Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge

     Our last stop on our African Adventure was at Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge of the Sabi Sands Game Reserve on the border of Kruger National Park.  We flew into the local airport and were promptly greeted by the warm humidity and HOT temperatures; up until this point, it had been more pleasant spring like weather, but the summer weather up north was no joke.  In our usual high rolling fashion, we were greeted at the airport by our transfer driver who not only got us to the lodge safely ( a feat you realize after you've experienced driving in Africa), but with plenty of local knowledge to boot.  We drove through the largest man made bamboo forest used to produce paper and heard about his three bouts of malaria...

     Once we arrived at Sabi Sabi, we were in for a real treat.  Unlike our first game lodge, this lodge was much bigger and filled to capacity, but that didn't stop them from showing us a first class time. Our rooms were spectacular, complete with monkey viewing from the bathtub and baboons crossing your front porch walkway (that was a little unnerving, I am not going to lie).  This lodge had a kids club, "The Elephfun Center", that the boys were welcome to hang out in during the day. All the kiddos were welcome on game drives since we had our own vehicle and we were able to do some split game drives so we all went out and then I headed in after an hour or so with the kiddos and everyone else continued on- it was just the right amount of time before Little Guy started to get pretty squirmy in the jeep.  

     We did venture to leave the boys with Ruth for one game drive and let's just say, it's going to be a while before they trust us out of their sight.  She was a delightful older African woman who even tried wrapping Mr. Wyatt Bear on her back (which he loves at home), but he wasn't having any of it and Little Guy was just beside himself that he wasn't with his mama.  Lesson learned, babysitters in foreign countries are AWESOME if your kiddos are already asleep, otherwise not so much. 

     We had an amazing tracker Heavyness (yes, that was really his name) and a great guide Steve who celebrated his 25th birthday while we were there (yes he's still a baby) and the boys did all they could to help Steve ring in another year older, including some sickening shots that Brad concocted...

     The game viewing was spectacular, a completely different landscape then our first safari made each game drive feel new and exciting.  We were lucky enough to finally catch a glimpse of the elusive leopard AND her cub, plus a lioness and her babies who were out and about for the first time chowing down on a water buffalo about 600 yards from where we were enjoying our breakfast out in the bush.  On the way to the outdoor breakfast surprise, the guys were coming in from a rather disappointing game drive when they rounded the final corner and saw the gutted buffalo and the lion family digging in.  We all decided that it made up for the lackluster morning drive...we ventured back to see the kill after breakfast and I just couldn't get comfortable with the idea of having both my babies in an open air jeep just feet away from hungry lions....Little Guy wasn't phased at all but I was a nervous wreck!  

     We made sure to do it up on safari and the ladies indulged in spa treatments at the Earth Lodge where we also toured some rooms and decided that if we ever wanted to live in true luxury fashion we'd stay there- we just have to make sure Paris Hilton hasn't booked up all the rooms.  

     We were sad to pack up on this leg of the trip because it meant we were headed home, but this vacation was everything we had hoped it would be and so much more!  I don't think a return trip to Africa will be a hard sell :)