Safari!

A lion.
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We left Johannesburg and drove to Zeerust, a city about an hour from the reserve.  We spent the night in a really old, smelly, overpriced house where they make their all black staff dress up as aunt jemima while they wore wife beaters and daisy dukes...nice place.

The next day, we drove up to Madikwe Park which is a private reserve, the fourth largest in the country.  Because its private only those lodges that are in the park can run safari's there.  There are only 13 lodges so we essentially had the whole park to ourselves.  We drove to our meeting point and met Jan our guide.  He took us in the suped up land rover to camp.  We were met by Caroline, the hostest with the mostest, and informed that we were the only people staying at the camp for the next five days!  The whole camp to ourselves!  Exciting.

Look!
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The camp is a traditional bush camp. That means no electricity, no running water, and no fences!  Animals were wandering in and out of our space the whole time.  Our "cottage" was a three sided, elevated, hide.  It was stunning, super clean, and really snug.  At night they lit parafin lamps all around the camp and in our room and built a camp fire...it was lovely!  We brought our own mosquito net and to that we say, "THANK YOU REI"!  We needed it.  It took the edge off.

It got even closer! (that's Jan...and an elephant)
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The toilets were the fanciest pit toilets I've ever seen...you didn't even realize you were poopin in an outhouse.  The showers were bucket showers...again super deluxe though.  You filled a bucket from a water barrel and then heated it through a donkey boiler.  You then lowered the shower bucket and filled it up with your warm water and heaved it back up the pulley system.  It had an "on/off" lever and you showered like normal.  Our bathroom was all Jurassic Park...it was all gated in to protect you from large predators while naked.  Very fancy stuff here.

Grrr....
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Everyday we got up at 5 am and went on a four hour game drive.  Came back had a delicious vegetarian breakfast and then went back to bed for a few hours.  Got up, took a shower (it was pretty hot since its their summer...some days were around 100 degrees) then lunch, then our evening game drive until about 8 or 9 then back for dinner and to bed again.  As you can see it was a rough week.

The game drives were amazing!  Jan (pronounced Yan) our guide, was "Mr. Hawk Eyes"  the man spotted things miles away!  We saw the big five (lions, leopards, buffalo, elephants, rhino's) and then a billion more animals: giraffe, zebra, wildabeast, cheetah, hippo's, bush babies, tortoises, a million kinds of antelope, impala, mongooses, hundreds of birds.  The only thing that alluded us, not for lack of effort, were the wild dogs.  We got so close to all the animals it was scary.  At one point, we turned a corner and two huge male lions were right in front of us...they just kept walking and nearly grazed the car.  It was so awesome.  Did we mention that happened at the end of our driveway and that our camp was not gated?!  YIKES!!

Hornbills
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We had the closest encounter with some lovely rats.  I forgot I had two apples in my day pack.  We went to bed and I heard some squeeling and awoke, panicked, to find a large rat trying to bite his way through my backpack.  I used my strongest teacher voice and a flashlight to get it away.  I tiptoed out of the mosquito/rat net and went to grab the bag to find an even larger rat sitting on it.  It lunged at me with its ferocious teeth and yelled really loud.  I screamed like a small child and threw the bag....I then grabbed the umbrella and swung it furiously until the rat went away.  I made Carrie (who was hiding under the covers) get up and come with me to the cooler to drop the apples in there.  Of course, you aren't suppose to leave your hide at night (they even give you bed pans to use so you don't leave to go to the toilet...that's another story).  Carrie had our umbrella and was swinging it furiously at everything.  We made it back safe and sound with no further rat attacks.  Phew!

Leopard on the hunt..it killed a baby impala and made me cry.
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So, in the end we loved our time in the bush.  It was spectacular and I would highly recommend the bush camp (www.thebushcamp.com) and Madikwe as the park to go to!  Its so relaxed and really untouristy.  The staff was brilliant and really make the place feel like a home.  The park was stunning... we can't even explain the diversity of the landscapes.  The light in South Africa in December is brilliant!  Don't worry...Carrie has a whole series of photos for your viewing pleasure (when you come for our slide show...WHO"S EXCITED?)  Speaking of series...our Africa series is called "Asses of Africa" the elephant was the teaser..you'll have to visit our bathroom for the complete series (when we have a bathroom) :)

Guess who...
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