South Africa Bound

At Duke, interns are alloted 4 weeks of vacation, given in 2 one week blocks and 1 two week block.  My two weeks off are at the end of April and Aaron and I definitely didn't want to spend two weeks just twiddling our thumbs.  So we decided to go to South Africa!

Why we choose South Africa
-I've never been out of the country and Aaron's been as far as Mexico.  We wanted somewhere that would only have a small language barrier, since we don't have too much experience
-the dollar is still strong there.  Hallelujah! It is cheaper to stay in Cape Town than it is to stay in most American cities.  Bed  & Breakfasts are really strong there and they are usually $100/night.  The hotels we are looking at cost around $140/night.
-It's beautiful!!! and filled with so much culture.  We definitely plan to go to Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years out of the 27 he served.

One of our big plans is to go on a Safari!  We are going to stay at a few nights a game lodge in Kruger National Park.  The lodge takes you on 2 rides a day, as well as some walks.  It's very much like a hotel and they prepare all of your meals for you.  I don't do a good job with roughing it, so this works very well for me!

Naledi Game Lodge, where we have decided to stay

All of the reviews said the food was fabulous.  Everyday they go all out! Here's the breakfast first course.

The room's range from simple to luxurious - we picked a simple room to be on the wallet friendly side.  Rooms are just for sleeping anyway!  Naledi is quite small and divded into 2 camps.  Our camps, Bushbank, houses 8 people max and I think the other can hold up to 12.  I'm really excited.  Some of the animals you can expect to see are elephants, rhinos, buffaloes and lions.  Of course there's much more than that to see.  Here are some photos guests have taken from Tripadvisor

This photo of Naledi Bushcamp and Enkoveni Camp is courtesy of TripAdvisor



This photo of Naledi Bushcamp and Enkoveni Camp is courtesy of TripAdvisor



This photo of Naledi Bushcamp and Enkoveni Camp is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Wild dogs! This one is actually a little scary!



This photo of Naledi Bushcamp and Enkoveni Camp is courtesy of TripAdvisor

OMG I'm so excited!!!

After we spend a few days at Naledi, we plan to go to Cape Town for about 5 nights, followed by 2 or 3 nights in Wine Country.  South African wine is said to the best in the world, and if you know Aaron he loves wine.  Also, our friends own a fabulous wine shop, The Wine Feed, in Raleigh and said they'd call some of their distributors and have them welcome us. :-)  It will be a very boozy end to a fabulous trip!  I'm definitely going to choose a more luxurious place to stay for the last leg of our trip.  I'll post more pictures of our travel plans soon.  Let me know if you have any recommendations about where to stay in Cape Town or Wine Country!