Circle of Life

During one of our African Adventure days we went to Kasane, Botswana to Chobe National Park. The morning was a boat safari down the Chobe river followed by a 4 by 4 safari throughout the animal park.

We were picked up at our resort and transported to the border of Zambia/Botswana/Zimbabwe/Namibia. There's no bridge over to Botswana so we had to ride in a little boat over to Botswana.

Once over the river Mike picked us up and took us to the Chobe National Park! We arrived at the Chobe Safari Lodge and it was beautiful! Such a pretty lodge. 

Once we got to the lodge we had to check in and wait for a few other people to show up. Once everyone was ready we loaded up in the boat and set sail down the Chobe river! At first we only saw birds, but then we started seeing bigger game. Impala, TONS of hippos, buffalo, crocodiles, etc.

The boat safari was about 2 1/2 hours long and then we had a buffet lunch at the lodge. Once lunch was over we loaded into the jeeps that brought us to the lodge and we headed into the game park to see animals! We pulled into the park and immediately saw giraffes and elephants. Then Mike, our guide, was told over the radio that there was a lion spotted! He said that if they're lucky they get to see a lion about once a week. So we booked it over to where the lion was and we basically stalked the lion for about an hour hoping that it was going to attack an impala. It never did, but it was so awesome to be so close to the lion!

It was such an amazing day. Definitely a highlight of the trip. We almost didn't end up doing it just because it wasn't the cheapest activity, but it honestly was so worth every single penny that we spent.

Here was our safari group for the day: a family from South Africa, a couple from the Netherlands, and then of course the hottest couple ever ;)

Check out the rest of our pictures from our Chobe Safari!!



Peace, Love and Simba!

Finally Got There!!!

Southern Africa. Wow.  I knew it would be beautiful, but I honestly was so shocked at what I experienced this past week. I’ve dreamed of taking an African safari, seeing elephants, zebras, exploring exotic places- it truly was like walking right out of one of my dreams.

I ended up getting to Johannesburg, South Africa at 4:30am on Wednesday morning. I was supposed to have arrived at 4:30pm on Tuesday, but that didn’t happen.  They originally told us to be at the airport at 3am because the flight was going to leave at 5am. Then at about 5am they said they weren’t sure when they were going to board because the plane had JUST landed. So we waited… then they brought us donuts and coffee as a peace offering… then more donuts and coffee showed up at about 6am. Then finally at about 7am we started to board.

According to the flight crew ‘since they were in such a hurry to get out of IAD they didn’t fully restock the plane and didn’t have any snacks or the little packs of socks/toothbrush/socks they usually give you.’ Whateverrrrrrrrrrrr I was just happy to finally be on the plane. The nice thing was that since it was delayed they ended up cutting out the stop to Dakar so it was a direct flight to Joburg and also since there were people on the flight that were going to Dakar they were put on another flight. There honestly weren’t a lot of people on the plane at all. Everybody got their own row on the flight! I did try to get upgraded since I was pissed off about the delay (which was sold out, btw) but it ended up being totally fine. Let’s see I watched: Tangled, Burlesque, The King’s Speech, Due Date and a few tv shows. Read a few magazines and slept for about 4 hours. Direct flight was 14 1/2 hours. It surprisingly went pretty fast.

When I got to the airport I started trying to figure out how I was going to get to our hotel. Since it was so late I was just going to hop in a cab and meet Brad at where we were staying. Well! I walk out and was totallllly shocked to see him standing there!! He had gotten there and was waiting for a while just to make sure I knew where to go and that I wasn’t alone. :)  Ends up we were staying at the hotel at the airport. It worked our perfectly because we went back and I got to take an hour nap

Then I got up, showered and we headed back down into the terminal to get some breakfast and to catch our flight to Zambia. It worked out because we didn’t end up having to change our 2nd flight since I got in so early in the morning.

Tried to have a quick breakfast at News Café, but due to the waitress’s lack of motivation it ended up being a longer breakfast than we wanted to have. Oh well… no one seems to be in a hurry on this continent.  After brekkie caught our flight, I caught an hour and a half nap and then we were in the great country of Zambia.

Over the course of the week our African adventure took us to Livingstone, Zambia to see Victoria Falls, Kasane, Botswana to Chobe Game Reserve and to Johannesburg, South Africa to explore the city.

I'll break my posts into the 3 different locations just because I have so much to share!!! Stay tuned!

Peace, Love and Happiness for finally arriving!!!