June 3rd. Today, we
had to say good-bye to Gail, Peter, Kira, and Wolfgang! We left camp around 930
and headed to Hoedspruit. We got there around 1030 and Lukas dropped us off at
the Pick-N-Pay and then took the others straight to the airport. We did our
shopping there and looked around the other stores for a little bit. Then, we
headed to Sleepers to meet for lunch. I got filter coffee, YUM! It was a French
press with some real coffee! For lunch, I had a biltong and butternut salad. It
was weird, but good! Biltong is dried, thinly sliced meat, like beef jerky,
only much thinner. It’s very traditional for South Africa. You can get
different kinds of game as biltong, but this was beef, which is most common.
There also cubes of roasted butternut and feta cheese, over a really fresh and
good salad. SOOO delicious. :) Then, Molly, Emily, and I walked to the tourist
center that is like 10-15 minutes away. We looked at the curios on the side of
the road, and then walked across and spent some time in MJ’s, which is a really
well-stocked shop for souvenirs. The three of us got really cool bracelets made
of elephant hair! Unfortunately, the exchange bureau was closed today, so I ran
out of Rand far too quickly. We hung out there until Lukas, Stewart, Kelsie,
and Tom came to pick us up, after doing their own errands in town. We dropped
by the B&B for Molly to get something she had seen earlier, then headed
home. When we got here, Mike, the owner, was back. Two new girls, Kara and
Jamie, arrived from Bushwise to begin their internship. We unpacked and settled
in, and I helped Kelsie move into her new bedroom for the next week. We all
relaxed for a while before dinner. I did some work on my research and chatted
with everyone in the living room. Tonight, Kelsie, Emily, Molly, and I are
sleeping on the observation deck, so I am really stoked. We will probably go
out there at 10 or so, and we have to get up at 5 for our set route drive at 6.
We took cushions to sleep on, as well as tons of blankets and our sleeping
bags. It’s not really cold out tonight, so I’m not too concerned about that. I
have been walking around all night in a t-shirt, and we didn’t even have a
fire. So it should be awesome. We have our flashlights and head torches, and received
all the instructions on what to do should we see/hear any certain animals! I’m
really excited to go to sleep with the beautiful moon and stars as the only
thing above my head. And apparently, there’s a leopard that likes to walk up
the road past our camp at night, so I may get to see her! Here it goes,
hopefully I will be back to tell you all about it tomorrow night! :D
My Australian parents for the past three weeks :)
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