The flight left at midnight and most people opted to go to sleep shortly after takeoff, so dinner was light. Breakfast was not.
All-in-all, it was very comfortable, but the night's sleep was basically the equivalent of sleeping on a friend's couch - which is to say WAY better than coach, but we were still pretty beat the next day.
After a quick stopover in Johannesburg, we headed to our first destination in Africa: Namibia.
We spent our first night in Windhoek, the capital. It's a small city, which is basically in the middle of the desert.
We did a little sightseeing...here's a cool church from the late 19th century.
Which is located on Fidel Castro street:
The next morning, we were on our way south to the Kalahari desert. We stayed in a little hut on a small ranch, which was set in the middle of beautiful red sand dunes.
There wasn't a ton to do there, but the landscapes and sunsets were beautiful. We swear none of the following photos were touched up in any way. And the contrast of the bright, sharp colors - the yellow grass, the green trees, the red dunes and the blue sky - was even more incredible in person.
We took a ride around the grounds and saw many different types of antelopes, birds, and even a small pack of giraffes.
Interestingly, there are no predators in the park, so as a result, the animals are not afraid of the jeeps or the people, allowing for some great close-up shots. While we will (hopefully!) have more interesting safari photos from later in the trip, this was certainly a good warm-up.
Some highlights, starting with the ever present springbok:
There was even one springbok who thought it was a human and hung out at the ranch.
An animal thinking it's a person? Sounds like a certain little white dog that just moved from Cape Cod to Newton (although we hear she's being trained to sleep in her own, dog bed!)...
Eland, the largest specie of antelope:
Kudu, with its unique markings down its side and curly horns:
This Blue Wildebeest was kind enough to pose for a picture:
A family of Oryx, with some young ones:
They also come in unicorn:
And one on the run:
These guys need no introduction:
When the giraffes eat the leaves off of the numerous acacia trees around the park, they need to watch out for these (as did we as we rode around in the jeep!):
We saw a bunch of ostriches, but sadly none running at full speed or with its head in the sand:
Kori Bustard, which is the largest type of African bird that flies. Other folks in our jeep said they saw one take off and it took a good 10 or so steps to get off the ground.
We also saw a few enormous bird nests, which can weigh up to 250 kilos (when wet!) and can house hundreds of these small birds, the Sociable Weaver:
And finally, a familiar face:
The ranch also cares for three orphan cheetahs. As we stood there, they came right up to us and lay down.
This one was particularly proper, front paws crossed and all.
And they sure did come running when it was time to eat!
To be honest, the cheetah experience felt a little "zoo-like," but they seemed to be well cared for and it was still cool to see these big cats up close, something which is probably tough to do in the wild (foreshadowing...it actually isn't, as we'd find out a few weeks later).
At dinner, we learned many of these animals are not only cool to look at, but are also pretty tasty. Of the local game, some of our favorites were springbok carpaccio and oryx steak. Quite delicious!
Next stop on our Namibia tour: the giant dunes of the Namib.
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