And Where Shall I Begin?

So, the safari turned out to be even more fantastic than I ever imagined.

I went to a game camp named Motswari in the northeastern corner of South Africa, right near Kruger National Park. The camp is located on a huge nature reserve that is actually a conglomeration of a number of privately owned farms. But, there's no fence between Kruger and the reserve. So, the animals migrate freely to and fro. Plus, the bonus is that on the private reserve, you can drive off the main road (which you can't in Kruger), so you can see the animals closer.

I call it a camp, which is really not a fit description. Sure, it's a camp, in that every one's living in the middle of the african bush. But, I had my own enclosed bungalow, complete with a super comfy king size bed, down bedding, huge freestanding tub built for two, rain shower, etc. The accommodations could easily rival some of the nicer places in the US.

On the other hand, you can't walk outside your bungalow by yourself at night, lest the hyenas may eat you. (The Westin should consider adding that amenity!) Although I didn't see any, supposedly elephants have been known to wander into camp. I did, however, see a huge group of baboons hanging out across from the lounge. (The lounge is an open air pavilion where you have tea in the morning, and lunch in the afternoon.)

The schedule is more or less set each day. Someone wakes you up at 5:30. You have some tea or coffee, then it's off for the morning game drive. You get back around 10 am, eat breakfast (delicious omelettes), and then are free to take a nap or go on a guided walk. But, that's about all there is to do. Then, they serve a lunch at 2:30 and you're off again on the late afternoon game drive. You get back from that drive at 6:45. Dinner/drinks were about an hour after that. That's it.

So this was the schedule every day. I did skip one of the morning drives. But otherwise that's what I did. The game drives were awesome. You tour around in an open Land Rover with stadium seating. I saw oodles of animals: lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants, zebras, warthogs, rhinos, hyenas, all varieties of antelope, etc. It was amazing how close some of the animals came to the vehicle. Thursday morning, we had a herd of elephants pass about 10 feet away from the car. That same morning, we also had a leopard walk about two feet behind the back of the vehicle. Surprisingly, it's not as scary as you'd think.

But even without the animals, the scenery was just so beautiful. It is the end of winter and the dry season, so it's not anywhere near as green or as lush as it is in summer. But, it's beautiful nonetheless. Lots of short trees, tall golden grasses, and the most amazing sunsets. (Each night we stopped during the drive to have a drink -- a sundowner -- and watch the sun set.) Plus, the temperature was like the late days of spring in the US -- sunny and pleasantly warm, with a light breeze.

When you get there, you are assigned a guide and tracker who look out after you for your stay. As a result, you also are driving around and eating dinner with the same people for a few days. I met some interesting people -- some good, and some just bad.

The first two days I was in a group that included all Europeans: a very friendly couple from Serbia and France; a stoic German couple that never talked; and, a gregarious Italian man and his wife, named Roberto and Roberta. Roberto liked to try to make jokes in the very little English he knew, and you found yourself laughing heartily along with him, even though his jokes tended to be something like "Buffalo? I like buffalo mozzarella."

Then, they all left, and a group of Americans joined us. They included a husband and wife from Ohio, and their college aged son. They were all in South Africa because the husband was attending a competition wherein he would shoot targets with an 18th Century musket or some such firearm...if that tells you something. The wife seemed extremely bitter that she was in Africa, which could be because she doesn't like 18th Century musket shooting competitions...or it could be that she is just plain racist, as evidenced by the comment I overheard (but won't repeat) the first night they arrived. Their son was a disaffected youth, who didn't seem to realize how awesome it was that his parents TOOK HIM TO AFRICA. I talked to these folks some, but they pretty much whined and hated everything. Except for the photo opps. They had huge crazy professional cameras with foot-long lenses, and took thousands of photos. I thought they were going to explode with delight when we stumbled upon a group of buffalo locking horns...with beautiful backlighting...and the right amount of dust to really set off the lighting. But, even as annoying as they were, it still couldn't bring me down. Mostly I was kind of amused.

By the last day, it was just me and an English couple from outside London. We, along with our guide, were about the same age, and all got on very well. Oh -- our guide was really cool, too. He was a little reserved by American standards, but very nice and extremely smart. His love of the bush and the animals was contagious, and by the end of the trip, I found myself completely taken with the area...and had managed to develop a mini-crush on our guide, too. (After he took a few of us on a walk through the area around the camp-- carrying a gun to protect us from elephants and such -- it was completely impossible not to be crushing a little bit.)

So, I ended on an extremely high note. The last day was just sublime -- very chill company, the most beautiful weather, morning tea across from a small river filled with hippos. Just perfection. I felt completely calm and relaxed, like I could have stayed there forever.

I was surprised at how very sad I was when I left on Thursday. As awesome as the whole trip had been -- the last day in particular -- I realized that I would never have that experience again. To be sure, you can go back to an area, or even stay in touch with people you meet on a trip. But, I was acutely aware that it would be impossible to recreate how wonderful that particular moment had been, and sad that the moment had passed.

So that was my safari experience. I loved it so dearly, that it made me startlingly sad to leave.