Ted's Tours: The One Where We Go Home
- Stephanie Abbott-Grobicki
- Apr 20, 2016
- 4 min read
Before I get started, I would like to say that I had originally planned to write up the Safari in seven parts. If you can count/have kept track, you will realize that this is post number eight. I - much like many revered authors before me - liked the idea of this story being in seven parts but let's say I took the movie approach and decided the last bit was so action packed, it had to be divided into two (*cough* looking at you Jo *cough*). So here we are at the eighth and final chapter. Let's dive in, shall we?
Day/Night Nine was my least favourite campsite because we were surrounded by people. It was awful. That's monstrously untrue. It was just rather jarring after being in the wilderness with just James/Ted/Mike for company, and the occasional elephant. We were also kept awake by braying donkeys rather than roaring lions which is not as easy to forgive on the account that it is much less cool. We made it through the night in this civilized campsite area, and took off in the morning after the brief disaster of realizing we didn't have any water in our tank because SOMEONE (in my head this is said in an accusatory tone, but I don't remember if we figured out whose fault this was and if we did I have forgotten because I didn't write it down in my notes) let all the water run out. This was a little scary because we had a long day of driving ahead and could only refill the tank with non-potable water. We were able to buy some big plastic bottles at a nearby petrol station (sorry, environment), so after this little hiccup, we were on our way.
Day 10 was an exciting day because we got to drive on TAR!! Actual tar road.
Yes this is in fact us leaving a bit of tar road to go back onto a sandy track, but some of it was on tar and I enjoyed it.
Our destination was a beautiful place called Kubu Island (still in Botswana).
Kabul Island is eerily beautiful and filled with enormous Baobab trees. Baobab trees are magical - they are so majestic and you can tell they hold a history beyond what our little human brains can imagine. An island filled with these ancient plants made me feel like I was walking on a different planet as a complete stranger but also completely welcomed. It was very soothing, peaceful, and all around good for the soul.
We got to the campsite during the day (WHAT?! No?!) and were able to set up in the daylight. This happened a total of 3 times on the trip...if that, so this was very exciting.
By day ten, we all had our jobs to do and knew how to set up camp like a well-oiled machine. Ted's job was throwing us things from the top of the car, so once he was done he enjoyed a beer and surveyed his worker bees setting up camp for him. The evening was long and lazy. We ate a leisurely dinner and played some music next to the fire.
The sun set slowly over this scene and - after solving the world's problems - we made our way to bed.
James and I woke up with the sun and went for a walk, taking in the beauty of this island at sunrise.
We also had a bit of a photoshoot. And by photoshoot, I mean I made James pose in various places and I pretended to be a skilled photographer.
Being a little brother is a tough and demanding job.
Once breakfasted, we got ready to leave Kubu Island. We were lucky enough to catch a large flock of flamingoes on our way out:
Here we are passing through the gates, once we had signed out with the guard/manager:
It was definitely a bittersweet feeling. Although this wasn't our planned last day, we knew that this was our last day in a remote location surrounded by beautiful, rural Botswana. We proceeded to make our way back onto tar roads (Again?! Such a treat) and headed for South Africa. Our plan was to stop just over the border and then drive back to Johannesburg in a leisurely fashion the next morning. We ended up making such good time in the morning, and crossing the border much earlier than we expected.
So Ted made the executive decision to drive back to drive all the way back to Joburg that evening. We were greeted at around 10pm by my parents, who had flown in the previous day, and a huge thunderstorm (such is Johannesburg weather). It was good to be back, to shower, to actually get all the sand and dirt off but this was an amazing trip that I will treasure always. Not only was it an amazing experience getting to see the things we did, and learn from Ted, but I loved that I got to do this with my brother. James is one of the wisest and kindest people that I know and I am truly grateful to call him my brother. We had some amazing conversations over the course of our trip and I think our already strong relationship grew even stronger. It's been lovely writing this now - in April - because he is far away from me (James now lives in Cape Town) and these memories make me happy.
With that said:
After 11 long, exciting, animal filled days (and/or 4 long, different, unpleasant-realizations-of-what-adulthood-holds filled months of me writing this), we have reached the end of our Safari Story*. This is a sad day for us all, but my witty account of my time in South Africa is not over - never fear! Also at some point there will be a VLOG because I filmed our trip as well. Though absolutely NO PROMISES as to when that will be.
Look out for more adventures, coming soon to a computer screen near you! xx
To catch up on the whole story:
*Don't stop reading the blog though, Mom! There was more to our South Africa trip (as you know). If you read this blog and you aren't my mother, then well done to you, sir/ma'am, well done (and keep reading if you so wish).
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