It has always been my dream to visit Africa, and South Africa is the easiest to start as it is more accessible and majority speak English.

After a long 11 hours flight from Singapore to Johannesburg, we waited a further 2 hours to take a 1 hours domestic flight to Nelspruit.

We have heard about some horror stories in Johannesburg but I still did not pay much attention to my belongings until we had some encounters in the Johannesburg international airport.

Incident 1: While eating our breakfast, an African guy approached us speaking in a language we could not understand. I was puzzled, still looking at him with my half awake and jet lag brain, and not being aware how dangerous the whole situation is. W is more alert. He quickly held tight to my bag which I conveniently leave it on the luggage trolley, thinking that it was safe since the trolley was just next to us. The African waiter was quick to notice that someone was troubling us and he spoke in an unknown language, and gesturing him to leave, while taking out his wallet to show that he has no money.
The waiter then told us that we have to be careful as it is very common for them to snatch bags away even in the airport. Thank god we met this kind-hearted waiter. 

Incident 2: After breakfast, we proceeded to the departure gate as we thought that the airport seems unsafe and we just wanted to leave Johannesburg quickly. It definitely did not help being Asian as we are the only 2 Asians around and almost all the Africans are staring at us.
While waiting for the lift, an airport security guard approached us and asked where we were going. I thought that airport security guard should be safe but I was wrong! We told him we were going to Nelspruit for the Safari and he said it was costly to see the animals. He then spoke in some unknown language (which I assume he is saying that we must be rich to be able to go to the Safari), and gesture to give him some coffee money. We pretended not to understand and quickly walked away.

Incident 3:  At the check in counter, we were patiently queuing for our turn and this friendly airline staff directed us to the next counter as he carried my luggage to the counter (without my permission. Neither did I request him to help as it was just a mere 1 m walk). When we were done, he asked us to give him 100 Rand which was insane. We decided to just give him a 10 Rand (approx SGD1) as we are too tired from the long flight. He wanted more than 10 Rand but I firmly said “No, if not I won’t even give you 10 Rand”.

These 3 incidents seem like a pretty bad start to our trip but I thought it was good as they taught us to be more alert to our surroundings and never trust anyone even if they are official staff.

Day 1

 It is rare to walk down the stairs nowadays! Made us feel like we are some VIPs taking private jet 🙂 Cheap thrill!

 We were going to the Kruger Safari! How exciting!!!!

We were exhausted after such long flights, and it was another 3 hours car ride to Naledi Game Lodge.

When we reached the lodge, the staff (so many of them but I could only remember Markus name so far) were standing outside to welcome us as if we were Presidents. We  quickly gobbled down the lunch the lodge prepared for us as we wanted to catch the afternoon game! The staff were so nice, to save our lunch for us (we reached about 2 pm +) and still manged to slot us in for an afternoon game!

Five minutes to our first game, we were pretty lucky to see three lions with their prey!

Feeling excited!

 We also saw a giraffe with a lion chasing after it!

After the evening game, we freshened up and went for dinner at 7pm with other tourists from China.

 

Naledi Game Lodge

Phone: +27 (15) 001-7092 Website: http://www.naledigamelodge.com/

Day 2
Morning game!

 Spotted many elephants!

 We had a break in this hut and ate some really nice cookies and drank hot milo to keep warm :)For our 2nd game, we did not manage to see many animals, only elephants and many different kind of deers. But we did learn a lot from the guides as I didn’t know the existence of Impala. I just grouped them as deers! How ignorant!

After lunch, we opted for trekking with the guide as we get to know more about how they track animals based on the footprint, marks on branches etc.

Since we are going on foot without vehicle, it can be rather dangerous if we encounter lions or leopards. So our guide carries a rifle with him and we should not walk together as a group. Animals tend to attack solo traveller, just like humans.

 Bone remains.

Spotted monkeys.

In the afternoon game (our 3rd game), we managed to see rhinoceros up close!

 

Still hopeful to spot leopard but only manage to spot this owl which stood so still.
So far we have spotted 4 out of the big 5. Where are you leopardy?
After the night game, we were heading back to the lodge. Little did I know that the dinner was going to be a big surprise.

THE PROPOSAL

W asked me to shower and change into something nicer and I was like for what? The dinner was at 7 pm and it was already 6.30 pm. Furthermore, we were just going to dine with the usual tourists and there were only animals around, it was not like we are going to any fine dining restaurants. So I ignored his suggestion.
I started to sense something was not right when W changed into a nicer shirt, and how he pretended to lose his pouch when the door bell rang.
Why would the door bell ring? When I opened the main door, there wasn’t anyone. Shortly after, I head someone at the other door (that connects to another living room. Yes, our room was really huge. We even had a living room 1 and living room 2).
Markus was at living room 2 and right in front of me was very romantically decorated room. I knew it! Must be the proposal. I’ve been looking forward to it but yet I’m not prepared right now as there were other staff around and I was so shy.

 I ran a few rounds in the room because I wasn’t sure if this was the right time to say yes. I was dying of embarrassment with the staff looking at me and all I wanted to do was run away. But I soon realised that I was in the middle of the Safari, where could I run to? And this was the man I would want to marry and live with.
So I said yes 🙂

W and the staff were all worried I would say no. Haha.

 The food was really good but we were very full from the huge servings of lunch and tea break.

Markus and his staff really decorated the room really well and I must say their service was excellent! We even had the chef coming in personally to explain the food to us, and the waitress checking on us regularly to see if we needed help.
Because I couldn’t bring any of the decorations back, I can only keep them in my heart as memories and to take as many photos as possible 🙂
Thank you W and all the staff for the proposal 🙂 I am blessed.

Day 3

Last day in the Safari 😦

 Spotted giraffe again 🙂

So lucky to see the lion with her fresh prey, Waterbuck early in the morning! According to the guide, the lion killed her the night before and now she is trying to hide the prey for her children to eat.

 Trying to hide from the sneaky hyenas.

I like how the different lodges will cooperate and inform each other when they spot the animals!
And so we concluded our 3D2N stay in the Safari. I’m so missing this place!

Goodbye lovely room. Goodbye Safari. You will be missed.

On our way to Cape Town!