Today we woke up bright and early at 6:30 in the morning because the drive to the Inverdoorn Game Reserve is about 2 hours long. Since the ride is that long waking up that early didn’t bother me a ton since I planned in advance on sleeping in the van. Driving through cities is always fun in my opinion because I’m definitely in love with cities. That’s the biggest reason why I went to the UofM for college. On our way there we had to drive through a mountain literally. I can’t remember the name of the tunnel but it is one of the longest ones in the world. Now the only thing left on my list of things to drive through is a tree. Once we got through the mountain we were driving all around mountains and I don’t know but it sort of felt like a scene out of the movie Spirit.
At the safari we got to see lions, giraffes, springbuck, buffalo, zebras, cheetahs and more! The cheetahs were the best because we were literally feet away from them. The girl driving our vehicle while we were next to the cheetahs told us the story about the cheetah attack and showed us her scars. Probably not the best time to be telling us about a cheetah attack but it was still awesome. While we were driving around she also pulled over and gave us a leaf off this bush, which she told us to chew on. It was extremely salty in taste, and she told us not to swallow it. After it was in our mouth she joked that the reason why it was so salty was because a giraffe peed on it. That wasn’t the case (possibly) because the plant is actually salty to encourage some of the animals that eat it to drink more water.
The location of the safari is actually the coldest location in South Africa. Since the vehicles don’t have windows and were driving it was quite windy and I was a little cold. I was super sad because we didn’t get to see a rhino. The rain was coming and they are very sensitive so they try to avoid the wind by going deep into the brush. Not gunna lie I was super sad. There also were no elephants (sorry Colleen) but they’re getting them in two years, making them the first game reserve in South Africa to have them.
After the ride we got to eat lunch. I got a stuffed eggplant dish and it was amazingly delicious. I regret not taking a picture of it. Then I slept for the majority of the ride back till Jane woke me up at the tollbooth to show us more wild baboons. We also on the ride back saw a DOUBLE RAINBOW ALL THE WAY!
This is the end of part one of my time in South Africa. Part two is our time in the township of Gugulethu. While were there were not going to have access to the internet so although I’m not posting on my blog I’m not dead.
