South Africa was my 30^th country! A huge milestone and a big highlight! I only got to spend a weekend outside of Johannesburg actually sightseeing and relaxing since the majority of the trip was a work trip but nonetheless I had a great time and hope to go back soon one day to explore Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria and the rest of the country.

The highlight of the trip was definitely the safari lodge we stayed at in the middle of a reserve. The rooms were these huge hut suites that came with all the necessary amenities to make a trip comfortable but still feel like an experience in the wilderness. And the absolute favorite part was sitting on the verandah and suddenly seeing a giraffe go by or a pack of zebras just strolling around. The giraffes make a pretty loud clicking sound with their hooves (is that the right word?) when walking so if I was inside, I’d run to the windows whenever I heard the clicking sound.

The next day we took a tour on the game reserve nearby in a safari jeep. The jeep was half the fun, with wind blowing in our hair, the feel of cool air in the morning before the hot sun in the afternoon and of course actually being able to see the animals up close especially the lions, rhinos, ostriches and wild dogs just inches away from us.

Last but not least was the experience of being able to try some local meats. We had dinner at a traditional restaurant serving all kinds of ‘exotic’ meats. The menu changed every day depending on what game was available that day. I tried zebra and half expected the meat to be stripped black and white Jbut it just looked like regular meat. I was pretty glad giraffe wasn’t on the menu since eating that would be pretty hard after seeing so many of them just a few days before!