Saturday 3/3: Jo’Burg, South Africa After only sleeping for a few hours, we got up bright and early to grab some breakfast (toast and homemade jelly) and wait for our safari guys to arrive. We ended up paying 140 rand for the hostel to sleep and have 2 meals there…FYI -- 140 rand is $20 USD! Not to shabby, eh? Our guides, Sam and Gavin, arrived and we piled into 2 vans and started our long long drive to Kruger National Park! Sam is a 52 year o...

I’m back home on the ship!! I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to move here and open up a hostel. I’m going to marry a real cute safari tour guide, too! Later tonight I’m going to type up some of my journal entries. I can’t wait til you guys can look at all my pictures so far from the trip!!! I’m going to have a TON from S.A. By the way – I got a picture w/ Dessy when we were pulling into the harbor...

Afterwards, Matthew drove us around in the open-vehicle until 10pm. We saw some hippos wandering through the grass. He told us that hippos walk up to 15km from the rivers during the night. FYI – they are in the water while the sun is out because they have really sensitive skin. Next, we saw a TON of impala. We finally made it close to a hyena den and I caught a glimpse of my first real-life hyena! At first, they look exactly like the hyenas from the Lion Ki...

A guy named Rodney was our guide for the night game drive. He was black just like my teddy bear Rodney. He drove us around and we saw impala, wildabeast, zebras, owls, jugit (I’m butchering the spelling – it’s like a mix between a raccoon and a cat), wart hogs, vultures, and lizards. ***Impala are the most abundant animal in Kruger…They’re known as the local McDonald’s because they have stripes of dark fur on their butts in th...

I'm at the hostel in S.A called mufasa....it's amazing! i want to open upa hostel and run it for a living. no more ot stuff for me...i'm takinglots of pictures...we're all so excited for the safari! i'm with a greatgroup of people..can't wait to tell you stories!