Around the world in 168 days

And the adventure begins in Jo’burg!

A few shots from Nelson Mandela Square my first day in town…..

and then it was time to meet the group! This trip actually had two groups, one from Johannesburg to Durban and then about half of them left and we got a new batch of travelers from Durban to Cape Town. In the end, with both groups combined, we were a mix from the States, Australia, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. Our fearless leader Simba (“Lion” in Swahili) was from Zimbabwe.

Part 1 group

Simba!

Our first leg of the journey took us up to Krueger National Park. En route we were able to stop and see Blyde River Canyon:

and Burke’s Luck Potholes. The potholes are a natural formation as a result of the constantly flowing water.

It took us about a day to get to our first camp in Krueger, Skukuza. A lot of my safari pictures are in the previous blog post.

We settled into camp life…..went something like this:

-Arrive at camp, take our luggage and tents down from the truck, and set up camp

-Have some free time to wander around or relax in the afternoon

-Enjoy a group dinner in our camp chairs. Simba did most of the cooking and I have to say that he was an excellent camp cook!

-Wash up after dinner, maybe enjoy some of our BYO wine or Savanna ciders that we had purchased earlier on the day…and usually crash early as we usually woke up around 6!

The boys making breakfast

Camp life

After Krueger it was on to Swaziland! I have to say that this was my favorite safari and the place where we saw the most lions!! Our campsite was beautiful, right in Hlane National Park, and close to a watering hole that rhinos and hippos frequented. At night some of the locals performed traditional Swazi dance for us as well.

Swazi camp

Of note, Swaziland is still ruled by a king and they practice polygamy here, who is noted to have approximately 16 wives.

Elephants and a cider :)

Annnnnd then on to Mozambique. Lots of long travel days mixed in here as well but the changing scenery made the drives tolerable. The weather in Mozambique was not ideal beach weather but the ride to camp alone was well worth the journey. After our border crossing we hopped in 4x4s and were bumped up and down sand dunes for about an hour to reach our camp. Whether or not their are roads in other parts of the country, I do not know….but we sure did not see any!

out and about in Mozambique!

My new Aussie friends

This dog wanted nothing more but to snuggle with me on the beach :)

This night at dinner was one of my favorite meals…Simba made us more traditional food. Pap (write description) lamb stew, and my new favorite: peanut butter cabbage…exactly what it sounds like and its so unbelievably delicious.

Exiting Mozambique, we headed back into the land of Zulu (one of the major tribes of South Africa- look up info about them). Our first stop was St. Lucia Estuary for a cruise on the ___ river for a hippo experience :)

The next day we were on to our Zulu homestay! This was a favorite day for me. We spent the day wandering the village, eating traditional barbecue, hearing a local musician, and visiting a sangoma (traditional healer). Then to our family home for the night. 10 of us stayed in one family home that already had 15 people in the house (mostly children). There were no men living in the house (marriage does not appear to be very common as it is very expensive); rather there was a matriarch (Tande) and a handful of women my age and their children. The kids were absolutely adorable, wanting nothing more but to play and hang all over us. Tande and co made us a delicious home cooked meal and welcomed us into their bedrooms. There was a fair bit of rain that night, so the bucket in our room filled up quickly :) but it was so nice to be in a bed after our week of camping!