Thulani was amazing!!!! It was my favorite place out of the first three places we stayed. First was Melvilla Guest House (in Johanessburg), then Cradle Boutique Hotel (in Cradle of Humankind), and then Thulani (near Hoedspruit, in Northeast South Africa)! I shared a room with Emmy right next to the pool.
The staff people were terrific! Kelvin was the game driver, and he helped with other things too. Charlene was the chef, and Nmbuso was the chef’s assistant. Charlene was amazing! She cooked the best foods and was super friendly and kind.
The pool was freezing! Like super cold. It felt nice on my face, arms and legs when we returned from Kruger, but otherwise, it was super hard. The rooms were excellent, and the bathrooms were awesome!
On the first game drive, we saw things like giraffes, zebras, and lots of antelope and wildebeest. Kelvin had prepared a sunset snack of mango nuts cocktails for adults and soda for kids. Yes, we did get to share a sprite and a Fanta. Mom will say yes to soda for the first time and probably the last.
On Tuesday we went to visit a school. On Wednesday, we went to a wild animal Rehabilitation center. There we saw lions, leopards, cheetahs, honey badgers, birds, and many more animals. It was sad to see how animals are badly caught in traps and wounded. Some of them die from their wounds. The rehabilitation center was fun and painful, and I would recommend it. It is called Moholoholo wildlife rehabilitation center.
Today we visited NTSOELEMOLODI Primary School! We actually visited twice. The first time we went, we did a tour and gave oranges to all the students and staff! There were so many oranges. We started when Trygive picked us up and explained the school’s history.
We drove for quite a while, but we had to stop for gas. Before we stopped for gas, we went through town, and on the side of the road, there were so many people selling things. Among those things were oranges, and a lot of them. Trygive helped us pick a stand to buy from. It was run by a lady and she was SO happy when we bought ALL her oranges in on go. We piled them in the back seat which was where I and Bardez were sitting.
Bardez and I buried in oranges to take to the school!
I and him got covered in oranges. It was actually kind of nice like a massage except one of my feet was bent in a painful position. When we got to the school I and Bardez started thinking about how we would get out when we were covered in oranges.
Thankfully others had a plan. As we went through a gate about 20 kids in uniform came out. There were also a couple of drummers! The children started marching in a circle around us. Mom told us to join them and as homeschoolers, we could not stay in the line very well. We eventually got into the rhythm but only for a short time because the principal signaled the students to stop. We got to meet the teachers and principal and there was a short welcome speech then the principal said there was going to be a traditional dance done by some of the girls. The dance was beautiful and I enjoyed it very much.
The principal took us into her office and talked about the school and grades. We then got to tour the school and classrooms. The classes were not small. Though they were organized. The school had grades kindergarten through 7. When the school had a huge garden with lots of vegetables and some bathrooms. It also had a new library except there were no bit chapter books for the older kids. It also had a netball court. Net Ball is close to basketball but pretty different.
I got to sit in the 5th-grade classroom with Bardez for a few minutes. It was a little awkward between the students and us but soon things slackened. After lunch, we played some violin and sang the national anthem of South Africa with the kids. Then it was time to go. None of us kids wanted to leave but we had to. We asked if we could come back for a day of school later that week. And we did!
The day at school was so awesome! I totally loved it! When we got there I went to the 6th-grade classroom, B went to 5th and Emmy and Zeb went to 7th. When I got in it was very awkward. I just sat at the desk in the front row next to a boy who had his book open. While the teacher was teaching I noticed a lot of whispering going on. I was okay with it. To them, this was a day at school where a new white girl was in their class and they were probably curious. Soon the atmosphere relaxed a bit.
They had been learning about electricity and how to save it. There was an activity where we had to get notebooks out. I had brought my notebook and I got it out of my backpack. I got good marks on my paper when the teacher checked it and I got high praise. I wasn’t sure if it was getting high praise because I was a guest or if it was the norm. At one point I started trying to figure out what one-third of 100 was. Then there was an activity where the teacher shared a poem he made then he asked me if I could write one. I told him about my little bear Poems. He asked me to write one. I was worried that I would not be able to write a good one but I did.
It took us a little while and in the end, when I read it the teacher asked the other students what it was about. I really enjoyed the rest of the class and I would love to go back. It was my first time in a classroom and my first day of going to a school (that wasn’t homeschooling). I really really really loved it!
Jabulani the elephant was trying to get into Bardez’s backpack to get his apples out! We were at Herd elephant orphanage. A place that took care of orphaned elephants. They would find the elephants then rescue them out of situations and nurture them back to health. Jabulani was the elephant that started it all.
Jabulani was the elephant that also sniffed out anything from apples to cigarets. The cigarette story is true. One day a teenager boy and his family went to go see some elephants. The boy had been secretly smoking and Jabulani took the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. The boy was ratted out by an elephant!
Bardez did not have cigarettes, he had apples. And Jabulani wanted them! There were two other elephants there that we got to meet but Jabulani was the best one. We got to learn about the elephants and see them. I would totally recommend this. It is personal and you get to hug and touch the elephants. Being in Africa and seeing all the animals makes me think it is weird that we don’t have lions or giraffes or elephants or zebras in America. I feel like there should be some there but there isn’t. The elephants were gentle giants and I really enjoyed seeing them and being up close. I would go back there and visit again to see Jabulani and make sure he does not steal anyone’s things ever again.
Today is Thursday and we were supposed to go to school again, but instead, we went to Kruger National Park! We had to wake up at 5:00 am and get in a safari vehicle with doors and a canvas roof to drive the hour to Kruger. Before we got to the ticket station we saw three elephants and one rhino! At 8:30 am, we had breakfast at a lookout point. Charlene had made us muffins that were so good! After breakfast, we drove more and saw a hyena and a lion!
Lioness in the Grass
The first lion in Kruger that we saw was a female in the shade of trees. We were driving down the road and there were a lot of cars idling in the road and on the side of the road. We were told that there was a lion somewhere in the field and we looked for about ten minutes without seeing anything. As we were driving away I saw the lion’s tail flick up through the tall grass and I told everyone. The lion was behind a giant root and under a tree and through all the time we were looking for it everyone kept saying there is nothing under the tree. The lion proceeded to sit up and look around for thirty seconds, then she laid back down again to sleep. A little while after the lion, we saw a herd of buffalo! They were mostly laying down in the tall grass so we could not see their full mass.
Pride of Lions
You might be wondering if we only saw the big five. No, we did see a lot of giraffes, antelopes, and wildebeest. After the buffalos, we drove around for a long while, and then we came upon a pride of lions! First, we just saw one mom with three cubs then we saw other lionesses. I also saw what looked like a male lion laying in the shade of a tree. It was a male, and in the end, there were eight females and four cubs, and one male! While watching the lions, we saw a herd of elephants visit the water hole very close to the lions! After the Lions, we went to see if the elephants were in an ideal place to see them and as we turned the corner on the road and the whole herd of elephants! There were a couple of bulls and some smaller elephants and one tiny baby. The small one mostly hid behind the older ones but we got to see it briefly. We stayed next to the elephants for 20 minutes then we moved on. The air was literally as hot as the breath of an oven so we were all ready to go home. Luckily, our driver said it would take us about 15-20 minutes to get out of the park. It took us 45.
Behind the Elephants
On our way down the dirt road we saw some giraffes and a wildebeest but we had seen so many and it was so hot that nobody went “Look a giraffe what an exotic animal! we all just said “oh, there are four giraffes on the side of the road, what a surprise.” After about 7 minutes of driving we got stuck behind a herd of big, slow elephants walking in the road. We had no idea where they were going. I was thinking, “they’re just trying to slow us down so they can be first to wherever they are going.” All of the elephants except one went off the road. This one elephant was going so slowly. He was probably tired and hot like the rest of us but couldn’t he just get off the road? No, he had to walk on the road, and poop on it. Fresh elephant dung is very smelly especially when the elephant is ahead of you and the wind is blowing toward you.
Lunch Behind the Elephants
As we were driving slowly we got lunch out. Lunch was under my seat so I had to get down on the floor and get out all the food and drinks. Lunch was the best lunch wrap ever! I bet the elephants were jealous:) By the time we were eating lunch the elephants were all off the road. We finally saw what they all were heading for. A water hole! Or a mud hole. The elephants were playing in the mud and splashing themselves! Three elephants had strayed from the group to drink from the fresh water spring, man-made! After the elephants got out of the way, we drove off. The ride home was so hot and long! At one point I pulled out my hair tie and my hair flew around and stood on end. When we finally got home my face felt like it had been burnt by the wind
Cradle of humankind was interesting. It was cool to learn about all the history and see the animals. We stayed at the Cradle Boutique Hotel and the hotel rooms were little huts with thatched roofs. The first unofficial game drive we went on was a drive, then a walk. We saw antelope, wildebeest, monkeys, giraffes and a zebra. On the walk, we went to a cave that you had to crawl into. I was very scared of going into the cave but I had to. Mom was very encouraging even when I saw a bat hanging from the fall inches from my face. When we got to the bottom there was just enough room for 4 kids and one adult so mom and dad sat in the shaft thing. On our way out mom cracked one of the bones on the floor and it sounded super weird.
The food at the hotel was super good. I had the best risotto in my life there and I tried an ostrich! They also had a kid’s drink called an Appletizer. It is basically their version of Martinelie’s or sparkling apple juice in a can.
Visiting a Famous Cave and Museum
On Saturday we went to the famous caves. They were really big and cold and there was a lot of history about all the bones found there. The second cave was just a museum; there was no actual cave. It started with a water ride that is just floating through tunnels. It was fun but not thrilling. Then you went through a vortex tunnel. A vortex tunnel is a tunnel where you go in and stand on a platform and the walls are a tube around you and the tube around you spins so it feels like the platform is falling sideways. They are really cool! The rest of the museum was pretty cool but one fact that stood out to me a lot was that there were 5 massive extinctions and could we be the sixth? Could we also bring our own extinction upon ourselves? This thought was intriguing and scary. I do not think that the extinction of humans will happen in my lifetime but it could. There was a thing called a kiddies cave and what I imagined was a playroom but it was a literal cave.
The Glow of a Wildfire, Just Over the Hill!
That night as we were eating dinner we could see a huge wildfire just over the hill that was just one mile away from us! The next day we went for a game drive and we got to see the amount of burnt land. There was a line of black. Burnt, not burnt, burnt ground not burnt ground. There was still some smoking ground. It turns out the fire was started by arsonists who were attempting to burn down a movie set for a movie about a Zulu king named Shockra. They did not succeed in burning down the set or coming within three hundred feet of it. But they did succeed in burning down 2,000 hectares of ground.
Cradle of Humankind was my third favorite place in the first three places we stayed. I would recommend it as a weekend but not for too long.
So much ice cream!Fried Ground after fireSophie is so confused. she doesent understand why we cant drive off the cliff and use the road at the bottom instead of following her.Thatched roof room.
