BOTSWANA SAFARI!

SAFARI TIME! Chobe National Park in Botswana

One weekend, I was able to travel to Botswana and go on a river cruise and game drive safari! This was seriously a dream come true of mine!!!!

I come to recognize how such young at heart I am because for me, this was living THE LION KING – hahahaha. “The Circle of Life” and “Hakuta Matata” kept playing in my head… whenever I would see a warthog, I’d go: “PUMBA!” and whenever I would see this one bird with a long, orange beak, I’d go: “ZAZU!” and when I saw the beautiful male lion with its mane, “MUFASA!” One of my favorite moments was when evening was coming, the sun was setting and we saw the three lions out. One went off ahead and as we looked, we noticed that two zebras were drinking at the waterhole. The other two lions were getting low and slowly, approaching its prey, the zebras. I started FREEEEEEEAKING out (of course in the inside, hahaha!) The zebras started noticing something was going on, so they started to walk away, BUT there was still a giraffe. He, too, was drinking from the waterhole. He would slowly get up, look around, and then go back to drinking. As he would go back down, the lions would start getting a little more closer each time. Eventually the giraffe caught on to what was going on and just ran for it - WAY BETTER THAN TV! I had some serious adrenaline, haha!!!!

That night, we drove to our campsite. The guides told us that we needed to remove any foods in our tents like fruit because elephants will come and be able to sniff it. He also told us that if we needed to get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, we needed to take someone with us because it is not safe to go out with lions out in the evening. Cheryna and Louisa were like, “Oh no, I am so not going to use the bathroom!” I exclaimed, “No, if you need to go, just wake me up!” Haha…I was getting so excited for it all! During the night, I could hear Louisa and Cheryna whispering to each other. I was thinking in my head, “What in the world are they talking about so late? Aren’t they tired?” and I rolled over. I was so tired and I knew we would be awaken by 6 am. It turned out, they were still awake because they could hear branches snapping and animals roaring, making noises… HOW in the world did I sleep through THAT??? When six rolled around and they woke us up, I decided to keep sleeping – even if it was just for 5-10 more minutes. Then outside the tent, I heard Louisa say, “There’s elephants!” ELEPHANTS?????!!! I quickly got out of my bed, put on my shoes, and jumped out of the tent. It was the BEST THING I COULD EVER WAKE UP TO!!!! There were around 6 elephants on our campsite just eating from the trees!

This place is a piece of heaven. It is evidence of God because imagine this: the magnificent elephants roaming, the hundreds of zebras running across these beautiful, green grasslands by the blue rivers and lakes…colorful birds flying through the sky and then the sun setting like a sapphire… the whole sky goes purple, pink, and dark blue. Once the sun completely sets, you can see all the stars and the milky way across the night sky. With all of this and then me watching it all, how can I say that this all “just happens to be”? It’s not just here. There is a God.

 Another beautiful spot? Victoria Falls - one of the World Heritage Sites. My first weekend here, I was able to go down to Victoria Falls to see the lunar rainbow - it is a rainbow in the night. I got a picture off of Google because my camera couldn't capture it. When I saw it, I gasped. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen with my natural eyes. As we walked by these gigantic waterfalls and pass the lunar rainbow, I remember turning to Rebecca and saying, "This is how I know there is a God.". We are so blessed to live in a beautiful world filled with beautiful people.

On Friday, I went to Victoria Falls during the day time with my kids and it was just as beautiful. Memorable moment of that hike at the falls? Some of the kids ran way ahead then the rest and at one point, they came running back, screaming, "SNAAAAKE!!!!". I ran to go find it, but it must have gone away by the time I got there. Then, a dozen baboons showed up and came unto our path. Francis kept walking past them and even started agitating them. I plead with me, "Francis, PLEASE stop! Don't die!" and then a couple of the baboons started walking past me. I got freeeeaked out as one of them turned to me and hissed. I just stood still and it eventually kept going. PHEW - I just had this image in my head that I would be the next one in the news about a monkey going berzerk and mauling a person's face off. I'm excited for this weekend! I'm going back to the falls, but this time, I will be ON TOP OF IT, SWIMMING IN IT! Hopefully I wont fall off ;)