The Safari

Well, as I said I was finally gonna post details of the honeymoon. Today I am just gonna talk about the Safari. When we arrived, we took a little plane that flew us into the tiniest airport. It was very sketchy. But once there, our safari game driver was there to pick up and transfer us to the lodge. We were staying at the Motswari Game reserve lodge. I highly recommend it. You come as a stranger and  leave a friend. This was located in the Timbavati Reserve. The animals on this reserve roam freely from this reserve and Kruger park. This allows so much diversity. This is also one the of the reserves with a greater chance to see wild dogs. Although we did not see wild dogs, we were within thirty minutes of them. Our tracker could smell them and we followed there footprints for a while. But they are fast fellows so they are not easy to catch up to.
Anyways, when we first arrived we immediately got lunch and went on our first game drive. This was amazing. We saw elephants and zebra right away. Lots of impala were son on every drive. We also would always see kudu and waterbuck. Our first game drive we also saw a LION. With a full blown mane. This lion was not normal on this area of the reserve so we got a rare treat! This was the only lion we saw the whole trip, but it was so worth it. That night we also saw warthogs and hippos. We had a bid game drive snack looking over a dried up river, which was beautiful.
After the game drives we would come back and a ranger would walk us back to our lodge, we always had to be walked back when it was dark out at night because we stayed at a reserve where game could roam freely. This upped the thrill factor to our trip! Some days, during our free time, we would be lying outside our lodge and monkeys and impala would be running by.
But back to where I left off. We would get walked back and then a ranger would pick us up and take us to the Boma for dinner. There we would sit with the people who were in our vehicle and chat, eat, and drink lots of booze. It was a blast. We got to learn about lots of places around the world because people came from all over the world to go on these safaris.
We then went on 7 more game drives before our visit ended and saw lots of more animals. We saw more zebra, and lots of elephants, warthogs, buffalo, wildebeest, two leopard sightings, and rhinos. The rhino sighting was especially great because the one was 10 days old! It was so cute. Regardless we saw so many animals and had such a fun relaxing time that we cant wait to go back and do another safari. This time we are thinking of going to Tanzania! If you have any travel deals or recommendations, I would love to hear them! Otherwise, I really recommend for all of you to go on a safari. Learning about the animals and being in the middle of the reserve was the most amazing trip in my life. That is what life is all about.

all photos are copyrighted and owned by, me, Helen Rowland 2016. Do not steal photos or you will be fined of no more than $2,500.

South Africa Honeymoon Intro

Well, it has been awhile. I am back from my honeymoon. The wedding was great. It was a perfect day. The forecast had predicted rain, but we ended up having a 80 degree beautfil sunny day. We partied all night long on my husbands parents farm. After two days of recovering we were on our way to South Africa. We stayed at the Timbivati Reserve at the Motswari Game Reserve. I recommend this place. It was amazing. We had our own private hut, cooked meals every day, and unlimited alcohol. Everything was included in the price. It was great. The reserve also allowed animals to roam freely through the camp which made it super fun and exciting. We went on a total of 8 game drives as well and saw so much. I plan on going on a more in depth post of photos of all the knowledge I have learned. It was an amazing experience. We only stayed there for 4 nights and then flew down to port Alfred for the garden route drive to cape town. We had some over night stops along the way. We stopped at Jeffrey's bay to surf ( I am die hard surfer), Tsitsikamma to stay in the forest and see amazing waterfalls, Knsyna to see the elephants and monkeys, Hermanus to see the whales, Stellenbosch to taste the wine, and Cape Town to see the city, penguins, and cape point. It was amazing. I am strained on time right now, so more in depth of each place with pictures is to follow! By all means though South Africa was amazing and I recommend it to everyone. So many amazing and nice people to meet with so much culture and amazing food!

Countdown

It's been awhile since I have been on here, but a lot has happened! I am finally graduating college next week, which will allow me to be blogging full time! I am also getting married in 30 days!! 30 DAYS! I am so excited especially because our honeymoon will be in South Africa. Have any of you been to South Africa? Any food recommendations for cape town area? We are going to be a on a safari the first four days, which is all inclusive. I am excited for that because we will get a true taste of Africa.
I am also gonna try and start blogging weekly. While I am in South Africa, I will be sure to keep up and post our daily adventures.
Anyways, this is just a short update of what's to come!

A new day

Today went well. I dropped my daughter off at preschool and got to get some things done around the house. I secretly love her going to preschool just so I can do some errands and clean IN PEACE! LOL! It is very hard with a three year old to do just simple basic things in life! After running errands, I picked her up at 11:30. She was excited to see me, as usual. When we got home I opened up her backpack to find out that there is a field trip coming up! This will be her first field trip in school! I am so excited about this and cant wait to go with her. Its funny , I think I actually am way more excited than her, but I guess I have every right to be. Other than that today has been a low key boring day.
My last year of college though has been piling up on work. Instead of doing some work, I decided to write on here;) Clearly this is more important. But until next time.... Ciao!

Today I got into a car accident. This was actually crazy. The guy who was driving a small four door red car was driving like a maniac for the 2 miles before the accident happened. Finally the roads merged into one lane and lo and behold I was in front of him. The next light we went through and it was a dead stop. He obviously did not see that we were stopped and flew right into me. Boy was I mad. I was on my way to school so I knew I would be late because of this. What made it worse was that he drove away!!! Luckily the guy behind him got his license info and I reported to the police, with the guy who I ended up having my car fly into. Wooo what a crazy day!