Day Forty Eight

Day 48: Rome

This morning we arrived in Dubai at 6 and I had to wait around 2 hours at the airport luckily i had my boyfriend keeping me company for those 2 hours. Then it was time to say goodbye to him and it was very sad i really didn't want to go on without him. Then it was time to board the plane. Left at 9:10 then headed to Rome. I had the window seat and view was incredible when we went I've Cairo you could see the pyramids from up above and the ocean looked incredible!!!

Our plane arrived at Rome at 2 pm and had to wait for luggage and go through customs and passport control. Then waited for mum to arrive at 3:45. I waited a good 3 hours for mum and I was starting to get really worried. Then she came out of the arrival gate and told me that there was a fire around the airport so they couldn't get out of the plane. 

We then got a shuttle bus to our hotel which is right in the middle of all the statues. We then went walking around Rome to get our bearings and then trying to find a suitable restaurant for dinner. By the time we got back to the hotel it was pretty late.

 We are going to spend the whole day trying to see as much as Rome as we can tomorrow. 

Xx

Day Fourty Seven

Day 47: Aquila

We woke up at 6:30 to get ready for our morning game drive at 7am. 

The morning was a freezing 4 degrees! I had two jumpers on and a rug around me but it was still so cold!! You could see ice on the plants and grass on the ground. As we saw most of the animals yesterday there wasn't much more we saw. We tried to have a look out for the leopards but couldn't see them. We finally got to see hippos walking around which Andrew and I really wanted to see. They were walking towards the water while the sun was rising. 

We then drove over the road from Aquila to the rehabilitation centre which had two cheetahs, two lions, two crocodiles and one leopard. It was so cool finally being able to see a leopard. It would have been nicer to see it in the wild up a tree or something but it was still pretty cool to say we have seen all of the big 5 in Africa!!!! 

After the game drive we had breakfast it was probably one of the nicest breakfasts I've had this trip just because everything was so hot and it was so nice to have hot food while my hand were freezing to death.

We had to check out of our hotel room at 10. The bed was so comfortable so it killed us having to wake up so early and leaving it knowing the next bed we have is a airplane seat :/

We left our luggage at the front office then we went on our optional activity which we decided we wanted to do the Quad bike safari at 10:30. It was so cool being so close to the animals. You couldn't be too loud when you were around them. It was nice because it was only Andrew, our guide and i.  This was the first time I've gone quad biking with a manual quad bike. I did not like it at all especially because I only drive automatic things!!! As soon as it was over I was like to Andrew your dreaming getting me to learn to do manual driving hahha. The animals we saw while we were driving were rhinos, hippos, wilder beasts, springboks and the three giraffes. I was a bit disappointed we didn't see the elephants on either the morning game drive and the quad bikes.

The quad bike tour finished at 12. We then packed Alan's car with our luggage. Then we were off back to Cape Town to get to the airport. Our flight was meant to fly out at 6. We expected worse traffic than what we had so we got to the airport really early. Then we checked our hate number and saw that it was delayed till around 7. Which only meant a less waiting time in Dubai.  

There really was not much to do at the airport so luckily there was a cafe which we had dinner in and they had wifi so spent most our time there. We then bordered our plane to head off to Dubai. I'm not excited to leave Africa. I have loved every second I have spent here and I have loved every second I have spent with my amazing boyfriend.

Xx. 

Day Forty Six

Day 46: Aquila 

Today Alan came and picked us up at 10 am to headed off to Aquila. We had to make sure we were packed and out of the hotel room before 10. It took us a 2 and a bit hour drive to get to the game park. Aquila is a lodge you can stay at that is surrounded by animals. You have a afternoon and a morning game drive included when you stay the night. And you can do optional activities as well such as quad bike safaris or more game drives. When we were driving to Aquila we went through one of the longest tunnels. It was a absolutely stunning drive with mountains on either side and you could even see snow on the tops of some mountains. You could also see wineries and country homes that surrounded the area.

We arrived at Aquila after 12. We couldn't check into the room until 2 but there was a lunch provided which started at 12:30. The lunch was a buffet lunch which was pretty good. They gave me ice team for desert because I couldn't eat anything else. You can defiantly tell the difference in temperatures here! Even when the sun was out I was huddled in my thick jumper. The restaurant was so cool there was a wall which had animal photographs positioned all over the wall. That's something I would love to create somewhere!!

After lunch we then checked into our room. We got the honey moon suite ;) ohh la la hahha!!! The rooms were positioned on a mountain so we had incredible views of the national park. We even saw hippos sun baking from a distance. It was pretty awesome! It had a massive bed, a hot bath, outside shower and a jacuzzi. 

We then had our first game drive at 3:30. we saw 4 of big 5 animals in Africa. These were the elephant, rhino, lions and buffalo. We did not see the leopard. Apparently there are two in the national park and one in rehabilitation. As soon as we got through the gates we saw the hippos up close, we saw zebras, wilder beasts, elephants, all 5 of the rhinos, 3 giraffes and we saw all 7 of the lions. The lions were in an enclosure though because they would kill all the animals if they were in the same space. The lions and rhinos were incredible they came up so close and I am so happy I got to take great close up photographs. It's good having such a smaller national park compared to the Kruger or the Hwange national park were we hardly saw any animals and we got to get really close to them!!!

After the game drive we almost ran straight back to our room because it was so cold. I decided to have a boiling hot bubble bath. It was incredible!!! We didn't have a chance to get to go in the jacuzzi because the water was pretty cold! 

After getting ourselves nice and warm we had to go out in the cold again to have dinner at 7:30. Once again the dinner was a buffet dinner. It was just nice to have some hot food to warm my insides :P

Then after dinner headed to lounge to get hot chocolates. It was amazing because of how cold the night was. It's definitely what I needed!! At Aquila the people here are so friendly and accommodating! 

After we went back to hotel and found out the room was flooding. Water was all over the ground. So they moved us to another room next door which didn't have a jacuzzi but it had a nice big bath!! A worker put the heater and also lit a fire in our room so it was nice and toasty. We then had to try to fall asleep with so much smoke in the room. I was worried the smoke detector was going to go off if there was one hahha!!

Xx