Waka Waka

Since I was a wee little one, I’ve always dreamed of travelling to Africa, in particular to see all of the animals. In April, I was lucky enough to make the trip to Johannesburg and Botswana. What I expected was pretty much the set of the Lion King. However, after arriving in a freezing cold Johannesburg I found myself asking “where is a jumper?” rather than “where is Simba hanging out these days?”. Well, for one, I was instantly corrected on my use of the word jumper as the South Africans call it a sweater- lame. They also call traffic lights “robots” and are constantly using the words “ya” and “as well”. For example, if we were to say “she ate all that and a bag of chips”, they would instead say “she ate all that and a bag of chips AS WELL”. The major difference about South Africa in comparison to Australia though is the crime level. I had heard from a reliable source.....ok, it was Cosmo and 60 Minutes but whatever......about the horrific events that happen in people’s everyday lives in Africa including rape, car jacking, shootings, robbery and assaults. From the actual South Africans that I did meet, they only spoke of their experiences with car jacking, robbery and assault, clearly not as bad as what 60 minutes made it out to be (*insert collar pulling here*). It’s quite funny to hear about it all because the South Africans tell the stories like it’s normal because it’s totally normal to shoot some guy in your apartment building because he embarrassed you in a meeting with your neighbours. And it’s normal to be gardening , feel something on your forehead and look up to be greeted by a large black man holding a gun to your head. And it’s normal to stop at the traffic lights, be pulled out of your car at gun point and have to run home in your knickers coz someone stole all your clothes while they were stealing your car. God Bless Australia.


I found it bizarre that electric fences were a necessity around every house, that you couldn’t have your bag on the seat next to you while driving for fear of your car being broken into while you’re in it or worse being shot and that all of the people living in Johannesburg have an emergency escape route in their car in case they are being followed. So apparently it wasn’t out of the ordinary when on my final night in Johannesburg while playing board games, I found myself immersed in darkness and being informed that the house two doors down was being robbed and the thieves had accidentally tripped the wrong wires. It’s a strange feeling when you look outside to see the light of torches shone by security checking for men who could be ready to rob or kill you.

Don’t get me wrong, Johannesburg is culturally so different and such a different experience and that’s essentially what makes it so interesting to visit. Their diets consist of mince meat, dried meat, sausages and sometimes a salad. I put on four kilos while I was over...plus you become a little less regular if you know what I mean. They call a barbeque a “braii” and eat these super long sausages that are cooked in a coil called “boerewores”. I love meat and it seemed the Africans were willing to provide for my every need. Every meal was delicious. I became obsessed with Biltong, which is pretty much beef jerky but more delicious, and dried mango. Neither of them you can really get in Australia without searching hard.

While in Botswana, we stayed at the Chobe Safari Lodge and the food there was no exception. Imagine buffet breakfasts and dinners including impala mince, roast warthog and kudu lasagne along with every other food you could ask for. It was heaven. In the mornings we went on game drives spotting lion paw prints (note that we did not see any actual lions), impala, kudu, warthogs, giraffe, puku, marabou and rare sightings of a jackal and a leopard tortoise. During the day, we cruised along the Chobe river gasping over countless Elephants, hippos, crocodiles, buffalo and fish eagles while sipping on beers and chowing down on biltong. It was so hard to believe that this enormous expanse of water was only there for a portion of the year while for the rest of the time it’s empty enough that the animals can migrate in huge packs to Namibia on the other side of the river. What was also difficult to believe that people could possibly kill such amazing animals. African elephants are endangered yet we saw hundreds of them...imagine just how endangered the lions are if they live in this area and we didn’t even see one of them.

On one of the days, we decided it would be fun to go fishing so off down the river we raced. The native Namibian man took us to the rapids where we quickly drifted down the river. It would have been great if he stopped casting my rod for me (which I can clearly do, although he thought I was incapable) and looked at where we going before we ran into a tree. Not only did I get smacked in the head but I also got covered in spiders, furry caterpillars and stick insects. As a female, I am terrified of bugs. Usually I’m fine with spiders if they’re on a wall but not when they’re crawling over me. As it was my fourth day in Botswana, I had become accustomed to large spiders running around, swarms of dragon flies in the air at all times and bugs snuggling into my shoes so at this stage I wasn’t too fussed when I was covered in them. I merely swatted them off and went back to fishing. Probably should have done a better job because when we returned to shore, I had no fish to show everyone, just an enormous spider bite on my back. I still have the scar four weeks later. Delightful.

Famous last words? We are all Africa....no Shakira, I think you'll find that is politically incorrect and racially offensive.


Yes this video isn't very interesting but it's all the animals I saw :)

Banging kok.

So in February I went to Thailand with four other girls and it's taken me this long to edit and upload just the Bangkok video. So please apprectiate it. I put my heart and soul into this video...I'm seriously challenged at editing. Koh Samui and Koh Phanang coming soon....