Out of (South) Africa

Fly High Free Bird

On Saturday night at about 8:30, my husband and I arrived home from South Africa after a solid forty-five hours in transit, which included five flights, a jeep ride to an airstrip in Phinda forest, an epic seven hour stopover in London Heathrow, and, less dramatic but very nice, a half-hour drive from the airport in my older son’s Toyota. All that travel sounds more onerous than it really was, as we had lie-flat seats for the long-haul flights – eleven hours from Johannesburg to London, and nine and a half from London to Vancouver – and also fancy lounge access at all airports, which included, thankfully, showers.

Still, that is a lot of travel and when we got home I hugged my sons, unpacked my suitcase, showered, and fell into bed. I woke up Sunday feeling…fine? I feel like it’s a jinx to say I’m totally back to normal life, un-jetlagged, but I think I’m back to normal life. It feels strange to think that a week ago I was on safari, and now I’m back to thinking about the garden, thinking about the weekly meals, thinking about catching up with friends, thinking about exercise and dog walks and everything that makes up my daily world.

London Calling

The journey to South Africa was much less exhausting than the journey home, because we stopped off in London for five nights. London! What an incredible city. It was a wonderful experience to actually be in places that I have only read about for my entire life. I felt quite emotional, just being there. We were there for a heat wave, which was fantastic. We didn’t have a drop of rain, which meant that the city was alive with people, walking through the parks and spilling out of pubs, enjoying the sunshine and heat.

In addition to all the Big Sights of London, my husband created an itinerary in which I would be constantly surprised and delighted. I am, if you recall, the vacation GOER, while my husband is the vacation PLANNER. So while I knew the big-ticket sights we would be seeing, there were plenty of surprises he had planned for me. Like this:

The mothership is calling me home! I didn’t go to any classes, because they are all in the evening and the wait lists are a mile long, but it was a thrill just to be there.

After Peloton, we went to the Devonshire for the “best Guinness in London,” and then to Waterstones.

I have much, much more to say about London, but that will have to wait for another day. I did have a Very Exciting Encounter, though:

Elisabeth! She and I had a one-day overlap in London, so I was lucky enough to meet up with her and her husband at a pub. YOU GUYS. Her beautiful soul just beams out of her beautiful face. I could have talked to her for three days straight, but alas, we both had places to be and things to do. (HI ELISABETH)

This Time For Africa

Something I did not expect for our trip was the type of plane we would be flying on once we were in South Africa. We flew on a double-decker AirBus from London to Johannesburg, and I knew that we would be taking smaller, regional flights once we landed. When I heard “smaller, regional flights” I assumed that the aircraft would be a regular prop plane or something similar, with actual airports. I did not expect to be boarding an eight-passenger bush plane and to be landing on a tiny airstrip in the middle of the bush, an area patrolled by safari jeeps to ensure no large animals would be in the way when the planes flew in. It was quite the experience! We took six such flights, and it was so much fun. The roads, I gather, are not great and the routes to different safari lodges are long and indirect, so flying in was fabulous.

I also assumed we would be seeing animals from afar, using binoculars and just hoping for glances. What I did not realize was that we would be off-roading through the bush, and that we would be so close to wild animals. Honestly, those animals could not care less about safari vehicles, and of course the guides were knowledgeable about giving the animals the space that they require.

I got a feel for things on our first game drive, when a group of four male lions just casually walked by our vehicle and then calmly laid down in the road. If I reached out my arm, I could have touched them, that is how close they were. That first night we also saw African wild dogs, which is a rare sighting, hyenas, and giraffes.

Every lodge had rules that guests could not walk around by themselves after dark, because animals saunter in and out at their leisure. I didn’t feel overly concerned about this until our last lodge, in Phinda, where there are baboons and monkeys everywhere. Baboons are the most terrifying animal and I was petrified whenever I saw one.

It was also unnerving to be charged by a male rhino in the Sabi Sands. Fortunately we were on a straightaway road, and our guide just floored the gas to zoom away. All other rhinos we saw were pretty relaxed, although we did come across a group of mamas with babies, and it was incredible to see how they circled around the young ones protectively.

In each safari group, there is a tracker and a guide. When it comes to the big cats, the tracker – as the name would suggest – looks for tracks and other signs in order to find them. We saw several every day; lions, including cubs, leopards, and cheetahs. Different reserves have different concentrations of animals, depending on the landscape, and in Phinda forest, our final park, leopards are difficult to see. Although we had seen several in Ngala and Sabi Sands, we did not see any at Phinda until our last night, when the rest of the group had already left, and it was just me and my husband on our final game drive. The guide asked what we wanted to see and I said casually, Let’s just drive around and not bother trying to find any of the big cats. I don’t care if we see any, unless one walks in front of our vehicle. Guess what happened!

The elusive leopard walked right in front of our vehicle. It felt like a great sendoff from an absolutely perfect trip.

I love travelling, I love experiencing new things and places. We met so many wonderful people and we saw so many incredible things. I am so, so lucky. And although I love travelling, I also love my home. I was telling my older son – who is home now! – that when I am travelling I am so thrilled to be travelling, and then when I’m home I am thrilled to be home. So here I am! I have a three-week backlog of weeding to tackle, as well as catching up with all my friends. Currently, I have 206 unread blog posts in my reader, so it will take me a bit of time to get through them. Also, did I mention the weeds? In the meantime, tell me! How are you, friends? How have you been, what’s been happening, what are we doing these days? Tell me everything. xo