Day 1 – A Travel Fever Dream

14,681km travelled, 19 hours, 2 flights, 6 very, very tired travelers.

After 19 hours in the air, we have finally, finally arrived safe in South Africa. We left Melbourne at 19:25 on October 24th, landed in Singapore after 8 hours for a very quick layover where we essentially walked off one plane and onto another to travel 11 hours to Johannesburg, where we disembarked at 6:15 local time on October 25th. Needless to say, we are very tired, but extremely happy to be here. It kind of feels like a fever dream and the 19 hours never happened? Weird.

We have been gifted a trip of a lifetime by Drew’s mum Sue, where we are spending 12 days seeing the natural wonders of South Africa. We have a pretty special itinerary planned that I’m incredibly excited for, but today is all about the recovery from the commute! Our guide for tomorrows drive Natasha picked us up from the airport and dropped off at our villa for the day, which absolutely blew my mind. This place is gorgeous!

Driving down the driveway from the front gate house, you see a beautifully manicured garden with huge Jacaranda trees dropping purple flowers onto a vast green lawn, and look up to see a stunning, huge house. We were introduced to our team from the property who are gracious enough to service our stay, and shown to our wings of the house. I’m not sure I’ll be able to travel the standard way again after this – with the premium economy flights letting me live my leg room dreams, to having a stunning room in this house with it’s own balcony looking over the garden and pool just for Drew and I? Maybe I am bougie…

Today is all about recuperating, relaxing in and by the pool, becoming acquainted with new nature sounds and great food (thanks to TiTi and his crew), but tomorrow is where our adventure truly begins with a 4 hour drive to our first game reserve of the trip – Marataba Contractual National Park. This is where we will be tracking and tagging rhinos, which very few people in the world get to do, which is super special and such a privilege.