By the time we boarded the plane for Jo-burg, we were completely exhausted. I struggled to stay awake for the meal but of course, got a second wind after and couldn’t fall asleep despite ingesting a couple of gravol.  That meant about 3 hours sleep over the last two days. Fun stuff.

Yona picked us up from the Mufassa Back packers, we unloaded our stuff and headed off to town with her to find an adapter to work in South Africa (they MUST be different) and perhaps an ereader.  We must have tried 10 stores, ended up with the wrong adapter, no e-reader but we got a bit of a tour and picked her son up from school.

Stephanie (a woman I met in Turkey) picked us up later and we went out for dinner. It was really nice to catch up and enjoy a wonderful meal together.

A bed has never felt so good. We crashed by 9 pm and slept through till 7 am. There. Jet lag done.

Our first full day was spent getting to know fellow travellers and a trip to the mall where I found a cheap ereader and we finally got adapters.  I figure I’ll likely leave it here but it cost me the same as perhaps 2 books.

We arrived at the Nkambeni Camp in Kruger National Park and set to preparing lunch and setting up tents. Next was an evening game drive. We didn’t see a lot but it was fun driving about the park in a jeep. Dinner was an amazing chicken stewed meat over rice and beans with carrots.

January 21;

Our alarm got us up at 4:45 am. After breakfast of yogurt and granola we each prepared our lunch and headed off for another game drive. This one was MUCH more successful. We saw pretty much every animal out there besides the cats. A pride of lions was spotted but they were too far away to get a clear picture. Seeing a rhinoceros was a highlight especially since Kruger is having such a problem with poachers. Other than a couple of bathroom breaks and an hour lunch break, we spent the whole day in the jeep. By the time we arrived back at camp around 4:30 pm, my feet were swollen and I felt absolutely filthy.

More excitement was had in the shower. The back side of the shower and toilet block faces the barbed wire fence that encloses the people in the camp. Animals run free. People are caged in. After soaping up I turned to see a huge elephant watching me. Wow! Unfortunately I don’t take a camera to shower with me so after getting decent, I ran for the camera. By then he’d wandered off. He was still in the photo but the effect wasn’t the same.

Dinner was stewed beef over rice and greek salad. We’re not going hungry. That’s for sure!