A place does not have to be perfect to become part of your story. Sometimes it is the ridiculous little moment — a missed turn, a strange meal, a conversation with a stranger — that you remember years later.
I'll never forget seeing a 'real' zebra crossing! If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend a safari through Africa. We headed to Sotuh Africa to join a trucking trip from Cape Town to Vic Falls. Twenty-one days of travelling across the southern half of the African peninsula. And what an adventure we had.
While we usually travel independantly, for this trip we decided to join a small group tour. There were aout 16 of us travelling in what looked like an old school bus. No air conditioning, but with two large fridges in that back to store beer and soft drinks. It was hot, it was dusty, but it was also fantastic. They had a rule that you moved seats each day, back a row which meant that everyone got to sit in every seat and get different viewpoints each day - a great idea I thought.
It was a 3.5/4 star trip where we had our own accomodation, bathrooms and excellent facilities wherever we went, but they were quirky. A hut on stilts in the middle of a park overlooking a salt pan. It had salt water showers and lions wandering around your hut at night. A glamping tent with a great bbq, awesome bathroom and sunken pool where you could relax and watch giraffes wander past - no fences or barriers of any kind.
But the real reason you come to Africa is the wildlife. Seeing elephants, giraffes, lions, tigers, wildebeests, hippos, rhinos etc in their natural environment is completely awe inspiring, incredible, magical. There are not really words that can decribe what you feel and experience in the presence of these magnificent animals. So I'm not even going to try, I'm just going to share some pics - they tell the real story.
On a very cool last note, we were sitting in the upstairs restaurant at the resort we stayed in Zambia - it was the end of the trip so we treated ourselves to a little luxury. Sitting there sipping a glass of wine and suddenly a hippo walks out of the water, wanders through the downstairs restaurant, past the pool, on to the lawn and off through the grounds of the resort. Apparently this wonderful fella had been bullied when he was young and used to hide under the deck of the resort. He feels so comfortable there, he just gets out and wanders through whenever he feels like it! Needless to say the dinners who were downstairs moved very quickly out of the way. I have a very poor quality video of it as for once I didn't take my SLR camera with me to dinner - grrrr!