Ben and I anxiously prepared for our guests to arrive, even borrowing an extra mattress from our friends, the Gaspers. We didn’t want anyone to have to sleep on the couch and 3 young men in one full sized bed just wouldn’t do. They are all too big to share a bed for one thing and I think it would turn into one huge wrestling tournament if they did. (Have you met my bro-in-laws? They LOVE to wrestle!) Even baby decided to do her/his share by popping out for the first time during this pregnancy. Guess we have a little show-off on our hands! Anyway, with the bedrooms properly arranged and the goodie bags I showed you earlier in place…we were as ready as we could be!
We stood watching and waiting at the airport for those five familiar faces to waltz through the doors…15 minutes…30 minutes…an hour. Then finally, there they were! I recognized immediately that my youngest bro had outgrown me in the three months since our last visit. A little tug at my heart from that realization, but Matthew is looking like a fine young man, so how can I complain? We loaded up the rental van (or shall I say mini-bus?) and made our way back to our South African residence. Baby was hungry. And when Baby hungry, Mama hungry. And when Mama and Baby hungry….food must come quickly. Through my excitement, I was somehow able to acquire the strength to wait over another hour for food. Baby was probably wondering what on earth Mama was waiting for! Relief came in the form of a Steers burger and fries. Quite a meal to break in our guests, eh? Oh well, they seemed to like it, I suppose.
Monday morning came bright and early for us…although I was made aware that at least half of our new house guests had been awake since 2-3am. So it wasn’t so “bright” as it was “dark and early” for them… With a busy schedule ahead, I did my best to make the start of their day as smooth as possible. I cooked up a breakfast feast of hot cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, fruit and yogurt. (Fortunately I had prepared and frozen the cinnamon roll dough earlier in the week so that all I had to do on Monday morning was de-thaw and bake!) I was able to breathe a sigh of relief as each of our guests appeared to be satisfied. (As was Baby!) And we were able to head out on our first “Safrican Connell Adventure.”
Ben “eagerly” hopped into the driver’s seat of our chariot for the week, a white Mercedes Vito 8 passenger van as the rest of us found our own special spot. I watched in awe as my Mother-in-Law so sacrificially made her way to the rear of the van. She insisted I sit towards the front due to my carrying her grandchild (and my potential for car sickness). Chris and Patrick shared the seat with me, my Father-in-law settled in as the passenger, and Matthew so graciously joined his mother in the back. Then…we were off. We bounced and jostled our way to the Rhino and Lion Park, an hour plus drive away. I believe we all found ourselves wondering about the 8+ hour drive ahead of us on the next day…but we kept our thoughts (mostly) to ourselves for the time being.
I thoroughly enjoyed viewing the reactions of each family member as he or she spotted the animals. I believe our first sighting was a Kudu of some sort and I made sure to duck my head out of the way so each spectator could snap those photos. Ben decided it would be fun to take a little side road. This particular road was composed of dirt and some large rocks. Now, we may have thought that van was a bumpy ride before, but we had seen nothing yet! We rode that “road,” me holding on to the side boards for support and Chris back seat driving, without much fortune in the way of animal sightings. We quickly instructed Ben to maybe not take any more detours. (And through it all, I don’t think I heard my Mother-in-law complain one bit. She just laughed. What a supportive Mom Ben has!) After our little roller coaster ride, we continued on the main roads looking for animals here and there. The lions and cheetahs hid themselves from our view, but those rhino and cape buffalo decided we were worthy of a viewing. And our guests appeared to be quite satisfied.
Next up…lunch. (You didn’t really think this expectant Mama could last a day without a meal, did you?) However, I once again managed to “calm” that baby’s hunger as we first visited the lion cubs for some play time. I think that may have had something to do with the fact I was quite grateful to be out of that van and able to stretch my legs and rebalance my equilibrium. And really, the wait was quite worthwhile. Because once again I got to sit back and observe our family as they interacted with those lion cubs- so fun to see! I stood back and took pictures, mostly. Although one little lion decided my flip flops might be kinda tasty. Patrick saved my life- he’s so attentive! He shall certainly make some young lady a fine husband one day. ;)
After washing our hands we were finally able to get us some grub. Burgers, sandwiches and fries are the basic South African cuisine when it comes to quick bites to eat…so we had our fill on some more “tasty” food and went on with our day. We finished up our Rhino and Lion park adventure with a walk by the caged lions and hippos. Sadly the hippos weren’t feeling frisky in the sunlight (I know I sure wasn’t!) and so we didn’t get any hippo viewing entertainment. At least we got some more lion action.
But then we had to get back into the van. That dreadful van. It took all my will power (at the time) to take my seat in that vehicle. I much rather would have lied down for a nap, but that was not a possibility. We had to give our guests the time of their life and continue on with the adventure. By some miracle (and maybe the fact that I am pregnant!), I was somehow able to fall asleep to the (not so) rhythmic bouncing of the van. God must have been watching out for me, because that jousting nap surprisingly gave me the energy boost I needed to finish out the day. Fortunately the remaining activities consisted of a walk through the bird sanctuary and a Braii at our South African house. (Once again, I had already taken care of dinner preparations and only heating/cooking/baking was required. Oh, go me!)
And then it was (full) day two. The day of the drive…the long, bumpy, uncomfortable 8+ hour drive. An hour into the drive, nature called. I gave Ben a 15-30 minute warning; however, that warning quickly closed into the “IGOTTAGONOW!!!!!!!!!!!” feeling. It. Was. Painful. Each bump, each turn, each slight jostle of movement brought tears to my eyes as I did my best to squelch the intense urge to GO. I called upon Chris to tell me a story that did not involve water. I think he told me some story about an orange elephant or something, I cannot recall the details and it wasn’t quite long enough to give me that much needed distraction. And so, I ordered Ben to take the next off ramp, regardless of location. There was no waiting and therefore no option. As Ben catapulted that van through an unsuspecting (not so apparently safe) neighborhood, I listened (half-heartedly) to the whines and cries of my brother-in-law, Chris. What happened to the strapping young lad? I certainly was not phased by the litter lined streets and sketchy pedestrians. I had a one tract mind: gottagogottagogottagorightNOW! With no gas stations in view, Ben pulled up to the semi-mini-mart situated between a few dilapidated houses. I had my seat belt off and my hand on the door before the van even rolled to a complete stop and I catapulted out of there like a cannonball. The unsuspecting store owners took one look at me and knew I was not a person to be messed with. I quickly and confidently stated “I need to use the toilet. Do you have one? I will pay you if I need to, but I gotta go!” They showed me the way. I returned to a van poised and ready for take-off. Chris was still freaking out and seemed a bit put out with me for putting “his life in danger.” Haha, oh Chris! Don’t you know Jesus was watching out for us? He knew I needed a potty and He provided. And He kept us safe J
So we kept driving. And driving. And driving. Ben made a vow to stop at any safe gas station along the way, regardless of whether or not I had to go in order to prevent such a traumatic event for dear Christopher. Unfortunately, South African’s must not really feel the need for safe gas stations and toilets…so we were faced with a few more nerve racking potty breaks for Chris. Poor guy! I don’t know why he was so concerned. I mean, just because a few of the guys had machetes didn’t mean they would do us any harm…
About ¾ of the way there we were driving down a hill. At the bottom of the hill were strategically placed the South African police. You know, just standing in the street stopping cars like they do. Anyway, a lady cop flagged us down. She told Ben he was driving between 90-100 KM/HR or something like that. She changed her story a few times and couldn’t offer proof, but she did end up giving him a ticket. Although she wanted the R100 right on the spot. (That’s about $13.) We know better than to give a cop the money directly…there are sadly a lot of corrupt cops out here who take the money and either still send a ticket in the mail later on or simply take the money without issuing a ticket (because they lied about the circumstances for the ticket in the first place.) Anyway, we finally finished up with the cop and set out for the remainder of our long, long, very long drive. The road quality continued to decrease until we reached that final hour stretch where we finally rode along an extremely bumpy dirt road- much like the detour Ben had taken the day before at the Rhino and Lion Park. We laughed about it at first and were amused by the “little childrens” waving as we drove to our destination. But that amusement soon died. There were a few times I glanced back at my mother-in-law and Matthew..bouncing quietly in that back seat. It was later they explained they didn’t even try to be a part of conversation because they couldn’t hear anything above the rickety van. I certainly admire their strength and sacrifice for the rest of us.
Finally. We made it. The farthest safari lodge in the game reserve, no kidding! (There is proof on the map of the reserve!) We were all quite thankful to arrive just in time for lunch, which we of course chowed down on. I wonder if the other safari lodge guests noticed how many times we each loaded our plates from the buffet? Oh well if they did…we paid and we were hungry. We had a bit of free time between lunch and the evening game drive, so I took a much needed nap in our little “chalet.” I think some of the others took a dip in the pool overlooking a watering hole. Before we knew it, we were loaded up in our safari vehicle, ready to go and sight some animals. We didn’t get very far; however, before we had to pull over due to a flat tire. Such luck, I know? At least there were some primates frolicking nearby to give us a bit of a show and we were soon on our way again.
We first stumbled upon some rhino- one of the big five, meaning that the goal of our clan was well underway to fruition. I held my giggles in as I listened to my family react to how close we got to the large animals. It truly was priceless to listen to their comments… “is this safe?” “wow, we are so close!” “what if he charged us right now?” “oh…my….” J Everyone settled down when they realized we were pretty safe and our Guide wouldn’t get us so close to the rhino if they truly were a danger. That’s when the picture snapping and question asking began. I got another kick out of my father-in-law. He truly is a man after knowledge! He asked all sorts of questions about the rhino- questions I never would have thought to ask, and I am quite certain I learned a good deal about rhino that day. As we continued on our drive, we came upon a few impala here and there (I learned about impala too, hehe!). We soon stopped for our “sundowners” (drinks as the sun went down)….and I found a “secluded” place in the bush to relieve myself. I was a little nervous, I will admit…so I made sure I wasn’t too far away from the group, but hidden just enough that they couldn’t see me do my business, haha, is that TMI? As I finished up and began my short trek back to the group, a Jakal ran by about 40 feet away. HA! Guess I had reason to be nervous, but he went on his way and we were all safe. I didn’t finish my drink out of respect for the drive (If I drank my entire beverage, we would have had to stop at least one to two more times before making it back to the lodge!); however, I don’t think our Tracker quite understood. He thought I was wasting…which, yes, in a way, I was. But it was either waste it or pee it. I chose to waste it.
We got off to another strong start for the second leg of our night safari…we came across a female leopard, Shadow, perched upon a termite mound. She was fairly hidden and our Guide explained that Shadow is the rarest sighting of all Leopards in the reserve. So we were pretty lucky! I did my best to snap a few shots, though my flash could only reach so far…..that’s okay. It was still an amazing sighting. She soon got spooked as other vehicles arrived to catch a glimpse and hid herself just so in a thicket of grass. Yeah, we were most definitely lucky. (And I learned more about leopards as we viewed her…) The lodge staff greeted us upon our return with special drinks: blue for those of age and red for the youngin’s (and me!). Matthew and I certainly enjoyed our red Shirley Temples! (Patrick accidentally grabbed the blue one and didn’t realize until it was too late…fortunately it was very small and had close to zero alcohol!)
Dinner was served outside around a fire- Boma style. My cuisine was slightly different from the rest of the guests because I couldn’t have the salmon. Besides that, dinner was quite nice….although I also skipped desert….too chocolate for me. Everyone else appeared very pleased; however. We are talking CONNELL’s here, Connell is short for Chocolate. Exhaustion hits one hard when out in “the bush” so we all pretty much went to bed right after dinner. And man, that wake-up call came all too early, I tell you what! I had a bit of a panic in the morning. There were no breakfast muffins or scones as there have been at every other safari lodge we have ever stayed at. I was absolutely lost…and quite worried! At that point in my pregnancy, I could not get out of bed most days without first munching on a few cheerios or something….that was to avoid morning sickness. Fortunately, my dear husband was able to run to the van and grab my emergency stash of snacks, so I didn’t die.
We began our morning with a visit to some lions who just happened to be lounging about after their early morning meal (some were still licking their chops). My finger got a work out as I snapped photo after photo. In the midst of my excitement; however, my dumb cell phone (which was turned OFF by the way) decided to ring the morning alarm. I was so frustrated. I didn’t realize my phone would still sound the alarm when it was off. And of course my phone is the cheapo kind that is not designed well….so the only way to turn it off is to listen to this BLARINGLY loud music as it shuts off. Talk about embarrassment. At least the lions didn’t try to eat us and they didn’t appear to be startled. And my father-in-law seized this moment to glean some more knowledge, maybe saving me in the process from further embarrassment? I resumed my photo taking….just with my cheeks a little pink. We moved on from the lions to spot some elephant. One elephant kind of hid himself behind a tree. He kept peeking around at us and flaring his ears- (I learned this behavior is a sign of self-defense, kind of saying “don’t mess with me!”). We also came close to seeing an elephant fight, but no such luck. So, as you can see, we now had 4 of the Big 5 checked off the list and we were able to return to the lodge and eat breakfast in (relative) peace. I must add…they had some delicious muffins. I made sure to snag a couple extra for the next morning before our final safari- hey, an expectant Mommy’s gotta think ahead!
After breakfast Matthew and I stayed behind to lounge by the pool and play Bananagrams. The rest of our group went out on a “bush walk,” or a safari on foot. I did not envy them. It was very hot and the sun was intense. Matthew and I enjoyed our poolside relaxation, thankful to not be out on that hot walk. The clan eventually returned, definitely appearing hot and tired! But at least they also appeared satisfied. No close encounters with lions or anything, but they learned a good deal. I opted for a late-morning outdoor shower before lunch. That shower was amazing. When I say outdoor, you must understand, it was secluded- and each room had its own. The only downfall was the fact that it was so intensely hot for the remainder of the afternoon. And by the time our evening safari arrived, I was definitely in need of another shower.
But that wasn’t going to happen. No, instead we parked the safari vehicle smack dab in the afternoon sun- and in the midst of a herd of Cape Buffalo (the final of our Big 5!). Whew! Was it ever hot! I somehow bucked up…maybe it had something to do with the great photo opp all around me? I’m not sure. But I did learn a great deal about Cape Buffalo during our Buffalo viewing. Following the buffalo, the fam decided they must see some hippo and a giraffe. We stopped by a watering hole for our sundowners where the hippos decided to stay under the water’s surface- a storm was brewing after all and the wind had picked up. If I were a hippo, I would probably stay under water too. It was pretty crazy to be standing so close to the water’s edge, just sipping our beverages watching for hippos. Since the hippos were being shy and the night was growing deep, we continued on our way. And we were soon surrounded by lions. Man, the cats are sure plentiful in this reserve, I must say! We were hoping to see a “kill,” but those lions just continued stalking their prey for what seemed like forever….and we were out of time. We booked it back to the lodge as rain whipped us in the face. Chris was hilarious. He basically just “grinned and bore it,” but I soooo wish I had a picture to show you!
I mentioned earlier that safaris are exhausting. Oh my, are they ever! Especially for an expectant mommy like myself! I barely made it through dinner. I actually had to excuse myself before dessert because I was feeling so tired and blah. I think I cried in the (outdoor) shower for a bit and then stumbled to bed. Why is it that when you are pregnant your emotions are so haywire? I’m just glad I didn’t cry in front of my tough bro-in-laws. That would have turned me even more pink! Of course they sent out some South African ladies to sing over dessert. Makes sense that the pregnant mama would miss the performance! Oh well, I needed the sleep!
Our final morning dawned and we set out on our final safari with our hopes held high. And rightfully so! Walking down the road was a LEOPARD! Yeah! Just strolling along, minding his own business. So awesome. We watched him for a bit before moving on with the intent to locate hippo and giraffe. However…we accidentally stumbled upon another small pride of lion. This particular pride consisted of a few females and a young male lion that had been kicked out of the main pride. Apparently one of the Mama lions got “knocked up” by a bad lion that was killed by the other males…and those males are now after the blood of this young guy. So they now all stick together away from the larger pride. (I learned all of this as we observed the lions). Just as we were preparing to go on our way, we noticed a young female leopard coming our way. She did not see the lions. And she couldn’t smell them either due to the direction of the wind. But the lions saw her. And they perked up. The male lion began to creep forward, stalking the young leopard. As much as you want to see a “kill,” I definitely did NOT want to see this leopard be breakfast for these lions. I prayed for her safety (as I snapped photos). As she went behind a bush, the lion seized the moment to advance quickly….and at the last second; she made it up into the tree in one leap! My oh my, was I ever thankful! And the look on her face! You could just see her little heart beating…her eyes did not blink as she stared down at the lions that so nearly ended her existence on this earth. It was amazing. I wanted to spend the rest of the morning just watching the leopard. I wanted to see her make her retreat, but we had a giraffe to locate. And so, we continued on our way once again. We drove. And we drove…and drove…and drove and drove. I was about to nod off when finally we spotted our tall spotted friends. Two giraffe standing in the road. Oh, my, our family was quite pleased! You could just hear their sighs of relief as they snapped pictures. And I learned more about giraffe. When the giraffe made their way out of view, we continued on our final safari. However, our guide apparently thought we were done, because he basically trucked us back like lightning to the safari lodge. We were almost 30 minutes early. I was not a happy camper with this outcome. We paid for FOUR safaris, not three and three quarters, but whatever. I cooled down. Breakfast was soon ready, anyway. And I got to take one last luxurious outdoor shower….before loading back up into that horribly awful, terrible van.
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