Soweto and Kruger..best vacation ever!

What an incredible “spring” break! They call it vac here which is short for vacation since it’s actually fall right now. We began very early Saturday morning flying up to Joburg. While in Joburg we stayed at Lebo’s backpackers in Soweto which is the largest township in South Africa and the former home of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. It is called Soweto because it is the SOuth WEst TOwnship and is about 30 minutes from downtown Joburg. The first day we went on a four hour bike tour around Soweto which was a great experience. It was much more enjoyable than merely riding a bus around looking at the different historical sites. Everybody would laugh when they saw a line of about 40 people riding through on bikes! When we got back to Lebo’s there were kids everywhere waiting to play with us which was a lot of fun and tiring! They constantly wanted to be held and ride on your shoulders and take pictures. I was so excited because they had a tv at Lebo’s that showed march madness so I was able to watch a few games! The next day we went on a tour of Joburg which was fun but I am very glad I’m living in CT! The city seemed very dirty and old and not as pretty as CT. We stopped at a traditional medicine market which was interesting and peculiar! We weren’t allowed to take pictures and none of the shop owners seemed very happy to see us walking around. It was full of plants, roots, herbs, bottles of STRANGE looking concoctions, animal bones and who knows what else. This stuff was everywhere and they said witch doctors and traditional healers come here to buy ingredients for their potions! I didn’t know the practice of traditional healing was still common enough to warrant a big market in the middle of Joburg, but apparently it is. From there we went to eat lunch at the top of the tallest building in Joburg which is 50 stories high. After lunch we went to the Apartheid museum which was a great experience. They had a large Nelson Mandela display with the history of his life and accomplishments which was really neat to read. After visiting several museums and historic sites, I have come to appreciate those same types of places in the States. The quality of the museums in the States is incredible and the clarity of the information presented is much better than in SA. However, after saying that, the Apartheid museum was very informative and I am glad I was able to visit and learn more about the atrocities during apartheid.
Now it was on to Nelspruit and the safari in Kruger! This was an absolutely amazing and incredible experience. We stayed at Old Vic backpackers which was a lot of fun. The owner is called Crazy Dave which is a very appropriate name! He asked me where I went to school so I told him Auburn in Alabama but I’m from Tennessee. From then on he called me Miss Alabama 2008 and every time he said it he would change the year so sometimes it was 2005, 1992 and I got older each time! He would literally call me that every time he saw me! One of the safari guides actually asked if that was true and I just died laughing and said Crazy Dave completely made that up!
For the safari we rode in open air safari trucks that held 10 people and my group had the best guide named Toby! He was awesome and so knowledgeable about all the animals and plants. He taught us how to survive in the bush using the different plants and berries! We were able to see the Big Five (leopards, lions, african buffalo, rhinos and elephants)! We went into Kruger two days and had to wake up at 3:45 in the morning in order to get to the park at sunrise! It was totally worth getting up that early! The first day we didn’t see any lions or leopards, but we saw a ton of elephants, rhinos, zebras, impala, buffalo, giraffes, monkeys, and lots of birds and other animals. The animals got so close to the truck it was unbelievable. They weren’t scared at all! We drove around the park until around 4 and then it was about an hour drive back to Nelspruit where we were staying at Old Vic. The second day was amazing! Within five minutes of entering the park we found lions just walking and sitting along the road! You aren’t supposed to lean outside of the cars or trucks because that is when the animals get scared if they see something moving and if a person breaks the shape of the car or truck. Anybody is allowed to drive their own car into the park and some of those people are not too smart! This one couple was really close to the lion and the lady leaned out the window to take a picture and the lion walked right up to the car within inches and looked like it would eat that lady! Toby said if she hadn’t rolled up her window in time the lion would have definitely put his head in the window to sniff around!! The lady looked terrified when she drove by! We followed a lion walking up the road for a while just watching him! He was roaring the whole time which was awesome to hear. I was so intrigued I could have followed him for hours! After following the lions for awhile we set off to find a leopard which is very rare to see, but we were determined to find one! We had been driving around for an hour or so without seeing one and we were a little bummed because we had to start heading to lunch, but on the way we found one! We passed a dirt road and one of the guys said he saw something that looked like a big cat so we backed up and turned down this road we weren’t supposed to enter and sure enough there was a huge leopard sitting by a tree! I was freaking out but had to sit really still and be quiet! We got some amazing pictures before he started walking off into the woods. Toby said that was one of the best views of a leopard he’s seen in the wild! We were bragging to everybody at lunch about our spot! After lunch our goal was to find all the Big Five that afternoon. We started by going to see another leopard that had been sitting in a tree all day. It was nothing compared to how close we were to the first leopard. Then we saw some more elephants, buffalo, rhinos, giraffes, zebras and a lot of neat birds. We saw four out of the Big Five within an hour which is insane! We were still looking for more lions but never found any in the afternoon. After lunch all the other groups starting heading back home and left the park at about 2:30. We didn’t leave the park until 5:30! Toby was having so much fun with us he said we didn’t have to follow the schedule so we got to stay until the park was closing! I am so thankful I was able to have such a great experience in Kruger and I wish everybody could go on a safari with Toby! I could have stayed for five more days! This was definitely the best “Spring” break I have ever had or could have imagined!