this time for africa

So here we are... back in good ol' Georgia. Obviously we did manage to find a way from Kruger to the airport. After our original idea (Plan A) to drive a rented car back to the airport for someone fell through, Dr. F-H organized for us to get a ride from some dude (who's name Michaelle continues to insist sounds like "hummus"... but that's pretty irrelevant to the story) from the Kruger Gate to the airport Wednesday morning. So other dude (who's name I can't remember either, but let's call him Overly Happy Dude) picked us up from the vet camp at 7am and drove us to the Protea Hotel just outside the Kruger Gate. After waiting around until almost 8am, we checked in with the reception to see if they knew anything about this Hummus Dude. Apparently his car had broken down the night before so he couldn't take us, but no one had told us. Plan B foiled. So this amazingly nice woman at the Protea Hotel took it upon herself to organize another ride for us since we played the "we have no money and were relying on a free ride" card. After about an hours wait, there was a combi pulling up to take us to Kruger Mpumalanga International airport at no cost. Plan C= success. So we get to the airport around 10:30 and have 6 hours to wait for our flight. I feel like we did a pretty fair job of entertaining ourselves.

You know how I said that the flight TO Kruger was the most rackety flight of my life? Well this one took the gold. I really didn't think that planes could get smaller than the one that took us to Kruger, but man was I wrong. This one had about half the number of rows and only three seats across as apposed to the four on the first flight. Had to get pretty cozy with the person sitting next to you- luckily my neighbor was a very friendly New Zealander named Ryan, so it all worked out.

Below: left- Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport; right- Tiniest. Plane. Ever.

Then at the Johannesburg airport there was some mix up with our seats as we checked in to our Delta flight... all worked out in the end, though Michaelle and I still weren't seated together, but I definitely got the sweet end of the deal with a window seat :) As we took off I got to see one of the Jo-burg stadiums (not sure which one it was) bringing the total number of soccer stadiums that I've seen to 3 (including Cape Town and P.E.), and I got to wish Africa a goodbye as the land dropped away below us... there may have been a tear or maybe even two shed at this point, but there are no witnesses to attest to that :) To me the 16ish hours weren't actually as horrible as I expected since we all had our own little TV screens and a large selection of movies to watch at our leisure... so I took advantage of three great ones, including "Invictus" which I thought very appropriate for having just been in SA during a large sporting event. There was maybe about 5 hours of restless sleep mixed in there somewhere which involved some pretty crazy, tangled up, but oddly comfortable positions (which reminded me of our friend Katie's cat Jasper who cracks me up with his crazy sleeping poses).

Upon arrival in Atlanta, all went smoothly until we realized that our luggage had remained behind in Jo-burg due to weight issues on the plane (I've got two theories- flights full of Americans usually have the problem of being too heavy due to the fact that Americans are generally more overweight than citizens of other countries, or Americans just buy way too much stuff when abroad and weigh the plane down in that way). So hopefully our baggage will be delivered to our doorsteps tomorrow and everyone keep your fingers crossed that all those blood, guano, and tick samples that we worked so hard for over the past two months make it back unscathed.

I'm definitely missing South Africa already. All of the quirky South African-isms in the language ("ah shame," "ya," "as well" (different emphasis), "sorted," "organize" (use is different), "now" "just now" and "now now," "lekker," etc. etc.), all of the helpful friendly faces (especially all of the great friends we made), the chillrelaxed vibe, seeing the Southern Cross in the beautifully vast night sky (though I did get to enjoy a good four hours of it being right outside my window on the plane ride home), the great drinks we discovered (Black Label, Azul, Amarula), being surrounded by so many different and unique languages (Afrikaans, Xosa, Zulu, Tswana, and the new one we learned about yesterday- Tsonga), being surrounded by such amazing wildlife and magnificent nature... and so on and so on. Such a great country, so much I'm going to miss. Might even miss the smell of skunk bush in the morning... who knows :)

On the bright side- it is good to be back and to see family, friends, and of course my bunny Britches. I've got a lot of catching up to do on projects, etc... not to mention that we need to get inyo the lab soon to start working up those samples... you know, if they ever actually make it back from Africa... Right now I am busying myself with catching up on various things to keep myself awake so that I can get back on EST. So I also finished uploading all my pictures to the facebook albums and for those of you who haven't been keeping up with them, feel free to go check them out. I've made them both public, so you should be able to see them even if you don't have a FB account: African Adventure Part 1 and African Adventure Part 2.

Alright, so I guess that's it for me. I'm sure Michaelle will do a wrap-up post at some point as well. Thanks to everyone who's followed us on this adventure!! Until next time... :)

much love from Africa

Quick update from Kruger. I'm using a public computer at an internet cafe, so sadly no pictures. Our journey from Cape St. Francis to Port Elizabeth to Jo-burg to Nelspruit went pretty much without hiccup, though there was a lot of time spent waiting at airports. The flight from Jo-burg to Nelspruit was kind of comical because we were on this tiny little hummingbird plane and it was the most rackety flight I've ever been on (and I've flown a lot in my life). Michaelle and I got excited when we saw that our seats were in rows 1 and 2, thinking that possibly we got bumped up to first class. Until we realized there was no first class. The plane is just that small. And once again we were bussed out to the plane because we're not special enough to get our own gate. Everytime we've been bussed out to a plane on this trip we joke about how it feels like they're taking us out back somewhere to shoot us and how anti-climactic it would be to die that way in Africa instead of getting eaten by a leopard or crushed by a hippo. We're a pretty morbid pair sometimes.

Anyhow, the Nelspruit airport is like the cutest little airport in the world and I really need to take pictures on our way back out. This time we were more focused on figuring out how we were going to get from the airport to Kruger and more importantly to Skukuza- the main camp where we knew we'd find our crew. Luckily, we caught a guy who was driving a shuttle to the main gate to drop off some other tourists and said that he could take us and go all the way to Skukuza with us (not for a cheap price, but apparently we were quite lucky to even get a ride at all). The hour and a half drive from the airport was absolutely beautiful. As we were driving along I saw signs for the Limpopo River and Limpopo Province which triggered a memory of a Russian childrens poem I learned in my childhood about how kids shouldn't go wondering in Africa because there are all these dangerous animals and it mentions Limpopo. I can't remember all the words and it's killing me (Ursula, help!!) but I just thought it was so cool that I had learned about this place as a kid and here I am, actually getting to see it!! Once we got to Skukuza, the driver took us all around trying to locate Dr. Frayrer-Hoskins since apparently no one knew where the veterinary camp was. We finally found it and reunited with our classmates which was great.

Unfortunately we are unable to go on the rhino captures with the rest of the crew due to this whole situation that I don't really want to get into because it's very frustrating and not our fault and there's nothing we can do about it because it involves stupid macho hierarchical politics. *Deep breaths* But we did get to go on a "game drive" with Dr. F-H and the other students and saw some cool animals. And it's so amazing to be surrounded by wildlife- herds of impala grazing near us as we walk to town, hyenas howling nearby at night, and a leopard roaming not too far from our camp. Over the weekend we hung out with the other UGA students since they get weekends off, braaing, exploring and playing cards, and then for the past two days Michaelle and I have been going to the main camp in Skukuza and sitting by the river watching the wildlife around us. Hopefully tonight we will get to go on a night drive and see some more animals. So this part of the trip has been a combination of disappointment and sore feelings and complete wonder and amazement with being in such a beautiful, magestic place. I'm having a hard time believing that tomorrow we will be on our flight back to the US (assuming we figure out a way to get back to the airport from Kruger). This whole African Adventure seems to be flying by in a blur.

Next time you hear from us will be on the other side of the ocean!! Until then, much love from Africa.

swapping your blood with formaldehyde

So today is our last day in this small beach town of Cape St. Francis. Tomorrow early morning we're heading to Port Elizabeth to catch a flight back to Johannesburg and then over to Nelspruit which is the closest airport to Kruger National Park where we will be spending five days before starting our loooong journey back to the U.S. This morning I went for the last feeding of the penguins at the lighthouse and then just sat hanging out with Adri and Stevie for a bit until Michaelle joined us and we collected some last minute photos. I'm really going to miss that special little bird, Adri. Breaks my heart a little to leave her.

A few of our antics over the past week have included Michaelle's first ever surfing lesson (I acted as photographer), organizing all of the samples we've collected over the past two months, and an awesome night of karaoke down at the pub. Now I'm not a big karaoke fan, but after much encouraging from Lynne and Michaelle, I started to get into it. Highlights included Michaelle and myself doing a great rendition of "Barbie Girl," bringing a little bit of Athens GA to Cape St. Francis SA by singing REM's "Losing My Religion" with Lynne and some random dude, and a pretty killer performance of the Yeah Yeah Yeah's "Maps" by Michaelle and I. I've also been working on my pool game and am proud to say that I am much less terrible at the game than I was when we first arrived. Now I am trying my best not to get sick since I've been teetering on the line for the past few days. Gotta keep up my strength for all those white rhinos at Kruger!!

Leaving you with a few pictures of Cape St. Francis: little Stevie (you should hear me do an impression of the way Trudi speaks to Stevie someday, it's quite entertaining... "Stevie! Steven!! Where's your fish, poppet, where's your fish?"), then Adri trying to eat the bird on my arm, then a picture of the sunset at the Wild Side.