8/3/19
After the Kruger safari, we were dropped back off at our hostel in Nelspruit, but our rental care was not inside the gated parking lot.We texted the owner, and he said it should be there as he had not moved the car. Several minutes later, the car showed up with the guy managing the hostel, Amancio, in it, and his friend driving. There were definitely NOT supposed to be! We had left the keys at the hostel in case the car needed to be moved to let others out as it was a tiny parking lot. The hostel dude tried to tell me not to tell Paul (the owner) what he had done as he would be fired, but it didn't matter because Elisha had already texted Paul, and he showed up right after Amancio had showed up, so he saw it anyways. Paul was super apologetic and felt terrible, but he made the wise decision not to deal with Amancio until we had checked out. I had taken photos of the odometer before we left, just in case, and they had taken the car out for a 19km cruise it turns out. As a sort of celebratory meal for one of our last nights in Africa, we went out to a yummy Thai meal.
8/4/19
Today we did a road trip in our rental car to Blyde River Canyon. We first stopped at the town of Graskop to eat the famous Harries Pancakes. We enjoyed a sweet fruit pancake with ice cream and also a savory pulled pork and peach pancake. We then drove to the scenic Blyde River Canyon, stopping off at various viewpoints and a waterfall. The canyon is supposedly the 3rd deepest canyon in the world. The best viewpoint was known as the 3 Rondavels, which had a nice view into the canyon on one side and a shimmering lake on the other. Across the canyon were 3 rock structures that looked like traditional round thatched huts (rondavels). There was also a cool slot canyon area (Bourke's Luck Potholes) that we walked around and various other view points including one called God's Window (we weren't super impressed by that one, however). For dinner we had take away pizza at the hostel.
8/5/19
In the morning we drove the 4 hours to Johannesburg airport. We gave the Israeli woman who had been on our safari a ride to the airport. Our first leg of the journey was on Ethiopian Air to Addis Ababa. On the way we flew over Mt. Kilimanjaro in the far distance and also flew quite closely over Mount Kenya.
We decided South Africa is an excellent country to visit if you want to travel on your own, but want a sort of softer version of Africa. Most of the South Africa we visited, and most of where the tourists go, feels very 1st world. Roads are good, you can drink the tap water, malls and supermarkets are western and fancy like American ones. English is one of the national languages. Prices, however, at least for the moment, are considerably less than at home. Renting a car was $14/day. A meal at a nice restaurant was between $5-8. The other thing is that South Africa is really set up for camping, especially in National Parks. The National Parks have very nice campgrounds, with clean, western style toilets, good hot showers, and even some had coin-operated laundromats. All the campsites have bbq facilities and also a cooking shelter with things such as electric burners, sinks, and dispensers that give out instant boiling hot water. In Kruger (don't know if this is true in other parks), each campsite also had a store with some basic camping supplies and also almost any kind of basic food/drinks you could want for camping. And in case you didn't want to cook, they also had a restaurant. Because the parks mainly cater to South Africans, both the restaurants and the grocery stores in the park were about the same prices as you'd find in the towns, and thus very reasonable. It's definitely glamping, but at a low price.
8/6/19
Long flight from Addis Ababa to Chicago with an hour stop to change crew in Dublin (but we couldn't get off the aircraft). We arrived to the US with news of more mass shootings in the US. Feels safer to be in Africa if you can believe it.
8/7/19
On arrival into Chicago, US customs took our gifts we had brought for our dads: biltong (game jerky). We had a long layover in Chicago and then a flight to Denver and then onto Kalispell, Montana. We stayed with my brother and his girlfriend M-Nugget, that night in Kalispell before Sue and Grandma D came and picked us up (not without a stop for ice cream!)
My parents stayed the night in Heron at the Amber Bear Inn, and then I drove with them the next day into Canada to stay a couple of nights at Fernie, British Columbia with them and my brother and M-Nugz. We then returned back to Whitefish where we stayed the night so that we could go to Michael Bestwick and Josie's wedding. The following day I took a hike with M-Nugz and then caught a train to Libby and then onto Heron where I would stay most of the summer.
During the summer I developed a very high fever at one point, and we went to visit the doctor in Libby (and then Kalispell) as a precaution for Malaria, but turned out I was negative.
After the Kruger safari, we were dropped back off at our hostel in Nelspruit, but our rental care was not inside the gated parking lot.We texted the owner, and he said it should be there as he had not moved the car. Several minutes later, the car showed up with the guy managing the hostel, Amancio, in it, and his friend driving. There were definitely NOT supposed to be! We had left the keys at the hostel in case the car needed to be moved to let others out as it was a tiny parking lot. The hostel dude tried to tell me not to tell Paul (the owner) what he had done as he would be fired, but it didn't matter because Elisha had already texted Paul, and he showed up right after Amancio had showed up, so he saw it anyways. Paul was super apologetic and felt terrible, but he made the wise decision not to deal with Amancio until we had checked out. I had taken photos of the odometer before we left, just in case, and they had taken the car out for a 19km cruise it turns out. As a sort of celebratory meal for one of our last nights in Africa, we went out to a yummy Thai meal.
8/4/19
Today we did a road trip in our rental car to Blyde River Canyon. We first stopped at the town of Graskop to eat the famous Harries Pancakes. We enjoyed a sweet fruit pancake with ice cream and also a savory pulled pork and peach pancake. We then drove to the scenic Blyde River Canyon, stopping off at various viewpoints and a waterfall. The canyon is supposedly the 3rd deepest canyon in the world. The best viewpoint was known as the 3 Rondavels, which had a nice view into the canyon on one side and a shimmering lake on the other. Across the canyon were 3 rock structures that looked like traditional round thatched huts (rondavels). There was also a cool slot canyon area (Bourke's Luck Potholes) that we walked around and various other view points including one called God's Window (we weren't super impressed by that one, however). For dinner we had take away pizza at the hostel.
8/5/19
In the morning we drove the 4 hours to Johannesburg airport. We gave the Israeli woman who had been on our safari a ride to the airport. Our first leg of the journey was on Ethiopian Air to Addis Ababa. On the way we flew over Mt. Kilimanjaro in the far distance and also flew quite closely over Mount Kenya.
We decided South Africa is an excellent country to visit if you want to travel on your own, but want a sort of softer version of Africa. Most of the South Africa we visited, and most of where the tourists go, feels very 1st world. Roads are good, you can drink the tap water, malls and supermarkets are western and fancy like American ones. English is one of the national languages. Prices, however, at least for the moment, are considerably less than at home. Renting a car was $14/day. A meal at a nice restaurant was between $5-8. The other thing is that South Africa is really set up for camping, especially in National Parks. The National Parks have very nice campgrounds, with clean, western style toilets, good hot showers, and even some had coin-operated laundromats. All the campsites have bbq facilities and also a cooking shelter with things such as electric burners, sinks, and dispensers that give out instant boiling hot water. In Kruger (don't know if this is true in other parks), each campsite also had a store with some basic camping supplies and also almost any kind of basic food/drinks you could want for camping. And in case you didn't want to cook, they also had a restaurant. Because the parks mainly cater to South Africans, both the restaurants and the grocery stores in the park were about the same prices as you'd find in the towns, and thus very reasonable. It's definitely glamping, but at a low price.
8/6/19
Long flight from Addis Ababa to Chicago with an hour stop to change crew in Dublin (but we couldn't get off the aircraft). We arrived to the US with news of more mass shootings in the US. Feels safer to be in Africa if you can believe it.
8/7/19
On arrival into Chicago, US customs took our gifts we had brought for our dads: biltong (game jerky). We had a long layover in Chicago and then a flight to Denver and then onto Kalispell, Montana. We stayed with my brother and his girlfriend M-Nugget, that night in Kalispell before Sue and Grandma D came and picked us up (not without a stop for ice cream!)
My parents stayed the night in Heron at the Amber Bear Inn, and then I drove with them the next day into Canada to stay a couple of nights at Fernie, British Columbia with them and my brother and M-Nugz. We then returned back to Whitefish where we stayed the night so that we could go to Michael Bestwick and Josie's wedding. The following day I took a hike with M-Nugz and then caught a train to Libby and then onto Heron where I would stay most of the summer.
During the summer I developed a very high fever at one point, and we went to visit the doctor in Libby (and then Kalispell) as a precaution for Malaria, but turned out I was negative.
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| Our trip route |
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