Welcome to South Africa!
Heading out to dinner with mom, dad, Paul and Jess
The pool at 1322 Intl Backpackers
The cabins
The entrance gate
We couldn't fit a thing more in this trunk!
We went out to one of our favorite restaurants, Tings an Times
In front of Tings an Times
Hanging out at night after dinner
Mom in our room at 1322
The Union Buildings in Pretoria
The lawn of the Union Buildings
Looking up at them
Dad and mom with downtown Pretoria in the background
City-centre Pretoria
Mother and son
Our first wildlife sighting!!
Tonya and her pet bird “Tweety”
One of the rooms at Picasso's where we stayed the night in Ellisras
Having lunch at Denise and Pieter's house in Onverwacht
Safiri was the focus of ALL attention!
Looking up through one of the lawn umbrellas
Denise and Safiri
Our friend Dewald showing us their new guesthouse
A huge snail
Mom with Tonya and Devon
Brandon and Erika hanging out by the braai
A rack of sheep ribs
Our rental car and rooms at Picasso's Guesthouse
Dewald makes a great breakfast!
Dewald took us out and showed us their new house
The thatched roof from the inside
Dewald and Erika van Zyl with their kids Tonya and Devon inside of The Purple Lady (Erika's shop)
Our host brother Moses was making bricks for his new house
Termite hill ... LARGE termite hill
Matlatse and Brandon
Nlasi opening a gift from her pen-pal (Grandma Swanson)
Mom handing a gift to Tshepo and the other kids
Christmas lights and mittens (with personalized embroidered names) in our house
Dad's creative Christmas tree and a few gifts
Mom and a neighborhood puppy during our morning walk
Brandon and dad
Rachel and mom
Out doing her morning sweeping of the yard
A typical house in our village
Dad and mom in Kgobagodimo
Salim's shop wasn't open quite yet at 6:30am
Andries and dad (notice Andries' shirt)
Brandon and Rachel with some of Andries' family
Matlatse showing off a new Christmas gift
Mom giving Mma Kgonyane a few gifts
Mom and Anna
Mom and dad with some of the Kgonyane family
Philemon and Matlatse
Mom and Rachel went to Boskop to visit Matome's family
Mom and Happy
Matome's mom and two sisters taking mom down to the river
Matome's mother enjoying the water
Happy
Salim invited us in for a cold drink at his shop
Mom, Salim and dad
Phuti and her cousin
Mom with some girl's in Phuti's house
Mom and Phuti
Sitting inside of Khutso's house (although Khutso wasn't there)
Headed back home
Mom and Tebogo
Going out in the fields to catch the sunrise at 5:15am
Dad and mom in the bushveld
Mom looks like a shrimp compared to this thing!
We saw a field full of wildlife on our drive away from the village
Black wildebeest
As we neared Polokwane, we saw these boulders everywhere
A view over Tzaneen from a pull-off
Dad going for a peek inside the Baobab
And he's 26 years old?
So yeah, it's a pretty big tree!
Our house at Khumbula in Hoedspruit
The back patio
A view from the patio over the pool at the mountains
Enjoying the pool on a HOT afternoon
Brandon being a goof
...again
A view from the backyard
What a cute couple!
Rachel fixing us dinner and serving at the outside bar
What a wonderful night
And then the sun set...
Drive from Hoedspruit to the Blyde River Canyon
Souvenir shopping
Rachel and Brandon at the Three Rondovals
Dad with the Blyde River Canyon behind
Berlin Falls near Graskop
Lisbon Falls near Graskop
Graskop
Paul Kruger monument
Our first wildlife sighting in the park!
Our safari tent at Skukuza Camp
Wildebeest
Baboons
Kudu
We got up at 3:30am for a morning game drive!!
Impala
The Skukuza Camp in Kruger
Vulture
Black rhinos
We could watch these guys for hours!
What a life!
The Lower Sabie Camp in Kruger
What a perfect ending to the day
Our huts at Lower Sabie Camp in Kruger National Park
A view down the river from the camp's restaurant
A view in the opposite direction
Enjoying a nice breakfast b
Warthog and impala
Interesting yellow tree with nests
Our one and only buffalo sighting!
Leaving Kruger at the Crocodile Bridge Gate (we were officially still in the park and probably shouldn't have gotten out of the car)
Driving through a village in South Africa
Driving past some cows in the road
Dad and mom at the border crossing into Swaziland
A sugar cane field in Swaziland with the mountains behind
Hlane Game Sanctuary
Brandon sitting with an elephant skull
The entrance to the park had a bunch of these barren trees
The welcoming committee
The entrance to Ndlovu Camp where we stayed
The balcony inside of our hut
The outside of our hut ... the "Big Hut" as they called it
A lapa where we sat and played cards in the afternoon
And then mom spotted these in the midst of our card game ... they were just next to our camp with a mere two wire fence standing between us and them
We counted about 15 rhinos total
Playing frisbee out in the yard
"Dad! Try to keep the frisbee on our side of the fence!"
Yeah, we were really that close
A baby hippo wanted to make friends with the rhinos ... they chased him back to the water
Rachel and mom enjoying the view
A Swazi 50 note
Baby hippo playing with moms and pops
We went for a drive inside of the park and spotted these within just a few minutes
A beautiful bird we spotted
A view down the initial road we started on
"Brandon, watch out for those baboons!"
The path became a little more difficult to navigate ... we literally thought we were going to get stuck a few times and have to spend the night with the lions!
Washing the car after making a mess of it
Leaving the park
A traditional Swazi hut along the roadside
Leaving Swaziland and entering back into South Africa
A roadside market and curios
Our lodge in St. Lucia
Dad and mom standing in front of our room at Namib Safari Lodge
Some curios in St. Lucia
Rachel and Brandon at dinner at St. Pizza
... and dad and mom
Meeting at BIBs for our 5:45am pickup to head out to the ocean
Mom and dad with the advertisement for our trip in the background
The beach in St. Lucia at 6am
Preparing the boat for launch
The 2nd highest vegetated sand dunes in the world
Rachel and Brandon enjoying the ride in the back
A shipwreck from 2004
We went way out into the ocean, but the view was spectacular
Dad the photographer
Rachel getting to steer the boat (for a few seconds)
Some early morning fishermen
Back safely at the beach
A picture of Namib Safari Lodge from across the street
Back at Namib Safari Lodge
Went to lunch at the Mighty Bite ... it was good
We went for a walk down the beach in St. Lucia
The water was perfect
The largest bird in St. Lucia
The hippos were so much fun to watch
We saw two different “groups” in the St. Lucia Estuary
Rachel enjoying the pleasant ride with mom and dad
That's just a little scary
We saw a few crocs along the way
Dad talking to Ryan on the cell phone
The sun setting on the Estuary
Our boat
Dad and mom standing along what became a “Bourbon Street” type of setting late into New Years Eve night
Playing cards on New Year's Eve ... there was a party down on the street just below our lodge
The main highways in SA are all toll roads
Dad enjoyed taking pictures out of the window along the drive from St. Lucia to Margate
Doesn't look much different from the States, does it?
The outskirts of Durban
We found a great beach in Ramsgate to enjoy the afternoon
The surf and weather were perfect
Then we found a very cute Italian restaurant to eat lunch at ... felt like we were in Europe
The view of the Indian Ocean from the shoppes
We stopped along the roadside on our drive to Underberg
We were starting to come into the Drakensberg Mountains
Our welcoming committee at Khotso Horse Trails
Our rondavel at Khotso
Playing What's Wild
The sunrise behind our rondavel
There are 4 small places in the back and then the 20-sleeper cabin in front
We bought at kite at the beach and decided to try it out
A view of our place from below
The fire pit in front of our place
The fork in the road that splits and goes to the main house or the rondavels
Mom and dad heading up for the morning pony trek
Khotso is a working sheep and horse farm
Getting ready for our morning ride
Dad mounting his horse
And into the hills we go
We really worked our way into the mountains
There is our rondavel from the hillside
We rode across an open plain at the top of the first hill
There are our two guides ... the one on the left led the whole way
Just after this photo, the guide in the back got thrown off his horse ... it kind of freaked us out, but he was okay
Right after this turn, the guide pointed up the mountain and told dad, “Go straight up”
During this last part of the climb, we really had to trust our horses
Dad led the way
You can see our rondavels in the distance to the left of the photo
“I win!”
Mom enjoying our chai and biscuits during our break
This marker signified the top of the mountain peak
The views were AMAZING!!
Mom and MacGyver
Dad and Spring
Rachel and Simon
This in where one of our guides lives with his family
The main house at Khotso
Heading back to our rondavel after the ride
Rachel giving Smeagal a good rub down .... he's a Anatolian Shepherd dog that looks after the sheep on the ranch
