My Journal
Okay, I highly recommend a 4 week vacation for anybody who has the opportunity to take one !! Kevin, my mom and dad, and my sister and her boyfriend, and I had been planning a trip back to South Africa together for over a year. On Christmas day we finally got on the plane for the 18 hour flight to Cape Town. Although the flight was horrendously long and pretty boring, the antcipation of arriving in South Africa was tremendous.
We started off with a week in Cape Town at a Bed and Breakfast that we rented out. We visited the flea markets, spent time on the beach, saw the sights, and ate at some fantastic restaurants (imagine having R12 to every $1 - we lived like Kings and loved every minute of it). We spent time at the pool, we braaied good old South African boerewors (barbecured sausage for those of you who have no idea what I just said), and we watched the boys dive with the sharks at Cape Town's aquarium !!
After that, it was a long drive across the country to Sun City, which is just outside of Johannesburg. The drive to get there was almost as long as the time we spent there but it was the fact that we got to see half of the country on the way that was so thrilling. We drove about 16 hours (split over 2 days) and went through so many different terrains. Sun City is basically a large gaming place, almost like a mini Las Vegas. It hosts one of the World's most beautiful hotels, the Lost city, and is a great place to spend a couple of days.
So two days there, and we were back in the car for another 8 hour drive to the Kruger National Park - yes, this is what you think of when you think of Africa - the safari !! We spent a week in the park and stayed at four different camps. It was unbelievable. We saw everything we could have asked for - 2 leopard, numerous prides of lions, herds of elephants (including getting stuck in a herd of approximately 50 of them), rhino, giraffe, buffalo, kudu, baboons, monkeys, hippo, crocodiles, snakes, chamelions, wildebeest, zebra, and many many more !! All of which had babies, and all of which we got to see extremely close (sometimes too close for comfort!) Now for those of you who don't know - the Kruger Park is about the size of England - so you get to drive through the park in your car and what you see is what you see. If the animals move on, lie down in the grass, or don't want to be seen, you won't see a thing :-) If you're lucky, you get to see them in the distance, and if you're extremely lucky (like we were), you get to see them right next to your car !! It's an unbelievable experience I highly recommend !!!
So now we're into our final week. Another 8 hour drive back to Johannesburg where the girls would meet up with old friends, and the boys would disappear for a four day scuba diving trip.
Needless to say we travelled far and had an absolute blast. It was great to get away for a while and not have to think about work, training, what I was eating etc. I gave myself a proper holiday and it was the best. My only goal was to try and give my glute (which has been injured since before we left for S.A) some rest, and to get a run in each day. That I did and so I am very happy to get back and start training hard :-)