African Safari » News

I hope these guys got good pictures

Andy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:18:00 +0000

We didn’t get many good shots of the lions because it was dark and they were further off… I hope these lucky bastards got some good pics at least
British Tourists Sue South African resort after Safari Jeep overturns into a pride of lions

We arrived in Africa!

Andy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:52:09 +0000

Wow, I’ve never done 24 hours in confinement like that, but we’re done and at the hotel. We got hooked up on the web, did a video chat with Oscar (thank you Aunt Melissa and Uncle Todd) and got to hit the hotel bar to meet some of the other folks.

There are about 90 people total here, wow!

It’s wet and midnight, so I haven’t seen too much of real “Africa” yet, but we’re anxious to begin.
More soon

Where we are staying

Andy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:12:07 +0000

Some people have asked us about our hotels. The first half of the trip we’re in Cape Town, we’ll be staying in the Commodore Hotel.

Then on the second half we travel to the Pilanesberg National Park, and stay in the Bakubung Bush Lodge.

Click the links for more info.

Hey Mabel!

Andy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:45:02 +0000

Black Label!

According to Elliot, the recommended beverage on our trip is Black Label Beer.

They had a successful ad campaign back in the day where you’d say “Hey Mabel, Black Label!”

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say.

Thanks for the tip…I think.

Andy — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:14:55 +0000

So I picked up this book at Borders, The Eyewitness Travel Top 10 Cape Town and the Winelands guide, and we’ve been thumbing through it, learning about the places we are visiting. What’s this? Page 106 has a handy chart… let’s see here:

Top 10 Things to Avoid
1. Road Hazards – no prob
2. The Sun – yup
3. Snakes – gotcha
4. Feeding Baboons – ok sure
5. HIV / AIDS – what?!
6. ATM Scams
7. Mugging
8. Weather Changes on the mountain
9. Swimming in Dangerous Conditions
10. Drunk Driving on Wine Routes

Hey, thanks for the tips!

Under Feeding the Baboons it says “Baboons fed by people perceive them as a source of food…” ok, cool. I will keep the Jerky to myself.
Under Avoiding AIDS it recommends using a condom. Am I going on Safari or to the prom?
I do love however that the tenth most dangerous activity that may befall me is drinking too much. No lion bites or Malaria on this list.

The “Big Five” explained

Andy — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:45:45 +0000

I’ve been doing a lot of research and “Big Five” has been popping up. I snagged this from here…

“When you start researching an African safari, the term “Big Five” often crops up. The “Big 5″ refers to the Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Cape Buffalo. Why not the hippo, gorilla or giraffe you may ask? Are they not large as well? How about the cheetah — that would be an animal you would probably like to see as much as a buffalo. Well, the term “big five” was actually coined by big game hunters (not safari tour operators). It refers to the difficulty in bagging these large animals, mostly due to their ferocity when cornered and shot at.”

Where we’re going

Andy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:19:05 +0000

I started this additional blog so that I wouldn’t inundate the uninterested with wild tales of our adventures in South Africa. You’ll find everything here, including the original winning video, our itinerary, and hopefully updates, videos and photos along the way. You can bookmark this page and visit as you like, but I also recommend subscribing to our RSS feed… you can add the free news feed to your iGoogle or Yahoo (or StartingLine) homepage and see when I am able to post updates.

We’re very excited to go, we still can’t believe it it’s actually happening. And we leave next Friday!

Here is our winning video entry:

And here is our detailed Itinerary.

Stay tuned for more.