Wild zebras gather to investigate the passing motorist in a remote region of Namibia.

There were so many parts of my South African safari that was, one way or another, on the bucket list; experiencing another culture, hearing the noises in the middle of the night, getting up close to animals, going to Africa, et cetera. One thing on the list, which I didn’t realize was on my bucket list until in occurred, was landing an airplane on a gravel airstrip.

No, I did not physically land the plane, however, as we came out of the clouds in our small, eight-seater airplane, I looked down through the window and saw our runway in the distance. As we got closer and closer to the place where we would be landing, I remember thinking “Why does that runway look different?”

There was something odd about the runway we were rapidly approaching. I couldn’t exactly put my finger on it, but it looked a little more “rough” then most runways I’ve landed on.

Sure enough, as we were a few hundred yards from touching down, my brain processed that we were about to touch down on a gravel airstrip. I scrambled for my iPhone so I could record a video of us touching down.

It. Was. So. Loud.

Just driving on a gravel road can be deafening, but landing a plane on one seemed overwhelmingly loud. Additionally, being in an airplane, I felt like every one of the rocks “pinging” off of the wing was a little more terrifying than the rocks “pinging” off of my car’s fender.

In the end, it was a much smoother ride than I ever expected, but at the same time, it was so much louder than I ever thought it would be.

Obviously everything worked out and the plane landed and took off without issue. The whole thing took place after I left the safari, en route back to civilization. Before leaving the wild animals that make a safari so incredible, I had spent some time with the elephant above, as he enjoyed a mouthful of grass near Kruger National Park in South Africa.

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