I know you all wish you were as cool as me. I just can’t help it. Signing up for these crazy excursions, it’s just my specialty. I saw a real giraffe. Actually two; a señorita and a señor. We think she was pregnant (or as they say here, she had a bun in the oven), but he was not the father. This weekend Albert and I went on an African adventure to the Mokala National Park, our very first game drive. It was an African adventure for sure, not because of the actual game drive or the animals, but because of the process of getting there and leaving. Side note: Mokala National Park is one of the easiest national parks to access. Based on our experience, I would say that I will not be attending any other parks unless I can get my small plane over here.
We bumped and hopped along 16 km of a questionable dirt road, just praying that our car wouldn’t fall apart around us. When we got all the way down the road we came to a sign that read Mokala National Park at Lilydale. We found out 6 km beyond that sign that Lilydale is more of the relaxing retreat for couples than the actual national park where you can see the animals. So we proceeded to drive another 16 km back down the road followed by 20 on the highway and 21 more on another horrible dirt road where we strategically dodged bumps and potholes at 30 km/h. We thought it was all well worth it when we were relaxing in the huge Land Rover on the game drive looking at awesome animals, but the return trip made us slightly unsure of it’s worth. Bronson, our lovely guide, told us that it would be better if we drove on the dirt roads at 60-80 km/h and we thought about it and decided we would give it a try, well-knowing it was probably not the best of our ideas. Halfway down the road, we were cruising and thinking that this was working out quite nicely when I felt like something was wrong, either we caught something and we were dragging it or the bottom of the car fell off. Luckily or unluckily, it was neither, we had a flat tire. Stupid rocks! With even more luck, we found a spare and a jack in our trunk and we were able to change it. No worries, I have pictures to document this process. This was my second flat tire ever and the first time that I had to deal with it myself instead of calling AAA or Braman Assistance. Oh, South Africa, oh, spoiled Kristin in the United States. From there on we resumed a 20 km/h speed and I kept an eye out for all the rocks in the road and instructed Albert in dodging them (Side note: the whole road was rocks).
On a positive note, the game drive was pretty spectacular. Unaware of the fact that we should have arrived their early in the morning, we were told we could go out, but our chances of seeing anything in the middle of the day were slim to none. However, as you should have gathered above, we got a chance to see some pretty cool animals. For the equivalent of $10, Albert and I had our own private game drive tour with our guide Bronson. First we saw a small Steenbok, which is the smallest of the antelope family and also interestingly a monogamist, which means (in case you were unaware) that it mates with one partner for its entire life! We saw some African buffalo and they were just old cranky men (that’s how Bronson described them). We also saw some wildebeest, which are apparently dumb and some warthogs. When we saw the warthogs, Bronson pointed and said, “Pumba!” and they really were the real live version of Pumba. We saw a ton of different antelope: the kudu (which I ate once in Cape Town), Impala, Mountain Reedbuck, Oryx, Springbok, and Red hartebeest. We also saw a zebra from super far away, so far I’m not sure we can count it and some white rhino poop. We never got to see the rhino, just big piles of poo. The highlight of the entire drive was when the Land Rover basically climbed right up the side of the mountain. We had no idea it was even part of the road and we just climbed right up it like it was nothing.
Albert and I would really like to add some color and excitement to our apartment, so we are hoping that you all would be so kind as to send us a postcard! I think we need about 40 to fill the tiles in the kitchen, so get on it!
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