Drew: Botswana, Zimbabwe, Kruger National Park, and the Return Trip

Wow, we haven't posted in quite some time, so I'm sure you're all wondering if we're even still alive! For those of you who picked us up at the airport, you know that we made it (although just barely!).

To follow up from the last post... we spent 5 more days in Namibia which took us to Etosha National Park for 2 days of great safari adventures and then some R&R (well, as much as one can get in Africa) in the capital city of Windhoek.

Next we headed into Botswana, a country that has several elephants, donkeys, and foot-and-mouth-disease checkpoints on the roads. Here, we spent 3 days in the Okavango Delta, which took several hours to get to, and once there, we were completely in the Wild. No guns for protection (and we actually came within 20 meters of a real wild lion eating a real dead antelope), no toilets for doing your business (but we did have a nice hole that we dug in the ground), and no civilization or cities or cell phone reception for miles upon miles upon miles. It was great. Wonderful experience!

After the Delta, we spent a day at Chobe National Park where we spent almost an entire day riding on a motor boat up and down a river watching elephants, hippos, crocodiles, monitor lizards, several hawks and eagles, and many other animals.

Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (largest waterfall in the world) was the next stop. It was gorgeous! There were also craft markets at which you could trade t-shirts, shorts, pillows, shoes, and even food for handcrafted goods and souvenirs.

We then drove for 2 days straight down to Johannesburg. Following this, we departed for Kruger National Park and finally saw the only animal of the Big 5 that had so far been elusive... the mighty leopard!!! Other Big 5 animals include the rhino, elephant, buffalo, and lion.

The return trip was CRAZY! All total, we spent 43 hours traveling from Johannesburg to Kansas City and were detained at Immigration in Cape Town for supposedly being in the country illegally, sat on a plane in New York City for over 4 hours before it finally took off, and then missed our connecting flight in Atlanta that would have brought us home. Scrambling for a way to return home, we ran to a boarding gate that was sending a flight to KC, and luckily, a super wonderful lady took pity upon us and put the three of us at the top of the standby list and eventually ensuring that we had a seat on the plane! And while we arrived 3 hours later than we wanted to, and while most of our baggage didn't even arrive until even later that evening, we managed to do the most important thing: make it back safe and sound.

I'm sure we all have our cell phones back on now so give us a call!