What would Africa be without a safari?

SAFARI WEEKEND:

Friday, 5:30 AM: Get up, eat breakfast and stumble to the van to get taken to the hostel where we were going to get picked up by a backpacker travel van called the Baz Bus…

1:00 pm : Arrived in St. Lucia at a backpackers hostel called the Bloo House. It was literally a blue house, with a huge yard and fire pit and hammock. See the pictures! Got settled in and walked to find lunch.

4:00 pm: Water safari! Went out on a huge boat looking for hippos and alligators and storks and cranes, all of which we found! The hippos were my favorite, they just chilled in the water and watched us all go by. See the pictures! To quote Andy: “[it was] better than hdtv!”

8:00 pm: Dinner at this marvelous seafood restaurant, the name of which eludes me. I have taken quite the liking to fried calamari, not sure how, but it is damned good. The pictures apparently only showed quarter portions so I ordered two of one thing, thinking it was another, had like 3 meals worth of fish and chips. Even better, food is so cheap here the whole thing only cost me like $15. Meals here are never ever more than $20, and that is for like a huge steak and potatoes and at least two drinks. Most full sit-down restaurant meals cost less than $10, I’m loving it here.

10:00 pm: Chilled by the campfire, then went to bed to crash for the next mornings safari.

Saturday, 5:30 am: up and dressed, get to the gate for pickup to head to Hluhluhwe wildlife reserve! It took a good while to learn how to say that word, it is pronounched ‘Shluh-shloo-ee’ and not the ‘huh-louie-louie’ that we had grown quite fond of saying. Oh man, Zulu is fun. Try saying ‘Xhosa’ or ‘Nxobile’. My favorite is ‘Nxamamanga’. I’ll try to upload some audio clips!

8:00 am: Arrived at Hluhluhwe, hell bent on seeing elephants, rhinos, impalas, monkeys, and lions! See the photo album, words can’t describe this one.

11:00 am: Got to the management offices in the middle of the park right in time to seeing monkeys opening a window and stealing all the food inside! It was so funny seeing monkeys walk out with bags of chips. They went into the trees and I have the best picture of a monkey eating from a bag of chips he stole from the office. Rick, our guide, was pissed off about it, but we all thought it was quite funny.

12:00 pm: Lunch! We had a barbecue with steaks, sausages, and macaroni salad. In South Africa, barbecues are called braai’s, and it was probably one of the better bbq/braai’s I have ever had.

4:00 pm: Arrived back in St. Lucia with four hours to kill before going on our night safari! Cruised around St. Lucia and ate dinner.

8:00 pm: Night safari! Went out in a big truck careening through fields in search of the nocturnal wildlife. Our driver was great, he flew through the fields in the black of the night with the wheel in one hand, a spotlight in the other. There was one moment where he found a herd of buffalo and killed the engine and as the buffalo ran we rolled downhill with them, it was like being part of the herd! So awesome. The spotter was pro also, they were able to find frogs and even aardvarks just by the sparks of their eyes! It was great, check out the pictures! I even got to hold a chameleon!

11:00 pm: Back in St. Lucia, went to the local pub to play some pool against the locals. Marjon and I were unbeatable, going 3-0 before deciding to call it a night.

Sunday, 10:00 am: Ok there might be some discrepancies with my time here, they are all guesses due to the fact my watch broke and I hadn’t been journalizing. We all head to the Baz Bus and leave roughly around 11.

1:00 pm: Bus won’t go over 20 km/hr. Yes, that is like 12 miles per hour. Driver has to keep pulling over. Overheating? Fluids? Leanna, some Swiss guy, and myself are determined to find out.

1:30 pm: Alternator is shot. Bus can’t go faster than 20 kmh, and we are still 2 hours from Durban. Driver doesn’t know how bus works. Persuade driver to stop at hostel in Sloweh? Might be different name. Driver says bus is going to keep going until it stops, then get another bus to get us. All passengers get off at hostel and refuse to get back on. I call the bus manager, he is a jerk and says VW is wrong and the bus is fine, instructs driver to continue until bus breaks down. Says next bus will come Tuesday! Hostel bartender shakes head and gives us free drinks till the next bus decides to come.

1:45 pm: Driver leaves us at hostel! I call Roy (our hospital driver) and tell him to call Baz Bus and figure out how the hell we are going to get home.

1:55 pm: Baz Bus manager learns all passengers got off and the same bus returns! Driver is furious when we again tell him we won’t get on and get stranded. I am amazed bus is still going.

2:10 pm: Driver again leaves, and hostel manager organizes transport in two mercedes for all of us to get home.

5:00 pm: FINALLY back in Durban. Say peace out to the Swiss and head home with Roy.

All in all, great time. "Even better than HDTV" - Andy.