Safari

So my second to last week in South Africa flew by. I spent all of Monday/Tuesday catching up with the group and getting decent sleep. We went out Wednesday for a beer pong tournament with the Vanderbilt students who are here. It ended up being tin foil rolled up balls with Styrofoam cups. Not ideal for beer pong but my team still managed to win =) Thursday was our last day of class which ended up being a lot of overall reflection of our trip. We also had a family dinner and cooked for the reflectors (Emma & Emma) as well. We had salad, bread, homemade chili, baked potatoes, and brownies. DELICIOUS!!!! Ate WAY too much though. Thursday night we went out with the William and Mary students and went to a lounge called Blake’s. Drinks were very expensive but being an American girl made it easy to get free drinks & shots. We then went out our favorite Abuntu R5 shot bar then to another bar after. Stayed out quite late considering I was going to the clinic in the morning. A little sleep deprived, I went out on the clinic Friday morning to Sweet Home Farms. We ended up seeing over 35 patients. We conducted 5 HIV tests and only one was + so that was good. After work I got back home, got a nap and some dinner, then get to bed early. Saturday morning we got picked up at 6:15 to go on our SAFARI !! <3 It was two hours out of Cape Town at a reserve called Aquila. It was a little more “reserve” than I would have liked but we’re in the Western Cape, for a REAL safari you would have to fly the north eastern part of South Africa, which wasn’t quite in our budget. We had an amazing breakfast then started the adventure. We ended up seeing: hippos, wildebeest, elephants, springbok, zebras, rhinos, and lions. Unfortunately, the crocodile, cheetah, leopard, and warthog were caged when we saw them. Very exciting to see but in a reserve you would never see a leopard, hardly ever see a cheetah, and the crocs would fight with the hippos too much. Still cool though. The lion was the most exciting part. There was a little girl on our 4x4 and when we got closer to them, you could tell one of the females was STARING at her. She started crouching down and eventually she bolted towards us. She stopped about 5 feet away from the vehicle since she knew she couldn’t jump in so no harm was done, but it was so incredible to see. I have pictures of her staring and bolting- it was so cool. After the tour we had lunch. It was a beautiful day and the sun was out. On our way back we stopped at an ostrich farm, which was also part of the safari. I wasn’t sure how it would be but it ended up being just as amazing as the rest of it. We saw 7 day old ostriches which were soooooo tiny! Then saw the younger ostriches (4 months), a little older (4 years), and then the oldest ones (8 years). We also got to see the eggs in the incubator and got to stand on two unfertilized eggs. Apparently they can hold up to 150kg (roughly 300 pounds??) so that was fun. Eventually we headed home and all exhausted. Going to do the usual nap + dinner then going out. Tomorrow we are going to the gardens for a picnic and maybe back to the green market square. Overall great last weekend!!!