Today i'm going to tell you a story of a small fraction of my childhood; the day when i traveled to South Africa.

Many years ago, my father decided for some familiar reason to travel to this beautiful country; i don't remember how old i was by that time, i was maybe 6 years old, i don't know; part of my father's family lives or lived in that country, because many years ago Portugal was at war with Mozambique. When the boys became of some age, they were sent to war in the named country, this caused that many portuguese fled from their country to avoid losing family members on the war. My father has a particular story, that i would like that he shared it with us himself; when i get him to finally learn to write on a pc.

Part of my father's family, after the war reached its end or their military service over, ended up living in these wonderful lands. I suppose my father went there to visit his family, the truth is, as i was so young i didn't understand or i may have just forgot the reason, i just remember being so happy when they told me:

You will travel on a plane! You are going to South Africa!

I have a lot of memories of everything, some are faded, others were captured in pictures, and others that at some point i will ask my father to tell me the whole story again, with every detail so i can share them with you on another post.

I have a lot of pictures in my hand, and in some place, somewhere in the house, are the VHS videos of the whole trip, i remember using that huge camera that sometimes i wasn't able to carry, but i think it would be hard to get those videos on our "new" tech DVDs, if i make it i will upload it to the blockchain, so that my grandchildren can see what their grandmother and great grandmother experienced in the wonderful adventure in South Africa.

I was motivated to make this post thanks to @Avellana, who once told me that she lived in Mozambique, maybe she was able to meet my family while she was there.

The day the journey started

I do remember being so happy about traveling, but when i remember all the journey from Venezuela to South Africa, i remember the twenty thousand flight hours and the thousand hours waiting on the airport to get on board the next plane. It was horrible, imagine being a 6 years old girl waiting several hours in the airport; it was stressful, if for a child is hard to wait for an hour, what about 4 or 5 hours, and also, i can't imagine how hard that was for my father to bear with all that.

One of the things i remember from traveling on airplanes was about the smoking passengers. I'm truly happy that it is no longer allowed to smoke inside an airplane; it was TERRIBLE, i was coughing so much, and that was during around 8 hours of flight.

We are here!

I don't remember how much time i spent on South Africa, i can't remember if it was for a month or even more. We stayed in my grandmother's house with her and all my aunts, i remember that i was the only girl in the house, so i was really spoiled. Some things that i will never forget were a german shepherd that loved to playfully chew on my ankles, the other thing was how cold were the nights. I always loved animals and dogs and always went to the backyard to play with that shepherd, but he always loved to bite me, and i had a bit of masochism in me, for everyday going out trying to tame the beast, nevertheless, my dad came running to me after hearing me scream in pain when the shepherd started to play rough.

Exploring South Africa

Wow, i think that just looking at these pictures and reminding every moment i must say that i have to go back so i can remember more thing and getting to know more. If you have the chance to visit South Africa, just don't doubt it, it's awesome. I have many memories, some vague and others are still colorful as if it just happened yesterday, but i don't know the chronological order.

I went to a water park and touched a Dolphin!

Imagine how much fun would that be for a girl how love animals and wanted to be a Vet as a grown up; (And ending up being Aeronautical Engineer, thanks); and that also to be brought to this kind of show, wow, i will never forget that, i was screaming out of excitement when i saw the dolphin "jump" and do the stunts he was instructed to do. I touched that dolphin! It was amazing, in that picture i'm with my dad, my grandmother, my cousin, the instructor and on another picture there was the dolphin from the show.

Safari time!

I had the pleasure of doing a safari. Which i enjoyed greatly, i remember being afraid of the lions, still, they sat relaxed on their natural habitat just looking at the humans pass by.

I got a lot of pictures of this, and i saw a lot of animals with my own eyes, like elephants, lions and i think i managed to see a cheetah, and i don't mean the plagiarism and abuse bot; i also took part in the birth of a zebra, that was unbelievable, to see how the zebra among many lions, with her herd, was giving birth to its calf and that in a matter of seconds the calf managed to stand and walk on its own; but not on a tv or stream, but from a well protected car and a few centimeters away from the animal, which is simply amazing.

I saw a lot of gazelles; wildebeest (or "gnus"); lions which happened to pass by really close of the human campsites, just relaxed eating from the gazelles or cow legs that were given to them. I also saw some hyenas, really wonderful animals.

I met different cultures on the journey, very kind and lovely people, most ladies just jumped over me to give me a warm hug, and about the men, i was mostly afraid of the bones they used as clothings or accesories, many of them were kind and took the time to talk to us about them and letting others know who they are and what they do.

I also remember going to a touristic site, i just remember a long queue just to touch baby lions and play with them, they looked like “big” kittens and they were really strong, they wanted to play and probably to be with their moms. This is something that nowadays i regret, it is so cruel to take the babies away from their mother just for them to be touched by humans, but maybe their mother was a victim and was killed by a hunter or something, i don’t know. In that picture, that is my cousin, i lost contact with him long ago. Hope he is here in steemit with us and he gets to read this.

i went to a mini golf!

I remember that i had so much fun, i was laughing so much for beating my dad (or that's what he made me think). That mini golf was the best thing ever.

I went to the Gold Reef City and Sun City!

Every time i see the pictures and my memories come back i say: “Wow, this journey was amazing. With wonderful touristic places that a must-see stop for the tourists. I have been looking for pictures of these places on the internet and wow, those places have changed a lot.

The Gold Reef City was a beautiful place, and it also remembers me of another place which i don't have pictures or VHS videos from it.

I went to a gold mine!

At it was amazing, thanks to this experience i wanted to learn more about geology and at some point in my life i was interested about Geophysics Engineering. My father told me that the guide told us all:

You can see this gold ingot here, do you think this isn’t heavy? try to pick it up.

It was really heavy to carry, i just know that i couldn’t do it, and my father struggled to pick it up.

I visited my grandfather's resting place.

The trip to the gold mine wasn’t entirely touristic, it was meant to understand some things in life, it was my father's journey. My grandfather died in a gold mine that collapsed when my father was only 4 years old. That was the day i met my grandfather

I met so many family members that i hope to visit again, i remember playing with a girl about my age at that time and i remember understanding her perfectly, because the time i spent there was enough to learn english and afrikaans; but i would need my father to confirm this. My grandmother already joined my grandfather and i lost contact with all my cousins, i hope to be able to reunite with them some day and tell them: “Hey do you remember that small girl that you took to explore and learn about south africa? Well here i am”.

There is not a huge difference, it’s just that my hair has grown, and a couple of things too. But im still a small girl.

This story will continue when i ask my father his version of the story, i assure you guys that he has a lot more stories to share with us that the ones i could barely remember.

Thanks for taking your time and reading my post! I hope i can continue more journeys and stories like this one.