Clint and I went to South Africa for our 5 year wedding anniversary, which is actually May 21, but we thought we could go before our spring schedule got so crazy we couldn't go anywhere.
Here are some of the highlights of our trip...
This is where we stayed for 6 days/nights. It was absolutely gorgeous. The pictures simply don't do it justice.
The big picture is a shot from the mile long driveway up the mountain. It's actually a view of the back of the lodge.
The reception area was where we checked in and did most our info type stuff with the staff.
The place where the jeep is is where we got into the jeeps for the game drives. There were times when we got in without the landing.
The last pic is the entrance into the the grounds of the game lodge. It was so pretty. There were separate buildings for the rooms with a courtyard in between the buildings.
The bottom picture is the view from the pool. Gorgeous.
There were times when we heard monkeys playing on the edge of the mountain but we couldn't see them.
Each morning there were warthogs (a mama and a couple babies) who came up on the grassy area to play.
We were excited to have hot water for our showers! Their showers are actually really hot. It was hard to set the water temp to not be too hot.
It was fun to see nyala every day outside our room. Many times we would see them walking through the courtyard at night.
What we call safaris, they call game drives. What we call animals, they call game.
We were sure what to expect but we fell in love with game drives right from the beginning. Clint and I simply enjoyed being in the middle of God's country. We had many times when we would look at each other and say that we just liked riding around in the wilderness and we were ok with not seeing all the animals/game every day. We just had the bonus of seeing some of the creatures that He created too!
The giraffes are an interesting creature to say the least. They are to large but so graceful. Their gracefulness despite their size was so amazing to me.
They are a fun creature. They seem to be oblivious to what's going on around them sometimes. They're fun to watch. We saw zebras every day and they always intrigued me. Are they white with black stripes OR black with white stripes??? :)
The St. Lucia beach was breathtaking! Clint and I talked about going back another day to hike the dunes but we didn't have time to do that. We love hiking and it would have been great to add that to our list of places that we hiked together. Maybe someday ...
These two lions were one of the highlights of our week! Our group talked about this couple for days!! It was a highlight for everyone!
So, the best part of the day was seeing the elephants. We really wanted to see some and we saw 13 of them! We were so happy.
The first group that we saw was a group of 6. Two of 'em came within 25 ft. of our car. It was scary for me since they were on my side of the car. Clint somehow found it humorous and fascinating that they were so close. :) They were at least twice the size of our little car and easily could've tipped it over.
The second group we saw had a mama and her baby. The baby was so cute and raised its trunk at us. It looked like it was trying to let us know that "he was the boss". :)
Ahh, the cheetah hunt. This was beyond fun! The rangers with us were hilarious and made this a blast! We laughed so much. We discovered the art of real off-roading. These guys were driving up and down the hills, over small trees, and anywhere the jeep could go. It was a very rough ride as we were in one of the older jeeps with what seemed like no shocks. Plus, Clint and I were in the back where it's rougher. So fun!!!
This was an experience of a lifetime! Can't say that I'd want to experience this again. :)
In the end, we found out that it was 17 ft long! That's a huge python!
The guys were so into this enormous snake ... a lot of testosterone going on!! They really wanted to get it out of the weeds and see what they could do with it. Why? Because it had a small animal in it! The stomach was huge!
This entire morning game drive of the cheetah hunt, python and finally finding the cheetah took 4 hours! A normal game drive is 2 hours. It was worth being out there for the whole 4 hours!
It really was a trip of a lifetime for Clint and I! Would we do it all over again? YES! We met some great people, spent a lot of time together ourselves, got to spend time enjoying God's country and his creatures. Good times!
I spent a lot of time in conversation with God about this trip. Throughout the week I kept asking Him what the purpose is of the trip (I do that quite abit with Him in my life). He had one consistent answer for me: "I want to bless you". In my human mind I kept thinking that there had to be something more of a purpose but this was the one answer he kept giving me. He simply wanted to bless Clint and I. All we needed to do was to accept and enjoy it. We did accept and enjoy it! :)
I also spent a lot of time in conversation with Him while on the game drives. There were times when I simply enjoyed being out in God's gorgeous country and not see any animals (we did have a couple of those kinds of game drives). The day of the cheetah hunt I spent a lot of time talking to God ... and some listening. :) He kept reminding me of how he wanted to bless us. I had a sense that we were going to find the cheetah but when we found the python instead I was thinking that I didn't hear correctly. Guess what! The python experience was a bonus blessing! As gross as it was, it was God's creative way of blessing us with a once in a lifetime experience. THEN finding the cheetah after that was the coolest thing ever. I love how God works!
Later in the day we go out for our last game drive of the trip. Again I was in constant conversation with God about wanting to end the week on a good note. Boy, was it good! God kept telling me that he wanted to bless us and has a surprise for us. We saw two rhinos interacting with each other and walking in front of the jeep and not moving off of the path that we were on. We didn't have much choice but to follow them. Then we find the cheetah again! This time she was resting in the tall grass. She, the cheetah, was the surprise! Few people see the cheetah twice in one day! To end the game drive we came up on the infamous ostrich. We had run into the friendly ostrich a couple times throughout the week but this time there were a couple other groups of people hanging out with the ostrich. This creature was unique in that it let us get up close and touch it. Another fun experience.
So many times during the week I couldn't help but be in awe of who God is. His creativity leaves me speechless! Seeing the mountains with the interesting trees, bushes and landscaping was amazing. And then to see the creatures that He created was so much more amazing to me! His creativity is beyond our human imagination! Would any human ever have been able to create the earth and all that is living??? I seriously doubt it.
God is incredible!!! What a privaledge to be in relationship with him and to serve him!!
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