In Africa at last!

We finally made it! The trip was not without incident, however. We lost a comrade in arms. One of our group lost her passport somewhere in between airports and was not able to board in Atlanta. The rest of the group went on, though it was difficult to do so. We were so stressed over the incident and couldn' t wait to land so we could find out what her status was. This was a lonnnnggg wait. Sixteen hours later we arrived. By the time we got there our sense of time was so fowled up anyway, it was quite easy to get on the new time (7 hours ahead). We were picked up at the airport and driven a short hour's drive to Pretoria, where we spent the night and ate. Ohhhh, to be able to lay flat was heaven!! 

We were ecstatic to hear later last night that our fallen comrade was able to get a temporary passport and will be joining us tomorrow. We are relieved!

We had a wonderful breakfast that started with what we would call exotic fruit and the best way to describe it is take the BEST fruit you can get from the grocery store in the States,  multiply that by 10 and you will have eaten African fruit.

 
We were preparing ourselves for the 4+ hour drive to the farm (hunting ranch) but it went soooo fast. We enjoyed learning about the culture from our driver and his wife. Very eye-opening. With every minute that passed all I could think of is how incredibly sheltered we are. 

Along our drive to the ranch we saw zebra hanging out with cattle, impala, baboons, more baboons and an occasional ostrich. We are definitely not in Kansas anymore. I wish I could describe with words what we have seen and we have only just gotten here. I have goosebumps as I think about it. This is a magical place, unlike anything I'd ever seen. 

After meeting our host and hostess and the PH's (professional hunters), we went out for our first hunt. There are acres as far as the eye can see of dense shrubs and trees that look like a tornado has lopped them off. There are thorns on most of the shrubs but still there remains a beauty to it. We saw more ostrich and with every new sight I was asking about everything, trying to understand my surroundings. What's that? Ostrich poo. What's that? Eland tracks. What's that? A rock. Ok, dumb Americans. The rocks look different here. Least we gave our PH a good laugh.

We sat in a blind by handmade water holes waiting for something interesting. A duiker was in the distance but Jamie didn't shoot at it. Someone else in our group got to shoot a freebie gemsbuck- one that they culled due to poor horns. Yes, Jamie is jealous.

We are off to have our evening meal by fireside where a netted cloth drapes our table service before dining. This is Africa and I am savoring every minute of it!