Guys and Gals! {Okay mostly gals} Please forgive me for the majorly long pause on the line! We headed off to the game reserve for the wedding and I was completely certain I would be able to update you from the middle of nowhere, but I. was. wrong.

There was ZERO Internet connection and to be honest, I think that was probably a good thing. My phone died no less than five days ago and I still haven’t bothered charging it. And while I would have liked to have been instagraming photos of giraffes and zebras (don’t forget that is pronounced zeh-bruhs) I think getting good and unplugged for a few days is a good thing for anyone.

But would you like to hear a few highlights from the adventure so far?

K good because there are lots.

Before we left Bloemfontein, the Hubs and I capitalised on the presence of other adults and snuck out after the kiddies’ bedtime to see The Avengers.  Although that has very little to do with being in South Africa, we give it four thumbs way up, and I think it was so good it was worth mentioning anyway. Great laughs. But does the fact that I think I prefer watching movies not in 3D mean I’m getting old?

The trip down to Kwandwe, the game reserve where the wedding was held, was relatively uneventful. Remind me to write a post about travelling with small children sometime and I’ll give you the inside scoop on throwing nap time out the window and why any time is a good time for snack time.

Our time at the reserve, and the reserve itself, was amazing. The wedding was actually set in the bush — meaning the guests in attendance rode Land Cruisers out to a remote spot with an amazing view and not much else, where they’d set up a little scene on a hilltop with flowers hanging from the trees in glass bottles, champagne and canapes followed the brief hitching ceremony, and the bride and her father arrived in a Land Cruiser (think “Safari vehicle” if you need help picturing that) after all the guests were ready and waiting.

Penny (my new sister-in-law) looked stunning in a perfect-for-the-setting wedding dress that her mother wore on her wedding day. Vaughan (HH’s brother) looked very happy. And when the local ladies arrived in yet another Landy to serenade the newlyweds, the Bear busted out his own dance moves and demonstrated his impeccable rhythm.

The Hubs captured the day with some shots I am looking forward to showing you, but because of the internet issues we have pictures on a machine that can’t get online and a machine online that doesn’t have the pictures, and no way to remedy that right now. Dark ages, right?

In addition to the wonderful wedding and surrounding festivities we had a blast viewing game big and small on the 22,ooo hectares (a hectare is almost two and a half acres) of reserve there for the exploring. {Think ginormous.}

We had heaps of firsts, like seeing cheetahs in the wild for the first time, seeing an aardwolf and then another and another, and having a brilliant sighting of a lion and lioness. (The day the Hubs asked me to marry him we went for a drive on a game reserve with lions but we only spotted them under a bush resting and we could barely see them).

Hearing a lion roar for the first time may have been THE highlight. Besides the wedding.

We are now down at the coast – know where the movie The Endless Summer was filmed? And Friday we’ll head to Wilderness (near Knysna!) where we’ll enjoy more family time until next Wednesday!

Hopefully we’ll solve our idea emergency and I’ll be able to share photos with you soon!

xCC