Monkey Thieves!

Journal #18 February 24, 2009

So waking up at 3:30 in the morning on Thursday Feb. 19 was a little difficult but I was able to do it in excitement for my trip. Surprisingly the trip did not start off on a very good note. One boy forgot his passport so he had to run back to the ship to get it and another girl did not even have her passport because it was stolen so she just had a paper copy. Because of these events we arrived 30 min late to the air port. And of course the air port was absolutely crowded. This was the fasted I had ever entered an air port and flown off so quickly. None of us even had a time to sit and relax; however, we did make our flight.

I slept most of the way. I read for a little bit. I bought a new book in Cape Town. Its called Twilight and I have become addicted. Its about vampires but they are good!! So after arriving in Durban we had a 3 hour drive to our lodge. Again I slept most of the way.

As the gates opened to where we were staying I was amazed at how many animals I had already seen. I saw beautiful impalas running across the road, and many more that I can not remember the name of. As we arrived to the Zululand tree lodge I knew we were in for a treat. The workers were extremely nice and they had lunch waiting for us. As we ate lunch we realized all the monkeys climbing in the trees around us contemplating on whether or not to come and take our food. After a little while the monkeys would come closer and closer. I knew any minute from now the monkey would be on our table, and just like that he jumped on our table and took Elise’s bread. It was quite scary but really cool at the same time.

So when we were able to get to our rooms I found out that me and Elise were roommates. THANK GOODNESS!!!! We had to walk pretty far in the woods to get there. Every pair of roommates has their own little hut on stilts to stay in. It was soooo cool. Our beds were covered with mosquito nets, our bathroom was huge, and we had a balcony. I thought I was going to be roughing it but no, I was living the life.

After getting settled in we got ready for out first game drive. I was quite excited. All of us separated into 3 different cars (mine was the party car!!) and off we went. For about 3 hours we drove around the reserve and saw many animals. My favorite was the giraffe!! They are so graceful and look so sweet. We also saw water buffalo, zebras, and water hogs. When we got back to the lodge dinner was waiting for us. I can not even begin to tell you how good the food was. After dinner a lot of us went to bed because of a long day of traveling and an early morning tomorrow for our 2nd day of game driving.