pretty neat to see the mountain from a little higher up.  Also, so pretty neat to see your hotel on the way back down too.

After the helicopter ride, we enjoyed a happy hour back at the hotel, changed and headed out to a interesting evening.  Dinner was at the Gold Restaurant, which included a fun little drumming session before the food which was represented a number of different African countries.  There was some some different singing, and dancing, and we were sitting next to the bartender.  What else could you really ask for?

The next day was a multiple wine tour, we headed out to 3 different wineries. We started off the tour at the prison that Nelson Mandela was freed from, which just happened to be near the first winery. One of the guys outside the prison wanted to have their picture taken with K. seemed a bit odd. When we asked, the driver mentioned that he most likely was going to send it to a buddy inside the prison to make him jealous. Pretty funny. As for the wineries, they were all good, beautiful country landscapes, and just like the other days, it was perfect weather, good company, and some photogenic dogs. Lunch was in a small town, with many different shops and nick-knacks.  We were supposed to go back after 2 tours, but we did find a way to fit one more tour in, in the afternoon.  After a nap and rehydrating, we had a pretty cool dinner, full of different game meat in South Africa. The boar and the alligator was pretty delicious. Not a bad day at all.

So, sad day, the next day was supposed to the amazing great white shark cage dive. Unfortunately, we didn't know until the morning that the trip was cancelled. We didn't know 2 hours later that there was an alternative. By the time we had figured it out, we were too late. But, we didn't make it a wasted day, we decided to head out to the Cape of Good Hope. It was a bit of a drive away, maybe about an hour and a half or so, but it was breathtaking to see and visit.  Really windy, and a bit touristy, but hey, so was the majority of the trip.

So we moved on to the next portion of the trip which was the Africa Safari portion of the trip. It was a quick jumper plane via Johannesburg, to Hoedspruit. Pretty easy going. The airline maintained the two couples theme, by making me and Andrew sit together even though there were multiple free seats on the plane. It was becoming a common theme, much to the amusement of JK. Anyways, we headed out, and were immediately inundated with wildlife. Just on the way, we saw some monkeys, giraffes, and we hadn't even gotten to the lodge yet. We stayed at the Jackalberry Lodge. A fairly small resort, holding maybe 12 groups all together. During this time, we were the only two groups there. Cool in a way, since we were personally catered to, but kinda odd too. Everyone was quite nice, so they made it a relaxing time. We were there for 4 days and 3 nights, and although foods, and locations were the same, it was the same itinerary every day.

5:00AM Wake up call
5:30AM Morning game drive departs after tea/coffee and light refreshments.
9:30AM Breakfast is served after your return from your morning game drive.
Free time, i.e. nap time / beer time
3:30PM Late lunch is served
4:15PM Afternoon game drive departs
7:30PM Game drive returns
 8:00PM Dinner is served

Not a bad itinerary really. Lots of great wildlife, we saw the first 4 of the big 5 animals the first day. Water buffalo were abundant, elephants were pretty common, the lions had a specific spot where they hung out, and we spotted a random Rhino on the way back the first night. It was amazing to see how good some of the trackers were, these folks definitely had 15/15 vision, and had the training to spot camouflage. We did not. It was easier for them to just point out stuff to us.

You see it? You see it?
No. 

The rooms again had a very couply vibe to them.  To continue the awkward theme, the beds that we had were also pushed together.  At this point, I think we all agreed that someone was making a very big joke, or that two men had never traveled together to South Africa.  The bed drapes were nice.  I'm glad there weren't flowers in the bathtub.  Oh wait.  The bathroom had a giant window that pointed out into the wilderness which was nice.  Although you could walk right by it as a guest.  Something weird about feeling vulnerable on the toilet when someone walks right by you.   Their problem more than mine.

So the first rule of the drive was that you were to stay in the truck the entire time.  As long as you don't lean out too much, the guide can drive fairly close up to the animals.  You become part of the giant truck.  If you step out, you're a foreign object, which animals will either attack or run away.  I wouldn't press my luck.  The first night in, we had a flat tire, so everyone had to get out of the truck. It almost was the beginning of a good horror movie.  I'm glad I didn't read Heart of Darkness before the trip.  Or watch the Lion King 2.  I heard it's really dark or bad.  I can't remember.

The second night, a school group had come in for the night as part of a volunteer group type of thing.  Nice kids, they all were liberal arts majors, so it was interesting to hear their dreams and aspirations.  Those poor poor kids.  Haha.  No picture of them, but here's a warthog pooping.

Our original guide did get sick, short of breath, and had to go back into a major city.  I hope he doing well, but we did get an upgrade, and the owner drove us around for the tours instead.  He was more of a no nonsense type driver, hauling ass up and down the roads to get us to where we needed to go.  Sitting in the back of the truck on one of those drives ensured that you were awake, otherwise you'd go flying out.  He was quite knowledgeable as well, so it worked out well for us.

During the 4 days, the highlights of the trip included seeing lions mating (very brief, over before you know it!) baby hyenas, a random crocodile, and one of the deer, a Nyala I believe that just happened to jump the fence and hang outside one of the rooms. The night trips were nice, as the animals began being a little more active, but harder to see. The only animal that we didn't see very closely was the hippo. They're just too mean. I was pretty amazed by the connection the guides have with the animals, they show them every day, and it almost becomes a part of the family for these folks. Not all the way to naming, but every part of the animal lives, the trackers see daily, whether it be hunting, famine, birth, etc... It must be a joy to see some of these animals grow up.

The final day, we went out and were determined to find the final big 5 animal that had alluded us the entire time, the leopard.  The leopards have much bigger ranges, and are usually solo.  That makes it quite a bit difficult to track down.  Luckily for us, the private reserve has a number of different lodges on it.  Everyone shares a radio channel, and report back to the group what they have seen, and where.  The leopard was a pretty high value target, so a large number of people were on the lookout.  After tracking back and forth a bit, we finally found the leopard.  I wasn't sure if it was because we took 2 hours to find it, or not, but the leopard was breathtaking, and worth every second.  

It was a really fun trip, I got to use my camera quite a bit, which is always fun. I was able to get to know some folks a little better, and enjoy different foods, and drinks from a continent I had never been on. The mornings were really cold, and the roads were bumpy.  The food was mostly meat, and biltong is probably the driest version of jerky I have ever eaten.  Everything you did was an adventure, and visually stunning.  There are so many other countries in Africa to visit, but South Africa is definitely one that will be one for the books to remember.

http://hudang6234.smugmug.com/Africa/5-Jun-14-South-Africa