Mid-Semester Break: Kruger National Park & Johannesburg

Hey readers! In this blog I will be talking about some of the travels and adventures I embarked on during mid-semester break! This was easily the best trip of my life and I am so thankful to IES Abroad for facilitating this experience! 

Our break officially began on Saturday, March 28. All of the IES Abroad Cape Town students participating in this trip met at 7:00 A.M. to drive to the airport. We then hopped on a flight from Cape Town to Kruger National Park Airport. We had a very quick turn around, and immediately after getting off the plane we were on our way to the park for our first game drive. Our luggage was taken to the accommodation for us, so we didn’t have to worry about taking our bags with us on the safari cars. 

The game drive was truly a magical experience. Getting to see these animals up close in their own habitats was so incredible. We split up into groups of 5-10 people per car, and each group had a safari ranger guiding us through the experience. The rangers were incredibly knowledgeable and made the experience so much better. Our ranger, Remember, answered all of our questions and taught us so much about the wildlife and nature within the park. After about a four hour game drive we checked into the hotel and had dinner. 

The next morning we had to meet at 4:30 A.M. for our sunrise game drive. Driving early in the morning allows you to see many more animals that you wouldn’t otherwise see during the day. Despite running on four hours of sleep I was buzzing with energy from all the excitement. I am a huge animal lover and have been wanting to do this for as long as I can remember. Fortunately for me, this landed right on my 21st birthday! Even if it wasn’t my birthday, Sunday still would’ve been the absolute best day not only of this trip, but probably my whole life! The highlight of this drive was watching a hyena and a cheetah have a face-off. This was such a surreal sight to see. Before we even stopped for a lunch break we managed to see all of the big five– elephant, cheetah, rhino, cape buffalo, and lions. These animals are known as the big five for their difficulty to find and hunt. Although poaching these animals has long been illegal, the term is still used by conservationists and tourists. We also saw many other animals, including giraffes, warthogs, wildebeests, jackals, hippos, monkeys, and more! 

That afternoon we returned to our hotel for lunch and some time to rest. We had another game drive and bush braai scheduled for the evening, so this was a nice opportunity to relax. I spent my break swimming in the pool and discussing all of the animals we saw with the other groups. Before heading back to the park, I was surprised with a birthday cake and everyone sang happy birthday to me. I felt so incredibly lucky to be spending my birthday with such lovely people in a magical place! 

Our evening game drive and bush braai was unfortunately interrupted by a pretty severe rain storm. Although this was a bit disappointing, it just reminded us of how unpredictable nature can be. Instead of the bush braai, we went to a restaurant on the outskirts of the park for dinner. I’d say we were all pretty thankful to be indoors considering the safari cars offered little to no cover from the rain and we were all soaking wet. 

On Monday we left Kruger and headed on a bus to Joburg. Since it’s a pretty long drive, we broke it up with a few stops along the way. One of these stops included a small town called Kaapschehoop. There we explored the natural rock formations and forests. We finally reached the hotel in Johannesburg around 9 P.M.

The next morning, the final day of our IES Abroad Cape Town facilitated trip, we hopped back on the bus and drove to the Apartheid Museum. We had a schedule to adhere to, so we could only stay in the museum for two hours, but I could have easily stayed there all day. The museum was incredibly informative and structured in a way to be very engaging for visitors. The museum follows a chronological timeline of how apartheid came to be, what people went through during the time period, and eventually the resistance movements and achieving freedom. This is definitely a must-see for all, whether you’re native to South Africa or simply visiting. The museum also gave us a lot of information about Nelson Mandela’s life, career, and accomplishments. His resilience, determination, and fight for equality was truly astounding and serves as an inspiration for millions of people across the world. 

Following this, our final activity of our mid-semester trip was a visit to Nelson Mandela’s house. Though he spent the majority of his life in prison and not in the house, it was still an incredible spectacle. The home was filled with Mandela’s own possessions, awards, letters, and commemorations. There was also a lot of information about Winnie Mandela and her activism efforts. 

After the trip had concluded, our cohort split up and went our separate ways. My friends and I stayed in Johannesburg that evening and flew to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe the next day. I’ll save the details on that for another blog…thanks for reading!