Wow! I am so pleased to tell you that I am writing this blog in the great United States of America! We just arrived this past Tuesday, and it is so surreal! Being back brings back a lot of memories and feelings. I have about 2 weeks left on the race which includes a few rest days, disaster relief ministry in North Carolina, and debrief which I will  touch on in a later blog!

Anyways, adventuring in South Africa was an absolute blast! Other blogs covered what my team and I did ministry wise, but this one will focus on what we did on our days off.

First off, we did visit the beach a few times, both on ministry days and free days. After visiting schools or rehabs, we took mini visits to see the pretty water and smell the salty air. We went to lots of beaches near Durban including a beach with lots of igneous/volcanic rocks and a lighthouse! That was a very peaceful afternoon. We also went to 2 in the heart of Durban were we walked along the board walk and saw some dolphins in the distance. The last beach visit, we swam in the ocean for the first time this country. We had so much fun running into the waves and looking at the pretty water. We found lots of little critters in the sand. This will probably be my last beach visit for a long time as I am going back to the land-locked state of Iowa very soon (which I am actually VERY excited about, just ask my team members, they hear about Iowa - and Caseys pizza - ALL the time).

Other than visiting the beaches, we have had some other adventure days too. On the more relaxed side, we have painted pottery, taken walks, visited thrift stores, and had coffee shop one-on-ones. This country was definitely more relaxed adventure and living wise, as our house was in a very secluded neighborhood which made it very peaceful- honestly I didn’t really want to leave a lot because of how peaceful and content I was just staying at home! Which leads me to one of my favorite ways to spend sabbath and adventure days here… the pool!!! I forgot to mention that our house has a pool, so I spent a lot of time on the weekends listening to music while tanning, chatting with teammates by the pool, swimming, and doing improv in the water with Abby. As I’ve said before, swimming/being in water is one of my absolute favorite things, so I was very content with staying home.

(my pottery is the top one)

One of the last weeks in Durban, our hosts took us to a concert! We saw some South African gospel worship teams and Sinach- I had never heard of her before but she is actually the original artist of “Way Maker! We had a lot of fun dressing up for the concert- we don’t dress up often (our closet and makeup/hair options are pretty limited) and I had a great time adding a little borrowed mascara to my concert look.

We also took a hike one morning to a waterfall! It was a simple hike but so beautiful.

Okay- so now it’s time for the BIG adventure days. Buckle up.

Before we even landed in South Africa, we had been talking about doing shark cage diving. So we made it a pretty big priority to do. Naturally, I was in charge of planning that which I had no problem doing because I know it WILL happen. However, when booking, the company didn’t have a cage for the off day that we had that week… so we decided to swim without a cage. We were all very scared for that, but quickly realized that it’s pretty common here to swim without the cage, so we weren’t as freaked out. The night before however, we watched a documentary about sharks which didn’t help our anxiety. Anyways, here is rundown about our day:

We left the house at 5:30 and piled into one of our ministry vans- our amazing host took us which was such a blessing - we arrived at 7 and got some free breakfast and coffee and got suited up! We all got into our wetsuits, got flippers and masks, had a mini safety briefing, and loaded into the trucks that took us to the launching point. There were 10 of us and a couple other strangers so we took 2 boats out. We started the drive out battling the waves closer to shore. The waves were so big- they said they were 3 times bigger than normal- they were about 9 ft swells. I felt like I am was going to fly off the boat with how bumpy and crazy it was. After about 20 mins of chaos, we arrived to the baiting spot that was very far away from the shore. They released the bait and I looked down into the water and there was already a shark beneath my feet. It was so freaky! For about 30 mins, we snorkeled. There were  5 black tip sharks and TONS of fish including huge groupers. It was so cool to watch them swarm. The sharks stayed at the bottom for a while, but as the time went on, the sharks got more comfortable with us and started to get pretty close to the surface, and my face. At one point, a shark was swimming right towards me and then swerved at the last second. That got my heart rate up for sure. As expected, I was the last in the water. I started to get pretty confused where everyone went. When I got back in the boat, I was ecstatic and so pleased with the experience. I look around and almost everyone was seasick. Puking and green. It was very unfortunate but we all laugh about it now. I am happy to say that we all came back with all our limbs!

For the last adventure of South Africa, we were with the entire squad which was an absolute blast! We went on… a Safari in Kruger National park! This was a little reunion before heading back to the states.

My team drove for over 10 hours- which actually flew by! We saw zebras, ostrich, and a giraffe in the drive which was so insanely cool!

For 3 nights, we stayed at Old Vic travelers inn- AKA Crazy Dave’s. This place is very famous in the world race realm, as he has hosted world race teams since 2005. The property has a pool, lots of fun seating areas, lots of different houses with rooms, and an entire wall of world race signatures. It was so cool to see names of people that I know- especially d-squad! Our sister gap squad came here for their very first debrief back in November which was so cool to see.

Everyone was supposed to arrive in the afternoon, my team did, but the other girls arrived at 9:30 and the boys at 2am… so we had our reunion the following day. Had a few one of ones, played Dutch blitz, and also did some horse riding! Was a great time with my friends.

And now, the best adventure of them all.

On Sunday, we left Crazy Dave’s at 4:25am to make sure we got to the park on time for early access. I jumped in a car with 2

girls and 5 boys- it was so nice to be with guys. They were cracking jokes the entire time which made me laugh a lot. I’ve been with all girls basically the past 3 countries so it’s always nice having them around. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning.

10 mins in, we saw a handful of Impalas, a leopard, and a male lion walking on the street! It was so insane. My guide was crazy Dave which was so fun- the guides would walkie-talkie eachother if they saw anything, and as soon as he heard about the leopard, he whipped the truck around and we FLEW to it. It was so cool!! The sunrise was so beautiful as well. Made everything have a orangey hue. One of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. After that, we saw some mae impalas fighting, saw some cool birds- one had 15 colors on it!

After some time driving around, we saw a wildebeast in the distance. Then we saw a mating lion couple, another leopard, and HUGE elephants!! There were many cars in the park that day so you always knew something cool was ahead if cars were parked. We stopped for a break around 10 and right after saw a herd of zebras and Cape buffalos that eventually ran across the street. Very cool!

After that, we searched SO hard for a giraffe and couldn’t find one which was really uncommon apparently. Butttt in our disappointment was turned around when we heard of a cheetah! So we drove a longgg ways to see if- and you could only see it through the binoculars! It was about 200 yards away laying under a fig tree. Most people don’t see a cheetah and we are so lucky!

Right after that, there was a whole bunch of mama and babies elephants off the road. It was so beautiful to see them. They go so close to us. This was probably my favorite moment of the day. I just loved seeing these animals. They were so calm and friendly!

We made the drive to lunch and saw more elephants and some wart hogs as well! We got to lunch and saw some baboons and hippos!! It was so neat to see them- if you’ve seen Madagascar, the hippos eyes out of the water is so accurate because it literally looked exactly like that.

At this point, we had not seen a single giraffe and we were pretty bummed! We were on our way out, and our truck stayed back from the rest of the squad trying to find one. As we were driving away with defeat, Savannah quietly said to me “I think I saw one” I immediately shouted that to the car and then she said “oh no I don’t really think so we were going so fast” but we turned around anyways and searched so hard and she was so right!! You could only see its head, it was so buried in the woods, we could hardly believe she saw it. We were ERUPTING with cheers because we finally saw one!! It was such a fun time. We were crawling over each-other to see it because it was so hard.

We were so happy, and then our day got even better when we drove to the more open areas and saw a whole bunch of them! We also saw an alligator and another hippo at the end. It was the perfect ending to the best day. We were gone for almost 12 hours that day and it was so worth it. It was one of the best days on the race and probably of my entire life. I had a blast with my friends.

Lots of the day was driving around and I was constantly in awe of how beautiful it was there. Even when there weren’t animals for a while, I had a great time just enjoying the ride.

Adventuring in Africa was truly an amazing time and makes me want to explore Africa so much more in the future. The culture, the people, the nature, it’s all so beautiful and amazing. I am so grateful for this last adventure that made me fall in love with Africa so much more.

Excited to share more in person so so soon!!

love you all!!

Ellie

PS- on our drive to the airport, we saw rhinos which completed out BIG 5 hunt! (leopard, lion, hippo, rhino, and Cape buffalo!)