As
I mentioned in my previous post, the very same day that Leah and I parted ways
was the same day that I went to SA to meet up with my family. I am truly so, so
lucky. I joked with some of my colleagues in December that since I am not going
home during my service, I’m bringing America to Africa! Boy, did that feel true
when I waited at the arrivals terminal for all six members of my immediate
family to walk out of those sliding glass doors. I can’t express the
excitement, joy, and love I felt watching my family members pass through the
doors and come out into the arrivals atrium. First Andrew and Jo, and then
after 30 minutes or so, my dad, mom, John, and Kelsey. I pretty much
hug-tackled all of them. How could you do anything different when it’s the
first time you’re all together in 1.5 years?!
It
was my first time seeing my siblings (including siblings-in-law) since
July/August 2015. It was my first time seeing my parents since May 2016. All in
all, a huge excitement.
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| The gang, reunited :) |
After
all the hugging ended, we got transferred to another terminal where we were catching
our little safari plane to bring us to our first lodge! (Yes. Safari plane. It
was a bougie as it sounds and it was so much fun!) We stayed at a beautiful
lodge called Ngala within Kruger National Park for two nights. We had
absolutely amazing luck with animal sightings. Seriously, it was as if someone
was hand-placing all the animals along our path so that we could find them! We
saw hippos, several male lions, several female lions (some with cubs, some with
cubs and a carcass), a lion couple mating (spoiler alert: it’s about a 6 second
long event), a leopard hunting, loads of zebras, lots and lots of elephants, a
civet, lots of impala (antelope), a crocodile, and probably a lot more things
that I’m forgetting now. We also had the most beautiful breakfast in the bush one day. It was such a stunning
setting and I’m so grateful to the staff for making the experience so magical
for us. Our guide, Barney, was out of this world. So knowledgeable and
experienced.
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| Barney and Steve, the dynamic duo |
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| The mating lions pre-mating |
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| A female leopard on the hunt |
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| Wild (painted) dogs |
After
two unforgettable days at Ngala, we hopped on another tiny plane to bring us to
Phinda, a private game reserve south of Kruger on the coast. It was a much smaller lodge with a special
charm. We had great luck with the weather at both lodges; just before our
arrival, it was a brutal 40 degrees Celsius (~105F) and luckily cooled down to
~23C (~72F) within hours of our arrival. I guess the rest of the Nichols clan
brought the cool weather along with them from Chicago and London!
Phinda
is known for its cheetahs and we spotted three of them while there. We even
spent most of one morning with two young male (sub-adult) cheetahs and enjoyed
seeing how they spent their morning (lots of walking, investigating a
catfish-filled pond [too scary for them], looking for unsuspecting prey). We
also spent a bit of time one day tracking a herd of elephants. Our tracker was
absolutely phenomenal and could guess the size of the herd based on tracks,
hear them long before we could, guess how long it would take for them to arrive
at the watering hole where we were waiting, etc. It was majorly impressive. On
one drink stop, we all walked together a bit and he showed us how one of the
tracks on the ground was from an elephant’s trunk dragging—it got tired of
holding it up and let it drag for a bit. It was a nice reminder of the fact
that we all see the world through such different eyes.
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| Isn't it amazing how well a cheetah can camouflage? |
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| Sometimes you need a mid safari nap |
Our
guide, Amy, was so much fun and also really taught us a lot about what to look
for when on safari. She clued us in to so many of the subtle signs to look for
and animal behaviors so that we could also help in tracking! It was cool to
feel like you sort of know how to look for animals in the bush! Kelsey and I
joked that we now know how to track animals. We’re experts. (Not at all. We’d
die in the bush.)
We
also had a really impressive giraffe sighting where we watched three different
males smell and try to mate with a female giraffe. She was quite dismissive and
left the boys with each other, but nonetheless it was so amazing to watch these
beautiful creatures interact.
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| Post butt sniffing, the giraffes posed for a picture! |
I’d
be remiss to not mention the phenomenal food at both Ngala and Phinda, but
especially at Phinda. We did not feel the feeling of hunger for days on end! We
were constantly stuffed to the gills but the food was so tantalizing that we
just couldn’t resist! The chef was so considerate and even baked lots of gluten
free breads, muffins, etc. for my dad and I.
We
managed to squeeze in a bit of board game playing between all of the eating and
the animal sightings at Phinda. It was so much fun to play board games with my
brothers again. For those who don’t know them, they’re both HUGE board game
nerds. It’s true… John has a board game room in their house. So, they’re a lot
of fun to play with because we all take it very seriously.
After
all the adventures at Phinda, it was time to say goodbye to the safari portion
of our trip (and my new “sister” Amy, our guide) and head off to Cape Town, our
final destination. Let me start off by saying if you’ve never been to Cape
Town, put it on your list. My goodness was it an amazing city. When we arrived
in Cape Town, we all hopped in a Toyota Quantum—our family’s car for the week!
Here’s a picture so you can get a sense of how funny (and practical!) it was
for the seven of us. (Note: These are the minibuses used for public transportation
in Namibia, so it struck a particularly funny chord in me for that reason.)
Buckled
in our Quantum, we headed to Camps Bay, the beautiful neighborhood on the ocean
side of Cape Town where our Air BnB was located. The drive over the mountain and
into Camps Bay, while full of traffic, is so beautiful. Seeing the stunning
cliffs and mountains meeting the rolling hills of houses, meeting the ocean…
did I mention how beautiful Cape Town is yet? Well, get used to it, because it
won’t be the last time you hear me say it.
The
Air BnB where we stayed was out-of-this-world beautiful! We so enjoyed the
luxury, but most of all we enjoyed the amount of every day family interaction
that staying in a house afforded us. We were able to chat over our morning coffee,
cook together, and sit around the table and do a puzzle or play games together. (Oh, and the sunsets weren't half bad either!)
Even
though the way I described our time in the house sounds slow-paced, our time in
Cape Town certainly wasn’t. As I may or may not have mentioned, Cape Town is a
pretty amazing city and there’s a lot to do—and we only had four days! In our
short time there, we managed to see the penguins at Boulder’s Beach, hike
Lion’s Head or Table Mountain (our group
split between the two hikes), have some of my PCV friends from Namibia come
over to enjoy the pool at our Air BnB house, spend a whole day in wine country
(priorities), and enjoy many phenomenal meals at fantastic restaurants.
On
New Year’s Eve, we cooked a yummy dinner at home and hung out together and
played board games. It was our final night together and it was the perfect way
to spend it. Surrounded by good food, good wine, fun games, and my favorite
people in the world. What more could a girl ask for?
To
my family, thank you so much for making the effort. Thank you for “showing up,”
as Nana used to say. Thank you for coming all this way to visit and have a
Christmas together. I love you to the moon and back… 100 times!
Stay
tuned for my next post on my parents’ visit to Namibia! (Yes, I did have the
world’s longest vacation!)
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