Our 14-day African adventure was packed with sightseeing, African foods, safaris, nature, animals, and so much more! This was another epic adventure with Gate1 Travel. We talk bathrooms when there is a drought, ordering food in South Africa, the amazing natural scenery, and how moving it is to see rhinos, hippopotamus, lions, and more African game up close and personal!

There are so many funny stories from this trip! Jamal almost eats baboon, we visit Matsamo Cultural Village, have a run-in that damages our tour bus window, find ourselves at a few open bars, and see some seriously epic African game in the natural habitats while we’re in our natural habitat too, wink wink.

On our South Africa travels we went to several places:

• Cape Town, South Africa
• St. Lucia, South Africa
• Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve
• eSwatini (formerly Swaziland)
• Eswatini (on Zeina’s birthday!)
• Kruger National Park in Johannesburg, South Africa
• Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (one of the 7 natural wonders of the world!)

We give you our Gate 1 Travel South Africa reviews, spoiler alert: Gate 1 was amazing as always on this trip! They absolutely took care of us throughout the two weeks. We also answer our most requested question, “how much is a trip to South Africa?” with what we paid and how we paid for it. 

If you’re planning a trip to South Africa, this episode will give you a real lay of he land on what to expect and capture the magic of seeing these majestic creatures throughout the trip.

South Africa Trip – Part 1 – Episode Transcript

4 (56s):
Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad podcast. Today, we are taking you with us on a big bucket list trip to Africa.

3 (1m 5s):
Well, not all of us because one of us didn’t go,

6 (1m 8s):
Boom.

2 (1m 11s):
And who was?

3 (1m 12s):
That was me. And so you’ve probably heard us talk about that’s my Africa in some of our episodes and what that’s referring to is my biggest regret in life. By not going on this trip,

2 (1m 22s):
We’re going to be introducing you to new players here in the squad today. And it’s Josh and Anna and Josh is from our hometown of Woodland, California, Woodland in the house. And he grew up with Jamal really, really good buddies. And Anna is his girlfriend also from Northern California. And they came along with us for the ride. And this is Josh’s first international trip ever. He got his passport for this trip. Yes,

4 (1m 48s):
He did.

6 (1m 49s):
T I, Hey, this is Africa. That was our motto while we were on the trip. That was our NSO T but Tia T

3 (1m 59s):
I,

4 (1m 59s):
It wasn’t a true NSO T cause unfortunately, Kim wasn’t with us. So we altered it in your honor to T I a,

3 (2m 6s):
I appreciate that. Yeah.

6 (2m 8s):
Also hashtag TIAA. So on this African adventure, we visited three countries, South Africa, Swazi land, which was actually renamed at east guazzini and Zimbabwe. It’s also a little bonus that we did enter Zambian waters, but we didn’t go to Zambia.

3 (2m 25s):
So this was such a long trip for them. I think it was about 14 days, right? In total. So, because they traveled so much and covered so much ground, we’re actually going to break this up into our very first two part episode series

2 (2m 41s):
Two parter.

3 (2m 42s):
So let’s start out with some tips for Africa since I didn’t go. And one day I would like to,

6 (2m 48s):
Well, the biggest tip I have is to go and don’t make excuses for yourself.

4 (2m 54s):
I think this one’s directed at you. I think so.

3 (2m 57s):
You’re that people just go

2 (2m 59s):
And why didn’t you go, Kim?

3 (3m 0s):
I did not go because I think that trip costs around five grand, right?

4 (3m 5s):
It did. Yes.

3 (3m 6s):
Give or take a few. And at the time I just saw that number and thought it was so big. And I was, I dunno, it just built it up in my head to be too much to do. And in retrospect, I totally could have made it happen because it was a gate one trip. They let you make payments. They let you break it up and I really could have made it happen. But you know, I got in my own head. So let this be a lesson to all of you listening that, even though it may seem like an impossible amount, it actually probably is doable.

6 (3m 35s):
Well, it obviously was doable because three out of a four of us here sitting here and have done it.

3 (3m 40s):
I know it’s funny because I also went on a trip during the time you guys were gone, so I totally could have gone.

6 (3m 45s):
So another tip that we have for you is this trip was such a long trip. It was 14 days long. And what we learned from this is we should not add on another trip before, after. And we did, we actually added on New York after this. And during that trip to New York, we learned, we shouldn’t have done that. It was such a long trip and combining the two, wasn’t the best idea.

2 (4m 8s):
And in case you’re wondering like, okay, African, New York, how did we get there? Well, we left from New York. We’ll get more into that. And we landed on Thursday in New York. So rather than flying back, we thought we’ll spend the weekend there. But yeah, like Brittany said, if we could go back Thursday, we, we would just fly home rather than spend the weekend in New York.

4 (4m 26s):
Yeah. And we’ve always talked and listening to past episodes. You’ve heard us say, you know, if you have a layover, do something, try to extend the trip, which is good advice. And that’s exactly what we did. I just think with the long flight time from the United States to Africa being such a long trip at 14 days, we learned that that’s not a bad advice to do it, but just be cautious on such a long trip and such flight times, maybe around, you know, seven, 10 days it’s more doable. But anything beyond that, it can be a little bit tiring and cumbersome.

2 (4m 56s):
If I was still 24, 25, I would have been able to do it with no problems. But once you turn 30,

4 (5m 2s):
Once you turn 30,

3 (5m 3s):
If it’s a shorter trip, like the Ecuador trip or planning in September, it’s only eight days. And we are adding on Austin to the end of that.

6 (5m 11s):
Another tip that I have for everyone is that Africa can be cold at times. And what I was expecting was vast desert, dry weather, hot weather. And when we got to Cape Town, it was actually more green and cold than I expected it to be. And I didn’t really pack accordingly. And so I learned very,

3 (5m 31s):
Oh, pack accordingly

6 (5m 34s):
Cape Town can be very cold. And at the time that we went, it was colder than San Diego.

3 (5m 40s):
Oh my gosh,

4 (5m 40s):
You got to think it’s in the Southern hemisphere. So it’s a completely different season than what it is here in the Northern hemisphere, in terms of landmass, that’s below the equator. It’s like a very low percentage. So the majority of people are experiencing the same season, the same time of the year, but not when you’re in South Africa, you definitely different seasons. So got to really plan accordingly on that.

2 (5m 59s):
And then the next tip is to get malaria pills. It’s highly recommended. And I think it’s going to be on the CDC website, but just make sure you go to your doctor and get those malaria pills. Yeah,

4 (6m 8s):
Yeah. We definitely did take the malaria pills. It’s a good precaution to have it. I really don’t feel like I ended up with a lot of bites, but our tour guide did tell us that we were about two to three weeks away from real heavy mosquito season. So we kind of missed it. If we were there a little bit later, it may have come more into play and I may have felt it was truly necessary, but if you’re going to be going there, definitely take it as a precaution.

6 (6m 33s):
We also learned that the water was drinkable and every single place we went to, except for St. Lucia, I wasn’t expecting that. I was expecting to have to buy a bottled water throughout the trip and we really didn’t need to because all of the water was so fresh and so clean and it actually tasted really good and really refreshing.

2 (6m 53s):
I get delivered water jugs to my house and the water in Africa was cleaner than the delivered bottled water that I get. Wow. Like it tasted so good.

4 (7m 3s):
Yeah. I mean, you could drink straight out the tap, no issues. The one place that Brittany mentioned St. Lucia, it is in South Africa. The reason why we couldn’t drink there is the hotel we were staying at was redoing their well. And they hadn’t really made sure that it wasn’t contaminated at that point. But South Africa is ranked as one of the top three cleanest water sources in the world to come out the tap.

3 (7m 26s):
Interesting. Yeah. What else do you need to know?

4 (7m 29s):
Another good thing to know, and just keep in mind when you travel to another country, is they are using a different currency than your local one. So South Africa uses the south African Rand. We also went to Swazi land, which is another country and they have their own currency, but it’s pegged at an even exchange rate to the south African Rand. So we really didn’t have to change money other than to south African Rand. And right now the exchange rate, and when we went as well as about $1 to 14 south African rants, and one thing that we always do, and I would just want to mention it again. We always take cash just in case we have to exchange cash for cash and low currency, but I always love to pull out of the ATM because it gives you a more even exchange rate.

4 (8m 16s):
And you do have an ATM fee, but you can always ask your bank to wave it, which I usually do. So it’s a good cost saving measure when exchanging currencies. Okay.

6 (8m 24s):
And when you can, we try to pay with our credit card and we use a specific credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. What

3 (8m 31s):
Credit card is that?

4 (8m 32s):
My main travel credit card is my chase Sapphire reserve. It’s the one that I always use. It has no foreign transaction fees gets me a lot of points and perks for travel. But before that, we used our capital one credit card and it’s the capital one quick silver credit card that gives you 1.5% cash back on every purchase, but that does have a no foreign transaction. So until we got that chase card, we always use that one. And if anybody is a Costco member and has the Costco credit card, the Costco credit card offered by Citi also has no foreign transaction fees. No,

3 (9m 7s):
I remember, I think it was when you got that capital one card, I think we were in Peru and you will no foreign transaction fee and they were all hyped up on it.

4 (9m 16s):
I am hyped up about it because it gives you an even exchange rate. I don’t have to use cash. I could put it on my card, get points. It’s great. So I highly recommend to anybody when you travel, definitely try to use a credit card or even get a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees. It’s going to save you a lot of money and you’re gonna earn points in the process.

2 (9m 35s):
And this segment is not sponsored by any of those banks that we mentioned.

4 (9m 38s):
Non-sponsored I just love those credit cards. They’ve been in my wallet while the capital one’s been in my wallet for quite a long time. It’s actually my first credit card. And my chase Sapphire reserve is my new go-to travel credit card.

3 (9m 50s):
Do they speak English in South Africa?

4 (9m 53s):
Yes, they do. English is one of the official languages. They have many, but English is one of them. So you’ll be able to get by real easy.

3 (9m 59s):
Oh, nice.

6 (9m 60s):
So let’s get to the trip guys.

3 (10m 3s):
Day zero, leaving San Diego. Tell me how you got there.

6 (10m 7s):
We flew from San Diego to new work, which is in New Jersey. But as we talked about earlier in our New York episode, we talked about how Newark is actually very close to downtown New York. And so we flew there because it was cheap flights from Southwest, and we spent the night in New Jersey and then we took a Lyft over to JFK to meet up with Josh and Anna.

4 (10m 28s):
Yeah, JFK is the major international airport in New York. And our tour through gate one had a special leaving out of JFK. So we saved money by flying into Newark. New Jersey spent the night there the day before, and this did the transfer and it made a lot more sense that way to do it.

2 (10m 46s):
And the reason why we spent the night was the flight was leaving, I think, around like five in the afternoon. And you have to remember, we’re coming from San Diego. We’re three hours behind. So by the time we land in New York, it’s just cutting it too close. So we needed to spend the night and spend the next day there in New York in order to catch our flight.

6 (11m 2s):
What was so funny about meeting Josh and Anna at the airport was that they’re really experienced travelers. Like we are. So we all showed up with our one large check luggage and our one backpack and we arrived at the airport and we see them in. Josh has this big ass bag.

4 (11m 19s):
It was the biggest it’s like, yeah,

6 (11m 21s):
I didn’t even know that they made duffel bag, But I could literally fit inside of it. You can fit a body inside of that duffel bag. It was. So

4 (11m 30s):
It looked like he was rolling a dead body because it was, it was legitimately a big, giant duffel bag, but it had back wheel rollers. If I’m not mistaken. And he comes in with it, I’m just like, you could fit a whole barrel of oil and a dead body in that back thing. And I was like, my God, man, what a big duffel bag you have. And then Anna was just so funny. She had to check sized luggages plus her carry on, et cetera. So they definitely,

6 (11m 55s):
She brought a backpack and a yoga mat. And I was like, are we moving to Africa?

2 (12m 1s):
But Josh, his bag was really funny. And the entire tour group started to tease him whenever we would transfer to another airport and be like, oh, there’s the body bag.

3 (12m 11s):
Okay. So then it’s day one now, and you guys are in the JFK airport. What is the flight? How do you get to South Africa from JFK? Is there, is it straight or

4 (12m 21s):
No, unfortunately there’s not a straight flight. What we had to do was fly from JFK international. In New York, we flew to Amsterdam and from Amsterdam, we had a direct flight at that point to Cape town, South Africa.

3 (12m 35s):
How long were you in Amsterdam?

4 (12m 36s):
Amsterdam? Not very long. I would say maybe about three and a half, four hours. If I remember correctly, it wasn’t a very, very long way. No, but see Josh again, this was his first trip, really off the continent and he was excited to be in Amsterdam. He was like, oh, you think we have enough time to go out and just kind of explore. And Britney and I have been to Amsterdam before and I told them, I said, they do have a direct train from the airport that takes you to downtown Amsterdam, if you will. But there’s just not enough time. By the time you get out of the airport, take the express train. You’ll maybe have 30 minutes to do something before you come back. And it’s just cutting it way, way too close if we had more time maybe.

3 (13m 17s):
Okay. So what did you do in the Amsterdam airport for three hours?

2 (13m 20s):
We ate,

6 (13m 21s):
We did, we had like a traditional English breakfast in the Amsterdam airport at one of the restaurants. And then we watched Anna do yoga in the terminal before our flight.

3 (13m 30s):
You guys didn’t partake.

6 (13m 31s):
You know, we did not, we didn’t bring her.

4 (13m 33s):
We did not partake. We did not bring our mats, but it was really funny. You know, the flight from JFK to Amsterdam is not very long. I mean, it’s about a seven hour flight, which is a long flight, but if you’re flying from coast to coast here in the United States, it’s about equivalent, you know, five hours. And this was going to be their longest flight from Amsterdam to Cape town. I believe it was about 10 and a half 11 hours of a flight. So they’d never been on a flight that long before

2 (13m 58s):
I kind of was 12. In any case, it felt like it was a long flight.

4 (14m 2s):
It was a long flight, but not as long as the one coming back. If you guys want to reference the episode where we talked about how to survive a long haul flight. And I had my 16 hour flight back from Africa, sit next to the smelly lady. So I mean, that one was a lot longer. So this one was just warming them up for that return flight.

2 (14m 20s):
The weirdest thing about this flight is I feel like I’ve been all over the world, but I always travel west to east or east to west. So you’re experiencing a time change. But in this case, Amsterdam had the same time zone as Cape down. So you’re just flying from north to south. I don’t know. It’s just weird. It’s all on the same time zone and I’ve never traveled someplace. And with the same time zone like that

4 (14m 40s):
Such a long flight.

2 (14m 41s):
Exactly. Yeah. I mean California Sacramento to San Diego, same thing, but I mean like, yeah, international

4 (14m 46s):
After the flight day two, we officially landed in Cape Town, but Cape Town, When we landed, it was about 10, 10 30 at night. So we really didn’t get to do anything being that it was a gate. One tour we did have the pickup from the airport, took us direct to the hotel. So that was really, really nice. We didn’t have to coordinate a taxi or anything like that or mass transportation. So I just want to reiterate how vital going certain places and doing a tour as an in terms of the all inclusiveness and what they provide. Yes, the ease. And especially, I just want to touch on this, going to Africa in terms of having to figure out what’s a reputable safari company or transportation, since they don’t really have like a big mass transportation, Africa in general is a good place to go and utilize a tour.

4 (15m 40s):
Just want to throw that out.

2 (15m 41s):
One of the interesting things, when we landed in Cape Town was of course, you know, the ladies are headed off to the bathroom. You go pee and then you come out to wash your hands, but there is no water and it’s not that they don’t have water. They’re in a drought. And because they are in a drought, they turned the water off. And so instead they just have hand sanitizer on the wall where the sinks are, which is weird. I mean, I get it. You know, they’re trying to preserve

3 (16m 6s):
Water in a severe drought.

4 (16m 8s):
It was going to be the largest city in the world to run out of water. So luckily they’re past that point now, but when we went, we were at the height of it. And I’m sure all of you probably remember in the news, at least hearing clip highlights of the talking about how South Africa, well, not South Africa, more specifically Cape Town itself was going to run out of water. So all the fountains that they had in the city, or even when you were in public spaces, like saying is sane, no running water. Yes. They had them for the toilets to flush, but in terms of washing hands, other things, they were really cutting back on water usage.

6 (16m 42s):
Well, I do want to say one thing. So let’s say in the airport bathroom, there’s 10 sinks, nine out of 10 are turned off and hand sanitizer is recommended to use. Instead, there is one scene that is left for running water, and I’m sure, you know, that’s for, if you don’t want to be disgusting or anything, but like, you know, you have bowel movement and you want to wash your hands.

3 (17m 1s):
I think that they’ve heard enough on this podcast too, to know that’s not disgusting,

6 (17m 7s):
But I mean, I’m assuming that’s what it’s for it. Like

3 (17m 9s):
He, so there’s no water in the bathrooms, but what about the shower?

6 (17m 14s):
There is water in the showers, but in every shower that we went into, there was a timer. And so they would recommend that when the timer runs out, you turn the water off.

4 (17m 25s):
They were recommending no more than a three minute shower. So they had in our hotel, when we got there, they had a little hour glass filled with sand, obviously a little plastic one, but it had a little suction cup stuck to the shower itself. And they had a big sign encouraging you, Hey, please keep the shower. Within three minutes, they had the signs up telling you, please don’t put your towel on the floor, a towel on the floor. It means you want a new one help preserve our natural resources, you know, keep your towel, et cetera.

2 (17m 53s):
And we’re talking about public bathrooms, right? I mean, if you’re in a hotel, they’re not going to shut the water off, but like more so the public bathrooms. And then the other thing too is I bought Oprah is lipstick called Cape Town. And I wanted to wear it specifically for this trip because I was going to be in Cape town and they have a collection of lipsticks for pretty much all the big cities of the world. And Brittany was super excited to wear it to

4 (18m 13s):
Cape Town and Cape Town.

3 (18m 14s):
Let me guess bright pink.

2 (18m 16s):
It is pink, but it’s a little bit darker. And it’s actually the exact same color as Kylie’s lip kit sprinkle. Hmm. Yeah.

3 (18m 23s):
Fun

2 (18m 23s):
Facts. It’s not my favorite color, but I had to wear it. And Cape Town

4 (18m 26s):
Day three was our first day of orientation with our tour guide. As we mentioned, we landed in Cape Town around 10, 10 30 at night. So just to transfer to the hotel, no,

6 (18m 38s):
It took about 45 to 60 minutes to get from the airport to downtown Cape Town.

4 (18m 42s):
And then we went to bed and then earn the morning when we checked in, they said, oh, you’re part of the gate one, please be down in this conference room at a certain time for your orientation. And that’s where we met with our tour guide. Sean,

2 (18m 56s):
Sean was our fearless leader for this trip.

3 (18m 58s):
I heard a lot about Sean,

4 (18m 59s):
A lot about Sean. Sean was a great tour guide. He was

2 (19m 2s):
Okay.

6 (19m 4s):
He has a really great voice.

2 (19m 6s):
He did. He did. And wait, what did he say? That Jamal imitated him so well on,

4 (19m 11s):
Yeah, he did something like that. He had like a, you know, you would ask him something and he’d be like, oh yeah, I’m doing it. No justice. But he had a really good way of saying it. Yeah.

2 (19m 23s):
Yes. So anyways, there we are in the orientation and they’re calling out the names to make sure that everyone is there. So Jamal and Brittany booked together. So they called Jamal and Brittany’s name and then me next. And so they say Zayna and I’m like, oh, I’m here. He gives me my stuff. And then next he says Kim, and all three of us, Jamal, Brittany. And I, we go because we got so excited. I’m like, what are the odds that the name Kim is going to be right after Zayna and Sean looks at us and he says, Kim, and we’re like, no, Not us.

4 (19m 53s):
Well, we got so excited. We were like to Kim, surprise us and book and not tell us. And here she is

3 (19m 58s):
So epic.

4 (19m 59s):
It would have been at that. You would have had an epic time.

2 (20m 2s):
I’ve missed you so much on the entire trip. Sorry. But

6 (20m 4s):
It was a sign that you should have been there.

3 (20m 6s):
It was a sign that everything was going to be okay. Cause there was at least one Kim on this trip. Yeah.

4 (20m 11s):
Yes, yes. But after the orientation maybe took 30 to 45 minutes again, making sure everyone’s there talking about what we’re going to be doing on the entire tour itself. But after that we hit the ground running. And the first thing that we did that day was go to table mountain and table mountain is a very famous, iconic place in Cape town, South Africa. And it literally is a mountain that has a flat top. Hence the name table mountain. You take a cable card at the top gives you beautiful, beautiful panoramic views of the city. And it’s also a south African national park. And

6 (20m 47s):
This is why I love gate one because all of these places that we’re going to, the price that we paid originally includes insurance to all of these places. So we did look up for you guys that to get to the top of table mountain via the cable car, the most expensive ride is 360 Rand round trip, which equates to about 25 us dollars. And we learned that they actually charge you more in the morning and less in the afternoon, probably due to the views, probably because in the afternoon it’s more known for cloud coverage and this was all included in our trip and we got to the top and we had the best panoramic views of Cape Town in the surrounding area.

3 (21m 26s):
So love gate one, not only because they include all of the tickets, but you don’t have to go wait in line, get them, figure out how to get them, figure out where to get in. Like it’s all figured out for you.

4 (21m 36s):
Yeah. And since we had the tickets, we got to bypass the general line of people waiting to buy the tickets. Then plus the line to get in. Since we had them in advance, we had a different queue that we got to go on. So we got to the cable cars, got to go to the top, but from the top, I mean just amazing, amazing views of the city. You can see out into the Atlantic ocean at the top. There’s a lot of plant life animals just as well. Unfortunately, no bigger animals in the past. There used to be lions and leopards that used to be up there. But since you know, lots of the human activity and settlements in that area, they’re no longer there, but there used to be lions leopards very rarely will you maybe be able to see baboons in that area, not so much anymore, but other than that, there are going to be other animals you could see not big game, but such a beautiful, beautiful thing to see.

4 (22m 26s):
And any trip to Cape Town won’t be complete unless you go to table mountain.

2 (22m 30s):
One of the things I would have really liked to do is to be able to walk up the mountain, not walk, but like hike up the mountain. That is something that you can do. And Josh and Anna took a second trip this past year to South Africa and they did hike up the mountain. And I think that’s really cool.

4 (22m 44s):
But yet to the point of what you were saying about Josh and Anna, imagine this, they had so much fun on their trip that they booked another gate. One to go back to South Africa. This one was a shorter one that included just kind of Cape Town and a few surrounding areas. But they ended up going back in the 2019 year here. And they went back to table mountain and they went with the point to actually hike it up. So instead of taking the cable car, like Zana said, they did a hike up

6 (23m 9s):
An easy day and I missed out on it. Damn it.

3 (23m 14s):
Hey, we have to go back. Yeah.

4 (23m 15s):
You know, I, I, I want to go back to Africa still

3 (23m 19s):
Back. I have to go for the first time. Yeah.

6 (23m 20s):
It was such a beautiful view at the top. It was a bird’s eye view of the city of the beaches. I didn’t realize that there was going to be so many beautiful beaches because we were on the south African peninsula.

4 (23m 33s):
Yeah. Cape Town is on a peninsula that sticks out on the Western tip of the Southern end of the African continent. So beautiful views of the bay, the ocean. I can’t stress enough how beautiful it is at the top of table

6 (23m 46s):
Mountain. And it’s also possible to see Robin island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. So

4 (23m 52s):
That’s like their version of Alcatraz, I guess, a little island prison.

2 (23m 55s):
When you get into the cable car to take you to the top, they’re going to shove as many people as they can within the weight limit restriction, of course, but don’t worry about where you are going to stand. You’re going to get into a circular cable car and as you’re going up, it will spin you very, very, very, very slowly,

3 (24m 13s):
Very, very slowly,

2 (24m 14s):
Extremely slow. But you know, that way, you know, don’t, don’t necessarily stress where you’re going to sit because you’re going to get a view of 360 as you’re going to the top. Very slowly,

6 (24m 24s):
Great memory vena.

4 (24m 26s):
I don’t remember them doing that, but I have no doubt that that’s the case. So slow. You didn’t even know, you know, now that she says that it rings a bell at first, she was saying it and I couldn’t remember, but yeah, definitely that, that is really cool. When I think back about that, that is awesome. I’ve never been in a cable car that does anything like that.

6 (24m 41s):
So visiting table mountain really just started our adventure off. Right. And so from there, we headed out for our Cape peninsula tour and we had several stops along the way. We first stopped in a fishing village called Hout bay. And it was so beautiful. Jamal, tell us a little bit about it. Yeah.

4 (24m 58s):
It’s a little fishing village on the peninsula of Cape Town going south and just really beautiful classical settlement buildings, but more particularly, I mean, there is food and stuff to eat there, but being on the tour, we didn’t stop at that point, but it is just a good lookout point to see the beautiful scenery. Like Brittany said, you know, sometimes the people thinking are Africa, they’re thinking of the African Bush or dry arid, but just so much greenery that you wouldn’t expect. And it’s really, really beautiful out there. We also had a stop in Simon’s town and we visited the penguin colonies that they have at Boulder beach. And if anybody’s watching any nature documentaries, I’m sure you’ve probably seen them talk about the penguins that they have in South Africa.

4 (25m 43s):
I mean, we think of penguins, we think of in Antarctica or somewhere cold, but there is a penguin colony on the beaches of South Africa. So we went to Boulder beach and we got to see the penguins.

6 (25m 54s):
It’s so surreal seeing penguins on a beach, like you’re expecting to see them in the Arctic and snow. And here they are just chilling in the sun, just prancing on the sand, in the water. Cute. Yeah, it was super cool to see. And I remember before we booked this trip, our friend Casha that we’ve referenced many times she asked because she was actually supposed to go on this trip and they couldn’t go, would we be going to Boulder beach? Cause I want to see the penguins there. So it’s a, must-do on the south African adventure.

2 (26m 21s):
The cutest thing is when they’re in a little group, like I remember at one point there were three penguins walking along together, one after another, and then they just like one falls and then gets up like, it’s just, it’s so adorable.

4 (26m 33s):
So they do inhabit that Boulder beach area that we are talking about. But what’s really interesting about it is the penguins only started to inhabit that area around 1983 from just one breeding pair. And now there’s about 3000 birds, but they are deemed endangered and on the verge of extinction. So it is a protected area. So you do have to pay to go see them, but the money that you do pay, which is 76 Rand equivalent to about $5, goes into preservation of the area of the species. But again, the fact that it was through gate one that was included with our tour. But if you go by yourself, you will have to pay to go to the beach and see the penguins.

6 (27m 11s):
And you aren’t on the beach with the penguins. You are on a built up walkway. So you can go to a viewing area, but you’re not on the beach

3 (27m 18s):
About how far away are the penguins from the viewing area.

4 (27m 21s):
Oh, they’re really close because it’s a built-up deck. So they could even walk under the deck. Yeah,

6 (27m 26s):
They’re right on the sides. And they can go underneath, but you can’t go out and touch them

3 (27m 30s):
And do they make noises?

4 (27m 31s):
Oh yes, they do. They used to be called jackass penguins because of the way that they would Bray, you know, the noise that they would make. Can you do that for us? I can’t make that noise. I don’t want to attempt to make that noise, but they used to be called jackass penguins because of the noise that they do make. I have videos. So when this episode is out, bam, we got some penguin videos to

3 (27m 51s):
See.

6 (27m 53s):
And this is where we did stop for lunch. Right outside of the beach, we did go to a restaurant and this was included with our two

4 (28m 1s):
And it was at a really nice fancy restaurant. Again, you’re on the water. So it kind of has a Bayfront

6 (28m 8s):
Nautical,

4 (28m 9s):
Nautical field and forge, well, maybe this is, would be the highlight for you, Kim, because well, the wine was included with your lunch and it was seafood. So I don’t know what they did. They did have a non seafood option, but the seafood that we actually had was delicious. But since we were on a tour again, there was about 30 people. One of the people who was on the tour, we nicknamed her Jersey because she was from New Jersey and she sat at the table with us and lunch included our main entree, our drink and a little bit of dessert. And it was so funny. I’ll never forget this. Josh was with us, obviously sitting at the table and when Jersey’s dessert came out, she said, do any of you guys want the dessert?

4 (28m 52s):
She’s like, I’m not a sweet person. And then Josh just goes, boom. Like to her face, like as like, as a joke, like, what do you mean? BU like you don’t want dessert. And

2 (29m 3s):
Then he got in her face,

4 (29m 5s):
But he was doing it as a joke. But she was really, I mean, she took it. She said, oh yeah, she gets, she gave it to us. But you know, it’s so funny. It didn’t discourage her because she did like us because a lot of times when there was something of the meal that she didn’t want, even if she wasn’t sitting at the table later on in the tour, she would come to us and say, do you guys want the dessert? Do you want this? I don’t, I don’t think she understood Josh’s personality yet at that point to not take it offensively. But then as it went on, you know, but he just was like, boo, like, what are you talking about? You don’t want dessert.

2 (29m 36s):
I mean, there were other places too where she wouldn’t be sitting at our table and the desserts automatically included and would ask us what dessert do you want me to choose? Because she was

3 (29m 44s):
Just

2 (29m 44s):
Under the assumption.

4 (29m 46s):
We really liked her. She was,

3 (29m 47s):
Did she partake in the wine? Did she ever kick you guys down any wine? Oh,

4 (29m 51s):
She did not because she, she, she liked her alcohol.

3 (29m 55s):
We would have been friends. Yes.

4 (29m 58s):
You probably would have. She liked her alcohol a lot.

6 (29m 60s):
So from lunch, we’re all filled up now, but we are continuing our key peninsula tour and we stopped at the Cape of good hope nature reserve. And this is so famous because it has so much flora and fauna. There’s so many different acres. I think it was like 17,000 acres

3 (30m 18s):
Where there are baboons.

4 (30m 19s):
They are in the area, but we didn’t see any at that point, unfortunately. But yes, there are baboons there. They even have signs say, be aware of the baboons.

6 (30m 27s):
Other things you can see are like zebras, Bon a box. And

3 (30m 31s):
What’s a bond, a block.

4 (30m 32s):
I would say it’s like a type of elk deer. It’s like a venison type animal, if you will. Yeah. And it’s really nice out there. And the Cape of good hope is a very famous spot specifically for photos because they do have the sign that says, this is the Southwestern most point of the African continent. So they have it showing the coordinates. You could take photos of it, et cetera, but they do have a lighthouse at the top. And they do have a little tram that you could take to the top. Or you could do the hike knowing Brittany, we took the easy day and we ended up doing the hike up, but it’s just so beautiful. You’re at the very Southern end of the continent. There’s a more Southern point in the middle, but this is the famous spot where everybody goes to say, like, I’m at the very tip of South Africa or the African continent.

4 (31m 17s):
So at the top, by the lighthouse, they do have a post and it will have signs that say, oh, Rio de Janeiro. So many kilometers, New York, so many kilometers with the arrows pointing in different directions. So really, really cool, but just such beautiful panoramic sites to see. And what’s really incredible is you’re up there and you can really get a sense of how clear the water is in that area. I mean, you see lots of bright blues, different shades of turquoise.

3 (31m 44s):
Yeah.

4 (31m 44s):
And then you go further out and then you could see that it gets darker, but I wasn’t really expecting to see just that different color contrast of the water from there. So beautiful.

3 (31m 52s):
I imagine it being much like the south most point in key west Florida, that’s like a photo spot.

4 (31m 59s):
Yeah. It is like that, but it’s a lot cooler than that. Cause I’ve been there as, not as cool as this one at South Africa. Yeah.

6 (32m 5s):
Because the lighthouse is on like a cliff edge. So when you look down, you’re looking down at like sheer cliff onto a beach

3 (32m 13s):
And like how far down,

4 (32m 14s):
I don’t really know at least over 500 feet for sure. If not higher. Yes. Yes.

6 (32m 19s):
And that’s why it was an easy day because we tracked up to the top.

2 (32m 22s):
Hey, remember, at one point Anna and I ran it up,

4 (32m 25s):
I do remember that. I was like, I don’t know what you guys are doing, but that’s okay.

2 (32m 28s):
This is the place. Cause remember where Sean was telling us that there was kind of a debate on whether or not this is the Atlantic ocean versus a different ocean.

4 (32m 35s):
Yeah. So originally Cape Town again on the peninsula and this point, the Cape of good hope was originally the spot where they designated the dividing line of the Atlantic to the Indian ocean of where they actually meet. But later on, officially, the scientists changed it to the other point in South Africa. That’s a little bit more east that is the most Southern points, more central of the country. And they have now officially made that the dividing line of what’s the Atlantic what’s the Indian, but where we were was supposedly the original dividing line of where they said, okay, this is the divide of Atlantic to Indian ocean.

2 (33m 11s):
Yeah. So to this day, people still kind of debate what body of water it actually is anyways. So that was that day, super busy, super eventful. And I’m sure

4 (33m 19s):
That’s day one. So jam packed off the bat and already saw so much. It was great. Thanks

2 (33m 24s):
Exactly. Yeah. So we went back to the hotel, we had a dinner and then we went to bed because day two is going to be just as busy tech

3 (33m 31s):
Day four on your trip. Right. If you count all the travel,

4 (33m 34s):
That is correct. But day two, once we were there, I guess, but yes. Day four.

2 (33m 38s):
So we woke up and on this day we went to the Kirsten Bosch national botanical gardens resting at the foot of table mountain. Yeah.

4 (33m 47s):
Yeah. It was so beautiful out there. And this just goes back to the vast amount of plant life in greenery. You’re just not expecting that beautiful botanical gardens. You

2 (33m 56s):
Know what I remember about this day, it was raining.

6 (33m 59s):
Yes. It

4 (33m 60s):
Was rainy and cold in the morning and then it cleared up, but it rained on us while we were at the gardens. Okay.

6 (34m 5s):
This is a day that I realized that I wasn’t 100% packed appropriately for this trip.

4 (34m 10s):
I wear shorts that day. I had like, I had a little windbreaker type jacket, my north face, little light zip-up, but I had shorts on that

3 (34m 19s):
Day. Do you guys not check the weather?

6 (34m 21s):
He did check the weather, but we checked it at about, I mean, this is day four. So we’re checking about a week beforehand. And so the weather was a little different when we were checking it. So we weren’t expecting,

2 (34m 31s):
In fact, Kim, this day was supposed to be our first today, but because they knew that the weather was going to be the way it was when we were on day two, they switched it. So we could do table mountain day, one, day one, and still have a good view. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had a good view if we did the days reverse

4 (34m 48s):
The viewer even be able to go up because the moment it gets windy, they sometimes close the cable car as well. So they did rearrange our days on that, but we knew that the weather was going to kind of be like that, but it was only like it in the morning because in the afternoon it definitely warmed up a little bit and I was comfortable.

6 (35m 5s):
But even though it was cold and raining, the gardens were very beautiful. And I think that the rain and the cloud coverage added to the beauty, actually I remember saying that even mentioning, it looks like Jurassic park meets evolution.

4 (35m 20s):
Yes. To classic movies.

2 (35m 21s):
Exactly. Evolution, David discovery, Orlando Jones. I love that movie, but anyways. Yeah, because you know, they have fake dinosaurs out there and it’s just, it’s an adult maze practically, because you can just get lost forever. There are so many different routes. There’s so many different paths. You can take bridges over the area. And I remember at one point, Jamal really had to use the restroom. So he wanted to go back and that kind of sacked because you know, Brittany and Jamal went back and you know, it’s raining pretty hard too at this point. But Josh and Anna and I continued on, and once we rounded the corner, there was a bathroom area. And so we’re like, oh man, Jamal gave up way too soon. So if you do continue on, they do have bathrooms in the park. So you don’t have to be like Jamal and go back.

3 (36m 5s):
We don’t want any NSO T

4 (36m 8s):
We don’t, we don’t. That’s why I went back. Wasn’t sure where they were going to be,

6 (36m 12s):
But it was so beautiful because you get all of the natural flora and fauna and in the background of your pictures, you have all of the mountains. So it was just very unique setting to take pictures and to be in I’m in

2 (36m 24s):
Jurassic park, right there.

4 (36m 26s):
So after the gardens, we actually started to do a tour of Cape Town itself. So they took us by some very famous landmarks and places. One of the first places that we passed was the castle of good hope in the city center. And it was built in the year, 1666 by the Dutch east India trading company. And this was one of the biggest industrial companies of the time settled the area. And it’s a beautiful Baroque building. And it’s actually the oldest existing buildings still in South Africa. Another interesting fact about it is it used to be on the coast along the water, but it is now inland because of land reclamation.

4 (37m 6s):
So they’ve actually built outwards, you know, may the land where it used to not be. So it’s inland, but it used to be on the water

3 (37m 14s):
Man-made land. Yeah. Interesting.

4 (37m 16s):
Just like, you know, if you think about Dubai, they built the island or in New York, they’ve added onto lower Manhattan by putting rocks things like there that’s called land reclamation where they actually extend the water line out. So they did that in that area.

6 (37m 29s):
I think you really enjoy downtown because you are a history fanatic, Mr. Historian, and you were pointing out all of the beautiful things to see like St George’s cathedral,

3 (37m 40s):
You were pointing them out. Or the guide was well,

9 (37m 42s):
Both.

4 (37m 45s):
I saw them. I knew what they were

2 (37m 47s):
Also just a little FYI when we did go downtown, before we got off the bus, our guide, Sean advised us not to take valuables with us because we were in an area where yeah, it’s safe, but this is also a highly pick-pocketed area. So just be aware of what you do take with you. Good

3 (38m 4s):
To know.

6 (38m 4s):
So tell us a little more about the downtown area, Mr. Historian.

4 (38m 9s):
So there’s also the St George’s cause the drawl and it’s the Anglican diocese of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was a Nobel peace Laureate. And Desmond Tutu was the first black arch Bishop of South Africa. And he led numerous marches and campaigns to end the official practice of apartheid in South Africa, which was the segregation of the whites and the native African. So you could almost equate it to what happened here in the 1960s, civil rights movement, et cetera. But they were going through this even up until the 1990s. Wow.

2 (38m 45s):
What’s really interesting is Sean was even telling us based on your class and skin color, it’s going to determine the areas where you are living there in Cape Town, which I found really still

3 (38m 54s):
To this day.

4 (38m 55s):
It’s definitely integrated, but yes, still to this day, because even if you look at the situation here in America,

3 (39m 1s):
To an extent,

4 (39m 2s):
To an extent we’re still divided in terms of where people live based on socioeconomic class, based on skin color. So it’s not official, but just people are stuck in certain demographics. And that’s where they still live and reside within the city.

6 (39m 16s):
In fact, we actually went by a portion of the town called the Molay quarter. And there was this guy and his name was Jan de wall. And he bought a block of land and he built rental houses that he leased the slaves on this land. So they were all white houses. Originally. He bought them, they were all white. They all look the same. And now all of the houses are very brightly colored. And so it kind of represents that they have freedom and that they can do what they want with these houses. So we did pass that quarter and the term Molay comes from slaves were originally imported from Malaysia and Indonesia. So they called that area.

6 (39m 57s):
The Molay area.

4 (39m 58s):
Another interesting stop that they took us to on the tour was the company gardens. And this is a big park that they have in downtown Cape Town. And originally this park was created in the 1650s. And originally it was an area where they had fertile ground to grow crops, but now they’ve turned it into a park and they have a big monument of Cecil, John Rhodes, who was a prominent figure of the colonization of Africa. So if you’ve ever heard the terms that are Rhode scholar or before Zimbabwe became Zimbabwe, it was called Rhodesia. It was named after sessile, John Rhodes, and they had a big statue. And I remember our tour guide, Sean telling us, he said, some people are still obviously offended by seeing this year.

4 (40m 43s):
Don’t like it because of what they feel it represents. And they showed on the back of his leg, there was a big cut from a chainsaw or a type of saw where some people went into the park and tried to cut it down. But obviously it hasn’t been removed or anything. And I thought that was just really unique. And it just shows a lot of the history of South Africa itself. It’s really unique to see

2 (41m 6s):
Wasn’t there someplace downtown that we went. And Sean was saying that this is where Nelson Mandela had made a speech or something after he got released from prison. I

4 (41m 14s):
Believe it was one of the churches. Yeah.

2 (41m 17s):
See that. Yeah. And it was, you know, it’s just, it’s interesting because Sean is from South Africa. So he’s talking about, you know, when he was a teenager and just remembering scene that iconic moment of after he was released,

3 (41m 29s):
What else did you guys do on this day?

6 (41m 30s):
We went to the natural history museum.

3 (41m 33s):
Exciting.

4 (41m 34s):
It was actually really exciting. That was South Africa is natural history museum. So yeah, they had taxi DermAid rhinos or fake rhinos lions, other stuff. It was included. We didn’t have a lot of time in there maybe 30, 45 minutes, but they just took us in there, it’s in the downtown area. So that was really fun to go do and see. But on a lot of gate, one tours, sometimes they will take you to places. I know we mentioned when we talked about China, just as well, how gate one will sometimes take you to specific places or businesses. And in China, they took us to the Jade shop and the Pearl shop. Well here, they took us to Szymanski, which is a diamond jeweler.

4 (42m 16s):
And the diamond industry is really big and South Africa. And again, they do the same thing in China, Jade pearls, big in China. So they incorporate things that are important to the history and the culture and where they take you. So we did go to Szymanski. They gave us a tour of the diamond factory, talked about the history of the diamond industry in South Africa, how it’s evolved, et cetera. And this is where we picked up some jewelry for Brittany and then Zana felt left out and had to pick some up for herself.

2 (42m 45s):
Well, okay. So this is tanzanite, right? And

4 (42m 48s):
Tanzanite is rare than diamonds by the way, but not as expensive as diamonds. Interestingly enough, we picked up some tanzanite for Brittany and then Zana got some as well,

2 (42m 56s):
Because I think tanzanite can only come from Tanzania. So anyways, they had this beautiful necklace, beautiful necklace, and I tried it on and I loved it. I loved the cut. I loved the way that they stuck it in its frame. So it’s designed to kind of jiggle and emit light. And it was

4 (43m 14s):
Just shines on the light because it moves

2 (43m 16s):
Exactly. So I loved it. And then I jumped on the internet to see what type of Kulin properties that tanzanite has. And I really liked it, but I thought it was a little pricey. So I took it off Brittany immediately said, can I try it on? And you know, it’s like all of a sudden, my heart just sinks a little bit. And then as soon as Brittany has it around her neck, it looks so beautiful. And she says, I’ll take it. And then that’s when I realized I want that tanzanite necklace.

4 (43m 44s):
I

2 (43m 44s):
Deers

3 (43m 45s):
Sister, sisters,

2 (43m 46s):
As soon as she said, I want it, the property just like skyrocketed. And I wanted it to where the value

3 (43m 52s):
Of them

6 (43m 52s):
That they didn’t to have two of them. So it was one of those moments where I felt like, oh my gosh, I have a little sister now when Dana is not my little sister, because she wants exactly what I have.

3 (44m 3s):
That’s happened more than once, right? Yeah.

4 (44m 6s):
It happens all the time saying to see something on Brittany then realizes how good it is. And then once it herself,

3 (44m 12s):
Necklace, you guys got earrings too, right?

4 (44m 14s):
Not at this location, but when we were at Szymanski, this was the end of our tour for the day. And our tour guide gave us the option. He said, you can either stay behind after Szymanski we’re at the Victoria Albert waterfront, which we’ll talk about here in just a second. Or you could come back to the hotel and just call it a night, go back out on your own whenever you want to. So the entire tour had left at that point and we stayed behind as we were buying it. And this is a big jewelry shop. So if you think about, you know, go into Los Angeles and high-end shopping, they bring out champagne cocktails to cater for you. So when we bought, they brought out good liquor for us. We had a little bar area.

4 (44m 55s):
So yeah, so we were sampling on dreams.

3 (44m 58s):
And I, one of my favorite things to do is drink champagne while shopping. I love going into stores like that.

2 (45m 4s):
They actually brought it out before we purchased.

4 (45m 8s):
They brought it for everybody, which was the cheap stuff. But once we bought, then they brought out the high-end alcohol. We had the wall, Josh, Anna, and I had a high end whiskey. I forgot what the girls had. Probably some wine if I’m not mistaken or champagne. Yeah.

2 (45m 23s):
So we sat there and we drank it. And then we were like, let’s ask if we can have another one. So we totally asked if we can have another one. And they’re like, absolutely, you were missed. That was like three rounds right there.

3 (45m 34s):
I would have bought jewelry just for the alcohol.

4 (45m 38s):
Well, you didn’t have to, Josh and Anna didn’t buy any, and yet they got some ticks. So

6 (45m 41s):
Yeah, they were with us.

4 (45m 43s):
So after our stint in Szymanski and some jewelry shopping, it is on the Victoria and Albert waterfront, which is a big mall and shop area along the water in Cape Town. So much stuff to eat so much to do. And really, really awesome. If you’re going to Cape Town, it’s definitely a must check out area.

6 (46m 4s):
And during this time, this is when we learn, like we are in Africa and it is so different. Like they are on their own schedule. So you can order something kind of like when we were in Peru and you might get your entree, your app first, and then it might take 20 minutes later for Zena to get hers they’re on their own, like schedule an itinerary. And then also we were out for lunch. Don’t remember where we were, but Jamal and I order something off the menu and I tell him what I want. And he comes out probably 30 minutes later and he puts down something that is not what I ordered. And I asked him like, I don’t believe this is what I ordered. And he says to me, well, then you ordered wrong. Cause this is what you ordered. Oh. And he say

4 (46m 44s):
Straight up blunt on that. Like, and what’s really funny. Our tour guide, our tour guide even told us this isn’t America. You’re not going to be able to fight things. People move a lot slower here. If something’s wrong, like it’s not going to be fixed. You can’t send stuff back. And he told us that the first morning of orientation, just as kind of like understand this and wouldn’t, she know the very next day it happened. We ordered something and I know the waiter or took it wrong. I know exactly what Brittany and I ordered. And he bought the

3 (47m 13s):
Wrong thing. You ordered compared to what you got.

4 (47m 15s):
I don’t remit. It’s been, it’s been so long now that I don’t remember. All I remember is the general gist of he totally brought out the complete wrong order.

6 (47m 23s):
Yeah. So it was like a toppest thing. Let’s say I ordered chicken, but he brought out lamb or something like

3 (47m 29s):
That. Oh God, I don’t think I would do very well. There

2 (47m 31s):
They came. If you accidentally get the fish, you’re going to be stuck with fish.

4 (47m 34s):
So we, so we came up with the Tia, but I must say that was what we started referencing to the trip, Tia, the South Africa, Africa, but I’m not going to lie. I stole that from the Leonardo DiCaprio movie, blood diamonds, which takes place in Africa. And he tells somebody T I a, this is Africa. So I kind of took it from

3 (47m 55s):
That.

2 (47m 56s):
And then you have a Ferris wheel downtown and no one wanted to write it except for Anna. So Anna and I did ride the Ferris wheel and we were up in the air when Jamal and Brittany ordered wrong. So anyways, when you are up there, it is really nice views. You can see like a football stadium and just, you know, the water from above. Was

3 (48m 15s):
That a Ferris wheel where your feet are dangling or were you in a cart?

4 (48m 17s):
No, it was an enclosed Ferris wheel. There was an enclosed Ferris wheel. So that’s summed up our day four day five next day was a free day. So we . So we got the option to either do whatever we wanted to do. Or gate one had two separate tours that you could do, but they were paid option tours. And the two options that they did have was one cage diving with great whites. What do you mean

6 (48m 48s):
The girl that didn’t even go on this trip?

4 (48m 50s):
We were all so excited because in South Africa, this is again, if you watch any nature, documentaries, shark week, you’ll see where great whites actually jump out of the water to catch the seals. They shoot them up in the air. This happens in South Africa and the area that we were at, and this is where we were going to be going, or they do have a very famous wine country area. So you could do wine tasting, Oregon, just do something on your own.

3 (49m 14s):
I remember when I was considering going on this trip, I was reviewing the itinerary over and over and over. And I kept thinking the wine tasting is absolutely what I would do. If I was on this day, I wanted the wine tasting.

2 (49m 25s):
I wish we could have done that because on gate one, after your first real day, not like your first day when you get there, but your first real, real day, they do like a group dinner. And I remember we were sitting there and we were talking to Sean about the great white cage diving. And I asked him, what do you think about it? And he gave us a look that let us know that it like, isn’t the best

4 (49m 45s):
Option and no comment.

2 (49m 47s):
Yeah.

3 (49m 47s):
It says all you need to know with that. No comment

2 (49m 50s):
He gave us what we needed to know without speaking. Yes.

4 (49m 53s):
But let’s get to that day. So clearly we did the cage diving with the great whites. I think we all who went, wanted to do it.

3 (50m 1s):
There’s no fucking way I would have gone in a damn cage with potential great white.

2 (50m 7s):
My favorite agent was Jamal and Brittany were talking to you about whether or not Zayna is going to get, be a chicken and back out. And Kim knows me so well. And she made the comment to Jamal and Brittany that there’s no ways he is going to back out. She paid for it.

4 (50m 20s):
Yeah. So anyway, we did the great whites. They woke us up early in the morning to take us because we had a two and a half hour drive somewhere a little bit more ease to go to that specific area. We went to the city of hons by, I apologize for my terrible accent for it, but it’s called Hahn’s by. Yes, I tried. And we got there. They gave us a brief orientation. And this is where. And when we finally found out why Sean gave us the clue that it might not be all that it’s hyped up to be, this area is called shark alley. It’s pretty much guaranteed that you will always see sharks. They always do the nature documentaries there because it is shark Allie to always film.

4 (51m 0s):
They’re always, always filled. They’re

6 (51m 2s):
Always filmed and like parts of shark alley,

4 (51m 4s):
Literally a month, month and a half before we went, there was a pod of orcas or killer whales, whatever you prefer who came. And they have been killing the great whites and biting their livers out, killing them. And so the

2 (51m 17s):
Great whites were like washing it on the shore without a liver.

4 (51m 20s):
Great whites are very intuitive animals and they know that the orcas are attacking them and killing them. So they have completely vacated the area within the last month, month and a half before we got there. So they tell us this finally at our orientation, they’re like, you know, usually it’s nature. We can’t guarantee, but 99% of the time we go out there, there is a shark sighting the last month, month and a half it’s up in the air. So they gave us that for warning. But only when we were there at orientation for it.

3 (51m 49s):
Did you guys pre-book this? We did. So in trip you had no possibility to switch it if you had wanted to.

6 (51m 56s):
No, I don’t think so. And I don’t think Josh and Anna and Jamal would have budged on it. Anyways,

3 (52m 2s):
Had you known about the killer whale situation days before may you have considered,

4 (52m 7s):
I may have considered switching, but this was a bucket list item for me to do cage diving with great whites. Yeah. I mean, I really wanted to do it now that I know about it in hindsight. Yeah. We should have done the wine tasting, but anyway, we get out onto the water and they chum up the water, chumming up the water, you know, they throw dead fish guts out there to try to attract the sharks. And as we were actually getting out to get on the boat, the earlier morning tour was coming back and we had asked them if they saw any sharks and several people responded. Yes. We saw one. I didn’t know if it was a great why or another shark, but they at least said we saw one, which gave me super, super good hope. And I was excited.

4 (52m 47s):
So we get out there, they chummed the water and they’re like, okay, well there’s no sides of sharks. You know, you could either get in the cage now or just kind of wait and see,

2 (52m 56s):
I think they told us to get into if they wanted to. I think you and Anna were super eager and then they jumped you.

4 (53m 1s):
They said, you can get in, but no one was getting in because sharks weren’t there. And I said, shit, I’ve paid for it. Yeah. I was like, shit, I’ve paid for this. I want to be in the water because this is pretty much the, well, we had wet suits on, but even with the wet suit, it was cold. But I said, yeah, well I said, fuck this. I paid for it. I’m getting in the water. I said, I don’t care if there’s sharks. Like, I want to say, like, I’ve been caged diving. If I see him, that’s clearly going to be the plus. But it was a matter of point. Like I’m getting ants. So Anna and I were the only ones in the water because Bernie didn’t want to get in. Zayna didn’t want to get in. Josh. Didn’t get, want to get in. And so we

3 (53m 37s):
Were both in the same cage.

4 (53m 38s):
Yeah. It’s a big cage and Yeah. And maybe eight people can line up and, you know, side by side in it. But me and her were the only ones in it for the first 30, 40 minutes. And we were just chilling in the water,

3 (53m 51s):
Like an air tank or

4 (53m 52s):
No air tank, face mask snorkel, pretty much.

2 (53m 55s):
I don’t put the cage all the way down. So if Jamal and Anna are in the cage, their heads are above the water and then they have to. Yeah. And in fact, okay,

3 (54m 3s):
How are you going to see if a shark’s coming?

4 (54m 5s):
Cause you could go under the lender.

6 (54m 7s):
So the way that they see if a shark’s coming is because they’re in this big cage, the top one to two feet is out of the water and the rest is in the water. So they can poke their heads down with their face mask on and see if a shark’s coming.

3 (54m 20s):
And then when a shark is there,

6 (54m 21s):
They can stay under, they can hold the bars to stay under.

3 (54m 24s):
Okay.

4 (54m 24s):
Because they have,

3 (54m 26s):
Then your hands are on the bars and the,

4 (54m 28s):
They have bars in the inside of it, almost like a bar stool, you know, like imagine sitting at a bar and you have a stool to rest your feet. Well, they have a bar on the inside to hold your feet. Your feet will hold you from rising up on that bar. But yes, you can put it, you know, on the outside to hold as well. But the cage itself is, you know, eight to 10 feet tall. So the couple feet are out. But for the most part, you have your snorkel and you just push yourself and hold yourself under to see the sharks. If they come

2 (54m 56s):
Now, before we went, Sean told us, make sure that you have something to wear under the wet suits. And I’ve never been in a wet suit before. So I realized exactly what he meant. So make sure you have a bathing suit or just something that you can have, cause you don’t want that wet suit touching your body directly. And when you do get it all the way up, you cannot breathe. It is a

6 (55m 15s):
Yeah, I had never been in a wetsuit before. And it just really constricts your breathing because it’s really tight around you obviously. So water doesn’t get in and not only could I not breathe, but when I had to pee later, I couldn’t get out of it by myself. And I had to ask a crew member to unzip

3 (55m 31s):
Me. You had a crew member on dress, you

6 (55m 33s):
Undressed me and helped me like pull the top portion off so I can pull it down to P

2 (55m 37s):
Yeah. So I was not, I don’t know what it was. I was not feeling well that morning. I thought for a second that it was seasickness. And I thought that was so weird because I don’t get seasick. So later on, you know, it turns out that I ended up catching like a little bit of a cold and this is where it was ramping up out there, but it was freezing out there. I wasn’t even in the water, I was just in the wet suit. And because I was feeling so nauseous, I went to the front of the boat and they gave me a blanket and I was able to lay down there at the front. And Brittany came and joined me at some point. And so Brittany and I both cuddled under the blanket together. And as we’re lying there, looking up, you see just a flock of birds fluttering above you because they see the chum in the water.

2 (56m 17s):
They smell the chum in the water. So all these birds are above us. And there we are under the open sky. I’m feeling sick. And Brittany and I are saying, the only thing that can make this worse is if one of the birds shit on us and sure enough,

6 (56m 31s):
One of the birds shout

4 (56m 34s):
By a bird is good luck. Is

2 (56m 36s):
It okay? Well,

3 (56m 37s):
Where did it land?

2 (56m 39s):
It was like on the blanket, but it’s still, I mean, it wasn’t on our hair or on our face or anything like that. But like, it’s still shit on us. And then one of the crew members bless her heart. She got sick too, but, well, I mean, I wasn’t seasick. I was just like actual sick, but she was getting seasick. So she came over to check on us and then she had a jar full of mints. And so she offered us a mint. And now I didn’t know that mints help with your stomach and helps calm your stomach.

3 (57m 5s):
That’s such a good tip for seasickness.

2 (57m 7s):
So mint. So when she offered it to me, I looked at her confused and I said, is this for, in case I throw up? She said, no, no, no, no, no. This will help you with your stomach to help make your stomach feel better. So,

6 (57m 20s):
So although we did not see any sharks that day, we did see a lot of seals. We went to an island and there was a ton of seals probably cause they’re not being eaten by the great whites because there’s no,

4 (57m 31s):
They’re probably happy. Now. They’re like no predator to eat me. I’m just going to lounge here on these rocks and not even care. Now,

2 (57m 36s):
How long were we out there though? Waiting for sharks?

4 (57m 38s):
I would say we were out there at least a good two, two and a half hours, for sure. So unfortunately, no shark sightings. I need to go back. Hopefully they come back to the area. If not the only other place I could think of is just go south of the border here to Mexico. Cause they have cage diving here in Baja, California in Mexico, but it was just a bucket list item I wanted to do. I really do want to go back

3 (57m 60s):
To

4 (58m 1s):
Yes. Another reason to go back. So we had the long drive back, but as you heard from Zayna just in general, she wasn’t feeling good that day. So when we got back dinner was not included that night with gate one. So Brittany, Josh, Anna and I, we walked back to the Victoria and Albert waterfront or VA waterfront. And we had dinner that night and that wrapped up day five for us.

3 (58m 22s):
Excellent. Tell me about day six.

6 (58m 24s):
So we actually left Cape Town and we flew to Durbin. And from Durbin, we drove to St. Lucia. I was really excited for this day because this was the first day that we were going to see real animals. We were supposed to see hippos and crocodiles in the afternoon. And I was so excited.

4 (58m 43s):
Yeah. So Durbin is a major city on the Eastern coast of South Africa. Cape town again is on the Western side of South Africa. So from Durbin, as Brittany said, we drove to St. Lucia and on the itinerary for that night was an evening river cruise that took us on the water. And that’s where we got to see the hippopotamuses, the crocodiles. So that was the first sighting of African animals. But before we went out there, we were excited at the hotel because at the hotel, you know, in foreign countries, usually beer is very inexpensive. Josh, Anna and I started sipping on some dollar beers. It was called, it was called black label.

4 (59m 25s):
And these are just typical lager beers, but they’re like six and a half percent like IPA level. So you’re getting a real good buzz on the real, real cheap. So we definitely had some booze before we got on to the river cruise that night

3 (59m 39s):
Proud of you for that. You

4 (59m 40s):
Should be because it continued on the cruise.

6 (59m 42s):
On the cruise. We were at the St. Lucia estuary and Jamal and Joshua. They just kept continuing to boom

2 (59m 50s):
Three for $5, by the way, three beers for $5. What a steal on a tour boat.

4 (59m 56s):
Wow. How can you turn that down? You don’t

2 (59m 59s):
Get that in the United States.

6 (1h 0m 0s):
And we were there for sunset. So it’s

3 (1h 0m 3s):
Pretty,

6 (1h 0m 3s):
It was very pretty. I’ve never seen hippopotamus in the wild like that before.

4 (1h 0m 9s):
Yeah. I said hippopotamuses earlier. Thank you for using the correct pronunciation. It’s hippopotamus for

3 (1h 0m 15s):
The plural,

4 (1h 0m 18s):
Like octopi. It’s not octopus as it’s octopi hippopotamus.

2 (1h 0m 22s):
Normally I say hippos,

3 (1h 0m 23s):
I love hippos.

6 (1h 0m 24s):
They are huge

4 (1h 0m 27s):
And dangerous. Yeah.

2 (1h 0m 28s):
And I mean, if you can just see them beyond, like, that’s an

3 (1h 0m 31s):
Incredible zoo. I love them.

6 (1h 0m 33s):
Yeah. It’s much more intense when they’re out there in the wild, like they’re opening their mouths at each other. They are vicious 12.

3 (1h 0m 40s):
How many did you guys see? Hundreds, hundreds,

6 (1h 0m 43s):
Hundreds.

4 (1h 0m 44s):
Wow. Not an exaggeration hundreds.

3 (1h 0m 46s):
Then they were by the crocodiles to coexisting.

4 (1h 0m 50s):
I mean, you can see a nature documentary, sometimes they’ll fight. But for the most part, we didn’t see any aggressive action towards each other. They were coexisting in the area.

2 (1h 0m 59s):
It was cool. I mean, just to go by on the boat and you see their eyes like peeping out from under the water and you just know that there’s like a herd of hippos, they’re waiting to jump out of the water.

4 (1h 1m 8s):
Yeah. And you know, you usually see hippos, they’re in the water under the water. And that’s usually where they spend most of their day and time, but they’re vegetarian. So they have to leave the water to go and find food. So at one point we did see a pair of hippopotamus come walking back, which was really cool because you know, even in the zoo and in nature, you see the majority of them in the water just kind of floating. It was really unique to see that pair coming and walking on land. I’ve never seen a hippopotamus on land before

6 (1h 1m 40s):
And I could be mistaken, but I remember them telling us that the hippopotamus skin is very, very sensitive. And so they often get in the water and roll in the mud to protect their skin. And so in the desking hours or early morning hours, when the sun’s not very hot, they’ll go out onto land to eat. And then during the hot day, they’ll get in the water to cool down and protect their skin

2 (1h 2m 1s):
Smart animals. I mean, wow.

4 (1h 2m 4s):
But this spot right here was the only location on our trip where we couldn’t drink the water. And again, it was because of them renovating or doing something to the well, however, there is a great story. You can’t count on the Travel Squad Podcast. We talk about the bathroom. Tell us about the bathroom and this hotel. Yeah.

2 (1h 2m 23s):
Yes. Well, real quickly though, for the water, because they, you couldn’t drink the sink water. They did give you bottles of water in the room. But yes, when you got into the room, it was like a love sweet for

3 (1h 2m 33s):
You. Is it a heart shaped bed?

2 (1h 2m 35s):
I mean, no, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was so you enter in and there’s the bed and then you go to the right and that’s where the bathroom is. And there’s no door on the bathroom. You just go around the corner and there’s the sink and there’s the toilet and there’s the shower just like no privacy. And so I kind of like laughed to myself thinking, huh? I wonder if Kim was here with me, which by the way, I had a big bed,

3 (1h 3m 1s):
Just one

2 (1h 3m 2s):
Though, just one bed. So we would have had to share it, but still it was a pretty big bed. So we would have had enough space on our own sides, but getting ready, the lighting was shit in there. It was really bad lighting, but Exactly. I figured you would care about that. Cause I did. I remember leaving the next day when we woke up telling Brittany that the lighting was bad and I was kind of like nervous about my makeup, but that’s okay. I winged it regardless, but just there’s no privacy.

6 (1h 3m 26s):
So around the toilet, there is a small door. So all of the sounds you make when going to the bathroom, whoever your smells,

3 (1h 3m 34s):
All you make

4 (1h 3m 35s):
All this. Yeah. They have like a little glass door at glass framing around it, but like Brittany said, it doesn’t touch to the floor. It doesn’t touch the ceiling. So it’s just a sectioned off area, but all the sense will waft up and Permeate the area.

6 (1h 3m 53s):
So if you aren’t real close and comfortable with who you’re traveling with, you’ll get to know each other on a very personal level. During that hotel

4 (1h 4m 0s):
Stay extra intimate.

3 (1h 4m 2s):
Typically how travel goes in general, you really get to know the person you’re traveling with. Regardless if there’s doors on the bathroom or

4 (1h 4m 9s):
Not, no shame at that point, you know, travel, companions,

2 (1h 4m 11s):
The bathroom. It, the situation made me laugh because I thought, you know what? This is nothing that Kim and I haven’t experienced before. We’ve been up and close to each other, sharing

3 (1h 4m 19s):
Each other’s toothbrushes.

2 (1h 4m 21s):
You can’t get any closer than that. So I just kind of laughed because there were two girls on the trip that were from LA. One was Kim and then the other one was the girl that she was with. And so when we were in those kinds of situations, I laughed because I thought, huh, if Kim was here, this would be our situation. And I wonder how Jackie and Kim are feeling right now.

6 (1h 4m 40s):
So moving on to day seven, which is Zayna is a birthday

2 (1h 4m 49s):
It’s so funny because I never thought that I would be celebrating my 33rd birthday in east guazzini. And

6 (1h 4m 54s):
What did we do?

4 (1h 4m 55s):
Well, part of it was in South Africa. The last half was going to be an e-sport teeny Swazi land,

2 (1h 4m 60s):
But a double, a double country to my birthday. And what

4 (1h 5m 2s):
Did we do first?

2 (1h 5m 4s):
We went on our first safari

3 (1h 5m 8s):
So far.

2 (1h 5m 9s):
Yes, it was so exciting.

4 (1h 5m 12s):
Big, big, big, I can’t stress it enough big bucket list item here for me to be

3 (1h 5m 19s):
A big fan of big cats.

4 (1h 5m 21s):
I’d love big cats,

2 (1h 5m 23s):
Small cried.

4 (1h 5m 23s):
I love big cats. Yeah, I did. I’m not even afraid to admit it. I’ll tell you all about that here in a second. So where did we go? We were still in South Africa and we went to the end of this is going to be tough for me to pronounce. So I apologize for butchering it. It’s going to be the Hulu, Hulu it Imfolozi Game Reserve. And again, my terrible pronunciation. So I apologize for that.

3 (1h 5m 47s):
How this was spelled, you would understand the pronunciation

4 (1h 5m 50s):
Difficulties very, very difficult to pronounce it’s

2 (1h 5m 53s):
From the Zulu language.

4 (1h 5m 54s):
Yes it is. And this game reserve is famous for their rhinoceros population

6 (1h 6m 1s):
And they don’t de-horn their rhinos here either. So

4 (1h 6m 4s):
Yeah, a lot of game reserves will de-horn the rhinos to prevent poaching. This is one of the few in Africa that does not. So you get to see the rhinos and all their glory here. And so we started off in the morning, early with this game drive and I knew it was going to be a good day in general. I was so excited, but no exaggeration within the first five minutes of being on the safari Jeep. And in there we come across a beautiful big rhino, like right on the road. And this is where I got a little bit teary-eyed I’m not even afraid to admit it. It was like I said, bucket list item for me, and actually seen a rhino in person and experience an African safari, which is something I’ve always wanted to do.

4 (1h 6m 48s):
It was just like the culmination of all of that. And it was just a really big, intense moment for me.

6 (1h 6m 53s):
And it was really close to us. So although our tour group was like in the thirties, we were broken up into Jeeps and the Jeeps held nine people each. So is

3 (1h 7m 3s):
It open?

6 (1h 7m 3s):
It was open. And we drove right up to this rhino. We were probably five to 10 feet from it. We were super close.

2 (1h 7m 12s):
Wow. Now one of the tips that they give us is to wear neutral clothing. I didn’t necessarily know why. And then Jamal was like trying to scare me. And he said, you can’t wear any of your bright clothes because they’re going to think that you are a bloodied animal and that they’re going to go after you.

3 (1h 7m 27s):
Is that the truth?

2 (1h 7m 28s):
Switch them all told me.

4 (1h 7m 30s):
Part of that is actually truthful to an extent you want to wear colors that will actually Blige you into the environment because colors that aren’t natural to there, they’ll see it and kind of steer away from it because they’re just not used to it. So yeah, it’s on top of that. Yes. If you do wear red and it’s from far away and all big predator animals, see as a shade of red, they may expect it to be like, oh, this is a bloodied or wounded animals. So I mean, I guess that could draw somebody, but yes, in general you want to wear a neutral color, but beyond seeing the rhinos right off the bat, we saw several right from the get go, what else did we see? Brittany?

6 (1h 8m 4s):
We saw two mama lions and we couldn’t see what they were trying to hunt, but we could hear them. And they were hunting with their three baby Cubs and the three baby Cubs when RG was stopped in front of them came really, really close to our Jeep and just sat there and was just kind of observing us for awhile. So

2 (1h 8m 23s):
Baby Cubs were,

4 (1h 8m 24s):
Yeah, they were all marching like three and align and you could hear them. I don’t want to call them little roars cause they weren’t roars, but they were making their little Cub noises or whatever they do. And it was just so, so cute. Cause they were curious from us while their moms were out there hunting. We couldn’t see what they were hunting, but you could see them off in the distance and looking at something in the Bush.

6 (1h 8m 44s):
And so the Cubs got really close closer than I was expecting them to. And it was like, we got to see the rhinos. And then right after that, we got to see the lions and then we’re in our Jeep and we see a herd of elephants and kind of like when we were in Peru, where there was the alpaca traffic jam, we had the same thing happened where we were stopped because the African elephants were crossing the roads and we couldn’t do anything about it. They were just a big herd stopping the traffic.

2 (1h 9m 10s):
Elephants are never alone when they are with another elephant. There’s like seriously. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So you’re waiting like several minutes for like the entire crossing to go. It’s amazing.

6 (1h 9m 22s):
And again, it’s right in front of us. Like you can’t reach out and touch them, but it feels like you could, you know, they’re that close to you.

4 (1h 9m 29s):
And then we saw Cape Buffalo just as well. We saw giraffe, we saw zebras. So we saw a lot of big game animals. I really, really wanted to see a leopard as well, going back to my big cat fascination, but unfortunately no leopards were cited. But the highlight for me other than seeing the rhino right away is we were the only Jeep safari vehicle that got to see what we’re about to talk about next. And we were making our rounds through the reserve and we came across a watering hole and the watering hole had at least 15 rhinos. And they’re just all bathing rolling around in the mud from babies to adults.

4 (1h 10m 11s):
And I did catch on film, which was really, really exciting. There were two rhinos that weren’t in the water yet. And they were crossing the road that we were on. And then one of the rhinos, it was no exaggeration, five to six feet away from us. And then all of a sudden it decided to start charging the vehicle that was behind us, maybe like 50 feet back and the other vehicle had to reverse and then it just chilled and then came back to the water. So I got to see a rhino charge. It was just amazing.

3 (1h 10m 39s):
So scared if I was in that Jeep

2 (1h 10m 41s):
Going hardcore,

6 (1h 10m 43s):
Jamal Dana and I were the back row of the Jeep. So we were looking directly out to this rhino and we’re watching it start to charge the other vehicle and them having to back up. We’re like, oh shit, we’re right here. We’re like, if they turned around and charges us, we would be the ones hit.

2 (1h 10m 59s):
And our driver was like, yeah, you know, like that rhinos, no joke. Even though they’re in a car that rhino would fuck that car up.

4 (1h 11m 5s):
Well, it was really cool. And going back to what Brittany was saying, they don’t, de-horn the rhinos at this reserve area. So this rhino had no of four-foot horn. It’s just beautiful curved arch pointy. It was really, really cool to see. And at the watering hole too, there were zebras in the background and it was just so amazing Africa. Yeah, Tia that was Africa.

2 (1h 11m 28s):
Wow. And while we were there, they did stop the tour so we can eat breakfast in the middle of the park. So they had an area set up specifically for that, but still it’s crazy because wildlife is all around you. So they have the bathroom. So you can go to the bathroom, you can wash your hands and whatnot. And I remember at one point when I was washing my hands, Jackie and other girl on the tour who was with Kim, not to be confused with our Kim, she looked at me and she’s like, Hey, happy birthday. This is such an amazing experience for you. Like how cool is it that you get to see all of these animals? Cause she was in our car. So she’s like, how cool is it that you get to see all of these animals on your birthday? And I didn’t really think about it prior to, but once she said that, I was like, wow, this is like really, really, really cool.

6 (1h 12m 8s):
Yeah. We saw four of the five big game of Africa on your birthday.

2 (1h 12m 12s):
Did we talk about the big five?

4 (1h 12m 13s):
Yeah. So the big five is a general term that they use to describe animals on a safari and yeah.

3 (1h 12m 20s):
Yes. Rhinos lions, zebras, no elephants,

4 (1h 12m 26s):
Elephants do

3 (1h 12m 27s):
More.

4 (1h 12m 29s):
No, I’ll help you out. The other one is going to be Cape Buffalo and a leopard and they get their name, the big five. And it’s more a touristy draw term now. But the reason for it is back in the day, the most dangerous animals to hunt in the Bush or be in the Bush around in terms of them potentially, you know, killing you. Yes. Hippo has killed a lot of people too, but that’s, if you’re in the water being stupid, I like just being on land. Those animals are the deadliest in terms of they’ll come up behind you out of nowhere, attack you, et cetera. So it’s a more industry term now, but we got to see four out of the five. The only one that we missed again was the leopard. But after the amazing, amazing safari, we continued onto Swazi land or east SWAT, teeny a term is interchangeable to describe the country.

4 (1h 13m 16s):
But

2 (1h 13m 17s):
It is legally recognized right now as east patine.

4 (1h 13m 19s):
Correct. And so going to a whole new country. So when we were at the border, we had to get out of the bus, had to go through customs all over again. So we made our way to Swazi land and we checked into the hotel and this was actually one of the coolest hotels that we were at. They had a beautiful pool. They had a big chess board with chess pieces. We got to play, but we had Zena’s birthday dinner at the hotel.

2 (1h 13m 42s):
Yes. So just a quick squad tip for you do not insult the king of Swazi land. That’s a big no-no because if you do, they will arrest you. It was really interesting because the king has how many

4 (1h 13m 53s):
Wives? Like 30 something wives. That’s

3 (1h 13m 55s):
Also the same in Thailand. Yeah.

2 (1h 13m 58s):
Yeah. If

3 (1h 13m 58s):
You take their king seriously.

4 (1h 13m 59s):
Yeah. You can’t insult the king or the Kings mama. That’s no exaggeration

3 (1h 14m 5s):
Mama jokes. No,

4 (1h 14m 6s):
Because because when the photo of the king is up, there is a photo of the King’s mother as well. Her photo frame is slightly below his because he has more seniority, but it’s almost like a dual rulership, if you will, but

3 (1h 14m 21s):
Appreciate that. How much they appreciate mothers and women. That’s nice. I like,

2 (1h 14m 27s):
And so the king could have as many wives as he wants, but he has to be able to provide for each one. So every single wife has her own house and they’re completely taken care of. And then you always know who the king is with because you’ll see all of his armed cars outside. So I think Sean was talking about, I forgot which number wife is his favorite, but that’s the one that he’s usually at. So everyone speculates that she’s his favorites. So anyways, the hotel, yeah, it was on a really nice terrorist area. It was super beautiful, huge room. Kim, you were missed lots of space there. So anyways, we were playing the Lifesize chest, chit chatting with Sean and then we went to dinner and at dinner I made the comment that, do you think that if we tell them that it’s my birthday, that they will bring out free dessert and Jamal’s all Santa we’re in Africa.

2 (1h 15m 14s):
They’re not going to do that here. So we order a dessert to share. And then after they bring it out, we make the comment that it’s my birthday. And then they come out with a free dessert and the entire staff starts singing happy birthday to me, but not only the staff, but there were other people that were not from gate one, but other people who were visiting that joined in with the staff singing. And then they were saying happy birthday. And even the next day at breakfast, because you know, they hooked it up with the breakfast buffet on gate one. Yeah. So there were people who were in the dining room that night, when that, that were singing happy birthday, that when I was getting breakfast the next day, they were like, oh, birthday girl, happy birthday, happy birthday. And it was so fucking,

4 (1h 15m 53s):
Yeah, they brought you out a little cake, they saying to you in English and in their native language too. So that was really cool. And beyond Zena’s birthday celebration, one thing that I really enjoyed about this hotel and this goes back to trying local cuisine is we got to eat a lot of local game meat. So for dinner, I ordered a trio of Springbok kudu and will the beasts. So all, no delicious, all like venison type animals. And it was really, really good.

2 (1h 16m 23s):
Which one was your favorite? Wasn’t it? The kudu?

4 (1h 16m 25s):
I don’t really remember. Actually I think it may have even been the, a, the Willdabeast or the Springbok, the

3 (1h 16m 30s):
Main, the very good impression.

4 (1h 16m 32s):
Oh, I don’t remember because you know, they brought it out and said which one was, which, but at the same time, you know, it’s tough to remember, but nonetheless worth trying really, really good.

6 (1h 16m 41s):
And Jamal loves trying all this local cuisine and he tries to order a different type of local cuisine. You guys are going to have to stay tuned for that next episode. When we talked about what Jamal tries to order next,

2 (1h 16m 53s):
That’s such a good one.

4 (1h 16m 53s):
You know what? I wish they had it on the menu. I can’t wait to get to that, but this concludes our first half of our Africa adventure. Anyone have anything else they want to say about this portion of Africa?

2 (1h 17m 5s):
This is just such an amazing episode. This is such an amazing place to travel to. And I can’t wait to continue next week. This is

4 (1h 17m 11s):
Only the first half.

3 (1h 17m 13s):
We’re more coming at. You we’re

2 (1h 17m 14s):
Barely even scratching the surface.

3 (1h 17m 17s):
Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode to keep the adventures going. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast, please send in your questions of the week, make my day and tag us in your adventures on Instagram as well.

2 (1h 17m 30s):
And if you found this information on this episode to be useful, or if you thought that we were just playing funny, please share it with a friend that would enjoy it too.

4 (1h 17m 38s):
Please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast and tune in every travel Tuesday for new episodes.

6 (1h 17m 44s):
And don’t even think about unpacking because we are continuing our African journey next week. Woo.

2 (1h 17m 52s):
Hashtag to you.

4 (1h 17m 53s):
Bye. Bye

South Africa Trip – Part 2 – Episode Transcript

1 (56s):
Welcome to this weeks episode of the Travel Squad Podcast. And we are back. We’re still here in Africa for part two of our African adventure.

2 (1m 7s):
Yes. So we just finished celebrating my birthday in east. Latine also known as Swazi land. So that’s where we left off last week, finishing up with that birthday celebration. And now we are

3 (1m 19s):
In episode two,

4 (1m 20s):
Episode two, we just barely scratched the surface in terms of discussing all the activities that we did. There’s just so much more to come in this episode. And we’re so glad that you joined us for this.

3 (1m 31s):
Yep. I’m still here regretting my decision not to go.

4 (1m 34s):
You’re going to regret it even more after this one, because now it’s going to be complete, complete journey.

3 (1m 40s):
We’re on day eight now.

4 (1m 41s):
Yes. So we are still in Swazi land. So we had spent the night celebrated Zena’s birthday, and we only spent one night in terms of sleeping in Swazi land. So we woke up this morning, still continuing the tour of the country. And the first thing that they did is they took us to a glass recycling factory, which doesn’t sound all that glamorous, but it was really cool to see it was called the . If I’m pronouncing it correctly, Gwen, yet glass factory. And I remember our tour guide telling us specifically that this was a initiative factory set up by the king. If I’m not mistaken to provide jobs in the area and they recycle a lot of the glass and make beautiful ornaments out of it.

1 (2m 25s):
Yeah. And the glass is actually collected by the children of Swazi land or Eswatini. And so they collected up and they recycle it and they make lots of blown glass decor. They even have wine stoppers. We got a wine stopper that has a little glass rhino at the top of

3 (2m 42s):
It. Did you get an ornament?

4 (2m 44s):
They didn’t have a Christmas ornament there. Unfortunately they were a lot more glass blown pieces of art to put on your shelf, Oregon. The wine stoppers didn’t really find glass ornaments. Unfortunately, I would have loved to do something like that to put on my tree, but unfortunately, no, it

1 (2m 59s):
Was more knickknacks and we’re not knickknack collectors. Right. I mean, it was cool to see. And there was definitely a lot of people buying stuff, but for us we want practical things. So we bought the wine stopper. Yeah.

4 (3m 11s):
Yeah. And I thought it was really cool the day we were there, the factory itself wasn’t running. However, it was open in terms of the shop, the store. But what was really cool is on the grounds of the factory. They did have peacocks. Do you ladies remember that? No, I don’t. Oh, I know you don’t count because somebody missed out, but they had peacocks roaming, the grass area there. They had shops where they had a store selling other stuff. Yeah.

1 (3m 39s):
Back behind the glass factory. There were other shops. Josh got a really cool shirt from a shop down the road.

4 (3m 46s):
I’m actually really jealous. It was a cool button up. It looked like a nice reggae button, up style type shirt. It was really cool actually.

1 (3m 52s):
So they had other things that they offered at my area as well. They had soaps lotions.

2 (3m 58s):
I got a really nice necklace. It was a little extra. And when I say extra like bright, you know, so you, yes, it was perfectly me and I was so sad because when I bought it and I tried it on, it was just so beautiful. I loved it. So they put it in a bag and then I put that bag in my luggage and it ended up breaking. So I still have all the pieces. I know what broke the string itself, that it was being strung around. So I’m super sad about that. I still have all the pieces, but yes, I do remember Josh’s shirts. And later on, we were joking with Jamal that you should have gotten it. And then you guys could have like twinned in that shirt because it was a really

4 (4m 33s):
Just

2 (4m 33s):
African style. Yeah.

4 (4m 34s):
Yeah. It was a really, really cool shirt. But one thing I remember most about this morning is there were a couple times already on this trip and then we didn’t touch about it. And the other episode where Anna would misplace or lose her phone, do any of you ladies really remember that? And so we were sitting outside of the glass factory at one point, just kind of socializing. And Anna had left her phone and I saw it and I snagged it and didn’t tell her. And we got on the bus acting as if yeah. Acting as if we were going to leave. And then I was like, oh, I wonder if Anna is even going to realize this. And she didn’t realize it until we started the bus.

4 (5m 15s):
We had actually moved. And then she’s like, oh my God, John, I don’t have my phone. We have to turn around. And then that’s when I told her, I was like, no, no, no, no. I have the phone. Shawn don’t turn around. I was waiting to see how long until Anna realized. But it was just so funny. Cause this is like the third time on the trip. She either lost or misplaced her phone.

2 (5m 31s):
So then Sean started to rag on her too. Yeah.

1 (5m 34s):
Cause this isn’t the first time Josh and Anna have left other things behind on the bus or in other areas like think Josh and one of our hotels left some clothing

2 (5m 44s):
And I think he had a vape pen as well. And he left that behind at one point. And so Sean was giving him shit for that.

4 (5m 50s):
Yeah. But so after the glass tour, which again was really, really cool. I love my little rhino wine stopper that I do have. We started to go back to South Africa, but as we were still in Swazi land east SWAT, teeny, you know, this, the beautiful thing about gate one, our guides always tell us about the history and things going on. As we’re passing through certain areas. And we passed an area where they had built a dam and I mean, there’s dams everywhere. It’s not really, you know, anything major, but it was really cool and gave a lot of context because Sean was telling us that the current king, when his father passed away and he became king, which was maybe about 20 years ago at this point, he said that 90% of the roads that are paved here in Swazi land weren’t paved before.

4 (6m 35s):
So the new king is doing a whole infrastructure project in terms of paving the roads, adding infrastructure, building the dam. So we passed it and it’s just like, you know, real disparity you’re there in South Africa, which is quite developed in this country is right next to it, bordered to it. But yet up until 20 years ago, completely underdeveloped. And now they’re just renovating the whole country and doing a mass infrastructure spree

1 (6m 57s):
And he’s renamed the country. He renamed it on his birthday. Can you imagine binging and just saying, I’m going to rename our country.

4 (7m 5s):
Well, it’s the only, it’s the, it’s the only absolute monarchy in Africa and an absolute monarchy is where, what the king says goes. So it’s not like the British monarchy where there’s parliament and the prime minister, you know, and they’re just figureheads. Literally he is in control of the country.

1 (7m 21s):
Yeah. So he renamed it. But while we were in D spot, teeny part of our tour was to go and feed the culture. And I love how gate one incorporates that into our tours.

4 (7m 30s):
That is one of the things that I do love about gate one. So as we exited Eastwood, teeny Swazi land back into South Africa, one thing I didn’t mention in the last episode, but I do want to just touch on. So people have just a context of, you know, daily life, the current situation over there as we were going through border control, they do have free condoms, which is quite surprising. Have you ever gone through customs here in the United States or any other country and just come across like a bowl of food? Well, they should, I don’t disagree with that, but there is a big aids epidemic. So it is they’re free to help the prevention of it. And that’s one thing I want to touch on.

4 (8m 11s):
But as we crossed back across into South Africa, we still entered a Swazi village. And this is where they gave us a more cultural tour of Swazi life. And even though it’s in South Africa, they were telling us, you know, when they drew borderlines, you know, a lot of people in the time, they didn’t really think and how they were dividing different tribes cultures. So there is still a big Swazi population in South Africa. And this is where we got the Swazi village tour.

1 (8m 38s):
Yeah. We got to go and see the huts that they live in, like their traditional hut. What are the

4 (8m 42s):
Huts look

1 (8m 43s):
Like? They are all straw or they TP

4 (8m 47s):
Like a circle and then just kind of don’t. So it’s a round circular, and then,

1 (8m 52s):
Okay. Okay. And when you walk in the middle is like the big wooden stakes to hold up the center and the top,

3 (8m 58s):
The inside. Is it dirt? Is it carpet

4 (9m 2s):
It’s dirt? We didn’t go into anyone’s particular home. I don’t know if this one was just specific, like this is built to show us what it looks like on the inside. Because even when we went in, they divided us up by men and women. They said even they been in women’s sleep separately from each other on different sides.

3 (9m 18s):
On the women’s side,

2 (9m 19s):
I thought I was going to say is that, you know, we’re in their territory. So we’re following their traditions and, you know, respecting their culture. So they asked us women to wait until all the men went into the TP because the men in their culture inter first, and it was a little weird because I mean, like I’m respecting their culture and whatnot. When I say it was a little weird it’s, you know, men are used to allowing women first here in the United States. And so it was a little awkward because it’s not our culture to watch all the men go in. And even the men looked a little uncomfortable because they’re used to letting the women in. So then once all the men were in, then the women were allowed to enter and they had the men on one side and then they had the women on the other side.

2 (10m 1s):
So even in there, we weren’t allowed to stand next to them. So we were testing, they did introduce us to the grandfather, elder of the village. He didn’t speak any English, but he was so friendly, smiling at all of us. And they let us know that he is looking for a second wife. Now they can get married to more than one wife, but you have to be able to provide for them. So if you cannot, then you cannot get a second wife. And actually the first wife does prefer that the man get married because if the man gets married again, it’s the second wife that does all the cleaning and cooking

1 (10m 33s):
For the first wife.

3 (10m 35s):
You know, I don’t think that’s such a bad rule. We shouldn’t get married unless the man can provide

4 (10m 40s):
So they can take on two wives here. Is that cool?

3 (10m 44s):
You know, if she’s does all the cleaning and I’m the first wife, then I might be cool with that.

4 (10m 49s):
Maybe who knows

1 (10m 51s):
You were the second wife and you had to do all of the,

3 (10m 53s):
We’d have to get a third then

4 (10m 55s):
Either that, or she wouldn’t be the second. Why she’d be like, no, I’m good. I’m not number one.

1 (10m 60s):
So continuing on with the tour of the area, we were able to go and see some traditional song and dance performed by the community as well.

3 (11m 9s):
Really?

4 (11m 10s):
Yeah. They did a dance, a whole display of their culture or their activity is it was really, really

2 (11m 17s):
Their native outfits.

4 (11m 18s):
Yeah. Really awesome.

3 (11m 19s):
To see similar to China.

4 (11m 21s):
Yes, it was. But really all immersive because this is still in a local village where they live in tribes. It was really unique. And really, yeah.

1 (11m 31s):
We started with song. Then they started with some dance and the lead of the choir, he was hitting on Josh, did he?

4 (11m 41s):
Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He spoke English. He was hitting on Josh, hardcore putting insinuations. He’s like, oh, I love your long hair. Or you want to come up and dance with me and

3 (11m 52s):
Hilarious,

2 (11m 53s):
Josh like laughing and having fun. But like everyone is noticing that like he is into Josh. So it was, it was super funny.

1 (12m 0s):
And then they invite us to dance with them and get in on there.

4 (12m 5s):
So they did their own traditional dance first. And they said, but we like to incorporate and invite you guys. We know you don’t know the moves, but just come. He said, shake your moneymaker. Actually, if I remember correctly, he’s like, all you gotta do is come up and shake your money maker. That’s all we ask of you. You know, if we pull you up. So don’t say no. If we come out afterwards and pull at you and I’m sitting here thinking about

2 (12m 24s):
It,

4 (12m 25s):
I’m sitting here thinking to myself, huddling in the back like, oh God, please, please, please, please don’t pick me. And they all start coming out and I don’t get picked up. Brittany gets picked, but Brittany pretty much walked out of there with a new husband.

1 (12m 39s):
We were in love.

4 (12m 41s):
She was shaking her moneymaker,

3 (12m 42s):
That money,

2 (12m 43s):
Everyone got picked, except for Jamal.

4 (12m 45s):
I was so stoked. I didn’t even care.

3 (12m 47s):
He could tell you were like, oh my God, no, no, no.

1 (12m 49s):
Well, he also had his phone out and was like recording things. So he was kind of busy doing his own thing as well. So I

3 (12m 55s):
Thought might have played it right.

4 (12m 56s):
I have the video of Brittany’s moneymaker dance, by the way, could be coming to Instagram

3 (13m 2s):
When this episode goes live.

2 (13m 3s):
Well, I think the guy that danced with Brittany, like gave her a big tight hug and lifted her up at the end. He

1 (13m 8s):
Did,

2 (13m 9s):
I didn’t get no hug or lift.

1 (13m 11s):
And afterwards we have east patine cuisine for lunch and it was like a big buffet style.

3 (13m 16s):
What is the kind of food that they have in there? What’s traditional cuisine.

2 (13m 20s):
I wasn’t a big fan of this. It wasn’t just our group. They had other tour groups come through as well. And so I felt like it was very crowded. People were trying to cut and then the food, like it ran out, just people were a little bit Savage.

3 (13m 36s):
Okay. So the food rice potato,

4 (13m 39s):
It was rice potatoes. A lot of the local cuisine was more, again, traditional type of game meat that they had. They had Warhawks. So just imagine just regular

3 (13m 48s):
Bunch of meat.

4 (13m 49s):
Yes. A bunch of meat. And it was kind of dues. Yeah. Like in sauces. So it was almost like a, I don’t want to say a Curry cause it didn’t have that type of flavors, but it was more in a stew sauce if you will.

1 (14m 0s):
And rice or potatoes on the side.

4 (14m 2s):
And they had veggies, fru, always stuff like that. There wasn’t anything too ethnic, but definitely more using their game and local meat that they have.

1 (14m 12s):
So while I was in line waiting for food, the man that I danced with came up and said, hello again to me

3 (14m 19s):
Second date,

1 (14m 20s):
Second day,

2 (14m 21s):
Julian Berlin in east Fazzini.

4 (14m 23s):
But one thing that happened on this day before we left Eswatini and Swazi land that we didn’t touch upon was as we were driving, somebody threw a rock and shattered the window of our bus.

3 (14m 37s):
Oh my God.

1 (14m 38s):
Somebody, it was three small children that were standing at the side of the road, throwing rocks at cars and buses coming

3 (14m 46s):
On the road where they targeting your bus. Or they were just being kids, throwing rocks at all cars

4 (14m 51s):
Think they were just kids being kids. But what happened was, you know, we only know it was kids throwing it because somebody saw it. But obviously we’re all on the bus. And the first thing we hear is just a big

2 (15m 2s):
Crash

4 (15m 3s):
And shatter and we’re all freaked out. Like,

3 (15m 5s):
What is this? Oh yeah.

2 (15m 8s):
I’m so glad I

3 (15m 9s):
Didn’t get hit by the rock.

4 (15m 10s):
No, but they got some of the glass on them and they had,

2 (15m 13s):
It was the very last window on the right side of the bus. And I was at the window right in front of that. And I was asleep up against like obviously were exactly right. So I’m asleep on the bus and I’m up against the window and like rule

1 (15m 27s):
Going down the side of the window.

2 (15m 29s):
And we, I don’t know, I don’t doubt it. It was a grueling trip, a good grueling. Right. So anyways, the sound of the window breaking woke me up, but I just think, oh my God, if that window, if the rock hit my window, the way that it shattered and just caused a mess, like that would have fucked my face up so bad. But there were a few people behind me and then they immediately jumped up and like Jamal, Brittany said, they got a few pieces of the sharpness, but you have a fine,

1 (15m 55s):
Cool window shattered. It was like that spiderweb effect across the glass. And then it did in turn, there was glass that was on people, on the seats, all across the floor of the bus. So they stopped the bus and they very quickly had to punch out the rest of the glass that was lining the window because they didn’t want it to fall in. So they had to take like a broom and they basically wiped out all of the glass so that there was no glass left in the window to fall in and like hurt someone. And then they had to clear the seats. So basically Sean was like, we want to make this really quick. We want to get out of here very quickly. We don’t want to stand here and draw attention to ourselves because there are some places that aren’t safe to drive through and safe to stop.

2 (16m 37s):
It could have potentially been someone, threw the rock to purposely make a stop so that they can come on the bus and ransack us.

1 (16m 45s):
Yeah. So he was like, we don’t really have a choice. We can’t sit here and wait for another bus. We just need to move on and drive on and have the bus swapped out. Leave

2 (16m 53s):
Because there were some people who were like, what are you doing? Why are we movie? And like, they were uncomfortable with that. And so that’s why he told him, like we got to

3 (16m 60s):
Get in Africa.

4 (17m 3s):
Yeah. So that happened. And as we were leaving again, we got back into South Africa. We did the visit of the Swazi village. And from there we were driving on to Kruger National Park. We weren’t going to be doing the game. Drive that day. It was going to be the next day. But that day was pretty much the drive to hazy view, which is the closest city to the entrance gate that we did at Kruger National park. And when we got there, it was a really, really cool lodge. We’ll get into that just a second. But our tour guide, Sean said for the inconvenience, you know, they threw in an extra free drink that they usually, So he’s like anything from the bar that you want, you know, for the inconvenience we got.

4 (17m 44s):
So that

3 (17m 45s):
Extra drink or open bar,

4 (17m 47s):
One extra drink,

2 (17m 49s):
Know what Shanksville hooked it up. Because remember he was like giving us a shitload of wine. At one point, he told me, follow him. And he took me into the bar and he gave me like the bottle of wine. I do

1 (17m 58s):
Remember that. Yeah.

4 (17m 59s):
Yeah. I mean, he was telling it like one, but you know,

3 (18m 3s):
African one

4 (18m 4s):
African one, I guess. But what was really cool about this hotel is Sean was telling us, he said, don’t leave your door open. Be mindful of what you hold. Look at all the monkeys around here. He’s like, they are very smart to go snatch your things. You leave the door open, they’re going to go into your room. He’s like, we are in the middle of the Bush. So just be mindful. And we were watching these monkeys. They were all on top of the building, all on the grounds. Really, really cool. So yeah, I enjoyed that a lot. It

2 (18m 33s):
Was a lot of fun.

1 (18m 34s):
The monkeys, they had bright blue ball sacks. Oh yeah. They’re just displaying them out to the world.

3 (18m 41s):
Okay.

4 (18m 42s):
John even said, this is where the term blue balls coming from. But no, they were just like tan, gray monkeys. And all of a sudden, there’s just a big, bright blue. And that’s what, they’re a balsa. But no, I really liked the hotel. It was nice. They had a pool. We went swimming with Josh and Anna. I don’t think Zana got in the pool. They had a trampoline that was built into the ground that you can do some jumping on. So really fun activities to do there. Clearly we are close to Kruger. So our hotel was gated off. So that big game animals potentially can’t come in, but this is how close we were to being out into the real wild. We’re close to lions, close to elephant leopards, et cetera.

4 (19m 22s):
We were right at the foot of Kruger National Park, which was our next day, day nine. And we had a Brighton early wake up call because we were going to be seen sunrise on our safari. And we were a little bit delayed because one couple didn’t make their way out. And I was so excited for Kruger National Park because I’ve always wanted to go here ever since I saw the YouTube video battle at Kruger, if you haven’t seen it, I’m not going to go into what it is because I could spend 10 minutes just talking about how awesome

3 (19m 53s):
It is.

4 (19m 54s):
Awesome. It’s pretty intense. It’s basically, I’m not, I’m not talking to, I’m not going to tell it what it is, but it’s a fight between Lyons, Crocs and Cape buffaloes all at once. That happened that Kruger National Park. Pretty awesome. So I wanted to go there. We were delayed and taken off because we were waiting for one couple and I was telling Sean like, mm you know, they’re not here. We talk about timeliness. You know, let’s go. But

1 (20m 17s):
It’s talking about leaving these people behind.

4 (20m 20s):
They were, they were, they were at least 15, 20 minutes late though.

3 (20m 24s):
You could go knock on their hotel. They

4 (20m 26s):
Did. And no one was answering. So he kept trying to do that, but come to find out one of the gentlemen and I didn’t realize who it was at that point who was late. I do like them. So I feel bad that it was an older couple, but he was sick. So he was trying to get himself feeling. I know, I know. I know, but that’s how excited I was for Kruger. That’s just like,

1 (20m 46s):
Let’s just leave it in blind. Let’s go. How much longer are we going to wait?

3 (20m 49s):
All your excitement? You’ve lost humanity.

4 (20m 51s):
No, I did. I did. I was being really, really selfish because I wanted to see sunrise at Kruger, which we did end up making it for sunrise. It was just so cool to be

3 (21m 1s):
Almost a freak out. Yeah.

1 (21m 3s):
Oh,

4 (21m 4s):
How am I freaking out on something? I have no control. I’m just sitting there waiting.

3 (21m 9s):
No,

4 (21m 9s):
No, no. Anyway, I

5 (21m 11s):
Can leave yet. Like what, why are we still here? I just need to leave them behind. Like if they want to go, they can catch up to us later.

3 (21m 18s):
I love your Jamal freak out impressions. So

4 (21m 22s):
I was made, you know, I think she’s, over-exaggerating maybe saying that to her, but I was not making a scene on the bus, making it be known to the whole tour that like, fuck these people let’s leave them behind. I didn’t realize who it was. I feel bad because I actually do like them. And I didn’t know he was sick. I thought he was just sleeping in or they were late, but let’s move past this. We made it to Kruger. We made it to Kruger and we were able to see sunrise, which was really exciting. Just seeing the vast open Plains, the African trees. I felt like I was living a scene from the lion king, the opening scene where you just see the sunrise come up over the Serengeti. Granted we weren’t in the Serengeti. We were in Kruger, but it was just so, so awesome to see

1 (22m 2s):
You see the landscape of Kruger. What you imagine Africa to be is what Kruger is. You know, it is the desert is the dry arid land. It is orange reds. Beautiful. But it is what you imagine Africa to be.

2 (22m 16s):
I was at the end of my sickness at this point. Cause remember like back when we did the cage diving, that’s when I first got the cold and I was feeling it that, I mean, it’s like, you know, right at the end, it’s all bubbling to the surface. So this was probably the worst day. And then the next day I was a hundred percent. But on this day I kept falling asleep on the safari. I could barely stay awake and Josh kept like trying to record me as I was nodding off. So it was a good experience. But at the same time, like I was so over it because I was feeling so shitty. But after this I was a hundred percent better. And then everyone else on the tourist started to get sick.

4 (22m 51s):
That’s a shame because a lot of the first part of Kruger took a while to see some big game animals, even though we were there early and that’s when they should be out. But granted, you know, we’re coming into the park. They try to stay away from humans. So they’re further inland, but Kruger was just awesome. And one of the first things that we saw was the Cape Buffalo. And they were at the entrance and our safari guide was telling us that these Cape Buffalo, they live in herds, but these ones are here alone because they’re weak. And they’ve been kicked from the herd and they stay by the gate because lions and predators don’t come in this area and here the road is paved. So they get the warmth from the sun on the asphalt.

4 (23m 32s):
So I thought that was really cool to see, but just sat on how tough life is out in the Bush. If you’re one of those animals, they, they were kicked from the herd because they were weak or

1 (23m 41s):
Old, weaker old, they’ll kick you from the herd.

4 (23m 44s):
So the first 30, 40 minutes we were in there always saw truly war, kudu, Springbok, and other types of birds,

2 (23m 53s):
Lots of birds,

1 (23m 53s):
Lots of birds, lots of

2 (23m 55s):
Birds, some of

4 (23m 57s):
The Falcons, some Eagles. But go ahead.

2 (24m 0s):
We mentioned the two girls. We mentioned the two girls from LA, Jackie and Kim and Kim is a huge bird enthusiast. So

4 (24m 9s):
She had everything,

2 (24m 11s):
Every single bird. I mean, you could like, for me, I could barely see it at the top of a tree, but she could spot it like that. And then she would even ask our tour guide, Hey, isn’t that a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so he’d be like, oh yes, that is a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they’ve ever

3 (24m 25s):
Heard of that bird before

2 (24m 27s):
Meaningfully for me, there was a lot of birds I’ve never heard of before either. So the other thing is that our driver has a radio. So he’s in constant contact with the other drivers so they can let each other know of what they’re spotting. And then that way that car can go to where they are. The car is. So at one point there was a lion. So we went back to see the lion because that came up on the radio. It was really, really cool. So anyway, so we go back to see the lion because it was ready to pounce it’s morning breakfast and Brittany and Anna really had to pee at this.

4 (25m 0s):
Yes. Particularly Anna.

2 (25m 2s):
So the question to our driver was, Hey, everyone is laser-focused on this lion. Can we get out and pee? And our tour guide was like, oh my God, no, don’t do that. You can’t do that because if they did an animal can get them. So even though no one human wise is watching animals are so we weren’t able to get out. So he took us to a more secluded and private place and he let Anna and Brittany out so they could pee behind the truck and no one. So you

3 (25m 31s):
Had to pee like pop a squat.

1 (25m 33s):
I had to pop a squat find

4 (25m 36s):
Well for safety reasons, one, you can’t get out of your vehicle on a safari. I mean, there’s less,

3 (25m 41s):
There’s

4 (25m 42s):
Less work they do in certain areas, but we were nowhere near it. And we wanted to stay close. Because again, even though there’s lions there, you could go on a safari and Nazi lions. And here we are the first big game animal that we’re spotting of the day lions. And Anna’s like, I’m literally gonna piss my pants. So he had to get on the radio and say, Hey, I have somebody on my tour. They need to use the restroom. And they said that, okay, just drive, maybe like half a mile down this road. And he let her get out and got permission for it. But it was an exception. And when she got out to pee, Brittany is like, you know what, fuck it. If we’re stopping, I’m going to get out and pop a squat. So just Brittany and Hannah went behind the Jeep and we’re piss pals at that point.

4 (26m 23s):
But luckily, once they were done, they were able to get back in and we were able to go back and the lioness was still there doing a little bit of stocking. So it was a hunting solo. And we were able to see it kind of stalking, hiding behind a Bush. And there was just a whole bunch of kudu, Impala, whatever you want to call it. I don’t really remember. But at one point I remember hearing a little push down of maybe like some crackling of twigs or a Bush. And then it was probably from the lion and that caused the whole herd of kudu and Paula to just scatter. So we didn’t get to catch it, kill it

1 (27m 1s):
There. We got to see all of the animals scatter and run from the lion.

2 (27m 6s):
It was amazing. Like, this is the stuff that you see on nature channel, but in real life, like all of a sudden, all these like 40, 50 animals, just like

3 (27m 14s):
Stan paid.

1 (27m 15s):
Yeah. And we were on the safari for a very long time. I think we probably spent like six hours total there in the park. So we only stopped twice. So just imagine there’s not a lot of bathrooms at all. There’s not one you can just drive up to. So

3 (27m 31s):
Hydrate on this day.

1 (27m 32s):
No don’t hydrate.

2 (27m 34s):
We did stop at one place to kind of have a breakfast. Cause I think they gave us the breakfast bag. This is one of the two that Brittany made the comment of. And when we were there, what were there? They’re like the McCall monkeys.

4 (27m 46s):
There were some type of monkeys. I don’t remember what type they were, but again, they gave us breakfast in the morning because it was such an early wake up call. And so it was either eat on the bus or they told us, you know, maybe an hour, hour and a half into the safari, there’s going to be a rest area where you can get out, have bathrooms, we’ll be able to eat, but they had monkeys in the area. And I forgot who sat down the bag that had the yogurt and the banana, but the monkeys just came real quick in that split second and just grabbed it. So we watched the monkeys in the tree, like open and squeeze the yogurt package and like try to eat it.

3 (28m 18s):
Love bananas. Yeah.

2 (28m 19s):
We’ll take it out of your hands too. You have to be very careful cause they’re not afraid of you. And they’re very, very aggressive. And I think they have signs to not to feed the monkeys because otherwise you will be fined. So then the second stop that we had was lunch. And as a, I’m sorry for the whole window incident, the day before, when we were driving through Swazi land, they did give us a free lunch and it was so bad not to be ungrateful, but I mean, I don’t even know how to describe what it was

3 (28m 47s):
Better or worse than the prison sandwich on the flight to Hawaii. Oh,

4 (28m 50s):
Worse.

2 (28m 51s):
I mean this wasn’t edible

4 (28m 53s):
’cause food from gate one, as you know, Kim is as always good. This one, I think because like Xena said it was, I’m sorry again, for the bus situation, they probably had to find somebody, a vendor to make it last minute because we were supposed to be on our own for lunch in the park, like in a big cafeteria area they have, because again, Kruger, even though it is a nature reserve, it is a national park. So just like here in the United States or other national parks, they do have areas for people to congregate. He use the restrooms, et cetera. So we still ended up buying our own food just because what we got from that bag was terrible.

1 (29m 25s):
I just remember that inside the bag that we got air was chicken nuggets in a plastic bag, you know, like I just imagine

4 (29m 34s):
Chicken nuggets either.

1 (29m 35s):
No,

2 (29m 36s):
Just liked them. But Josh shade, everything.

1 (29m 39s):
It was like preserved, packaged meat. Okay.

2 (29m 42s):
That’s all I need to know. So we, we’re not, I mean, maybe we’ll get more to this at the end, but I mean, this was a really interesting tour in terms of like people and we didn’t complain, but everyone else did. And so in the end, Sean contacted gate one to let them know that it was unacceptable and they refunded us $50

1 (30m 1s):
Per person,

2 (30m 2s):
Per person. That’s nice. Yeah. Yeah.

4 (30m 4s):
Yeah. So again, kudos to gate one, but finishing up Kruger, we did see a lot more things than just the lion. We were able to see some more elephants, giraffe and baboons, and we had another elephant roadblock on this adventure. Again, another herd crossing the

3 (30m 21s):
Road car coming in, like,

4 (30m 23s):
No, but it’s so cool. But one thing I told Brittany, I really, really wanted to see, and this goes back to our last episode. I want her to see a leopard and our safari guide got a radio call saying a leopard has been spotted. I fucking got excited. Like I was literally so fucking excited. I can’t even describe. I was like, oh man, I want to see a leopard are so they’re so elusive, no tears, tears. Maybe if I saw it. So he’s like, okay, we just got a siding. We’re going to go. It’s about 20 minutes away. Hopefully it’s still there when we get there. And by the time that we got there, the leopard was gone, but leopards are very famous for taking their kills and putting them up in a tree to keep them away from hyenas and other scavengers.

4 (31m 8s):
So once we were there, we got word that the leopard was gone, but we were able to see its kill dangling in the tree with a bunch of hyenas, the waiting at the bottom, like shit is anything gonna fall? I want to catch this. So they’re

1 (31m 21s):
Like an antelope or something. And I keep putting it

3 (31m 23s):
In the tree.

4 (31m 24s):
Leopards carry their kills to trees because they’re not going to eat the whole thing at one time. So to save it. So other animals can’t get to it, they take it to trees.

1 (31m 33s):
And so Kim of course had her binoculars cause she was the bird viewer. So we passed around her binoculars and we could see the kill hanging from the tree and its mouth was wide open and its tongue was out to the side. So

2 (31m 46s):
I must have been asleep during this. I don’t remember this at all. There was also very sick

1 (31m 52s):
And the hyenas were at the bottom looking up at it, but we couldn’t see the leopard. He missed out.

4 (31m 58s):
So another reason to go back to Africa, Kim, and have you come all along, I need to see leopard. Yeah.

2 (32m 3s):
Yeah, let’s do it. We saw four out of the 20, 21.

4 (32m 6s):
So Kruger big bucket list item for me as well. So happy. But Kruger is so large that our safari guide told us of all the time we spin in there. We literally explored not even one 10th of how big the park is. So I can’t even imagine what you could see in the other 90% of it.

1 (32m 23s):
Yeah. It would be a really cool place to go back to and stay on Kruger property and just like be in the safari, be in the Bush.

6 (32m 31s):
Yeah. Be the Bush in the Bush, have a Bush.

2 (32m 36s):
So Kim, we have to tell you a really funny story. Okay. So there was a guy on our tour who kept farting.

7 (32m 42s):
I don’t want to hear about

2 (32m 43s):
This is really funny.

4 (32m 45s):
Fart again,

2 (32m 45s):
Fart again. So he kept

4 (32m 46s):
Farting nickname for him and

2 (32m 48s):
It’s like, you

7 (32m 49s):
Hear it? Oh yeah.

2 (32m 51s):
The first time. Okay. So Josh keeps asking us, are you hearing this guy? I mean, there is no shame. It is loud. It is proud. It is bubbly. It is still

4 (33m 0s):
Because from day one, Josh has been telling us like, Hey, he’s been farting out loud while we’re all clustered together. How are you guys not hearing this? Like I can’t believe it.

2 (33m 10s):
And so there we are. We’re done with the day. We’re just using the restrooms before we get on the bus to go back. And so Jamal and I are standing there waiting next to you, this guy, and all of a sudden, he lets it rip so bad. Look at Jamal and I start to laugh and I’m like, I finally heard this guy that was the first time that I heard him. And then I couldn’t stop

4 (33m 34s):
Because we know who Josh has been telling us was the one doing it. But this was the first time we finally heard him. And let me tell you something. I heard him at least once a day for the rest of the trip.

2 (33m 42s):
So then later we were talking with Sean, we were like, dude, have you been hearing this guy partying and Sean and his voice goes, oh yeah. Oh

7 (33m 48s):
Yeah.

4 (33m 51s):
So Kruger was amazing. Day 10. What did we do? Brittany?

1 (33m 55s):
We’re making our way to Johannesburg. So it was going to be a long day in our bus. But of course gate one tries to make it interesting with a lot of different stops. So we were driving a route specifically called the Panorama route and there was a ton of scenery along the way. We went by this large river canyon. And it was a 16 mile long canyon that cuts into the deep red sandstone. And you’re supposed to be able to get out and see like this beautiful view called God’s window. And fortunately, when we were at that portion, there was too much cloud cover to see God’s window. But we did get to stop at a place called Burke’s luck. Potholes. What it is is it is a whole bunch of waterfalls and distinctive rock formations that are created by water erosion.

4 (34m 43s):
Yeah. And it’s called Borks luck potholes because I believe the gentleman’s name was boric. He had found gold in these waterfalls, so Borks luck. So they did a lot. I don’t want to say a lot of mining in the area, but these waterfalls have beautiful natural rock formations just because of the water erosion. It’s notorious for the fact that this gentleman found gold in this area. So it was a really cool little stopping area. And again, since it was such a long drive from Kruger to Johannesburg gate one does incorporate these little stops. I am disappointed. We didn’t get to see the view of God’s window because you are up on a hill. And so again, there is the cloud cover, but that window scape that you’re supposed to see is supposed to be a beautiful view from the top of the hill down into Kruger National Park and just the Vallier.

4 (35m 32s):
So that was a little disappointment. But along the drive, we did make a stop at a rest stop. Probably the coolest rest stop I ever seen for two reasons. Brittany takeaway away with reason. Number one,

1 (35m 43s):
Number one is you walk in and of course you have to use the bathroom. And this is where we saw a rhino was from the bathroom window can look out and there is, it’s a rhino reserve.

3 (35m 55s):
So you’re sitting on the toilet, looking at rhinos.

2 (35m 58s):
Well, it’s behind you, it’s

1 (35m 59s):
Behind you. So the

2 (35m 59s):
Window the

3 (36m 0s):
Men are using the bathroom, looking at the rhinos.

4 (36m 3s):
I got to stand at a urinal half a beautiful view of a rhino.

2 (36m 6s):
Oh, it was really cool. It was super cool. But you see that the rhinos have their horns.

4 (36m 12s):
Yeah. Their horns are cut off. Yes. To obviously prevent from poaching, especially since it’s a big known area at a rest stop. So

1 (36m 20s):
Like what gas station and rest stop has rhinos. It was one, it was

2 (36m 24s):
Beautiful. It was so amazing.

3 (36m 26s):
And I really missed out. You

4 (36m 27s):
Did not

2 (36m 28s):
Even just rain us, but you’re seeing other animals out there too at the watering hole.

3 (36m 31s):
One of my favorite things is bathrooms that have cool views of stuff like the Mexico city, one at the Latino Americano tower or this one that I clearly missed out.

4 (36m 41s):
This one was an African Savannah view with rhinos Kemp. So really, really cool. The second reason why I like this rest stop is because this is where I was introduced to Nando’s. So if you remember our Chicago episode, we talked about how we wanted to go to Nando’s because Chicago is one of the very few American cities that has this restaurant. It originated in South Africa. We had it there. If you remember, from the Chicago episode, we said that the Nando’s that we had in South Africa was 10 times better than what they offer here in the states. But it was so, so good. And this was our first endeavor and experience with Nando’s at this rest, stop with the rhinos.

2 (37m 21s):
And again Nando’s is hot sauce, chicken.

4 (37m 24s):
Yes. Portuguese style, hot sauce, chicken delicious.

3 (37m 27s):
Why is it Portuguese? Is there a lot of Portuguese influence in

4 (37m 30s):
Africa that, and a lot of the European influence that came down into that area? I mean, there was Portuguese, Belgium, Dutch, you know, so a lot of the European cuisine has influenced and merged with local cuisine. So that’s just kind of the style. And then after the rest stop, clearly we continued on to Johannesburg. And when we got to Johannesburg, we did one activity because everyone on our tour kept talking about, oh, I want to go to a specific, bizarre place with shops to buy souvenirs. It’s not like we didn’t have any other locations along the way to do it. But our tour guide, Sean kept telling us like, there’s a really good one and Johannesburg. So he took us there before we went to our hotel and that’s where the ladies complimented their tanzanite necklace purchase.

1 (38m 16s):
And we got matching tanzanite earrings.

2 (38m 19s):
And I think Brittany is the one that pulled the trigger on this one first. And then I followed

3 (38m 22s):
Suit. It doesn’t surprise me,

2 (38m 25s):
But you know, I wear my tanzanite earrings all the time.

3 (38m 28s):
You guys didn’t bring me back. Any tanzanite earrings,

4 (38m 31s):
You don’t come, you don’t get anything count.

1 (38m 35s):
We don’t bring back. No souvenirs.

2 (38m 36s):
So, you know, what’s really interesting is not interesting, but funny, I guess that our window on the bus broke. So they drove a bus all the way from Johannesburg overnight to make sure that we had a bus for us in the morning with a full window. And then we turned around and drove that bus all the way back to,

4 (38m 55s):
Yeah. I forgot to mention that they did bring us a new bus that we had the morning that we left Johannesburg

3 (39m 1s):
One coming through

4 (39m 2s):
Gate one, coming through

2 (39m 3s):
Gate one, hooks it up.

4 (39m 4s):
So day 11 was our sight seen tour of Johannesburg. And as we were going to bed that night, Josh sends me a message via WhatsApp, basically saying, oh, I think, you know, man, and are a little bit tired. The tour has been kind of like on the, go on the go. We think we’re gonna explore it on our own. I was like, dude, I wouldn’t explore it on your own. Especially if you don’t have a plan, you’re not going to have, you know, internet service to be able to call an Uber. Can you trust the taxis here? Because Johannesburg is a very visited city in South Africa, but it’s not as safe as Cape town. As a matter of fact, the hotel that we were staying in is in a little community that is gated off to keep the people who aren’t tourists and visitors out of there.

4 (39m 49s):
So there’s shops, there’s restaurants, hotels, but that area is gated for safety. And here Josh and Anna are talking about, oh, let’s do it on our own. I’m trying to convince them not. And then we mentioned that to Sean and then Sean’s like, oh no. And he’s like, Josh, Anna, like, you do not want to be out here in Johannesburg on your own. He’s like, it’s not safe.

2 (40m 7s):
And I think they had some kind of theme park out there was it that they wanted to go to.

4 (40m 11s):
I don’t know. They wanted to do something that they saw online. That wasn’t part of the tour. But yeah, luckily they thought better of it and decided to go along with the tour that day.

1 (40m 20s):
So we did do a half-day tour of so wet toe. And so what tow is a metropolitan town that trends and politics, fashion, music, dance, and even LinkedIn.

4 (40m 32s):
Yeah. So it’s a very popular township in Johannesburg. And two very famous residents used to live in Soweto. One of them is Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. They both had homes. There’s both. Those people are Nobel laureates. And it’s the only place in the world where you can see the two childhood homes of two Nobel laureates on the same street.

2 (40m 53s):
We did get a local guide just for this area. So rather than Sean explaining it, it was the local guide and he was super, super, nicely dressed.

4 (41m 2s):
Like we said, they had the homes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela. And one of the stops that we took to was Nelson Mandela’s childhood home.

3 (41m 12s):
Ooh, you guys just love seeing famous people’s childhood homes. Huh. Always was awesome.

2 (41m 18s):
It was really interesting. It’s a tiny, tiny house.

4 (41m 21s):
I said childhood. I shouldn’t say childhood. It was before he became a big national figure. It was still his adulthood home. This take that back.

2 (41m 30s):
I thought it was the house that he got. Once he got married,

4 (41m 32s):
It was about his before ventured and became well-known and South Africa for his fight against apartheid. And well, before he became president because they showed us his home later, which was a big mansion versus his little home in Soweto. But you go in there and it’s pretty much like a museum shows all the famous people that he’s met with just photos of him during the time of a Partha giving speeches, et cetera. So it was really, really unique. And you know, here growing up in the United States, the age that we are, you know, we hear about the civil rights movement. It’s in the sixties. Yes. Our parents lived through it, but it’s just so crazy to think. Like, even though it’s not that long ago, it kind of is in comparison to South Africa where they still had segregation, even up until the nineties.

1 (42m 16s):
And the thing I remember about this day in particular is we were on the bus driving through and one of our tour mates said, wow, it’s so dirty. There’s so much garbage. And I thought that was such a rude comment to make because we’re in another country and we’re also on board the bus with a local. But then he did explain to us that at times they would cut the funding for garbage and so garbage would pile up. And so if everything was picked up, they wouldn’t have a job. So people would leave garbage out on purpose so that they can continue to always have a job picking up garbage. Like that’s how different the city

3 (42m 50s):
Is interesting.

1 (42m 52s):
This was just a half day city tour. And then this might, we had a very special, big goodbye dinner because some of our tour mates didn’t continue on. We were continuing on to Zimbabwe and Victoria.

3 (43m 4s):
So did you guys add this on or did they just buy a different kind of tourists?

1 (43m 8s):
I just brought a different package. So there was like a 12 day, a 14 day or a 16 day. And so depending on what you bought, you would have more days than others. I see.

4 (43m 19s):
So we had an extension, but the majority of the people on our tour didn’t do the extension. So this was the farewell dinner.

1 (43m 28s):
Okay. And to say goodbye to them. And it was at a very nice restaurant. And

3 (43m 32s):
I’ve heard stories about this place.

1 (43m 34s):
Vena had been drinking before.

3 (43m 35s):
Was it an open bar? I heard that there was a lot of drinking at this dinner.

4 (43m 39s):
It was a lot of drinking. So basically what happened first is again, we only had a half day tour. So we had a little bit of downtime back at the hotel before we had dinner and the hotel has a bar, Josh and Anna had already been drinking down at the bar. I went upstairs cause I was like, ah, you know, I’ll drink at dinner. We have an early morning tomorrow compose an email for work. I did have to compose an email, but I had stuff to do on a, just a little bit, like I said, downtime didn’t really want to get too big and too drinking. And then Josh and Anna already pretty tipsy. There is booze because there is always a drink included with dinner with gate one, but you can always buy more. And it was just a fun dinner that the free drink turned into.

4 (44m 20s):
Okay, well, let’s start a tab. And we ended up starting to buy some

1 (44m 25s):
Dana actually started drinking with Josh Nana at the hotel. So Xena had already been drinking as well before

4 (44m 31s):
We had the thought,

3 (44m 33s):
I’m proud of you. Zena.

2 (44m 34s):
I pre gamed pretty hard. In fact, Josh got up to get me a drink and I gave him cash. But I guess I was so drunk that I didn’t give him enough cash. And I felt so bad cause he had to use his card and I was like, oh my gosh, you should have come back for that. Oh my gosh, I felt so

4 (44m 47s):
Bad money. I guess

1 (44m 49s):
I kept the drinks of flow in at dinner. And by the time her food came out, she was so drunk. She couldn’t even cut her shrimp to eat it. And so here I am supposed to

2 (44m 60s):
Cut

4 (45m 0s):
Shrimp. We’ll cut the tails off

2 (45m 2s):
Of Ron’s.

1 (45m 3s):
Yeah, they were large prawns and half of the shell was on and half was off. So you had to remove some of the shrimp from the shell and Zayna just had no idea what she needed to do to eat. And she was so fucked up. I was in mom mode, cutting up her food for her and like forcing her to eat. Cause she was that fucked up.

3 (45m 23s):
Was this the night I received the texts from

2 (45m 25s):
You? I don’t know what you’re talking about

4 (45m 27s):
Because they knew it was so drunk that night. By the time he got, well, we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. But by the time we got back to the hotel, Zaina was messaging Kim saying, I wish you were here. You’re missing out on so much fun. But this one was a whole drunken

8 (45m 41s):
There. Someone named Kim here, you should be here. We miss you.

4 (45m 45s):
But Zayna, wasn’t the only one having a good time that night, like we said at the bar, Josh and Anna were drinking, but Josh was able to keep his composure quite well. We were having drinks at dinner and I just wanted to throw another shout out to Jersey for remember Jersey from last episode, she came up to us and was like, what do you guys want for dessert? Yeah. But Anna was really, really drunk too. And she obviously with dinner, we could have ordered from like one of three different options. And she saw the gentleman sitting next to us as food who happened to be the same gentleman who was sick, who delayed us getting to Kruger and

3 (46m 16s):
To be confused with fart again,

4 (46m 17s):
Not to be confused with fart again. Correct. And basically she was so drunk. She was like, oh my God, that looks so good. I should have gotten it. She’s like, I think I’m going to steal some of his food. And

1 (46m 26s):
Don’t you think it would be funny if I try to steal some of his food and he didn’t notice I was stealing his food

4 (46m 30s):
And she is like trying to take her fork and like play, hovering it over his plate. I’m like, and he’s

3 (46m 35s):
Eating

4 (46m 35s):
It. Yeah. And I mean, he’s not noticing it, but I was like, Josh, you know, like don’t let Hannah do that. Like I don’t want to look bad. Cause we were the youngest people on the tour. And I don’t want people to think, even though we had a lot of people who liked us, I’m sure with any tour that we go on older people probably have a misconception like, oh their kids are just obnoxious and we were drinking a lot. So

2 (46m 57s):
From this dinner we were super well.

4 (46m 58s):
Yeah. So I just didn’t want people to get upset, but a fun night altogether,

1 (47m 2s):
It was so fun. We went back to the hotel and we’re saying goodbye to everyone. We have to go up. And they, Hannah just falls out of nowhere. She hits a wall and she falls down and we can’t get her up.

2 (47m 15s):
I just, you know, I can’t get it. I just no words,

4 (47m 21s):
If anything, you and Anna had the most fun that night. Probably. Yes.

2 (47m 24s):
So true. But I, I hear that you guys couldn’t get me up. So you had to have Josh come over and help get me up because I was just such dead weight on the floor laughing and I couldn’t even lift myself up

1 (47m 34s):
And then I couldn’t get you up. I was like, where’s Jamal, but you know, Jamal, he’s out there flirting while the old lady sitting by taking his sweet time saying like, oh miss you guys, nowhere to be found.

4 (47m 46s):
I think at a C no, I didn’t get any numbers. I was talking to the couple who Anna was trying to steal his food and was sick, you know? Cause they were leaving. And like I said, I really liked him. That’s why I feel bad about Kruger and be like, oh, we should go. I didn’t realize it was them. So I only can hear of the stories of all Zena’s glory. I didn’t get to see it like everybody else did. So like, oh yeah, I definitely would have been, but it Zaina Zaina needed. Brittany’s help to even change it. Her PJ’s that?

1 (48m 13s):
Yeah. I helped her change in her pajamas. I put her to bed kind of like the night that you got drunk, Kim and barf name made sure you got home safe

4 (48m 21s):
And the backseat of our car to a biohazard bag. But that’s another story for another time. Just wanted to throw that out there, but as much fun as I know,

2 (48m 33s):
It was really funny because you have to start taking your middle area medicine. I think it’s like a week before you go into the territory. So we’re getting ready to go into Zimbabwe. We’ve already started the malaria medicine. And so Brittany is trying to dress me and get me to take my malaria medication. And so I started to freak out that, oh my God, I’m going to ODI. I’m drinking so much alcohol and now you want me to take malaria medication. And so Brittany had to convince me that I wasn’t going to ODI on that. And the next morning I remember getting in the elevator with everyone standing face to face with Sean. And I was like, you guys, I remember everything about last night, except for two things. How did I get into my pajamas? And I don’t remember washing my face and everyone just like, looks at me and laughs like, you’re ridiculous.

4 (49m 15s):
So that concluded the shit show that was Johannesburg Zena’s dinner. And then the next morning, no disrespects. And you had, like I said, you and Anna had the best time that night.

2 (49m 24s):
You know what? It was funny too, because at breakfast you guys kept telling me more things that I forgot about. And I was like, it looks like I forgot a lot more than just those two things.

4 (49m 32s):
Absolutely. So we continued on from Johannesburg half our tour left us and we were some of the few that continued on to Zimbabwe to specifically go to Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls.

1 (49m 46s):
So we had to take a flight from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe. And what we were told was we needed to have a visa to enter the mob way in the country. And it was very specifically laid out in our itinerary that we needed to bring us cash, to pay in cash for our visas. And our tour guide even mentioned to us, if you try to pull money out of the ATM in Zimbabwe, you will get an IO.

4 (50m 13s):
There was such big hyperinflation and Zimbabwe that they now use the us dollar as official currency. So you do require a visa to get in. You don’t need to get the visa before you go. It’s purchase upon arrival in the airport in the airport, think it’s like $30. And it said you need to have cash because their ATM’s do not dispense us dollars. Even though they use us dollars, they’ll actually send out IOUs. So,

1 (50m 38s):
And wants to guess who was unprepared and did not have cash to buy a visa on this trip. Brittany, no Sane of,

2 (50m 46s):
I had to borrow money and they’re like, didn’t you read the itinerary? And I’m like, no, but I did offer like when we were in South Africa still, I said that I’d go to the bank and I’d get money. And they’re like, no, no, no, it’s fine. It’s fine. We’ll just give you money and add it to your tab. So thanks mom and dad.

1 (51m 1s):
So we get to Zimbabwe and we get to our lodge. And what I really like about gate one is you can view the hotels and lodges on their website before you actually go. So we knew what to expect and it was so beautiful. There are no words to describe it. It’s all wooden, I would say. And

4 (51m 20s):
Not like a cabin. If you just envision what you would think an African lodge would look like and the 1940s, 1950s during the colonial times, I hate to say it that way, but that’s the reality of it. This is what this lodge looked like. It was a big wooden structure. Not necessarily like a cabin, but beautiful hotel. It overlooks a watering hole. So we got to have views of DRAF elephants, zebras, all this stuff coming to drink from the watering hole.

2 (51m 51s):
There’s no wall on the side. That’s facing the watering hole too. So it’s all open deck.

1 (51m 57s):
Yeah. And so the hotel is kind of shaped to surround the watering hole. So from our hotel room, we had a view of the watering hole and also from where they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, they have a views of the watering hole

2 (52m 11s):
As well. And our hotel is enclosed in a gated area because of all the wildlife. And even when we left the airport, they were like, do not go wandering off. You can’t walk on the streets. You will get attacked by an animal.

4 (52m 24s):
There is the potential for it. Yeah. Yeah. So it was really, really cool. The first day we just got there and got the lay of the land. And so after checking into our hotel and getting settled, we had a sunset river cruise on the mighty Zambezi river at the Zambezi river is what feeds Victoria Falls. If you don’t know what Victoria Falls is, it’s one of the most famous waterfalls in Africa. It is larger than Niagara falls. And just so, so beautiful. So we had a sunset cruise on the Zambezi river.

2 (52m 57s):
Now, Kim, you missed out, you missed out majorly because sounds cool already. Well, we thought it was just a night cruise and next thing you know, it’s a booze cruise that is set on this MBZ river. They come around asking you what you want to drink. And then you find out that it’s an open bar

4 (53m 17s):
Bar

2 (53m 17s):
After the night that I just had, I was not about to drink, but I just, I couldn’t say no. And then

1 (53m 24s):
Where it happened, you were like, no, I’m going to sit out. Cause I don’t usually drink too much. And then during this cruise, I got like my second wind on this trip. And I was like, let’s go for it. And seen as like, fuck it.

4 (53m 36s):
Brittany’s drinking. I got an urgent.

2 (53m 38s):
Yeah. I mean, like at one point Josh and I were having a chugging contest and poor Josh. He never could beat me. I just chucked so much more faster

4 (53m 44s):
Than you. He can’t beat you at a Chuck. Yes.

3 (53m 47s):
So what

2 (53m 48s):
Would shaggy and, and I finished my drink and next thing I know Robson, our bartender on the boats is standing right next to me with a specially made Robson cocktail just from

4 (53m 60s):
Me, Robson special.

2 (54m 1s):
I put my empty glass down and he’s standing there with another drink for me. And I’m like, oh,

3 (54m 8s):
I love that.

4 (54m 9s):
But it was so awesome because we’re on the Zambezi. You can see the lush, tropical foliage around. We were able to see Crocs and hippos. However, you can potentially see, you know, elephants giraffe coming to drink at the river. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see that, but the unlimited drinks we had, the local beer, you could have cocktails, they had nuts and hors d’oeuvres set out for you. And here we are just in the middle of the African Bush, watching the sunset and the Zambezi river is actually the dividing line or the borderline between Zimbabwe and Zambia, which is a whole nother country. So we didn’t set foot on Zambia, but we were in Zambian waters because the river is the border between them and even Victoria Falls itself half as in Zambia, half is in Zimbabwe.

1 (54m 56s):
I remember taking a picture at sunset that night and the colors were just so beautiful and vivid reds, oranges just lit up the sky off of the water. It was a sight to be seen. So Kim, you missed out

3 (55m 7s):
Dammit

1 (55m 8s):
On the sunset.

3 (55m 10s):
This is my F this is my Africa T I M a,

2 (55m 13s):
Hey, this was like my favorite of all the cruises safaris that we’ve done. Like this night was amazing.

3 (55m 20s):
Did anybody get shitty this night?

4 (55m 22s):
I mean, not at the level of saying, I don’t think anybody on this trip got to the level that scene ended up getting that moment.

2 (55m 28s):
It was pretty bad. I mean, Anna,

4 (55m 29s):
But not that night, but no one got to that level. No,

3 (55m 33s):
Not that proud of you guys.

2 (55m 36s):
You know what? Anna actually woke up in the middle of the night thinking that she didn’t have dinner. And she was super concerned that her and Josh missed a dinner and Josh was like, no, no, you ate so much that even all of those, trying to eat the guys next to you, his food. And she’s like,

1 (55m 50s):
Oh, so that concludes day 12 day 13 was the day that we were going to see Victoria Falls.

3 (55m 57s):
So cool. I regret, I want to see this so bad. Yes. One of the beautiful it’s better than Niagara falls. Yeah.

1 (56m 4s):
It’s one of the seven natural wonders of the world and there’s I think, 16 different viewpoints to see the falls. So essentially we did a tour that went and visited all 16 viewpoints. So when you first get the first view, you’re like, oh my God, Victoria Falls. It’s so beautiful. You’re taking all of the pictures. You’re trying to get the best shot. And then every single viewpoint, it gets better and better and better because you’re getting closer and closer and closer.

2 (56m 31s):
I remember at one point in Jamal was saying like, everyone’s going crazy for these views, but just wait. You know, like at the end is where the best views are. And our tour guide laughed because he knew exactly what Jamal was talking about. Like the best views are at the end.

4 (56m 43s):
Yeah. It’s like, you know, whenever you catch the first side of something that you want to see, you’re always excited, but it’s just the first sight. The closer you get the better it’s going to be. But just to put in context, how big Victoria Falls is, it’s over 351 feet high and it’s a little over a mile wide. And I don’t mean across, from one side to the other, I’m talking in terms of length, like across it’s stretches over a mile, you know, just from one area into the falls to the next. So very, very useful,

3 (57m 12s):
Oh, one mile stream coming down. Are there several streams in that one?

4 (57m 16s):
Yeah. It depends on how heavy the waterflow is coming off from the rain. It could just be all one continuum that there are spots. Yes, we’re definitely separated, but there is one area where it’s a big wall sheet, but it depends on how high and heavy the rain season was. If it’s going to be like one big continuous flow at one spot or not. But when we went, there was definitely a lot of water, but not as much as there usually is that time of year we were advised. But even so there’s so much water. It felt like you were getting rained on because of all the mist that was coming. So you’re walking through all this tropical area trees and here you are just getting missed it over

3 (57m 52s):
When

4 (57m 53s):
You can buy them. But no, we didn’t.

1 (57m 54s):
There was one portion where I wanted to get a really good photo and there was so much missed in that area. When I walked out, I was completely soaked.

4 (58m 2s):
Yeah. Victoria Falls was really, really cool. I don’t know how else to describe it other than just like all inspiring. Really, really cool. And what’s sad now is there’s a big drought and I’ve just seen photos that have been posted they’re in their worst drought and about like 30 years and it’s literally dry. Yeah.

1 (58m 21s):
And when we went, it was really nice, but we didn’t even go during the wet season. And they said that at some times during the wet season, you can’t get that close to the edge to look over because all of the rocks are so slippery that it’s a hazard for you to get that close. So we actually went at a pretty good time

3 (58m 37s):
And it was August that you guys were there

4 (58m 40s):
September,

3 (58m 40s):
September.

1 (58m 41s):
Okay. Early September.

4 (58m 42s):
So that was just a little half day tour seen the falls itself. But one thing that I really loved about our hotel that we were staying at in Victoria Falls was at 1:00 PM every day, they did a vulture feeding.

2 (58m 58s):
This is one of the most intense things I’ve ever seen.

4 (59m 3s):
They fed them basically like bones and scrap meat, vultures are scavengers. So it was pretty much like bones and scrap meat

1 (59m 11s):
Restaurant over hotel.

4 (59m 13s):
Yeah. So again, our hotel, the dining room area is open dining area, by the sense that there is no wall from the outside to the inside, you’re just covered with a roof, but it’s all open. And we are able to see down below close to the watering hole, which is where they do the vulture feeding. So some guy goes out there with an ice chest full of bones and scrap me and these birds. They’re so intuitive, man, like 15 minutes before you could see them all just start scavenging and circling above and collecting in the area. And the guys hundreds, the guy’s not even out there yet, but they know because it happens every day, like around this time.

4 (59m 54s):
And they’re

2 (59m 55s):
So respectful to, they’re not even attack. They

4 (59m 57s):
Were. So well-trained this guy he’s out there finally with the ice chest, he throws out the meat, but not until he closes the lid and walks away. Do they all go in and flock down on it? And just to see literally hundreds of birds come down and collect,

2 (1h 0m 14s):
Circling, circling, and then go,

4 (1h 0m 16s):
Yeah, it was intense. It was really intense. It was fun to watch.

1 (1h 0m 20s):
So we got to enjoy that with our lunch. And then we actually booked an additional add on this was not part of the gate one tour, but Sean, our tour guide did tell us about it. We did book a lion encounter. And so this was a day that we got to go to a sanctuary where they’ve rescued lions. And these lions had been rescued from people who have gotten them as cups and thought, oh, they’re so cute and cuddly. And then as they gotten bigger like, oh shit, this is a real lion. And the, obviously can’t go back into the wild, but they’re using these lions to breed and get them accustomed to the habitats. And so they can’t go back out until,

4 (1h 1m 0s):
Yeah. So the lions themselves, like Brittany said, they were taken as Cubs and clearly they’re not going into the wild. This program’s goal is to take the Cubs of these lions that we’re walking with, being able to pet with touch, take those Cubs, put them into another game preserve. And ideally at that point they will be wild. And then their offspring actually put into, you know, national parks out in the wild to increase the lion population. So that’s the eventual goal. But before we talk about the encounter, I just want to say one thing, we didn’t necessarily know we were going to be doing this when we went, because again, this was not an additional tour that was offered by gate one.

4 (1h 1m 41s):
As Brittany said, this came at Sean’s recommendation as something to do because we really had the rest of the day. And there’s nothing really in the area other than Victoria Falls and the lodge. So to do something, this was at Sean’s suggestion, but there is something called devil’s pool at Victoria Falls that I really, really wanted to do. What devil’s pool is. It’s on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls and it is a natural rock formation that you can go up to at the edge of the waterfall. So you could be in a pool at the edge of the waterfall looking over, and you’re not going to go over because there’s a natural rock lip that holds you. And I really wanted to do this. I asked Shawn about this and this is where I feel like he really let me down because I wanted to do this.

4 (1h 2m 26s):
And he advised us, no, it’s too cumbersome. Because then you got across into Zambia and come back, you have to get a double entry visa. And he made it sound more difficult than it was. And another couple that was on our tour come to find out they went to devil’s pool themselves and did it in the timeframe that we did it with the lion. So Sean, if you’re listening, you really let me down on that one. I want to go back

3 (1h 2m 49s):
Another reason to go back.

4 (1h 2m 50s):
I want to go back so bad and do that. That was like a real bucket list item that I could have done. But I enjoyed doing the walk with the lions. Why don’t you tell

1 (1h 2m 58s):
Us when it’s in a drought,

4 (1h 2m 60s):
Don’t want to go when it’s a drought, those drought photos that I told you, I’ve been seeing, there’s no water and you can actually see what devil’s pool looks like and what that rock lip formation looks like. And someone is standing in it without water right now

3 (1h 3m 11s):
By 2021, there’ll be out of the drought.

2 (1h 3m 14s):
So I’m grateful that Sean suggested not to do it because sounds like I would shoot myself, dude.

4 (1h 3m 20s):
You probably would have. Why don’t you tell us about the,

2 (1h 3m 23s):
We did the lion walk and they broke us up into two groups. So we can walk with two lions about one, one and a half years old. And I don’t know, it was just a really interesting experience because they also had a guy with us with this huge long gun in case other animals, you are out in the wild in case other animals come up or in case anything happens with the lion, but nothing ever really has. They were saying,

1 (1h 3m 45s):
And before we even start the walk, the lions just sitting there on the ground and he invites you up one by one to go and pet the lion. And so they’re like don’t rub its belly. Even if it’s trying to get you to rub its belly, don’t touch its head. So there’s very specific ways that you can only touch the lion, but it was so surreal to be up close and personal with such a big feeling.

3 (1h 4m 7s):
I saw your pictures and I was like, oh my God, I can’t believe

4 (1h 4m 11s):
It was really cool. Because again, they’ll give you a safety briefing first and on top of that, then they show you a video that talks about what their whole goal is to do in terms of rehabilitating, taking their Cubs, putting them into the wild, et cetera. And they first asked, okay, who wants to pet at first? And everyone from my perception seemed to be a little intimidated. I was like, fuck it. I want to pet at first, I want to go up and do it. So I was the first one to go down, take photos, pet it, but beyond petting with it, it’s called walk with the lion. So after we did that, you were able to literally have it stand up with you and just walk side by side with it, pet it as you’re walking. So it was really cool to see a big cat like that up close, be with it.

4 (1h 4m 55s):
And then on top of that, you know, they had a male and a female that were walking with them together and the guides would tap the trees and the lines would jump up into the tree. So you were literally standing, you know, three feet away from this big cat as climbing the tree, just so surreal, comfortable with you being around it. And it was a really awesome experience.

2 (1h 5m 14s):
I don’t think I would do it again, but I think that as a time, it was a really cool experience. Yeah. And they were taking videos. So if you want to buy a video, you can, and then they take you once you’re done to a certain area where you can use the restroom, wash your hands, they give you snacks. And then they also gave you a free drink. So after I finished my drink, yeah,

4 (1h 5m 33s):
Free drink. They don’t, they give it to you after, because God knows they don’t want you boost up as you’re going out there with the lion.

2 (1h 5m 38s):
Right. So after the drink, Josh and I went up to the bar so we can purchase another one where you at this. Okay. So me, Josh and Jamal, we went up to the bar to purchase a second drink because you know, these are cheap drinks at the six, 7% tile ABV. And as we ask how much it is, not that it matters, we’re going to pay for it because we want it. How much is it? They’re like, oh no, no, it’s free. And we look at each other and we realized that we just walked into an open bar,

3 (1h 6m 4s):
Open bar

4 (1h 6m 6s):
As far after the lion walks. So you better believe your ass. We had a few beverages before we left.

3 (1h 6m 14s):
Wow.

2 (1h 6m 15s):
And you did it as fast as we could. And in fact, the, everyone was at the bus and we were still at the bar trying to finish like our fourth drink

1 (1h 6m 20s):
Because they wouldn’t let us take it with us because they recycled their glass there. So they were like, no, no, no, you have to finish the bottle and leave it here before you leave. So we’re just pounding it back real quick.

3 (1h 6m 30s):
Good job. You guys.

2 (1h 6m 32s):
It was pretty funny because we got a little tipsy. So when we were on the bus

3 (1h 6m 35s):
Or for drinks, I would imagine so

2 (1h 6m 37s):
In such a short amount of time, too. So all when we were on the bus, Josh was trying to give Jamal wet lilies and it was

4 (1h 6m 43s):
Trying to do it the whole trip. So

1 (1h 6m 45s):
Our fun extended into dinner.

4 (1h 6m 47s):
Yeah. So dinner at the lodge in Victoria Falls with gate one was not included both nights. And we weren’t talking about this necessarily, but there were some nights where lunch dinner is not included with gate one. And eventually it got to the point where, okay, Josh would pay for all of us one, instead of splitting it all up. Since we were dining together, Josh would pay and then Anna would pay. And then Brittany and I would pay Zayna et cetera, et cetera. And Josh and Anna really liked to eat. Like they love to have appetizers out there. They’d love to have multiple main entrees and kind of split it up.

1 (1h 7m 24s):
There were several nights where they ordered more than one entree and then like three appetizers

3 (1h 7m 30s):
To enjoy the local.

4 (1h 7m 31s):
So it was our turn to pay that night in terms of how the rotation was going. So this is our last night we’re sitting on the beautiful terrorist, looking at the watering hole, have beautiful views of elephants and giraffes, just drinking water. And I hear Josh say to Anna, oh, I really want to try that. Baboons, appetizer didn’t think anything of it, time comes to order. Okay. And Josh orders and we’re all done. And he didn’t order the baboons that he was telling Anna about. And I thought he was just potentially being considerate because he knew we were going to pay. And it was like, oh, I’m not going to add on like an extra do something. I was like, oh, you don’t want the baboons, Josh. And then I looked to our waiter.

4 (1h 8m 11s):
I’m like, you know, how is the bamboo? And is it good? Is it worth giving?

2 (1h 8m 14s):
How has the baboons, or is it enough to feed five? Or

1 (1h 8m 18s):
Shall we get to

4 (1h 8m 21s):
’cause? I thought he was just being timid since it was our turn to pay that want to order. I didn’t even see it on the menu, but I didn’t think to myself, oh, he’s fucking just pulling in his leg. Like there is no baboons. And then our server just looks at me like I’m crazy. And then the whole table starts busting up laughing. And Josh was like, oh no, there’s not pat Boone on here. I’m like, oh my God, I feel so stupid. But that was a good, funny time to end an amazing, amazing journey in Africa. So day 14 was just flying home long, long flight. And if you guys want to hear all about that flight to go back to episode 13, how to survive a long haul flight, where I talk about my adventurous sit in 16 and a half hours next to a smelly lady.

4 (1h 9m 3s):
But the flight was a lot longer than that. We had to fly from Victoria Falls to Johannesburg, Johannesburg, to Atlanta, Atlanta to New York. And all that said and done was about 33 hours of just straight traveling.

3 (1h 9m 14s):
And then you guys did stay in New York for the weekend, but then you had the flight from New York back to San Diego

4 (1h 9m 19s):
To,

1 (1h 9m 21s):
And so if you guys want to listen to New York, it is episode 25.

4 (1h 9m 26s):
Definitely check it out. Right.

3 (1h 9m 28s):
It’s tough or questions of the

4 (1h 9m 31s):
Week or the week,

3 (1h 9m 36s):
But a break room. Okay. So I have a question before we get into our listener question, did Jamal have a freak out on this trip?

1 (1h 9m 42s):
Absolutely. I would count that as a freak out, but

3 (1h 9m 46s):
He’s trying to leave

4 (1h 9m 47s):
The guy that was not a freak out.

1 (1h 9m 49s):
Yes, it was.

4 (1h 9m 50s):
W you know what? I just want to say real quick. I feel like both of you ladies know when Brittany over-exaggerated a freak out and this is definitely an over-exaggeration didn’t have a freak out.

2 (1h 9m 60s):
Okay. So in all fairness, I don’t remember that. So I think that if you did have a freak out, you’re probably having it directly to Brittany. Cause I don’t remember

3 (1h 10m 7s):
If he gets the brunt of all the frequent.

1 (1h 10m 9s):
Oh, you guys don’t even know. There’s like there are silent freak outs that are happening that you guys aren’t aware of until I make it obvious later,

3 (1h 10m 17s):
Did you to have a freak out?

2 (1h 10m 19s):
I was wondering that too. I don’t know. I don’t remember.

1 (1h 10m 22s):
Yeah, actually she did. She had a freak out on the airplane. Do you remember that you were really sick? Your ears were hurting. I had a

2 (1h 10m 29s):
Freak out.

4 (1h 10m 29s):
Not only that, the night that you didn’t come with us to the VA waterfront for dinner, you were just being like a real bitch about it. Like I’m sick. I don’t want to go if you guys are gonna walk, don’t want to have dinner with me at the hotel. Just go. Yeah. That was you

2 (1h 10m 43s):
Just remember that. Yes. On the flight. I was so miserable and I just felt so sick. And so I was sitting next to Jamal, maybe Josh, Anna. I don’t know, but I didn’t want to get anyone sick and the fight wasn’t filled. So I did go to the back and I do remember sitting behind Sean because that would have given me my own aisle. And Sean said something and I kind of like snapped. And then I immediately apologize. And I was like, I’m so sorry, Sean. I’m just, I’m feeling so shitty. I feel like shit. And then he just like laughed. And the day that we went to go

3 (1h 11m 12s):
See a lot of freakouts,

2 (1h 11m 14s):
The day that we went to shark dive, they didn’t have breakfast for me because they under counted.

1 (1h 11m 19s):
So how many Fritos did you have that trip

2 (1h 11m 21s):
Too? But it was only because I was sick.

4 (1h 11m 23s):
All right. Enough about freak outs. What did one of our listeners ask

3 (1h 11m 27s):
One of our listeners by the name of Jack from Chippewa falls, Wisconsin, he wrote in and said, what surprised you most about Africa?

4 (1h 11m 36s):
I would say what surprised me the most going in. And we touched upon this in the episode is I really wasn’t expecting, and this just goes to show how bad certain stereotypes are. I really wasn’t expecting to have clean drinking water in Africa. Not that I thought that they didn’t have plumbing. That’s not what I’m trying to insinuate, but even here in the United States, there are certain cities you don’t want to drink the water.

3 (1h 11m 59s):
And

4 (1h 11m 60s):
Yeah, and I was just so shocked to find out that everywhere we went in the Southern region of Africa, the countries that we did, that the water was safe and pure from the tap like deliciously clean, I would

2 (1h 12m 11s):
Say that’s the same thing for me.

1 (1h 12m 13s):
I was most surprised by the different climate in Cape town and how beautiful it was. Like I was expecting, like I’ve said before, just desert orange, red landscapes. And when we were in Cape town, it was so beautiful. It was lush. It was green, there was beaches, it was city. It was beautiful. And I wasn’t expecting that. And I guess I should’ve done more research on Cape town before I went, but that’s what surprised me. Most

3 (1h 12m 38s):
Pleasantly surprised both

4 (1h 12m 39s):
Cases. Good question, Jack

1 (1h 12m 41s):
And the bathrooms. We encountered no Squatty potties at all. They were very modern westernized style toilets and they were super clean.

3 (1h 12m 50s):
That’s that’s great.

2 (1h 12m 51s):
I think another thing too is just how sometimes you just can’t go out because of the wildlife, like you are in the middle of it. And that’s just so fascinating to me.

4 (1h 13m 0s):
That was really cool.

3 (1h 13m 1s):
Any final thoughts before we close out? Our African journey

4 (1h 13m 4s):
Should have gone, Kim.

3 (1h 13m 6s):
Ooh, I know, I know. I know this last week or two, we’ve been talking about it. I regret it more and more. Every time

4 (1h 13m 14s):
More serious, no final thought. This was one of the best trips of my life. I do want to go back to Africa again, whether it be South Africa, other safari areas, or even up north to the more tropical regions like Ganda Rwanda, things like that. Yeah. Or even Tanzania to go to the Serengeti. Definitely want to go back to Africa.

1 (1h 13m 36s):
One thing I forgot to mention was when we were at Kruger, we did see a male lion with full on main. And we just saw briefly in the distance and we saw him sit down and then he was hidden again. And we forgot to point that out. But we did see

3 (1h 13m 51s):
That was the only male lion you saw.

4 (1h 13m 52s):
And the mail line for like five seconds. He came out of a Bush, was walking and then he just plopped down. And then once he plopped down, that was it. Other than that, we didn’t see any wild male lions, whether it was a male on our lion walking encounter, but in terms of wildlife. And that was the only one.

3 (1h 14m 7s):
Very nice. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this week’s episode. Please keep the adventure going with us and follow us on Instagram at Travel Squad Podcast. Send us in your questions of the week and tag us in your adventures on Instagram.

2 (1h 14m 21s):
And if you found the information in this episode to be useful, or you thought we were just playing funny, please share it with a friend that would enjoy it too.

4 (1h 14m 28s):
Please subscribe, rate, and review our podcast and tune in every Travel Tuesday for new episodes.

1 (1h 14m 34s):
Make sure to pack your bags in your car because next week we are taking you on a weekend getaway to big bear, big

4 (1h 14m 40s):
Bear,

3 (1h 14m 41s):
Big bear mountains. Bye everyone.

4 (1h 14m 45s):
Bye.