We had our 5AM wake up, which I was chipper as everything for because I’d gotten a solid seven hours or so of sleep—being out and about all day makes it easy for you to sleep! Unfortunately for me, my spider bite from hell had DOUBLED in size, making the entire area of my shoulder red and purple, and the skin around it was becoming rough. African spiders are hopefully not dreadfully poisonous, because I really don't want to see the doctor, but this is the grossest thing I have ever seen (I'm sure I'm going to die in some sort of horribly stupid way one day). As expected, after the apparently raging party that had happened the night before, two students didn’t make it to the 4x4s before we took off for the boat. We had a little game drive before getting to the boat, which was like a large platform boat that floated gently down the Kareiga River as the sun rose. It was so incredibly beautiful—the birds were just beginning to call, and the clouds were reflected in the water and there was mountains all around us and oh man, it was just so incredible. Even though we didn’t see too much wildlife (aside from a particularly cool looking half-collared kingfisher), I was still awestruck just looking at the natural beauty of the place. I can’t even believe I was lucky enough to have this opportunity, to be there and to be in so many different places. It was truly wonderful. We sipped our hot chocolate and took a few pictures on the water, but mostly I just basked in how peaceful it was and how lucky I was to be there.
On our way back, we saw buffalo heading to a mud wallow. Phil raced ahead of them and got there very close to the water hole. Earlier he had discussed how buffalo were the only animals on the reserve that made him uncomfortable, as they were very unpredictable. There were four of them at the mud wallow, three of them sipping and laying down, enjoying the shade and the mud. One of them, however, was looking directly at us. She would sip water, stare at us, and then lean down again. She never broke eye contact with us, and was probably only about 20 feet away from us the entire time. Buffalo are HUGE animals—their chests are literally the size of a barrel. Many of the girls were practically wetting their pants, because she seemed ready to charge at any second but I’ll be honest—I yearned for a charge. How great of a story would that be? (I would only really be sad that the buffalo got hurt.) After a while she drifted away and let us drive off, making everyone sigh in relief. I thought it was the most intensely charged (hoho. I really need to stop making puns) experience of the trip. She was facing us directly most of the time, and seemed very much inclined to take a run at us.
We looked at birds of prey in the sky on the way back, and when we got back to our chalets to pick up our luggage the two students were still awkwardly sleeping—everyone on the 4x4 was really vindictive about it. I think that SAS kids do love to party, and there are only few exceptions to that rule, but practically everyone still will get themselves up early, no matter how they’re feeling, to make the most of their time wherever they are. So I think that might be where that kind of hypocrisy/vindictiveness comes from. It was pretty amusing though. At the reception desk we took pictures of our guides and our 4x4 group, and then finally we headed out and away. I will miss Kariega. I want to go on safari for my honeymoon when I’m married. Can there be safari weddings?
I tried to sleep on the bus back, but that was just a world of pain for my neck. However, Kariega did provide us with awesome bag lunches, including bacon pesto chedder sandwiches. NOM. It was great. We got to the airport LITERALLY twenty minutes before the plane was scheduled to take off. I’m pretty sure we bribed the people there to let us cut in line, because we still made it (though with no time to spare). It was pretty funny. I wrote postcards on the way back (I’m sending out sooo many postcards from South Africa, because I’ve loved it so much <3).
When we touched down in Cape Town I could not have been happier to get back and take a nice shower. But first, I went out into the mall and bought a really cool World Cup shirt (it’s necessary) as well as this Africa one. After showering, I grabbed my laptop in hopes that I would be able to skype with my mom and dad or Cassy, or even retry to upload facebook pictures. NOPE. There was literally no way. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to talk to mom and dad and Cassy, but at that point it was too late to get a phone card. I will be calling at least mom and dad in Mauritius though!!
Went back to my cabin after shopping around for a while. Was finally able to depoison the spider bite (sorry if this is grossing you out, by the way. It was really freaking gross and I didn't let too many people see it, so I need to vent), which hurt SO MUCH I got tears in my eyes. Hopefully it goes down and I will not have to go to the medical bay for some stupid African spider disease, where I turn into a giraffe or something.
Our neighbors bought a vuvuzela (we knew this was coming), so we listened to that for a while. As I personally celebrate the vuvuzela’s obnoxious nature, I let it go for the day.
Cape Town is the only port so far that has made me want to stay weeks longer as opposed to feeling ready and okay with moving on. It has been the most incredible port that I’ve been to so far, and has made me absolutely love and adore Africa and its people. I really want to come back with my parents one day, because I know that it’s exotic but not TOO exotic and I know they would love it. There are so many things I need to come back and do, and it has such rich history. It’s incredible still seeing the ending effects of apartheid. I’m not taking no for an answer—I’m coming back to Cape Town one day.
My apologies with how brief these seem to be (at least they seem that way to me, but then again, I could talk about this for hours). I just wanted to get on track before Mauritius. Sometime tomorrow I will update about what I did this week. Some was boring, some was crazy and awkward, some was EXCITING! But Mauritius is TOMORROW (October 13) so that is my first priority!
NEXT TIME ON EMECHULATION AT SEA: Gigantic lightning storms, studying for midterms, midterms, Dungeons and Dragons, bystander to an incident that will (hopefully) end in someone's expulsion from the ship, and poetry slams.
On the edge of your seats, I'm sure. :)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
October 8 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve, South Africa
October 7 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve
The next day we arose at 5:30 bright and early to depart on our morning game drive, and we decided to go back after our lion friends, as we didn’t see them too well before. And in literally in ten minutes or less we discovered a male lion, his mate, her four cubs and a juvenile male lion, settled close together between two sets of shrubbery and underneath some POWER LIONS (PRETTY FUNNY, RIGHT GUYS?). We crept closer in our car until we were only about 20 meters away or so. The male lion and the juvenile male went to the right as we came closer. All of a sudden, the cubs shot off to the left. Seconds later, intense roaring was heard, as well as a little bit of minor crunching of brush. The female went after the two males, and then returned later to roar a few more times. The cubs presently came back, as did the male lion, but the juvenile had been chased away—he is starting to get too big and is becoming a threat to the alpha male lion. It was absolutely amazing and I actually got most of it on film. The male resumed laying down, and the female settled down again to the right, letting her cubs (I say cubs, but they were still probably at least as my big as my dog) nurse from her and climb all over her and each other, licking each other occasionally. It was absolutely incredible and they were adorable and it was just SO COOL. It was the Lion King come to life right in front of me, basically. We learned that cubs are taught how to defend food, how to hunt, and then how to kill by their momma, which I thought was just… wow. Learning about the elephants and lions just made them seem all the more intelligent to me. Sorry Kenz, no ivory to you, especially after how human elephants seem to me now.
After about an hour or so of watching the lions, we headed off to a big field, looking for—well, just looking, but it was a place favored by many of the herds of animals—a wide plain besides many trees. In the middle of the plain, where the water hole was (a very small water hole), was a rhino and her baby, with another standing further away. I don’t think I have ever noticed until now that rhinos literally look like tanks. They are walking, breathing tanks. They were just kind of cool to see. Then we were off up the hill, passing HUGE herds of zebra and five giraffes hiding eating leaves in the trees. One giraffe was absolutely enormous with really dark brown markings—he was the bull giraffe. Turns out giraffes necks are too short, as they have to spindle out their legs when they’re drinking, which makes them vulnerable to predators. AWESOME. :D
As we drove we noticed that the ground was shimmering. We stopped and it looked closer—there were thousands of winged termites on the ground and beginning to launch themselves into the air—it was quite a swarm. In the distance we could see vervet monkeys leaping up to catch the termites and eat them—it was pretty funny to see them hop up and down. “They’re quite good protein,” said Phil. Reaching up, he plucked one, grabbing it by the head and wings, and bit the body.
He probably meant to gross us out, but I immediately clamored up, “Give me one, I’m hungry!” So he snatched one out of the air and gave it to me, probably because he thought I was bluffing. I was not. It was a big ol’ bug, probably about as long as my thumb (though of course not as thick). I was supposed to hold the wings and head and bite the body off, but instead I just sort of shoved the whole thing in my mouth. Actually, it tasted a little like buttered popcorn—kind of oily, and the wings felt like those kernel pieces. DELICIOUS
Speaking of eats, we then got back to eat breakfast and then around 10AM we went on a hiking trail called the Sunset Hike—it wasn’t so much BIG animals we saw (we did see three giraffes) as it was concentrating on the little world. We sound termites fighting ants, a dung beetle working on his dung ball, termites stuck in spider webs (which was cool because we watched the spider bite the termite and let it die). We also saw several small scorpions on the path (with smaller tails and HUGE pinchers) so that was pretty cool too. After late lunch I took a massive and much needed nap, and then we went out on our afternoon game drive, looking for leopards. During the early part of this I noticed that my shoulder was hurting INTENSELY, like I had a massive bruise. When I rolled up my sleeve, I saw the largest, most gnarly spiderbite I have ever seen in my entire life. It was puffy, red, and stretching the skin, and I couldn’t get it to open so I could drain the poison. IT HURT (and would only get worse for days to come). Despite the relative heat, I kept my sweater on just because it was so disgusting to look at.
We went into an area that just had tons upon tons of open valleys and hills. There were no leopards to be found, but we went out on an observation platform to see 5 hippos floating around in the river. I couldn’t see their whole bodies but I know that they are godless killing machines that will pretty much destroy you just because you’re in their zone. Many of the girls were obsessing over one of the guides, so I asked Phil about his wife and then we proceeded to annoy him with personal questions . We joined other 4x4s overlooking the plains as the sun set and drank hot chocolate and something called “Simba Chips” which I find fascinating.
On our night drive, we found buffalo! There were four of them moving away, so we didn’t get very good pictures, but there’s another animal to check off my Big Five list. We also saw hippos out of the water, across the river. THEY ARE HUGE. They are like… the size of rhinos, no joke. There was a babby hippo but I was not fooled by its cuteness. We also saw a babby zebra following after mom. It was pretty great.
We had a “boma” dinner, which is basically like an open air dinner where the food was cooked on an open flame. Ribs are delicious. Everyone wanted to party that night and “have their own bottle of wine,” but I thought that was just about the silliest thing I had ever heard (we were waking up at 5AM to go on a drive at 5:30!), so I decided to pass, did a little bit of writing, postcarding, and a nice, early bedtime!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Because of the lack of updates...
...I decided I would share with you one of the poems I've been working on for my World Poetry class. It's not quite finished but hey, what the heck. It is a sonnet done in typical Steph fashion (odd and probably somewhere awkwardly between funny and creepy, in case you were wondering). I hope you enjoy. We shall be resume our regularly scheduled program shortly.
Sonnet For My Apocalyptic Lover
My darling’s arms are steel pipes, wrapped around me
when night grows cold and our kerosene lamp begins to burn out.
While oolong bites bitter, his words are sharper than any tea
warding against fever signs and staving off starvation doubt.
My beloved’s eyes are the man who breaks into the store
hands shake as he scrambles for a tool in his inevitable collision
brushing shattered glass off his weathered leather jacket as outside undead roar—
and his footfalls sound like military men who, mid-action, make hasty revision.
My lover’s lips are red as zombie brains
the head smashed to pieces, not yet full of flies
and before the gray and rot—a lovely pink, the kind that comes after the rains
of shrapnel, when the sunset lights the cityscape gold as it dies.
Stronger than machete and crowbar entwined, we deter our dead of earth revive
And wonder, how do others without love survive?
Monday, October 11, 2010
October 6 2010 / Kariega Game Reserve, South Africa
Early morning—woke up at six in the morning and went up to nom some breakfast. I went into the Union just to be told that if I don’t have a jacket, I need to go back and get one, because apparently group A’s safari was rained on the ENTIRE TIME. Which would definite suck, so I’m really hoping it doesn’t rain. I went downstairs and changed out my fleece for my SAS sweatshirt and hoped for the best. Around 0800 we were out in the bus and on our way—one student staggered over to the bus at the last minute. In our bus there was a tour guide named Buz, and was the Extremely British (er, South African) Minister of Useless Facts, and would tell us all about the city as we drove off to the airport. He was hilarious and did indeed tell us all sorts of useless yet interesting facts. He also told us that in his 63 years here he has never seen a leopard in the wild, and that he would not talk to us if we saw one. I am not really expecting to see a leopard on my safari, though it would be cool if there was one. He also mentioned that the other group saw lion cubs—I would die, I think, if I saw lion cubs in the wild. I would be so excited.
The airport was only about twenty minutes away, and we bailed out of the bus to check in. It only took about five to ten minutes for our entire group to check in, and then another ten to get us all through security—and there were thirty of us, mind you. I think San Francisco should adopt their security protocol—they were so mellow I could even bring my shampoos and water bottles and things like that aboard the plane. Andres (my across the hall neighbor) and I sat with a couple of lifelong learners just talking as we waited for the plane—after a while, we all piled into a bus and drove out onto the tarmac to our tiny, tiny plane from South African Express. It was so small that we took up the vast majority of the seats on the plane! The flight was one hour east into Port Elizabeth, and the airport was covered in pictures of Nelson Mandela, as well as picture signs warning about human trafficking, which I thought was really interesting. I wanted to take one, but I am sure that kind of thing is generally frowned upon, so alas, I did not.
We got onto a great big bus where An Extremely Irritating Woman told us things that we did not need to know over the intercom while everyone was trying to get some shuteye. She was extremely loud and it was just very unpleasant. Still, about an hour in I was able to kind of doze off, and woke up about an hour later as someone shouted “ELEPHANT!” as loudly as possible. We were driving by Kariega at that point, and we all looked out to see the rump of an elephant who stood in the distance. Nearer to the fence in front of him were a couple of warthogs running, as well as some blue wildebeest (which, I just need to say right now, look EXACTLY like they do in The Lion King). As I was looking I saw some pole shapes in the distance, towering above some trees. As I watched, one of them leaned over and munched some leaves. “GIRAFFES!” I shouted. And indeed there were three giraffes hanging out on top of the hill. It was ridiculously exciting—we’d already seen one of the Big Five (and several other more awesome critters) without even going inside the park.
We drove for a little while through the park, past impala and nyala herds, to the reception desk. Everywhere were big grass fields, with some shrubbery around as well as big clumps of trees. Hills were everywhere. We signed in and then were off to our “chalets,” which were lots of cabins along a dirt road nearby the restaurant and curios shop. Get this—in our cabin there were four of us. There were four bathrooms each connected to one of four bedrooms, TWO with KING SIZED BEDS. I shamelessly claimed one of the king beds—you snooze, you lose. I would be sleeping diagonally every night there. We also had our own patio that we could look out upon tons of trees.
The restaurant had an amazing lunch there. The place itself was wood with massive glass windows so you could see across a valley of trees. The soup was cream of potato-y, and the food was just. SO. GOOD. especially in comparison to what we had been eating on the ship lately.
Around four o’clock (after I had gone back to my cabin, digested my food, and written a couple of postcards out on the patio) our guide, Phil, came to pick us up for our afternoon game drive. Phil kind of looks like Alan Rickman in his face shape—it must be a British thing (he’s from England). So anyway, a bunch of girls pilled into his car and off we went. Our objective was to find either elephants or lions before dinner, as well as anything else that we could come across. So we drove off, crossing the lane of freeway that separated the two reserves—one of them kept lions and elephants as well, away from where the rangers and tourists lived. So anyway, we drove along until we stumbled across a bull elephant! He was as happy as could be, reaching up with his trunk by the side of the road and pulling off leaves absently. Instead of stopping, Phil drove right past him, off road and up into a little clearing. He killed the engine, and presently we realized that there were three elephants right in front of us, eating leaves off the trees. Suddenly, THE ENTIRE HERD OF ELEPHANTS (and there are like twenty of them or so!) came tromping through the trees. Many of them had young elephants trailing after their moms, and even the Matriarch elephant came tromping down, her calf beside her. They ate leaves slowly before passing our car—I could have reached out and touched their rough, wrinkled skin if I wanted too, though I didn’t… I was too busy being completely in awe. As I watched, two bulls would wrap their trunks around each other’s and put the tips in the other’s mouth—an elephant hug. As they tromped by, Phil decided they were going to the water hole, so we followed.
Now, the water hole? What’s so great about the water hole?! I will TELL YOU. There are ELEPHANT BABBIES splashing around and wrestling in the water—they climbed on top of each other, would pick up leaves and put them on their heads, and we even watched one of the baby elephants nursing from the matriarch. It was absolutely amazing. And this was all right next to us. They essentially knew we were there but didn’t see us as a threat, so they would come by our car frequently. Trumpeting sounds a little like screeching cars, and all the other elephants would look around confusedly whenever another one did it. They were giving themselves dirt baths to rid themselves of ticks and one of them actually sprayed the car with dirt—guess he was trying to help us out! Another one did an eleFART, which is EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT. I thought Luna was bad. They are just such absolutely intelligent animals, though—the guide was talking to them whenever they would come by kindly (he loves the elephants) and if they got too close he would change his tone, which gets the attention of the elephant and they know not to come closer. SO AMAZING AUGH. We stayed there for an entire hour at the watering hole, just watching the baby elephants swim around and take rests flopping down in the mud. I loved it.
Next we went off to find lions, which all the females were on a hill, stalking kudo. I couldn’t even really see them, even though binoculars—they were just little white specks. There was just really one furry paw sticking up in the air where a lioness was on her back, and otherwise they looked like rocks. Was kind of a bummer, but maybe we would see more later, so drove off. “There bones were a giraffe,” said Phil absently as we drove over the crest of a hill—huge shoulder bones and leg bones were speckled everywhere.
We learned a little that kalahari lions (black mane lions—yes, an entire group of Scars) tend to let the cubs eat first, the male even running the females off so the cubs could eat first, which I thought was cute. Daw, protective daddy. <3 Anyway, we drove off to ANOTHER mountain where we looked at ANOTHER hill where we could see the male lion. He was a lot clearer but still disappointingly far away—I could see the shape of his body and his tail twitch once through binoculars. We drove off again and saw little game then—impala, nyala, waterbuck, bushbuck, and blue wildebeest, and by the time night fell, we decided to turn in for dinner. I sat with a pretty exciting table for dinner, so afterwards we decided to get a couple bottles of wine (there were five of us, so it wasn’t particularly “high impact”) and walked to the boy’s chalet (there were three guys and two girls). We moved the main table outside onto the patio and played Spoons, as well as Gin, while having out glasses of wine and talking about how our game drives had been going. Around eleven I decided to head back to my chalet, as we were waking up to 5:30 to see if we couldn’t find a better view of those elusive lions. And I must say, walking around in the dark was pretty incredible—the stars out were beautiful, and you could hear crickets and bugs and all sorts of things out in the brush. It was a little eerie when it got to me being the only one walking the minute back to my chalet, but it all ended just fine—I crawled into my KING SIZED bed, snuggled up into the pillows, and fell happily asleep.
For those of you who are concerned about my lack of updates (are people concerned? probably not), I have been absolutely swamped studying for midterm exams. I would give spend the time on these South Africa blogs that they deserve than throwing something together, so fear not—they will arrive, if slowly and steadily. :)
Whoops
I think I accidentally sent something that I meant to send to myself to my blog. I don't know if it's just a couple of lines or if the attachment was there, but if it's confusing, don't worry about it.
As to why I haven't been writing lately--midterms. Super busy. Will update slowly after everything settles down. :)