Georgia’s Friday Blog: Africa with diabetes part 3

 

Hello again, now if you haven’t read my previous blog posts now is the chance to do a little catch up!

Once we had finished our group safari through Botswana, we were then on our way to the next destination – Kruger National Park. This is one place we had been hanging out to go to.

After a few difficulties at the airport with our baggage and then having our transfer forget to us, we drove 2 hours to the National Park where we would be staying for the next three nights.

We didn’t really know what to expect so when we rocked up in trackies and tired eyes we soon felt out of place within the camp that was far from your average camp.

It was structured out of wood but was beautiful in every sense of the word.

After we checked in, conveniently lunch was ready and we were then informed we had our first Game Drive in an hour.

Upon arrival they asked for any medical or health issues that they should be aware of, of course I mentioned that I have Type 1 diabetes but I stressed more so about my Gluten intolerance.  It was a good thing I did because they went above and beyond and always had delicious meals that were available for me too.

Every day we had 2 Game Drives, one at 6am and the other at 4:30pm. The early morning starts didn’t shock or scare us as we were used to it by now and a 4:30 wake up was becoming scarily normal for us.

On our Game Drives we saw everything that you could see or want to see whilst in Africa.

I never in my wildest dreams thought I could be so close to wild animals in my life, the National Park extended over multiple states and all the animals there were untouched and completely wild, the keepers and guides at Kruger wouldn’t interfere with their natural lifestyle but as the animals were accustomed to the jeeps they wouldn’t see them as a threat which allowed us to go up close and obtain a once in a lifetime experience.

We had parked just off track a little as our Ranger saw an Elephant herd approaching, as we sat and took photos whilst keeping really still the family of elephants including tiny babies walked a metre by us and passed on.

Another close experience was when we had followed a leopard cub and it’s mum for over an hour when the cub decided to explore, we were parked next to a large rock and the cub walked and sat on top of the rock which was less than a metre a way.

Those two experiences were the standout ones at Kruger, we saw it all and it would definitely be a highlight of my life, not only do I have a newfound respect for South Africa but for the beauty of the animals.

Whilst in Kruger we also visited their children day care centre, I took my polaroid camera to get a photo of the kids and when their weren’t hi-fiving or giving us hugs they were playing with the camera, they were as equally happy to see us as we were to see them.

Leaving Kruger was hard as we had the best time of our lives, from the lovely staff, our Ranger and Tracker, the animals and the kids, it was a perfect 3 night stay.

From there we went to Cape Town where not only was it totally different from what the last 2 weeks of our trip being in a city with malls and lots of people, but the weather decided to change on us and during our stay it poured and poured.  Aside from getting some shopping done (an essential) we took a tour to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet, we climbed to the very top of the mountain and looked our over the two oceans.

Cape Town, although we would have rather been back in the wild, was still a beautiful city.  We then flew to Port Elizabeth where on our first day it was again raining but when the rain cleared up we spent our days down by the beach and horseback riding along the beach which was an experience in itself.

Port Elizabeth was our last stop before the long haul home and back to reality, although we did miss Mum and our own beds we had the time of our lives and an experience that will stay with me forever.

Words can’t describe how the whole trip meant to me and how much I miss it and I definitely plan on going back one day in the future.

If you have never been or have always wanted to go, I highly recommend it, it will change your life.

Until next time, Georgia

🙂