Spring Break in Africa

For our Spring Break this year, we decided to head to South Africa to visit my parents who are serving a mission in the area office in Johannesburg.  We felt that this would be a one in a lifetime opportunity to visit this country (and continent) when we had someone to take us around and help us really get to know the people and places.  It was easy for us because my parents did most the planning and scheduling - we just told them what we basically wanted to do while there.  We flew into Johannesburg on Sunday morning (we left Singapore Saturday night) and then left early Monday morning for our first adventure - a Safari in Madikwe Game Reserve located in northern South Africa, on the Botswana border.  We spend three days trekking around this African bushveld.

 We knew we were in for a good experience when on our way to the camp we saw two big ostrich with some babies, impalla, zebra, and a big elephant cross the road right in front of us.  We parked our car and were picked up by our safari guide to take us into the camp.  On our way we stopped at a water hole and saw a ton  more animals - including giraffe's and a pack of wild dogs.

 Seeing the giraffe's drink was super cool - the way they have to bend their legs to get down low enough. 

 We stayed 2 nights and had 4 game drives - Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning and afternoon, and Wednesday morning.  We were so lucky to see every possible animal - except a leopard.   Seeing animals in the wild like this is truly a unique and indescribable experience.

Our morning game drives started at 5:45 am.  Each drive lasted about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  The kids loved every minute of it.  It becomes a game, searching for the animals in the brush as you drive around.  Often times we would go a while without seeing animals but the scenery itself was incredible.  Halfway through each drive our very knowledgeable and fabulous guide (Justice) would stop and we would get out and have a snack and drink (welcomed hot chocolate in the mornings). 

 Watching the interaction of the animals was one of the best parts.  We enjoyed watching elephants fighting (playing).  It was also fun to see how protective the mother's are of babies - with all the animals.

 One day we came upon a large pride of lions (9) eating a recently killed zebra - that was quite a sight. We watched them for a while - taking turns eating and resting, eating and resting.

 The kids loved the bush camp we stayed at.  It was nice but had just enough of a camping like experience for the kids to be in camping heaven.  We stayed in tent like cabins and all our food was prepared for us.  One of the highlights (for Dallin at least) was having to heat your own water for a shower and lighting the lanterns in the rooms at night - and also the morning fire.

 On our last game drive we got to see a pack of four cheetah's eating a very recently killed prey (a red hartebeest).  It's hard to pick which pictures to share (we took over 1200 during our trip). We saw so many amazing things and enjoyed every minute of our safari adventure.