January 23: Today is the day we finally head to Chicago!!! We had an early morning breakfast at Waveland Café and hit the road!
January 24: My first flight left at 4:25 and was headed to Amsterdam! It was a nice flight with no exciting and crazy things to share. One of the COOLEST things I have observed so far and really lets me know I'm made to travel is the fact that there have been hardly any English speaking people around me today! It's so neat. Everything announced on both of my flights today were first on Dutch and then in English. Something Americans take for granted! It's a small observation but I think its a pretty rad realization anyway!
January 25:After about a 4 hour layover in Amsterdam and an 11 hour flight, I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa around 10PM today. It's a little rainy here so the landing was a little rough but I'm here safely! The airport is kind of confusing but good think I have an 8 hour layover to hopefully get it figured out! I only get 30 minutes of free wi-fi so I suppose it's a good thing I brought so many books with me!
January 26: I finally... FINALLY arrived in Port Elizabeth around 8AM my time. There was another girl flying in that day as well that I had to wait for so I hung out at the airport until 2ish. We were finally brought to Kariega Game Reserve where we met out volunteer coordinator, Frances, and our roommates. I am currently living with one other from the states, two from the UK, one from Germany, two from Denmark, one from Australia, and one from Iceland! I've already gotten used to only hearing things in an accent. (It won't be any fun when I'm home and everyone talks just like me. ;) ).
Once we met everyone, we got in our cruiser and headed to our house. Our cruiser is what we take everywhere we go on the reserve. It seats 11 people and has no windows or roof. We are living in a house literally in the middle of the reserve with only dirt roads leading to it. Our house is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a small pool out back. (Don't worry... there's a large fence up all the way around our house and yard.)
So the reserve is split into two: Kariega West (KW) and Kariega East (KE). KE is where the general public stays. There are nice lodges, a pool, and spa for people to come here on vacation or on their honeymoon! KE has all of the more endangered species on it like giraffe, rhino, hippo, kudu, ostrich, impala, zebra, etc. KW is where we live. This is the predators side of the reserve so we have elephants, lions, leopards, and of course some zebra and kudu to help the food chain along.
On January 27, we went out on our first game drive. This is where we literally go out and watch animals. It's so cool because they're just in their natural habitat and completely wild. There are absolutely no boundaries between us and them. We drive on roads that are not maintained and sometimes completely surrounded by trees. We were on a road completely surrounded by trees and came up on a huge giraffe bull in the middle of the road. We just got to sit and watch him until he was ready to move along since there was no way for us to get around him. Oh, and did I mention it was raining at this point? Because the roads are so rough and none are a direct shot anywhere, it takes about a half an hour to get from where we were back to our house on the other side so we were drenched when we got back to our house for lunch.
Frances gave us that afternoon off since it rained all afternoon so we just hung out until evening. We live about 15-20 minutes from a small town called Kenton-On-Sea where we went to get groceries and have burgers. They have a special where you can get a burger, fries and onion rings for R29. (That's less than 3 US Dollars!) Everything here is insanely cheap!
It's still crazy to me that I am actually here. It's the coolest thing falling asleep to the sounds of Africa. They have different kinds of birds and we can always hear monkeys too. We actually have to close our windows every day when we leave as they have no screens and the monkeys could get in and make a real mess of the place!
I've been having some issues with my camera so no pictures yet but I think I got it fixed so they should be coming soon!
Until next time!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Monday, January 19, 2015
South Africa: Take 2
For those of you who don't know, I'm going to South Africa! I know, I was supposed to go during the summer of 2013 but those plans fell through and quite frankly I'm glad. This trip is much longer and I'll be doing so much more than what I had planned for my previous trip.(Everything really does happen for a reason!) I'm going through a company called Wildtrax Explorations. Wildtrax just happens to be owned by the same lady that ran the company I was supposed to go with last time.
Wildtrax offers tons of different opportunities for every different situation. People still in school, those that just want to go for vacation/sightseeing or people (like me) who are looking for experience, hands-on activities and further education. Check 'em out! Here's the link to their website: http://www.wildtraxexplorations.com/ (If you click on "Volunteer Programs" at the top.. I will be doing both of the options it gives you!)
This is the wonderful Jordana Meyer; founder of Wildtrax Explorations and my goto for everything South African. She is so easy to work with and I can't thank her enough for everything she has done for me over the past couple of years. It's because of her that one of my lifelong dreams is finally coming true.
The first reserve I'll be on is Kariega Game Reserve. It's just outside Kenton-On-Sea. I'll be there for 3 weeks, then I'll be doing a 2 week community development program where I will live in Kenton-On-Sea and help out the community and a school there. You can also get more information about that on the Wildtrax website. After I finish that, I will return to Kariega for one more week and then transfer to Shamwari Game Reserve where I will stay for my last 6 weeks.
The Wildtrax website goes into details about everything I'll be doing. Basically, I'll work along side the rangers doing whatever is needed to help mainly with conservation: anti-poaching, behavioral studies, vegetation control... those kinds of things.
My main goal from all of this is to gain the kind of experience I need to work with African animals so when I get back, I can work as a keeper at a zoo or wild animal sanctuary. As most of you know, my one true love is the giraffe. I fell IN LOVE with them at the zoo and haven't been able to get enough since! It's going to be UNREAL when I'm on my first game drive and there's a huge giraffe bull standing right next to our open car.
Because of everything that happened last time, it still seems very surreal that this is all happening but I have never been more excited about anything in my life. This is such a huge leap of faith for me as I'll be travelling alone for the first time and going to somewhere completely unknown with no one I will have ever met before. There is nothing more exhilarating than the thought of that last sentence. I've been told by so many people that this is going to absolutely change my life and I welcome that thought with open arms!
If you want to see pictures of the places I'll be, here are the links to the 2 reserves I'll be on.
Kariega (Just outside of Kenton-On-Sea) - http://www.kariega.co.za/
Shamwari (Just outside of Port Elizabeth) - http://shamwari.com/
I fly out this Saturday and I'll be blogging as much as possible so y'all can keep up with my whole adventure!
Until next time!!
Wildtrax offers tons of different opportunities for every different situation. People still in school, those that just want to go for vacation/sightseeing or people (like me) who are looking for experience, hands-on activities and further education. Check 'em out! Here's the link to their website: http://www.wildtraxexplorations.com/ (If you click on "Volunteer Programs" at the top.. I will be doing both of the options it gives you!)
This is the wonderful Jordana Meyer; founder of Wildtrax Explorations and my goto for everything South African. She is so easy to work with and I can't thank her enough for everything she has done for me over the past couple of years. It's because of her that one of my lifelong dreams is finally coming true.
The first reserve I'll be on is Kariega Game Reserve. It's just outside Kenton-On-Sea. I'll be there for 3 weeks, then I'll be doing a 2 week community development program where I will live in Kenton-On-Sea and help out the community and a school there. You can also get more information about that on the Wildtrax website. After I finish that, I will return to Kariega for one more week and then transfer to Shamwari Game Reserve where I will stay for my last 6 weeks.
The Wildtrax website goes into details about everything I'll be doing. Basically, I'll work along side the rangers doing whatever is needed to help mainly with conservation: anti-poaching, behavioral studies, vegetation control... those kinds of things.
My main goal from all of this is to gain the kind of experience I need to work with African animals so when I get back, I can work as a keeper at a zoo or wild animal sanctuary. As most of you know, my one true love is the giraffe. I fell IN LOVE with them at the zoo and haven't been able to get enough since! It's going to be UNREAL when I'm on my first game drive and there's a huge giraffe bull standing right next to our open car.
Because of everything that happened last time, it still seems very surreal that this is all happening but I have never been more excited about anything in my life. This is such a huge leap of faith for me as I'll be travelling alone for the first time and going to somewhere completely unknown with no one I will have ever met before. There is nothing more exhilarating than the thought of that last sentence. I've been told by so many people that this is going to absolutely change my life and I welcome that thought with open arms!
If you want to see pictures of the places I'll be, here are the links to the 2 reserves I'll be on.
Kariega (Just outside of Kenton-On-Sea) - http://www.kariega.co.za/
Shamwari (Just outside of Port Elizabeth) - http://shamwari.com/
I fly out this Saturday and I'll be blogging as much as possible so y'all can keep up with my whole adventure!
Until next time!!
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