This is a year full of travel, and I am thrilled to be in a place where my brain can *mostly* handle it, and in a job that gives me the time off to allow it. This post could go on and on, and it is hard to limit the details, but I’ll do my best. We had an amazing two weeks in South Africa with my parents, siblings and nephews. I didn’t know what to expect, and I didn’t know how my brain would deal with the very long travel days. As all international travel goes, there were hiccups, flight diversions, nearly missed flights, and horrific lines getting through customs, but in the end, we made it to our hotel in Johannesburg in one piece.

The next morning, we boarded two small planes, as the 12 of us couldn’t fit on one, and flew to a dirt airstrip in the northernmost section of Kruger National Park – the Makuleke Concession. The guides chased zebras off the runway as we approached, and we saw elephants out the window of the plane. The Makuleke Concession is a 65,000-acre private-access concession and is the quietest section of Kruger. It was remote and spectacular. I could go on and on about the Outpost Lodge, but I’ll just say it is one of the most incredible places I have ever stayed anywhere. I can’t recommend it enough.

Every morning we were up at at 5am, tea, coffee and snacks at 5:30, and on the trucks by 6am before sunrise. The morning game drive lasted for a few hours, with a stop along the way for drinks and snacks. Then it was lunch, showers, and a little bit of down time. By 2:30 we were back for afternoon tea and snacks, and off on the next game drive. Every evening we stopped somewhere scenic for “sundowners” – drinks and snacks as the sun went down. The drive back to the lodge was in the dark, spotlighting for animal eyes. Dinner was around 8pm, and bed came late. It was a jam-packed schedule for the two weeks, and one or more the nephews fell asleep at the dinner table most nights.

Halfway through the trip, we flew south towards central Kruger to our next stay in the Mluwati Concession. I had no idea how different these two areas of the park would be. Although the animals were plentiful in both, they behaved quite differently. Up north, the animals were quite skittish. The impala ran away instantly, the elephants didn’t stay around long and didn’t let the babies anywhere near us. When we arrived in the Mluwati Concession it was quite surprising to see huge herds of impala just stand there and eat as we passed. I’m not sure if this lack of concern is because the area is more heavily visited (not that we saw that many people), the fact there is more poaching in the north, or that the Hamiltons Tented Camp we stayed at has been there since 1880, so there is a longer history of visitors to the area. Either way, most of the animals could have cared less about us, with lions and leopards walking past within arms length of the OPEN vehicle…which was amazing and ever so slightly scary.

The scenery was also very different. Up north, it was forested in fall colors (southern hemisphere). Everyday we saw different types of trees and plants, and the scenery was highly varied. In central Kruger, everything looked the same. Honestly, if you dropped me off I would have no idea which way it was to camp, because there were no landmarks to distinguish one part of our drive from another. That isn’t to say it wasn’t pretty, it was just vastly different from the north.

If you ask me what my favorite things about the trip were, I think I would list it in this order:

1. Baby elephants playing.
2. Baby elephants eating.
3. Baby elephants walking (Are you sensing a trend here? Seriously, I thought my heart would explode every time we saw a tiny baby elephant).
4. Baobab trees – I’ve always wanted to see these trees, and I had no idea they would get to see them (and so many of them) in the Makuleke Concession.
5. Leopard eating an impala in a tree – the crunching of the bones, yikes!!!!
6. All the stunning sunrises and sunsets.
7. Watching the baby hippo sunning itself on the beach across the river from our room every day at the Hamiltons. It just looked so squeezable!
8. Finally, getting to see 6 rhinos on our last day.
9. Giraffes and their passive-aggressive fighting. Apparently, they can get violent, but all the fighting we saw involved a lot of leaning on each other, head bobbing, and slow neck swings. It was amusing.
10. Seeing my parents live out this bucket list trip of taking their grandkids on safari. I have this ranked 10th, but it should probably top of the list.

Beyond the animals and scenery, I did experience some interesting brain symptoms. First, I was rather shocked that I was able to watch a couple of movies on the flight without triggering any symptoms. That is a lot of screen time for me, but sleeping for 15 hours wasn’t going to happen, so what else do you do?

When we transferred between the two camps, we had a van and a small SUV pick us up at the tiny Hoedspruit airport for the drive to the Hamiltons Tented Camp. Once off the main road, it was a rough washboard dirt road, and I quickly started to unravel. Josh and I were in the back of the van, and the vibration of the washboard created sound waves that made my head want to explode. I’m not sure how to explain it. It isn’t the level of the noise, it is the quality of the noise, and I was clutching my head, laying in Josh’s lap crying. Josh got the driver to pull over, and moved me to the SUV, kicking my nephews out without explanation. He had to hold me up to keep me from falling over as we moved to the other car. Once in the vehicle with slightly better shocks and noise dampening, I started to recover a bit and at least stopped crying.

We arrived at the Hamiltons, which is full of boardwalks and a large central patio area. The entire place gave me the impression of being on a floating dock, or a boat. I asked Josh several times if he was sure it wasn’t moving because in my head, we were definitely floating on rough water for a couple of days. That afternoon, following a bit of rest, we headed out on the evening game drive. By the time we got back, I skipped dinner and went to straight to bed. In the dark, we were guided to our room by flashlight, and Josh held me up, because that floating dock is rough to walk across in the dark…even if Josh assured me it was on solid ground.

I mentioned above that the evening game drives involved stopping for “sundowners” (basically happy hour) and then spotlighting for animal eyes on the way back. Moving light is something I still struggle with quite a bit. What was super interesting was that if I had a glass of wine at sundowners, I was fine on the drive back to the lodge. If I didn’t have a drink, I had to pull my hat down, wear my sunglasses in the dark, and close my eyes. If I tried to watch, I felt awful and the boat started rocking again. Alcohol prevented overstimulation which made it possible for me to watch the swinging light. So even though we don’t drink much at home, I started embracing a glass of wine every evening.

On the last day of the trip I noticed a couple enlarged lymph nodes in my left armpit. Three days after we got home I had a fever, and one of the lymph nodes became golf ball size and crazy painful. I also had a weird bite on my abdomen with a large red ring around it. Off the to doctor I went, and after consulting with an infectious disease specialist, I was told it was likely South African tick fever and should respond within 48 hours to doxycycline. They ran some tests, although it was a week later before results were back, and by then I was much improved. Ironically, I never saw the tick. Josh had a tick on his back, that he pulled off and we watched the area for days. He had zero issues…of course. South African tick fever wasn’t exactly the souvenir I had planned to bring home, but customs wasn’t going to let me take a baby elephant.

Overall, I’m super happy with how my brain held up on this trip, and it gives me some confidence for our next adventure. In September, we head out for 3 weeks of gravel biking in Slovenia and Croatia. We leave the day after my 8 year Crashiversary. I would be lying if I said I have no anxiety about this European cycling trip, since it was during our cycling trip from Vienna to Venice when my injury occurred 8 years ago. But as I told a colleague recently, we don’t grow if we stay “comfortable”. It is only when we push ourselves outside of that comfort zone that we move forward. So in two weeks, Josh and I will pack up our bikes, and I will face those fears…and just in case, I’ve made sure we have more insurance coverage this time around.