This past week, 4 other young adults and myself traveled about 5 hours from Pretoria to Sabie Park (private community that happens to be in a game reservation).
Gray (one of the guys that I have become friends with from Eastside) and his family own a BEAUTIFUL vacation home in Sabie Park. Not only is the house gorgeous, the fact that it is in inside a game reservation is mind blowing in itself. When we first arrived on Tuesday, all 5 of us walked down to the picnic area where we saw numerous zebras, various deer and a few other wild animals all within 15 feet of us. I could hardly contain my excitement, it was ridiculous.
Each night, we would braai(BBQ) and simply enjoy the great outdoors. The first night we were there, a brave hyena came pretty close to the grill to check out what we were cooking. I could've gone without that animal spotting! Anywho, each night after dinner we would take mattresses outside on the deck upstairs and admire the clear sky and all of the beautiful stars. Every night, after about five minutes, I would immediately fall into a deep sleep and bless them with the sound of my snoring until they were finished star gazing.
On the second morning, we all decided to get up at 5:45 to watch the sun rise from the master bedroom (it is fully surrounded by windows). Although I am by no means a morning person, it was breath-taking to watch the sun pop over the horizon while watching a family of giraffes wander around the premises.
We also visited the Kruger National Park while there. KNP is also a game reservation, but much, MUCH larger. Kruger has quite a few more animals including wild lions, elephants, cheetahs, leopards, buffalo and numerous other dangerous game that do not live in Sabie. Basically, you drive all throughout this humungous park on both paved and dirt paths in hopes of finding as many different animals as possible. There were several pauses of silence as we all competitively and rather intensely searched for animals to see who could find them the fastest. But mostly, there was laughter, joke telling and plenty of singing.
However, despite all of the "first- time experiences" and the beautiful sights I saw this week, perhaps my favorite part was simply the company. It was so nice to spend time with a group of young adults who share the same beliefs and religion as I do. Not only were we able to get to know one another better, we were able to share stories, experiences and our struggles. It's not every day that you find friends that openly pray before every meal, when traveling, etc. without being first prompted to do so by an adult (In my experience, anyways). What a beautiful thing it is to have meaningful conversation with other individuals your age and just openly discuss biblical passages and moral matters while sitting around a fire. These alone are memories that I will never forget.
Until tomorrow,
xoxo
Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment