Our stewardess on our Kulula flight from Cape Town to Joburg. She, and the rest of the crew, claimed to be part time strippers.
We made a stop at the canyon. It was soo pretty ps. these are the girls :-)
Me!
cool monkey picture at one of the lodges at Kruger
Piper and I waiting on our sunset safari
ready to go... Julia and Piper in the background
excited to be at Kruger!!!
our guide, Batticus
me and the sunset :-)
our first girraffe!!!
i'm telling you, there's something about the sun here that's different than anything i've ever seen
hippos at the waterhole where we watched the sunset... cool, but nervewrecking because we were sitting on the rocks and they were only a couple of meters away
the African sunset
the girls
my bed at the treehouse lodge
the little rascals responsible for thievery and laughter
raiding trashcans at the campsite
sneaking toward the breakfast table to make a steal
peeking to see if he can come steal some toast
morning yawn
we ate breakfast here and were constantly shooing mokeys, lol
breakfast table... check out who wants to join us (look carefully)
our campsite at Marc's treehouse lodge
where we ate dinner... one night, a herd of buffalo came during dinner and they were right on the other side of that frail fence drinking out of the pool. they're the most dangerous of the big five.... it was sooo cool
more of our campsite
one of the treehouses
another vervet monkey from the breakfast table, lol
eagle made a snake kill
isn't this pretty?!?!?!
look at the snake guts spilling out, lol
elephants at the watering hole
we thought this was sooo cool!!!
then, we start to pull off, and....
an entire herd (of like 30 elephants) is crossing the road and heading straight toward the watering hole!!!
they raise their trunks to smell the water
it was soooooo amazing!!!
they keep their babies in the middle
how cool is that?!
ZAZU... the bird from the Lion King!!!
He's soooo flyy, coolest looking bird ever!
three lionesses sleeping near the watering hole... two sleeping and the one on the right plotting an ambush
the lion checking out the waterhole
sleepy heads
she rolls over for a stretch
spots us
and sits up staring right at us!
this is what the other lioness was plotting an ambush on, we didn't see the kill though... she was taking too long
more elephants at the waterhole
Pumba from the Lion King... aka a warthog
you know what these are called!
our guide kept telling bad jokes about how these weren't zebras, but were horses in pajamas, lol
pretty bird!
the elephants having a meeting
me trying to eaves drop
rhinos soaking up the sun
and then guess what happened?!?!
another elephant crossing!!!
right across the road!!!
and yup, another elephant crossing
right in front of our car
how cool does this look?!?!
Pumba and his family!
so cute!
another Zazu... i couldn't get enough of this guy
pretty picture
can't get enough of that African sun!
rest stop in Kruger
baboons.... mommy with one baby suckling, and the other picking off the bugs
this lion was dying
it was attacked by one of the other males in the pride trying to overcome power, and the younger lion won
it was taking shallow breaths and the look in his eyes was like he was ready... it was the worst thing ever. literally, just a couple of meters off the road. it was terrible to see
monkey family doing their thing
mom and baby
when i saw all this was happening on the side of the road... I mean RIGHT on the side of the road!
more African sunsets... these never got old
this is what they sold at the kruger store, dried game meat... erie huh?! you can eat the very animals you've been watching all day. seriously though, dried meat here is called "biltong" and it's super popular. similar to our beef jerkey, but here, it's not always beef, lol
empty road, but we drove up a few meters, and...
yup, another elephant crossing!!!
like 30 or more of them
Mommy and baby
getting its milk
pretty African tree
perfect zebra profile
pretty blue bird
this guy was just chillin at one of the rest stops
wildebeast... YOU KILLED MUFASA!!!
so, our driver went off onto a side road and we saw this eagle in a pool of water drinking
this thing was pretty big
mamma and baby zebra
baby trying to hide
so we stopped at this watering hole off the side road to see who would come to drink, and saw this vulture. the driver stopped the car, turned off the engine and told us to shhhh... then, we hear an entire pride of lions roaring! like loud roars!!! we were like, "where are they where are they... let's find them!"
then, another vulture comes... and our driver is like, "from the sound of that roar, I think they've made a kill"... the whole time, these lions are roaring like crazy!
then three more vultures come, and clearly, that must mean, something is going down... death must be near!
then more vultures
and more vultures... so we drive away, toward this narrow bridge, and...
this guy is taking a leisurely drink out of the water from the left side of the bridge
This bridge was super duper narrow... notice the distance of the car tracks from the edge
notice his bloody paws
he walks over to the bushes
we look to the left and and entire family of hippos is right next to the vehicle in the water, we look to the right, and...
we see an entire pride of lions feasting on a freshly killed buffalo
THIS was the highlight of the day!
look at his bloody face! ps. yeah, he's looking directly at us!
he's the one from earlier who was drinking the water
look at how close I was!!!
the others who have already fed laying under the bushes
check this out!
hippos like a few arm stretches away from us!
view to the left
view to the right
if we would've made a sound and pissed anyone off... we could've easily been hippo or lion dinner... and no, our guide didn't have a gun
we couldn't move, a car came up behind us, and in front of us... we were in the middle of the bridge, it was soooooo cool!!!
wild vervet monkey unlike the ones at the treehouse lodge, lol
there's that sun again
one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip
we drove from Kruger back to Joburg and on the way, we stopped at the famous Blyde River Canyon, here you see the three rondavels
this is one of the most precious and amazing men I've ever met in my entire life... his name is Thulani. He's a Kruger guide, brilliant, you could ask him anything about anything nature-y and he knows it ALL, works 27 days non-stop, gets 4 days off at the end, only then does he get to go home, his wife left him because he spends too much time in the bush, has three kids he loves very much but never sees and misses tremendously, doesn't own a computer and has no clue how to use one, never owned a car and isn't sure whether he ever will in his lifetime, has dreams of visiting the states one day, and most amazing... never ever complains about anything.
me at the canyon
while in Joburg, we went to this restaurant, Moyo's, for dinner. it's pretty cool, it's totally African themed
my daquri was amazing :-)
African drummers
traditional face painting
finished product :-)
On the first day in Zambia, we went white water rafting
Our guide's name was Babyface
Please take a moment of silence... this man saved my life!!! (pictures of what he saved me from coming soon...)
We rafted for 7 hours down 25 rapids for something like 30 kilometers down the Zambezi river
The rapids had names like "The Washing Machine" and "Stairway to Hell"
there were saftey kayakers going down the river with us... also served as the photographers and videographers, granted, I'm not sure how safe that is that they have dual roles like that, lol
It was the most fun activity I did during the whole vacation
I'm happy I did it, because I can say that I did it, but I'll be honest, I was terrified
There were three commands, "paddle forward," "paddle backward," and "GET DOWN"
we knew how to "GET DOWN" VERY WELL!!!
when a huge rapid comes up, they yell "GET DOWN", so you drop to the inside of the boat, hold on to what the guides called the "oh shit line" around the rim of the boat and hold your paddle parralell to it so as not to poke anyone's eye out with the end of it
there are six grades of rapids... the highest being a six as in like waterfalls and stuff... there were like 6 grade 5 rapids and one grade six... the grade six was rapid number 10 and they made us paddle to the shore, get out, and hike around that one. needless to say, imagine how big the grade fives can be!
on one side of us is Zambia, and on the other side in Zimbabwe
"GET DOWN!!!!"
that was a big one!
but we survived!
The girls called me "Princess Jasmine" during most of the trip because they're used to this outdoor campy stuff, and as you all know... I'm not!
they especially called me that during the rafting trip because somehow, I always knew when the cameras were around, lol (you will notice this more as you keep looking through the pictures, lol)
"GET DOWN!!!"
everyone else is down, but me...
I wave
and wave
and wave... lol
life saving coming soon
coming...
but where's Jasmine?!?!?!
that's right... she's UNDER THE BOAT!!!
we capsized on a grade five!
upside down boat..me underneath... vicious rapids... talk about SCARED!!!
I was going crazy... like swallowing water... pointlessly kicking with sneakers on... but good ol' Babyface yanked me up by my lifejacket yelled "STOP PANICKING" and made me grab hold onto the boat's "oh shit" line... it was so scary!
then, it was back to business... PADDLE FORWARD!!!
we survived!!!!
THE END!
yes, me waving again! lol
VICTORIA FALLS... Zambia side
during high tide (December-March) all of the rock face you see on the right is completely covered in water. they say now is the best time to come because during high tide, you can't even see the falls because of the mist
pretty!
peep the rainbow
check out that power! you can only see 20% of the falls from Zambia
the other 80% is seen from Zimbabwe
so we walked to Zim :-)
so excited!
and it was AMAZING!!!
vine swings! (the vegetation across fromt the falls is like a rainforest. it's so lush and green because of the constant mist)
we decided to have lunch at the famous Victoria Falls Hotel
pretty tree on the grounds... after lunch we took a walk
later that night, we had a sunset cruise down the Zambezi... open bar :-)
me and Natalie
we made really good friends with our white water rafting guides, so Saturday, they took us to their village in Zambia.
The cheif of the Mukoni village OWNS VICTORIA FALLS AND THE ZAMBEZI RIVER!!! When the government wants to do anything, build, have tourists, anything... they must first ask him! He's super powerful!
our tents at the Zambezi waterfront
the campgrounds
