Moditlo Chillin’
Every day at 5:15 in the morning, we would get a wakeup call from another staff member named Innocence (Trust me I’ll get to explaining the odd names). He would knock on our doors at 5:15 so we could get ready for the morning game drive that starts at six and he would come back at 5:45 to walk us to the front because remember, wild animals are still out and about so we must get escorted in the dark. Innocence walks us back and my mother and I congregate with the couple and college students at the main lodge to have some tea, coffee, rusks, whichever we preferred. It was a nice calm way to start the morning whether you were in a talking mood or not. Nobody usually was because it was ungodly early.
Here I’ll take the opportunity to explain some of the odd names that I have mentioned. As early as the 1870’s the Catholic Church, in European countries for the most part, sent missionaries into Africa to help colonize, educate and provide medical treatment to locals. This kept going well into the 1900’s and obviously had a big impact on the formation of the countries and the geopolitical landscape over time. There is quite an interesting paper written on it that I found by a Kathryn Rountree if anyone cares to check it out. As it was told to me by some of the locals in Hoedspruit, catholic missionaries and converted parents, being profoundly unimaginative, named newborns after different traits and other things that most religions usually value such as appearance, innocence, witness etc. Not my cup of tea but I bash on religion enough in my free time. This is for you guys and for the stories and experiences I want to share, not to preach my opinions.
Anyway, getting back to it, every morning we left at 6 on the dot to check out what other animals we could find. We would see impala and kudu everywhere; they were so numerous that locals called them McDonalds. Also, not the nickname I would’ve chosen, but, hey I’m just a tourist. Giraffes weren’t as common but by no means rare and were funny little (not really) guys. They were always very curious and would just stare at us in the vehicles while we typically take our pictures and videos with our phones and what have you. The zebras for me were unexpectedly beautiful and their stripes played some funny tricks on your eyes while they ran by through the foliage. Aurela said that a group of zebras were called a dazzle because they dazzle you when they run by. An appropriate name but not as appropriate as the word they used for a group of giraffes which they simply called a tower. A tower of giraffes, a funny visual in my head. Of course, as the days passed, and we spent more and more time on the drives we saw many different animals and thankfully a bunch of the big five.
The big five are 5 animals that are the most dangerous to hunt on foot, however, you can only do this by paying to hunt on a private game reserve. These are elephants, lions, water buffalo, rhinos, and leopards and even though they have the title because of hunting purposes, safari trackers use it as well just for sighting these animals. They are a bit more elusive but by no means rare. We saw many lions, buffalos, quite a few rhinos and a whole herd of elephants. The elephants were cool because in a herd its only females and their babies and baby elephants are so cute. Apparently as babies, elephants have not learned how to completely control their trunks, so as they walk, the trunks just flail around, and it is very funny to watch. The only one we did not see, unfortunately, were leopards. But I was in no way disappointed, it was amazing to see what I did, and hear what I heard, and smelled what I smelled on these drives.
In between the drives we found ourselves with quite a lot of free time. My mother spent most of this reading while I alternated between writing, yoga, reading, and mindlessly looking at facebook. They had a small gym where I got a couple workouts in which was nice, but mostly when I did yoga it was in a sunny patch on the deck they had. And if I am being honest, those workouts did very little. By the time I got back to the states I gained five pounds due to all the food I was forcing myself to eat. Don’t get me wrong though, I was loving it. All the food was delicious.
The lodge had other activities you could pay for such as a boat ride and a day long walk in the national park that concentrated more on plants and smaller creatures such as insects. They also had spa treatments such as manicures and pedicures and the one thing I did pay for which was an essential oils massage. Readers, this massage was one of the best I have ever had. They used a mixture of oils containing rosemary, lavender, ginger, and sesame seed oil (and I LOVE rosemary and lavender, so I was digging it). I kid you not I fell asleep, and the massage therapist had to slowly shake me awake when it was done. After 90 minutes I walked back to the lodge half asleep not knowing what time it was when my mom told me to get ready for the night drive.
