Benefits of Talking to Strangers

Okay, so to clear things up in the beginning, the title of this blog is not meant to scare my mom or anyone else about me talking to random people I meet here in South Africa. I am very safe and conscientious about who I converse with, where and when. We, as international students, have come to terms with (or at least have been brought to full attention of) the dangers of being with the wrong people at the wrong times in the wrong places.

However, my very loud personality and the need for constant social stimulation has lead to many beneficial, social encounters.


I would also like to apologize in advance, again, for a very long post. This weekend has been very full of new experiences.

This long weekend, Catherine, Lena, and I rented a car and headed off to St. Lucia. The drive was about 3 hours from Pietermaritzburg and it went very smoothly. Catherine was in charge of car rentals, so she was designated driver. She said it took maybe one minute to get adjusted to driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right. In Germany, their driving is like America (with driving on the right side of the road), however, I think it would have taken me longer than a minute to get me orientated on the roads here. Driving at night was very nerve-wracking, but we made it safe and sound.

For this weekend, I was in charge of booking our safari. When looking at the different options, we decided to go with the full day safari at Hluhluwe game reserve which included a breakfast and traditional braai lunch. When we got to St. Lucia, we were told to pay for the safari the day before, so we drove an extra 45 minutes or so to Hluhluwe, not knowing that they had an office in St. Lucia. Although we went way out of our way, we were rewarded with seeing our first elephant on the side of the road! We left in good spirits, excited for the next day.

Arriving at our hostel, we were very disappointed with the living situation. The people were unfriendly, the beds did not feel clean, and the cooking utensils and stoves were sub-par, but we are an easy going group so we shrugged it off.

The morning of our safari we woke up at 430 to the sound of heavy rain, thunder and lightening. To say the least, we were very disappointed. The plan was to meet our safari guide at 5 am outside of our hostel, so we got dressed and did just that. Despite the rain, we went ahead on our safari with a nice Indian couple joining us. By the time we reached the park, the rain had stopped.

We had a wonderful safari guide named Paul.

Entering the park, the first animal we happened to see was a giraffe! Giraffes are very inquisitive and they apparently do not mind the safari jeeps rumbling through.

Then some zebras.

Paul is not a fan of the zebras. He says they are mean and nasty. 

After about an hour and a half of driving around we went to a sort of camp ground that is in the middle of the game reserve. It was very nice, but very expensive to stay in over night. They only have one fence surrounding the area and it is meant for elephants only. Apparently some of the big cats or hyenas can wander in and have wandered in. All of the trash bins are "hyena proof". In that camp ground we had our breakfast.

After breakfast, we spent the next few hours touring around the other side of the park. We saw elephants, impala, wildebeests, warthogs, monkeys, rhinos, baboons, and a variety of birds. We did not, however, manage to see any leopards or lions. Although we seemed to have seen a lot, Paul was very disappointed and said that this was one of the least active safaris he has ever given. We had a great time though and did not mind.  

Around 1 we stopped for lunch. Paul started to cook some meat on the outdoor grill while Catherine, the Indian man (whose name I cannot remember for the life of me), and I hiked down to, what I assume was, the Umfolozi River. 

Fighting off thorns and elephant poop, we made it to the bottom. 

 

And then walked across to the other side (Catherine video taped, but she came across as well later).

After that small adventure, we feasted on some grilled sausage, steak, and wonderful pasta salad. 

After talking with this couple the whole trip, we exchanged emails to share pictures that I took and they, in return, are going to email me a list of fun things they suggest to do in my area. Also, we exchanged emails with Paul because of the picture I took below. Paul's a bird watcher and apparently this bird is really rare to see outside of the dense bush and he was impressed with my picture.

Heading back to St. Lucia, we decided that we no longer wanted to stay at our hostel a second night. So, on Paul's recommendation, we headed over to a different one. There, we were very happy. The accommodations were a lot nicer and the facility was cleaner (plus the same price!).

In addition, while walking outside, I ran into a guy that I met at a different hostel (about three hours away) a few weeks back! This was an absolutely crazy happenstance. His name is Dayle and he owns a hostel in Mozambique. Last time we met, Dayle and a few others wrote a huge list of places for us to visit when we have long weekends. He is actually the reason we picked Hluhluwe!

That evening, Catherine, Lena, Dayle, Gugu the receptionist and I played cards. I taught them Matt's Game and we had a blast. It was especially fun because Gugu had never played any card games before. After the card games, Dayle mapped out a suggested route for Catherine and I on a map on where we should go on our summer holiday. Catherine's boyfriend is flying into Cape Town around the same day that my mom, Scott, and Ian are coming, so we decided that we wanted to take a trip to experience more of Africa. 

He also gave us more information on his hostel in Mozambique (http://www.mangobeach.co.za/) 

The next morning we drove the car back to Durban and walked over to our new hostel. This hostel, http://www.bananabackpackers.co.za/, was very nice and accommodating and about a 15 minute walk from "The Golden Mile" which is a beautiful boardwalk along the beach.

We laid around on the beach, walked the board walk, ate some Indian 'bunny chow', and watched cute surfers for about a good hour. 

That night, Catherine and I visited Joe Cools, a bar that is situated right on the boardwalk. We met a very nice group of girls from Howard Campus (where I will be next semester) and had a great time laughing and dancing.

Sunday we spent the day at new, sort of ritzy beach called Umhlanga with two friends we met from JoBurg. We spent the whole time taking fun pictures and climbing out onto the rocks.

Here, the guys are eating the famous Indian Bunny Chow and we are eating some yummy Thai.

In the evening we met up with Emily and Li from UKZN and went back to campus.

All in all it was a great weekend. 

Funny story though, turns out ISA (the program Saint Mary's utilizes for the study abroad here) is taking us on a safari again next weekend! To the same place!
I hope to have better luck with the animal sightings then.

Finally,  a shout out to my Dad  because it was his birthday Saturday! Next year I will make up for not being there this year. 

But, for now, 

Hamba Kahle! (Stay well!)