So South Africa was possibly the most extreme animal encounter place of my life. First of all Cape Town is like any city in America it was crazy I mean they had Aston Martin dealerships nutzzooo anyways so the first day I did a wine tour with Fran, Mac, Brit, Tracey, and two of Brits friends whos names have sadly left me ☹. Anyways we drove to Stellenboch and it was beautiful like right out of the picture of Provence, France in my room. So we did about three wine tours and me and Brittney only drank white wine because red BLAH and the first place we went too had the most distinct tastes the first one was fruity, the second woody, and the third like buttered poppin corn it was crazy…and gross….Brittney and I drank the water … more on that later. So after wine tasting we spent time in the town and shopped and I dropped a pretty penny but whatever I got some sweet gifts than we went home and I got diarrhea which I still have and it sucks…WHY DID I DRINK THE WATER UGHHH ahahah but thankfully its not that bad…than the next day we woke up at 4:15 am and caught a flight 2.5 hours away for our SAFARI!!! Let me tell you it is literally the coolest job ever!!! But I will get to it so anyway I met this kid named Smith and I called him sport and I got poop for it forever!! They all called be grandpa hahah ohss well and I went with mac and Jill – who is hysterical…anywaysss so we got to the park around 12ish and I was zonked but we were going on a ride that DAY!!! And I got into the jeep with an open top just like in a safari and I had an old man driver – he was not really cool but anyways John the doctor on board who is possibly the funniest person ever was in my car so it was wicked fun anyways….we saw elephants the first day and also zebra and all sorts of other stuff…then it was an early night for all because we had to get up at like 5am for an early morning game drive … ] so we woke up and I had CAZ (caz@backcountryafrica.co.za) as my driver !!! she is amazingly BAMF I have never met some more BAMF in my life she had the most amazing stories….so we got into the park and the first thing that happens is that a herd of about 15-20 elephants cuts us off completely!!1 soo COOL righttt but they were distressed Caz said an lion probably chased them and because they were so skiddish they were in major defensive mode. They were blowing their trunks and stuff at us and it was actually kinda terrifying you don’t realize how huge and powerful a wild elephant is…She said an elephant does two things when it is trying to intimidate you..the first is that it makes itself look bigger which is almost all the time a bluff and you can calls its bluff but she said if it bows its head at you that’s when it is extremely dangerous…Caz said that a chargin elephant is the most dangerious thing in the entire bush…AND THE ELEPHANT BOWED ITS HEAD AND WAS TROTTING TOWARDS US it was terrifying…but CAZ threw on the car and then put it in reverse and hit the gas and thankfully backed off she said that it was working to be in full charge mode… and that if it charged us it would just put one tusk under the car flip us over and if that did not kill pick us up with its trunk and throw us into the bush…IT WAS NUTS the POWER THESE THINGS HAD!!! Anyway that was intense…so than we drove around looking for lions…no lions ☹ but that’s okay it gives me a reason to go back and Caz said she would take us real style so that was sick!! Anywaysss so Caz had some amazing stories first of all she made me really think about my life and if I want to spend it in a business room she said that is quantity of life and this (the bush) is quality of life. So she said that her parents were both tour guides and she grew up in SA…and she said one time when she was scoping the area to see if it was okay for tourist to go out she stumbled upon three lionesses…two cubs and the lioness was injured and I was like “oh well at least two were babies and one was hurt” and Caz was like absolutely not that is one of the most dangerous situations ever because it was a lioness with her cubs which makes her very protective and she was injured so the lioness was desperate meaning it would do anything to protect her cubs so she was like all you can do is stare that lion right in the eye and if you maintain eye contact that is the only defense you have…because the lion recognizes you’re a predator because of your eyes on the front of your head…and you just have to stare and if you broke the eye contact that’s it your done. Dead. You have to remain eye contact…she said after pooping herself and staring down the lioness for about 8 minutes the lioness went away… HOWEVER if you look a jaguar right in the eye that’s it your dead you never look them in the eye it is received as a immediate threat and they will kill you….for her job and training what they would do is take her to a lions den with a professional and they would have to know how to behave and none of this is guaranteed its just the best thing you can do HOW CRAZY… like school let me throw you infront of a lion…a little H Doubs INTENSE….she also said she was one in the bush and her group was walking around a clearing and she had a bad feeling so she loaded her riffle and had it on her just in case…and then one of the tourists ran and screamed there is a rhino charging and Caz was like get behind me and pointed the gun at the Rhino and she said…DAMNIT (which is so South African along with Robot which is a Stop Light) i cant shoot it so she clapped her hands so hard that they bruised and SCREAMED at a CHARGING RHINO!!! And it haulted and ran away but then it came back from a different direction and a tourist was freaking out … naturally … and said I see the car I might run for it and Caz pointed the gun at her and said “If you run I will shoot you” because if that women ran not only would have everyone died but it would have been long and torturous because Rhinos don’t eat people…anyways she screamed and clapped again and the Rhino ran off…so later we saw giraffes which were kinda like French they would look down at you and be like ahhh caa hooo misjour you are zooo short but one had lion battle scars on it and that was cool…so anywaysss then we were driving and this huge elephant , male or bull , which we did not see before comes walking up the street… now at this point I am in the front seat right next to Caz and it was kinda freaky and she was like this Bull has charged me several times so I was kinda scared and I was like should I buckle my seat belt and she was like that wont do anything if he grabbed you the seatbelt would snap in a second…so anyway I was like kinda scared and he was in HEAT WHICH makes him highly unstable she said AND his was peeing testosterone everywhere it was crazy and he thought about charging us several times because Caz said that when they stop and put their front foot up it means they are thinking about it and it was crazy we were legit 20 feet away from a potentially charging bull which a HUGMUNGO!!! So then we spent the rest of the day traveling the park and singing lion king and Caz got us good she slowed down and was like sh sh shs sh shs sh and were all like LIONS OH YES and we sat there and Caz listened and listened and then she jumped at us ROARING I literally pooped myself!!! It was scary ahhah and then on the way back she was like the tree is poisonous, that will kill you, that bug don’t touch it, that bug will eat your eyes, that will cause blindness I was like HOLY POOP these bugs and killer plants are not like home and she was like this is Africa its different here…and literally the bugs looked like someone on an acid trip drew them and then they flew out of the page it was nuts so that night we had dinner and we played a fun game called something where you basically kill people and try to figure out who it is it was wicked fun…john kept killing everyone hahaha anywaysysysy the night we looked at the stars and they were the most amazing thing I have ever seen…you could see every single one and the milky way there was like more light in the sky than black it was crazy how much light pollution really drowns them out it was possibly one of the most beautiful things I could have ever seen… …it was just eye opening on how many stars were in the sky and I saw a shooting star because it was so so bright!! Anyways so the next morning we went back to cape town And the next day I went SHARK DIVING!~!!! this was so intense…so we drove two hours from cape town and went to this company now when we first got there there was this old sea dog Bryan who said he had only 4 days in his entire life where he has not seen a shark and the day before was one of them and we were like poop and he said the water was only 1 inch visability…so then I was like poop poop…but its okay so we took the boat out and it was really rocky and like 3/4 of the boat was throwing up and we went to seal island!!! Where the filmed the shark from planet earth and where great whites are known as the flying great whites because they jump out of the water to attack their prey…so we waited 2o minutes…3o minutes…4o minutes…and this is when I threw a Dorito in the water hoping to get a shark with it but a damn bird ate it was pissed … 6o minutes and then WE GET A CALL AND this guy has 4 great white sharks that are 8 feet long so we all got so excited and went there and let me tell you once you got into the water with these beasts it was amazing they would take the fish heads and lure the shark towards the cage and it would swim buy you and its tail fin was probs the size of my body like HUGE and it was so adrenaline pumping being in the water with it…than it we watched it like open its mouth underwater to try and eat the fish and it could swallow me whole and this 8 foot one is small for great whites I cant imagine a big boy…anywayss so when we are getting out I look over at Bradee who is getting out and right next to her the shark is above the water right next to the cage KNAWING on some fish it was terrifying!!! And then when the pulled me up they were LIKE LOOK OUT LOOK OUT AND I JUMPED AS FAST AS I COULD…. I HAVE NEVER MOVED THAT FAST IN MY LIFE TO FIND OUT IT WAS A BLUFF AND THEY WERE ALL LAUGHING AT ME!!! So scary…anyway so an hour goes by and we watched the other kids go and it was crazy scary because the people in the cage would be like wheres the shark and it would literally be 4 feet in front of them that’s how bad you could not see which is scary because how can you not see an 8 foot great white shark!!! Ya know so …anwyas so our group got to go in one last time and this time the water was way colder and also really harder to see and the guys were like you need to put you face right up to the view hole or you wont see anything so the view hole was about a foot and a half tall and uninterrupted for the entire cage so a very big hole…anwyas he was like DOWN DOWN DOWN because we did not have a snorkel we just went down when he told us too so we did and we put out faces to the opening and the chum lundged at my face me thinking it was a shark I jumped back wicked fast it was crazy scary… but like myself after chasing fish on a string for an hour I would be borded too so anywayys the guy goes DOWN DOWN DOWN again and the chum ludges at my face and I was like PSH chum and THEN CAME THE SHARK AND HE LITERALLY HIS MOUTH AND FACE WERE IN THE CAGE BECAUSE HE RAMMED IT SO HARD AND I WAS 7 INCHES AWAY FROM HIS MOUTH…WHEN THAT HAPPENS YOU CANT THINK…YOU JUST REACT…YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW YOUR NOT ABLE TO BREATH AND ALL I DID I DON’T EVEN REMEMBER BUT AS SOON AS I SAW HIS FACE COMING FOR MINE MY BODY JUST PUSHED AS FAR BACK AS I COULD BUT IF THAT CAGE WAS NOT THEIR I WOULD BE DEAD!!! AND WE STARED AT HIS OPEN MOUTH IN OUR FACES FOR LIKE 30 SECONDS…. And so we went back up and like wanted to cry but was so scared and had to shakes I couldn’t and then so the guy was like DOWN DOWN DOWN and I again put my face to the hole and the chum again came my way and the SHARK LITERALLY WAS IN THE CAGE AGAIN!!!! HIS MOUTH AND FACE WERE IN THROUGH THE HOLE AGAIN…WATCHING IT COMING WAS SO SUDDEN BECAUSE YOU CANT SEE LITERALLY YOU COULD BLINK AND HE WOULD BE EATING YOUR FACE….HE WAS THIS TIME 5 INCHES FROM MY FACE LIKE A GIRL WAS LEGIT SCREAMING BECAUSE FROM HER ANGLE MY HEAD WAS IN THE SHARKS MOUTH1!!!! IT WAS CRAZYYY SCARYY!!!! But soo so so so soo cooll I am so amazed with myself and have so much more respect for such powerfull creatures that I came to realize we as humans are nothing NOTHING!!! Without or machines … we would loose in every situation and that is just crazy to me that we legit are nothing compared to the sheer size and power of these amazing creatures….i loved South Africa and cant wait to go back!!!
pics to come
