South African Christmas

WELL Well well. Time to start blogging again!

There's just so much to talk about and so little time to type it! We had about 4 weeks off for the Christmas holidays. So I will tell you what we did.

The first week isn't very exciting. We stuck around the school. There was a huge tiling job for the kitchen and dining hall. We stayed to help with that, which took the entire week. I helped here and there, but it was mostly a few men working on it. I also was feeling pretty sick the last few days, so that was ok. As long I got better for my actual vacation. And I did.

We started by driving down to Lusaka. We sis that in two days. The roads are terrible here, but it's very interesting to see. There's a lot of goats on the road to avoid. We also drive by some towns and they are just totally caotic. I felt like just staying in the vehicle with the doors locked. But I don't think it's very dangerous. We were just excited to get to South Africa.

Finally the day came. We flew in to Johannesburg (about a 2-hour flight) and we were driven to the Lion Park. This is where we pet baby lions :) We stayed in big luxury tents. It was really nice. There was also a giraffe that had stepped over the fence, so it was walking around our tent. We also went on a night drive in the park. There we got to see a lion feed. Also a bunch of animals like jackals, cheetahs, leopards, white lions, zebra, ostrich, and a few other types. It's very cool. We woke up quite early, I think about 5 am. Probably because we were excited and not used to sleeping in a tent. But in the morning you can hear all the lions roaring. It's really something to hear. I loved it.

The next day we just stayed at a hotel in Joburg. Then headed for a 4-day camping trip to Kruger National Park. This was also very fun. This is where we saw the majority of animals. We have a lot of pictures, but I could never upload them all. I'll just put a few of the best ones. Here we went on Morning drives, afternoon drives, and night drives. We got to see lions feeding on a giraffe that they had taken down. Also, on one of our night drives, there was a male lion sleeping on the road, so we drove right up to it. We were standing in the open vehicle about a meter away from it and it was roaring right there. It was amazing. Lions are soooo cool.

Then we headed back to Joburg for another night and then we took an overnight bus to Cape Town. Long bus ride (about 18 hours) but we slept most of the way, so it went very well. The trains were all booked, so we got stuck with the bus. Apparently all of Joburg heads to Cape Town for the holidays.

Cape Town was BEAUTIFUL. What a great spot to vacation. Table mountain, the beach, the vineyards. It was awesome. We spent a lot of time at Clifton Beach and went to Camps Bay for Christmas. They are really nice beaches, with huge waves. We got some good tans and enjoyed picnics on the beach. At night we would go to the V&A Waterfront. There's always live music there, a lot of shopping and movie theaters and restaurants. We really enjoyed going to the movies. It's been so long and it was cheap!

We had perfect weather the whole time we were there. The only day it was a bit rainy was the day we did our Christmas shopping, so it turned out perfectly.

We also decided to try surfing. A few people have heard about this already. We took the local train to Muizenburg. It's a great place to learn how to surf. They also have shark-watchers so you don't have to be worried. It's a beautiful beach. Well the third time we went (surfing is very fun) the shark alarm actually sounded. There are a lot of penguins nearby, so the sharks like to visit to find some lunch. Well when we heard the alarm, just just looked at each other, got on our boards and paddled as fast as our arms could go, hoping a wave was coming that could push us to shore. It was very surreal.

When we got to the beach, and everyone was out of the water and looking for the shark, we could actually spot it. It was right in the area we were surfing! We watched it for about 5-10 minutes and finally I decided to run to our locker and get my camera. This is what I got. Also, we were done surfing for the day.

We also went up Table Mountain. We went after surfing (that's the day we saw the shark, also the last day in Cape Town). It was very awesome. We went for the sunset. Once the sun sets, it gets very very cold up there. It was just beautiful though.

Anyways. There's a lot more I could say, but this is long and I have to upload these pictures and then head down to watch the kids swim.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. It really isn't the same without friends and family, so we were thinking of you and missed you all.

xoxo