6 provinces, 1 international border, and a lodge placement... What a road trip!

Hello every one!

So what, you might think, have I been doing? Well, after enjoying the life of Cape Town for 10 days, my mom and I left on a cross-country road trip. We left on Friday the 5th of June and drove through the Karoo on the way to Jhb. We stopped along the way, detouring where we felt like exploring and ended our first day in Britstown. On day two we headed to Kimberley where we played skittles in the old mining skittles hall in the mining museum. After getting completely lost trying to get out of Kimberley, we got back on the road to Jhb.

On Sunday we set off with my grandfather to Polokwane (Pietersberg) to join up with my aunt, Patsy. Two days on the farm allowed us to catch up with family and play with little Sophie and Mathew (to the rest of the family, they are the most beautiful babies).

Patsy has a share in the Limpopo-Lipadi Game Reserve in Botswana, just across the border on the Limpopo River. So our road trip took us across an international border and into the Botswana bush. At the beautiful chalets we curled up under warm blankets and in front of a roaring fire, as the rain fell and the animals hid. Eventually on our third day the sun came out and eventually the animals and birds came out to say hello.

Whilst on a drive I got a sms which, for those of you that don’t know yet, will please many who have been worried about what I’ll be doing for the next five months. I received the happy, relieving news that I have been placed at a lodge. I have been placed at Nkomazi Game Reserve close to Badplaas and Barberton with my old tent mate, Hanna (and possibly another friend, Eugene). It’s a beautiful new tented lodge, on an amazing reserve. They only opened at the beginning of the year and therefore they haven’t filled all of their staff positions. For this reason we will be doing a lot of hands-on work. We have been warned to be ready with cameras to capture special moments, like darting Rhino to tag them...

Well, as you can imagine I am very excited (and relieved!). I’m heading off on Wednesday to start the next part of my African adventure. By the time my mom drops me off we would have crossed 6 provincial and 1 international borders in two weeks.

I’ll keep on updating as things happen. Keep well.

:)