Sometimes we forget there is a world outside of Boston College, nonetheless outside of the United States. I am constantly reading articles and looking in travel magazines to get quick glimpses of the beautiful and extraordinary places around the world that I hope to visit in my lifetime. So many of these destinations seem worlds away and realistically I won’t be able to visit them. However, the number one place my sister and I have wanted to visit for many years is Africa.
Seeing as though the travel to Africa is just under 30 hours, and is a completely different continent and culture, we thought we would have to wait for this bucket list objective to be checked off. Yet, this past break, my family took a once-in-a-lifetime vacation to South Africa and Mozambique.
First stop: Cape Town, South Africa
We arrived blurry eyed after nearly 30 hours of travel with a layover in London. Excited to explore the city, we left our hotel, which was located in the waterfront area. It surprisingly looked a lot like a European country: built up, many restaurants, cute shops, and even a Ferris wheel. Because it was a few days before Christmas, there were a number of singing groups singing both Christmas songs and songs in Afrikaans (one of their 12 national languages). The following day we visited an ostrich farm, saw the penguins that are native to the tip of South Africa, and finally made it up a mountain to a lighthouse to see this view. While Cape Town wasn’t too different from any urbanized city, we did have to stop in the middle of the road because baboons were crossing…
Next Stop: Kruger National Park, South Africa
We arrived in the Hoedspruit airport and to all of our surprise, there was little security leaving the airport… About an hour from the airport was our lodge located in Manuletti: a part of Kruger National Park. It is a completely open section of the park, which means that animals can travel in and out of South Africa to places like Mozambique. In total we did 6 “game drives” which is driving through “the bush” and saw just about every animal you could imagine: elephants, leopards, zebra, hyena, lions, giraffes, buffalo, wildebeest, and even Timon and Pumba!
Final Stop: Indigo Bay, Mozambique
This required two flights and a helicopter ride to the island we were staying at. We flew in over the spectacular Indian Ocean. While it looked like most beaches in the Caribbean, from the beach the sand dunes were visible in the distance. We did everything from kayaking to swimming, a drive through the town and even stopped at the village’s school. On our final day, we traveled up the dunes on horseback to one of the most breathtaking views I’ve experienced.
After 11 flights and countless memories, it is nice to be back at BC and enjoying another beautiful winter here.