Waterberry Hill, Kruger Park, and Pretoria

Our one non-overland segment in Africa

Hello wonderful Family and Friends!

We are so appreciative that you are reading our blog. Thank you! It warms our hearts so much to know that we have friends and family in various parts of the world reading about our adventures and accounts of God's presence and faithfulness to us along this journey. We also greatly appreciate the comments some of you have made on various stories or photos along the way. Thanks!
 

The Amarula elephant welcomes Carol to SA

We are now in South Africa, yeah!  We arrived about one week ago and it was so exciting to actually make it down here.  Not because the journey from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe to Johannesburg was difficult; in fact, it was the easiest leg of our African journey thus far because we took a flight!  It was a lovely South African Airways flight directly from the tiny Bulawayo airport to the massive OR Tambo Airport of Jo'berg (Johannesburg).  SA Air is pretty posh traveling! We even got a little meal on our hour and a half journey south.  But, what made arriving into South Africa so cool was that just over a couple months ago, we landed in Nairobi and had no idea at that point what our journey through Africa would look like and how we would manage to get ourselves eventually down to South Africa.  And here we are!  It just took a car, bus, taxi, bus, 4x4 vehicle, bus, taxi, taxi, bus, motorcycle, bus, taxi, taxi, train ride, bus, bus, taxi, train, plane flight, car, bus! Whew, and here we are now, on our final bus ride from Johannesburg to Cape Town, due to arrive tomorrow morning at 8:30am :)

But before we move on to Cape Town, we should mention what we've been up to this past week!

The only hole-in-one of the day

Upon arriving in Jo'berg, we picked up our rental car and drove east for about 5 hours to the town of Hazyview, a cozy little place on the edge of the famous Kruger National Park.  Our dear friend Ulrich Paquet's parents (Leonie and Louis) had gifted us a four night stay at Waterberry Hill, a lovely RCI timeshare where we enjoyed thoroughly some rest and relaxation while nestled in the lovely South African hillside.  We had an enormous place to ourselves, big enough to hold Joe's entire family, where we slept, soaked in a jacuzzi, swam a little, watched movies on the TV, cooked some tasty meals, went out for delicious breakfasts in town, did a little bit of hiking, mini-golf and chess playing (Carol is currently attempting to learn to play and hoping some day to be able to beat Joe =)) and just enjoyed some great Carol+Joe time.  We missed out on the normal "dating" period before getting married as Joe was in the UK for all of that time, so Joe and I have been really really enjoying "dating" while on this traveling trip and having the time to do fun things together.  We feel like we are officially a real couple now that we have played a round of mini-golf together!

Two rhinos (horns included), a gazelle, and a zebra posed for this one

Since the timeshare was so close to Kruger Park, we decided to spend one day on our own little safari in our rental car.  We found out for about forty-five dollars, we could drive our own vehicle into the park and roam around for the day enjoying the scenery and looking for game.  It felt weird to be driving through an African park, looking at rhinos (this time larger than a speck of dust in the distance), gazelles, giraffe, hippos, zebra, wildebeest and elephants while in a little Fiat Punto.  But, it was such an enjoyable and leisurely way to see more African wildlife (we were on all paved roads and had the radio going + yummy snacks in the car) and seeing these fantastic animals really never seems to get old!

After our few days in Hazyview, we drove about 4 hours or so to Pretoria to spend a couple days with Leonie and Louis Paquet.  But, before getting to Pretoria we had a bit of excitement!

On our way to Pretoria, we drove through the cute town of Graskop which normally has stunning views of the eastern South African landscape but unfortunately, the day was super foggy and we couldn't see 20ft ahead of us for a while in the hills let alone a view of the landscape.  But, we so much enjoyed the misty fog and wet scenery (things in Africa have generally been quite dry this time of year!) and found another activity to do instead of sight seeing... a GIANT SWING!

Joe and Carol about to disappear into the fog on The Big Swing

In Graskop, they advertise something called "The Big Swing" which turns out to be appropriately named. Its a massive two-person rope swing that drops you 68 meters in vertical free fall down a gorge and then swings you back and forth several times over the jungle canopy at the bottom before lowered you back to a platform at the bottom.  Joe and I had watched a few people try out bungee jumping and giant swings back at Victoria Falls but didn't think to actually participate in any such foolishness.  But now, with no one around (the place was naturally deserted at nine in the morning) and zero visibility into the gorge because of the thick fog, we thought HEY... now is our chance!

Our limited view of the situation

No one was doing the swing that day, likely due to not being able to see anything until you're actually falling frighteningly close enough to the cliff faces and ground, but a few guys were still there to run it for us, and we had a super fun time.  I must mention here that this was one of the many moments that made me miss our dear friends Tim and Colleen. As soon as the initial drop was over and we were swinging through the gorge I said to Joe, "I wish Tim and Colleen were here, they'd soo want to go next!!"

Anyhoo, the pictures don't show what the drop looked like at all due to the massive amounts of fog (you can see pictures of the quite beautiful surroundings on a normal day here) but it was beautiful when we reached the bottom of the gorge and could actually make out the vertical rock walls, a beautiful waterfall, lots of ferns and greenery through the misty fog.

Carol with the Paquets at the Voorstrekker Monument in Pretoria

After our exhilarating morning in Graskop we made our drive to Pretoria and were wonderfully and warmly greeted by Leonie and Louis who made us feel at home instantly with home cooked meals, teas and coffees, a tour of the Voorstrekker Monument, a warm and soft bed to sleep in and good conversations.  They let us do laundry and helped us get sorted for the next leg of our journey; our Intercape bus ride down to Cape Town (where I am currently writing from).  The love of parents is so dear and special and we are thankful for the couples along the way that have been surrogate parents for us while away.  And, it makes us think of our dear and wonderful parents back at home as well!!

I should also mention we got to see an amazing electrical storm from the balcony of the flat in Pretoria where we stayed and Joe and I had a wonderful time attempting to take photos!

With love and joy,

Carol and Joe