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3 July 2011
Temperature: 6-20C
Well, after five nights in and around Kruger NP we spent our last morning heading south through the lowest section of the park. No more than an hour on the road, and we find three lions slobbering all over the remains of a not long deceased Cape buffalo. My goodness they do tuck in. If there's an opening they will make it larger. But these things are all part of Mother Nature’s rich tapestry aren’t they!
A Leopard strolling up the road caught us a bit of guard. Gael’s finger was hitting the camera button so fast it went into melt down. I got some reasonable footage on the video. I think it caught Gael’s complete suite of trucker language as well when her camera gave up the ghost so the footage audio may need a little bit of a tidy up. Where did she learn those words? Add in all the other usual African flora and fauna, plus a couple of rhino on a private game ranch boundary just outside the park and it was some viewing morning.
You don’t participate much in Africa you view it. In the National Parks you can’t get out of your vehicle because the animals see you as a meal. Or if the carnivorous animals aren’t an issue, you can’t find your way out through the razor wire surrounding the Lodge you are camping at.
Air pollution is a concern not just in South Africa but all over Southern Africa. Wherever we have been the country side has been deliberately torched. Burning off appears to be a National pastime. Halfway to Blyde River Canyon the other day we turned around. The air quality and visibility was that bad it would have been a waste of time.
Today our afternoon hunt for a camping ground gained an added urgency as night began to fall. Although driving through plantations alternating between pine and eucalypt, thoughts of pulling of the road and bush camping were somewhat dampened by the roadside signage. HIGH CRIME AREA – "DO NOT STOP". I don’t understand it. It all looked so peaceful. What the hell has happened here to those who did stop? It looked so peaceful. Just like home!
South Africa has little of the rural charm of the rest of Africa we have seen. Thatched roofed rondavels have been replaced by concrete block boxes with corrugated roofs. Virtually no one rides pushbikes and fewer people walk anywhere. Just like home in this regard. Lots more cars driven by their suicidal and homicidal drivers.
The roadsides are clear of all those things that made the rest of Africa well, African. No longer the never ending footpath, the roads belong to the motor vehicle again. Driving through places like Zambia in particular, was like an extended trip through someone’s lounge room. Everything was on display. Because of the state of the roads we were traveling at little more than walking pace through some villages, Africa was in our face.
The last few days have seen us on the Elephant Coast. This small section of what is as close as it gets to coastal wilderness in South Africa is probably about one hundred and fifty kilometers long and twenty or so wide. It joins the Mozambique border on the East coast and shares the Indian Ocean with the West Australian coast. The coast here is quite something with large dunes falling into the sea, fresh water lakes, and coastal forest.
One can only imagine the struggle that it must have been to get these areas declared as reserves and parks in the first instance and then maintained as such in countries that have such large and disadvantaged populations. One can’t help feeling that all over Africa these parks and the wonderful wild animals in them will be obliterated if population growth and the pressures on the environment that comes with it continue as it is.
Our time here is drawing to a close. We have seen the flora and fauna, plus the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity that all the countries that go to make up Southern Africa have to offer. From this we have deduced that Africa (and the planet) is in the ****! And why is it in the ****? Too many bloody people.
How do you improve the situation? Getting the Catholic Church to OK the use of condoms would be a good start.
Temperature: 6-20C
Well, after five nights in and around Kruger NP we spent our last morning heading south through the lowest section of the park. No more than an hour on the road, and we find three lions slobbering all over the remains of a not long deceased Cape buffalo. My goodness they do tuck in. If there's an opening they will make it larger. But these things are all part of Mother Nature’s rich tapestry aren’t they!
A Leopard strolling up the road caught us a bit of guard. Gael’s finger was hitting the camera button so fast it went into melt down. I got some reasonable footage on the video. I think it caught Gael’s complete suite of trucker language as well when her camera gave up the ghost so the footage audio may need a little bit of a tidy up. Where did she learn those words? Add in all the other usual African flora and fauna, plus a couple of rhino on a private game ranch boundary just outside the park and it was some viewing morning.
You don’t participate much in Africa you view it. In the National Parks you can’t get out of your vehicle because the animals see you as a meal. Or if the carnivorous animals aren’t an issue, you can’t find your way out through the razor wire surrounding the Lodge you are camping at.
Air pollution is a concern not just in South Africa but all over Southern Africa. Wherever we have been the country side has been deliberately torched. Burning off appears to be a National pastime. Halfway to Blyde River Canyon the other day we turned around. The air quality and visibility was that bad it would have been a waste of time.
Today our afternoon hunt for a camping ground gained an added urgency as night began to fall. Although driving through plantations alternating between pine and eucalypt, thoughts of pulling of the road and bush camping were somewhat dampened by the roadside signage. HIGH CRIME AREA – "DO NOT STOP". I don’t understand it. It all looked so peaceful. What the hell has happened here to those who did stop? It looked so peaceful. Just like home!
South Africa has little of the rural charm of the rest of Africa we have seen. Thatched roofed rondavels have been replaced by concrete block boxes with corrugated roofs. Virtually no one rides pushbikes and fewer people walk anywhere. Just like home in this regard. Lots more cars driven by their suicidal and homicidal drivers.
The roadsides are clear of all those things that made the rest of Africa well, African. No longer the never ending footpath, the roads belong to the motor vehicle again. Driving through places like Zambia in particular, was like an extended trip through someone’s lounge room. Everything was on display. Because of the state of the roads we were traveling at little more than walking pace through some villages, Africa was in our face.
The last few days have seen us on the Elephant Coast. This small section of what is as close as it gets to coastal wilderness in South Africa is probably about one hundred and fifty kilometers long and twenty or so wide. It joins the Mozambique border on the East coast and shares the Indian Ocean with the West Australian coast. The coast here is quite something with large dunes falling into the sea, fresh water lakes, and coastal forest.
One can only imagine the struggle that it must have been to get these areas declared as reserves and parks in the first instance and then maintained as such in countries that have such large and disadvantaged populations. One can’t help feeling that all over Africa these parks and the wonderful wild animals in them will be obliterated if population growth and the pressures on the environment that comes with it continue as it is.
Our time here is drawing to a close. We have seen the flora and fauna, plus the ethnic, cultural and religious diversity that all the countries that go to make up Southern Africa have to offer. From this we have deduced that Africa (and the planet) is in the ****! And why is it in the ****? Too many bloody people.
How do you improve the situation? Getting the Catholic Church to OK the use of condoms would be a good start.
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