CHARLIE -
'Right, lets get these drunk guys up eh' are the first words that enter my ears as Anthony and Andrew breeze good naturedly into the dorm. I look over to see a perplexed Jamie suddenly realise what is going on, and utter an appropriate whine of dismay. We are hungover. Jamie seems to be of the opinion that he 'wasn't that drunk'. I urge him to reconsider this opinion with various reminders that I won't embarrass him by elaborating on here.
Feeling like dogshit, we set off for Kruger national park in a minibus. We attempt a conversation in south african accents. This results in many other accents being attempted. Hours later we arrive and are met by a sweet lady with a vacant stare, who seems very unlikely to be running a game lodge in a safari park. We are shown to a rather nice treehouse with 4 single beds. We consider the fact that it could look a bit gay if we sleep in adjacent beds when there are other options, and choose accordingly. We sit round the campfire and chat to an interesting assortment of people.
JAMIE -
My first perception of the day was our hostel owner, the lovely Anthony, hollering "Oi, wake those two drunkos up!" down the corridor, followed by some already-forgotten statement to the effect that we would miss our ride to Kruger if we didn't get ourselves moving - all in very friendly, sarcastic spirit, of course.
Yes, last night was slightly messy. I have been far drunker, certainly, and we were only in the hostel lounge/bar area so it was hardly a big night out; but Damian, our Australian friend, turned out to be awesome and the White Russians went down a treat. I recall lots of excellent chats about everything (quantum physics being a highlight) and us watching 'District 9' and a varied dose of British comedy. Poor Andrew sleeps behind the bar, we discovered, and we had to tiptoe over him in order to procure beer from the bar to add to the mix. The final move of the evening was to irritate our roommates with our (well, my) drunken attempts to go to bed, before eventually slipping into a distinctly alcoholic slumber.
So, on to today then: the drive to Kruger was a hungover one and largely uneventful, save for Charlie's and my developing attempts to adopt South African accents, and an at-points beautifully landscaped journey through the mountains. It was almost dark by the time we finally arrived, but there was just time for a twilight drive in the safari jeep, during which we saw nothing big but spotted an assortment of smaller animals, the highlights of which were a pair of honey badgers. (Apparently these creatures are as hard as nails and even a car running over them will not kill them!)
Our lodge seems a lovely retreat and the host, though somewhat vacant and - well - MENTAL, is nevertheless extremely welcoming. Dinner was very tasty and we had a few drinks around the fire speaking to fellow safarigoers before retiring to our homely treehouse for the night.
Today, also, was Gend's day. Mate, I can't believe it has really been three years: I can still see you as clearly as if it were yesterday and strangely I feel closer to you out here, far from home. On this day for each of the past three years I have been in some far-flung foreign land and it feels right that I take my memory of you to all these exotic places - not quite sure why. So, I've been thinking of you a lot today, dude, and miss you more than I can say. From South Africa, all my love.
'Right, lets get these drunk guys up eh' are the first words that enter my ears as Anthony and Andrew breeze good naturedly into the dorm. I look over to see a perplexed Jamie suddenly realise what is going on, and utter an appropriate whine of dismay. We are hungover. Jamie seems to be of the opinion that he 'wasn't that drunk'. I urge him to reconsider this opinion with various reminders that I won't embarrass him by elaborating on here.
Feeling like dogshit, we set off for Kruger national park in a minibus. We attempt a conversation in south african accents. This results in many other accents being attempted. Hours later we arrive and are met by a sweet lady with a vacant stare, who seems very unlikely to be running a game lodge in a safari park. We are shown to a rather nice treehouse with 4 single beds. We consider the fact that it could look a bit gay if we sleep in adjacent beds when there are other options, and choose accordingly. We sit round the campfire and chat to an interesting assortment of people.
JAMIE -
My first perception of the day was our hostel owner, the lovely Anthony, hollering "Oi, wake those two drunkos up!" down the corridor, followed by some already-forgotten statement to the effect that we would miss our ride to Kruger if we didn't get ourselves moving - all in very friendly, sarcastic spirit, of course.
Yes, last night was slightly messy. I have been far drunker, certainly, and we were only in the hostel lounge/bar area so it was hardly a big night out; but Damian, our Australian friend, turned out to be awesome and the White Russians went down a treat. I recall lots of excellent chats about everything (quantum physics being a highlight) and us watching 'District 9' and a varied dose of British comedy. Poor Andrew sleeps behind the bar, we discovered, and we had to tiptoe over him in order to procure beer from the bar to add to the mix. The final move of the evening was to irritate our roommates with our (well, my) drunken attempts to go to bed, before eventually slipping into a distinctly alcoholic slumber.
So, on to today then: the drive to Kruger was a hungover one and largely uneventful, save for Charlie's and my developing attempts to adopt South African accents, and an at-points beautifully landscaped journey through the mountains. It was almost dark by the time we finally arrived, but there was just time for a twilight drive in the safari jeep, during which we saw nothing big but spotted an assortment of smaller animals, the highlights of which were a pair of honey badgers. (Apparently these creatures are as hard as nails and even a car running over them will not kill them!)
Our lodge seems a lovely retreat and the host, though somewhat vacant and - well - MENTAL, is nevertheless extremely welcoming. Dinner was very tasty and we had a few drinks around the fire speaking to fellow safarigoers before retiring to our homely treehouse for the night.
Today, also, was Gend's day. Mate, I can't believe it has really been three years: I can still see you as clearly as if it were yesterday and strangely I feel closer to you out here, far from home. On this day for each of the past three years I have been in some far-flung foreign land and it feels right that I take my memory of you to all these exotic places - not quite sure why. So, I've been thinking of you a lot today, dude, and miss you more than I can say. From South Africa, all my love.
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