I truly didn't mean to ignore this blog for 10 months. I blame the children, who are a lot harder to ignore than a blog. And also the fact that if it's a contest between sleep and one of the various hobbies that I used to enjoy, sleep now wins, every time. One might even say that sleep is my main hobby these days. When I get around to it.
But anyway, on to more exciting things. As of the last weekend in October, we've been here in Swaziland a year. Wow! And on our one-year anniversary we finally made it to the world-famous South African game park (Kruger) that is only three hours away.
I should say, three hours on a good day. Or if you have the kind of experience we did coming back, it might take you three hours plus an overnight. But before I get to that story, let's look at some nice animal pictures.
We left Mbabane about 1 p.m., which found us getting to Kruger a couple hours before dark. All of the pictures above were taken about half an hour before dark. If Murphy had ever gone on safari, he definitely would have come up with a law that all your best animal sightings will be half an hour before dark as you're racing to get to the gate so you don't get slapped with a big fine for getting there after the gate closes for the night. The animals at Kruger clearly know that all the humans (except those staying in the park) have to be out of the park by 6:30 p.m., because all the animals come out and frolic at about 6:25. In our case, as we were racing daylight and the clock to get to the gate, we saw elephants, rhinos, a mama warthog with her three baby warthoglets (quite possibly my favorite thing from the weekend, and I didn't even get a picture as we couldn't afford to stop), and most incredibly of all two giraffes standing in the road. Our friend who went with us and was driving had to stop the car and say, "What do I do? Drive between them? Do giraffes charge?" And none of us knew the answer, so we drove between them while they basically ignored us in their tall, gangly way.
One of the gorgeous starlings that were everywhere.
But anyway, on to more exciting things. As of the last weekend in October, we've been here in Swaziland a year. Wow! And on our one-year anniversary we finally made it to the world-famous South African game park (Kruger) that is only three hours away.
I should say, three hours on a good day. Or if you have the kind of experience we did coming back, it might take you three hours plus an overnight. But before I get to that story, let's look at some nice animal pictures.
We left Mbabane about 1 p.m., which found us getting to Kruger a couple hours before dark. All of the pictures above were taken about half an hour before dark. If Murphy had ever gone on safari, he definitely would have come up with a law that all your best animal sightings will be half an hour before dark as you're racing to get to the gate so you don't get slapped with a big fine for getting there after the gate closes for the night. The animals at Kruger clearly know that all the humans (except those staying in the park) have to be out of the park by 6:30 p.m., because all the animals come out and frolic at about 6:25. In our case, as we were racing daylight and the clock to get to the gate, we saw elephants, rhinos, a mama warthog with her three baby warthoglets (quite possibly my favorite thing from the weekend, and I didn't even get a picture as we couldn't afford to stop), and most incredibly of all two giraffes standing in the road. Our friend who went with us and was driving had to stop the car and say, "What do I do? Drive between them? Do giraffes charge?" And none of us knew the answer, so we drove between them while they basically ignored us in their tall, gangly way.
On Saturday we were up and driving around the park just after sunrise, but I can't remember what we saw as my long-term memory apparently doesn't function at that hour of the morning. I do remember that it was beautiful. We had breakfast at a cafe in the park, where William discovered that an elephant skull makes a great seat for a small boy, and where a certain member of the family insisted on a family picture.
One of the gorgeous starlings that were everywhere.
I don't even really bother to take pictures of the various -bok species (springbok, gembok, etc.), because they're everywhere, but I thought this plant was awesome.
We passed this graphic reminder that in spite of the cafes, gift shops, and smooth paved road, we were in fact in the wild, where things get eaten.
I like them better when they're alive.
By lunchtime we were headed out of the park, and after some pretty great impala burgers for lunch, we headed back to Swaziland. As we were crossing the border, about an hour and a half from home, a nasty storm sprung up out of nowhere, and the power at the border station went out. A few miles from the first major town on the Swazi side of the border, suddenly the driving rain turned to driving hail, and we had to pull off the road and find shelter (which thankfully wasn't too far away). I've heard stories here about cars being dented by hail, and in this case we really were concerned the windshield might shatter. It sounded like the car was being pelted with high-speed golf balls, and some of the pieces of hail were almost that big. It was pretty wild. After half an hour under a gas station awning, we ventured out again, as we were still hoping to get home by dark and time was tight. We encountered a surreal world of fields turned white with hail, roads that had turned into rivers, electricity poles and metal roofs lying where they shouldn't be (lots of people lose roofs in these severe windstorms), and of course heavy fog and rain.
The view from the gas station.
Most of the drive it looked like we were driving through those thick grey clouds.
Only slightly less well known than the maxim "Never get involved in a land war in Asia," is "Never drive after dark in Africa." By the time we got to the town of Pigg's Peak it was nearly dark, and we were pretty convinced that it would be foolish to make the hour drive back to Mbabane, along a famously bad road, in those conditions. We stopped at the first hotel we could find, which didn't have electricity at the moment, but did have beds. We were too tired to even eat dinner, and were in bed by 8.
Which was fortunate, or we would have had an even shorter night than we did, because at about 3:30 a.m. a group of very inebriated men decided to throw a big drunken party right outside our windows. I guess the thing to do at month's end when you get paid is to play loud music and drink yourself senseless at the local hotel. Lucky us for getting to participate in that little cultural moment.
Needless to say, we couldn't wait to get out of there and drive home, where I spent all of Sunday recovering from our vacation. I can't wait to go back to Kruger, but maybe next time we'll avoid this stormy late-spring time of year and all the adventure that comes with it...
I wrote this whole blog post and posted it, then realized I had forgotten to include perhaps the most important part of the weekend for me, which was a little moment of spiritual clarity I had while we were waiting out the worst of the storm in the shelter of our friend's SUV under the gas station awning. There we were in, a raging storm, with nothing but glass between us and it, and the adults were all a little on edge and anxious. We were worried, I guess, about how we would get home and if the vehicle would be damaged and all that. But the kids weren't worried. They just sat there, totally at peace, not a care in the world. Both because they don't really know about storms, but also probably because they were in the care of bigger and wiser people that they trusted wouldn't let anything bad happen. And I remembered in that moment that sometimes the Bible tells us to be like little children. Well, sometimes it tells us not to be like children, but we are instructed to have faith like little children, and the more time I spend around my own kids the more I think I have so much to learn about this. Such as that when life's storms hit, rather than getting all worked up about how I will get through it, I just need to relax in the safety of the place God is letting me ride out the storm, and trust that I am in the care of my bigger and wiser Father who has a sure hand when it comes to steering my life, and is going to make sure I come out the other side okay.
I wrote this whole blog post and posted it, then realized I had forgotten to include perhaps the most important part of the weekend for me, which was a little moment of spiritual clarity I had while we were waiting out the worst of the storm in the shelter of our friend's SUV under the gas station awning. There we were in, a raging storm, with nothing but glass between us and it, and the adults were all a little on edge and anxious. We were worried, I guess, about how we would get home and if the vehicle would be damaged and all that. But the kids weren't worried. They just sat there, totally at peace, not a care in the world. Both because they don't really know about storms, but also probably because they were in the care of bigger and wiser people that they trusted wouldn't let anything bad happen. And I remembered in that moment that sometimes the Bible tells us to be like little children. Well, sometimes it tells us not to be like children, but we are instructed to have faith like little children, and the more time I spend around my own kids the more I think I have so much to learn about this. Such as that when life's storms hit, rather than getting all worked up about how I will get through it, I just need to relax in the safety of the place God is letting me ride out the storm, and trust that I am in the care of my bigger and wiser Father who has a sure hand when it comes to steering my life, and is going to make sure I come out the other side okay.
