When it came to planning our honeymoon we knew it had to be something really big because we've already done some pretty amazing vacations. Since we've seen most of Europe our sights have been set on Africa for a while now. There were countless tour options and countries to see but I'm very happy with the choice we made.
It was a 2 week long tour, starting and ending in Johannesburg, making several stops in Botswana and Zimbabwe, and finishing with the famous Kruger National Park in northeast South Africa. We spent 1 full day in Jo-burg on each end of the trip. The first and last night were spent in a hotel but every night in between we camped in a tent in camp sites that had bathroom facilities that were usually pretty good, and sometimes there was even a bar and a pool. It was rainy and chilly in Jo-burg but every other day was clear sky with a very strong sun at 95 F (36 C), luckily the nights cooled down quite a bit, between 60-70 F (15-20 C). Super dry climate, it just turned spring down there so it wasn't very green yet.
There were 24 people, including 2 awesome tour guides. about half of us did the whole 2 weeks, the rest of the group changed between the first and 2nd week. We had a blast with everyone and got really close with a few. One of the best things about traveling is who you meet. I think we've got some new friends for life.
We went on multiple game drives in search of animals. The "Big 5" which are elephant, lion, rhino, buffalo, and leopard. There is also the "Small 5" (which includes elephant shrew and leopard tortoise) and the "ugly 5" (which includes hyena, warthog and wildebeest). Sometimes even just driving from one town to the next was a game drive in itself as we frequently stopped for giraffes, zebras and elephants on the side of the highway.
On the first night, we arrived at our campsite and our tour guide was about show us how to put up our tent when a guy from the campsite next to ours ran over and said "hey there's a black rhino at our site so you might want to put your food away." So naturally we all ran over to the other site and there he was, the rhino, just standing there. The other campers were banging a pot to get him to leave, that did nothing. Eventually one guy threw an apple past the rhino, hoping he would follow, then the rhino started to charge the guy. Me and 2 other girls instantly ran as fast as we could in the other direction. Everyone else stayed and watched, the rhino only took a few charging steps at the guy and then stopped. According to our guide, this rhino had become used to humans in the camps and so was not as dangerous as he could have been. But how's that to start a safari adventure!
One night we spent in the Okavanga River Delta in Botswana. We had to take a tiny canoe called a Mokoro into and out of there. This night was truly being in the bush, no facilities, toilet was a hole in the ground. The locals and our guides cooked a traditional meal on the campfire. It was one of everyone's favorite days. We just relaxed, got to know the other group members, swam in the delta, took a nap, and went on a game walk and walked next to zebras and elephants. We were told that if we needed to use the toilet at night to listen and shine a flashlight to look for reflection of eyes. Sometimes hippos and elephants will show up unannounced. In fact, many nights we were told to look out for animals, one campsite had rhinos roaming around, another we were warned of leopards, another site we couldn't leave anything outside the tent or baboons might steal it.
During the Makoro ride through the delta we sat and relaxed while a local guide, called a poler because they pushed the canoe with a long pole/stick, guided us through tall grasses and reeds. At one point the grasses opened up onto what was called Hippo Lagoon, for obvious reasons. A couple hundred feet away were about 8 hippos, their heads occasionally surfacing for air. As the 15 or so Makoros floated up, 2 of these hippos started inching closer. (2nd most dangerous animal in Africa we're talking about) Eventually one of them got to maybe 20 feet away, max. It was making a grunting noise and made kind of a jump in the water. At this point the polers pushed us hard and fast back into the reeds. I was terrified. Our guide was laughing, he's been doing this all his life. The guide in the Makoro next to ours, however, was patting her chest and said "wow that was a close one." After my heart stopped racing, I fell asleep for the rest of the ride, it was very relaxing.
We spent 2 days in Victoria Falls as the halfway point of our trip. Luxury campsite, very clean, really nice bar, restaurant and pool, with a spa that I took advantage of and got a cheap, much needed massage. The falls are beautiful, it is low water season so they're not even as amazing as they can be. The hotel staff briefed us on the available activities and I saw something called a tandem swing that caught my attention. It was on sale for 50% off. It didn't seem to be as bad as bungee jumping and me and Adam could be strapped together for it. Sounded fun so we signed up. Honeymoon splurge, we said. Then we got to the bridge and I watched people jumping off for the swing and the bungee and I realized they're not that different after all. I instantly went into a strange mode and stopped thinking as to not psyche myself out, as some people were. In the video you hear the guy ask if I'm nervous and I said "I don't really feel anything right now" which was true, I had totally blocked any emotion in order to jump. But the look on my face in the beginning tells all apparently, and its so hilarious I just had to buy the video. So we jumped. 4 seconds of free falling. Worse than any theme park ride. I was supposed to keep my legs straight but the initial shock of the fall made me want to curl into a fetal position into Adam, but I instantly remembered to straighten out when I felt my foot almost get caught in the ropes. When free falling turned into swinging my neck snapped back and I heard a crunch. This can also be seen in the video. My neck was sore for days. Immediately afterwards I expected one of those adrenaline highs, to be like "that was awesome!" but that didn't happen. As we swung I kept saying "ok.... ok.... ok..." and I still can't fully figure out my feelings towards it.
Day 2 in Vic Falls we went white water rafting, we had signed up for this months ago when we booked the trip. Low water season means high level rapids, class 3-5. The intro meeting in the morning scared the shit out of me. They explained how to get rescued when (not if, when) you fall out and that there may be crocodiles. I've rafted class 3-4 before, but 5 means getting thrown out and capsizing and I wanted none of that. Adam told the guide that I was thinking of backing out and he said "don't worry, if you're in my raft I'll take care of her, but she will be in that water" It didn't make me feel much better but I went along anyways. The rapids were intense, scary at times. Our group took up 3 rafts. Mine became known as the safe raft, the other 2 capsized through several of the 19 rapids, sometimes on purpose because people asked for it. Ours didn't capsize at all, and only once did people get thrown out. I managed to stay in but Adam wasn't as lucky and he got rescued by one of the kayakers who followed us the whole time. This time, at the end of the day I was saying "that was awesome!"
We had 3 border crossings to conquer during the 2 week period. We were told these can be tricky, and take a long time, depending on the mood of border controllers. The first 2 into Botswana and Zimbabwe were surprisingly easy and quick. That's how it seemed getting back into South Africa too. Half of our group had gotten through when the computer systems shut down and the electricity went out. It was the middle of the day, 95 degrees. Adam and I were part of the first half of the group that were finished. We waited in the bus but there was no air conditioning. We found a small grocery store with a/c and stood in there for an hour, until their electricity went out too. After about 3 or 4 hours, they got a generator installed and the computer systems came back on and the rest of the group passed through customs. But then the bus wouldn't start. The battery had died. We waited another hour or so for the tour guides to arrange taxis to take us to the camp site which was an hour away. In all we spent 6 hours at the South African border that day. The taxis stopped at a mall and we picked up 15 pizzas, we got to our campsite around 9 pm and there was a big warm hot spring pool that we all relaxed in and ate pizza. That day gave meaning to the phrase "this is Africa"
During this trip we talked a lot with our tour guides and other local guides and asked questions about history and culture. We learned a lot, I love learning about other cultures. Our rafting guide was shocked to hear that Americans don't learn about African history in school. I told him that this really is a shame and that it is unfortunately up to us to learn about most of the world on our own time, and this is one of the reasons we came to Africa.
We spent a day with a conservationist in Matopo national park in Zimbabwe and what he told us was fascinating. I wanted to spend all week with him just picking his brain. He was a white, englishman who was born and raised in rural Zimbabwe. He had studied the bushman, the last remaining culture of hunter-gatherers left in the world. There's only 3000 left. Most have been forced from their original lands and killed by modern farming societies. We saw some cave paintings that were around 13,000 years old, in a region thought to be inhabited for 500,000 years.
We also learned a lot about the wildlife. The habits of the animals, how they live and act. He also explained that with the current and very insufficient ways we are combating poaching right now, there will zero rhinos left in 2 years! Not in the wild or in zoos. He knows what to do to slow this down (its worked for lions) but the superpowers in the world don't listen.
On our last day in Johannesburg we went to the Apartheid Museum. I didn't realize how little I knew about South Africa and Apartheid and I felt ashamed. I'm so glad to have learned all I did, and I want to keep going back to Africa to learn more.
All of the details of what I learn about history and culture when I travel I write in a travel journal so I don't forget. The Africa section is many pages long. We have a double entry visa for Zimbabwe valid for 6 months. We have already started checking cheap flight sites for another trip. Whether it be the same region or a new country altogether. We fell in love with Africa!
