Hong Kong to Africa. Another 10 or so hours on a plane. We have been keeping track of our long distance travel time on planes, buses, trains, ferries (not including subways, gondolas, or horses) and we have clocked over a solid two weeks thus far. We expect to top over three full weeks of the five month trip spent on the move. I could skip the planes, but I love the sensation of moving and watching the landscape change getting into your own world or talking to new people.

We landed on the old continent through a layer of clouds and a colorful sunrise. We stayed at a place nearby to the airport to get some rest for our safari pick up at 7 the next morning. We met our group for the next three days consisting of a Kiwi couple, a Portuguese family of four, and a Welsh girl. After about six hours we approached the gates of Kruger National Park in the northeastern section of the country. The park is around 5 million acres in size and has all the natural African wildlife you can expect, but we weren't sure exactly how frequent or close our encounters would be. Well in just the 15 minute drive to our camp we saw several giraffe, a small herd of elephants, impala, and wildebeest all within 50 feet. Pretty amazing stuff, and it just makes you smile and feel like a kid seeing these giants in the wild.

We quickly dropped off our bags and headed out on our first open vehicle ride for a sunset and night drive, which only the park rangers are allowed to give as the gates to the camp close at dark, which is only 6 pm there. We ran across numerous baboons just outside the camp as well as a very active herd of elephants showing off their strength by knocking trees down with ease and trumpeting out loud. They were walking all around the vehicle, and made a warning charge or two at the small hatchback vehicle of a few girls next to us. Not too smart as our guide says small vehicles are not immune to being run over by elephants. They give sufficient warnings though if heeded. We cruised around as it became dark searching with the spotlights for glowing eyes in the bush. We came across a few more small animals off the side of the road and one shy hippo resting in the water. We finished off the night with a nice dinner and wine cooked by our safari company at their camp site, and all of our group got along really well.

We awoke at five the next morning for our morning drive in the smaller ten person open vehicle and had our first sightings of rhino, which we saw three different times, more of the graceful giraffes, one lioness, and many of the beautiful birds in the park among other things. It turns out we were lucky to see the 7 rhino we did as there are only 1200 in the park and 200 were killed last year in the park alone due to poachers with the species expected to be extinct in the next decade if nothing changes. They just cut the horns off with a chainsaw in a few minutes, and the horns are sold to the Chinese who pay over $100,000 per kilo because they think it improves sexual performance and cures diseases. Terrible. What is worse is that a number of the poachers are park rangers or the army guards supposed to be catching the poachers. They have even had to take down the rhino sightings map at the front office of the camp as poachers would use it to their advantage. At these levels of corruption it probably won't stop until they are all gone. They were majestic to watch for the short time we did. After coming back for a proper breakfast at camp nap time ensued for the next few hours until our afternoon drive.

The whole trip and visit to the park was amazing and worth everything to get there, but what we saw in the afternoon drive took everyone, including the driver, by complete surprise and was spectacular. Our driver knew that five lions had been laying in one area literally just off the road. After about 20 minutes watching the young lions and lionesses stretch, yawn, and lick one another's faces the driver thought they might walk down to get a drink so she pulled the jeep where she thought the lions would walk and they walked immediately in front of us looking over, but paying no real attention. They slowly started to walk into the grass and one began to smell or see something and started to creep along and get low to the ground with a few of the others following behind. All of a sudden a giant old sleeping water buffalo sprang up out of the grass surprised by the group of lions. One lion jumped on its back and it got a swift kick from the buffalo who began to run at full speed directly at our vehicle with the five lions chasing behind. The frightened buffalo weaves by our jeep and the other cars watching in amazement at the last moment and kept running. The lions seemed to give up and let the old buffalo run off into the distance. All our hearts were racing and the urge to high five and hug was overwhelming. As an additional treat we witnessed a group of 6 or 7 young male elephants grabbing trunks and bouldering over trees having some good fun. Another nice dinner reveling with everyone about what we witnessed during the day put us promptly to sleep for another 5 am wake up call the next morning.

We had one final two hour drive through the park in which we saw a herd of elephants push back a herd of cars. As we learned from our guide the elephants will continue to walk down the road if the cars began to back up showing weakness. We stayed in our vehicle and got a good early morning laugh. We saw several hippos playing about in the water, and a few last groups of giraffe and zebra. We drove back via what is called the Panoramic route, which holds some of South Africa's most beautiful natural scenery. Steep canyons, rivers, waterfalls and open mountain country side made for an excellent way to end our trip to the park.

The next morning we flew out early to Cape Town. One of the most picturesque cities we have seen. The town is built up into the slopes of the surrounding mountains that crash into the sea with giant boulders and rocky cliffs on most shores. We spent the first day with the Welsh girl we met on our safari named Zoe who flew into the city just a few hours after we did. She already had a driver arranged to take her to some spots around town and she let us tag along. We went to boulder beach, which is a small penguin colony as well as a beach. There were actually people swimming with some penguins joining in seemingly without a problem. Strange sight. The area was sheltered by the large boulders, but the bay is home to a large concentration of great white sharks due in part to the large number of seals in the bay as well. It is the place where the Planet Earth series filmed the great whites leaping out of the water catching unlucky seals in their jaws. Unfortunately we did not come across any. I really wanted to dive with the sharks (Leah was less certain), but everyday we were there the tours were cancelled due to the windy weather and rough seas even though the ever changing weather was rather nice in the city. After the beach we had high tea at the Table Bay hotel on the waterfront. Our first proper tea experience I suppose with many delicious treats. It was nice to have it with someone from Wales as well. Made it feel more authentic and proper with the accent and all.

It was also too windy and cloudy to get to the top of Table Mountain steeply rising above the city at several thousand feet. Instead we drove up as high as we could, and walked along the coast for several hours after a rare gluten free pizza experience on the trip. We watched surfers and boogie boarders take on the powerful waves and admired the homes tucked away into the cliffs. We spent some time at the South African museum, and also had a wonderful African meal with an African band at a place called Mama Africa with Zoe. We had some of the animals we saw on our safari that aren't endangered including the kudu, crocodile, and warthog. The ambience was so friendly just like most of the people we have encountered in our time here. Everyone always seems to be smiling or having a laugh and it is definitely infectious. We finished our night at a primarily African attended dance club in which we were pulled out to the dance floor by one very enthusiastic and fun local.

One more car ride to the airport driven by a cheerful Zimbabwean who asked us if we bump into celebrities every day like Angelina Jolie and others being from the US and all. He asked if they were always friendly and talked to us when they met us in the street. We told him its not quite like that. He also really wanted to know if wrestling on TV was real. We told him no and that the stories were planned out. He seemed disappointed and maybe we should have lied. Very funny though.