Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The following morning was hot. The coolness of the mountains was replaced by the heat of the plains. After braving a 'tribal shower' (the late night tribal toilet experience was bad enough) we packed up and headed off in the mini bus to a cheetah breeding centre where endangered species are bred under control and then released back into the National Park. This was interesting as it is almost impossible to see Cheetahs in the wild anymore (there are only an estimated 100 left in the entire of Kruger which is the size of Wales and Israel combined!). The tour consisted of being driven in an open aired-jeep through the centres large encloses. Our guide seemed a just little too intimate with the Cheetahs and tried to show off by frequently stopping to pet and talk to them (the latter proved a little worrying). They were incredibly skinny animals and very friendly towards us visitors. We also saw several forms of wild cats (including bengal tigers!), birds and deer-type animals. After lunch we jumped back into the mini-bus to enter Kruger National Park!
Before we entered the park we were joined by some rather strange new travellers who consisting of: four romanian gypsies, their austrailian brother and a travelling morrocan called Hassan who had a tendancy to wander into, what some might consider, somewhat dodgy areas (Hassan if your reading this, please email me asap to let us know you survived the friendly razor-wielding inhabitants of that South African ghetto where we dropped you!). Once all were aboard the mini-bus, TJ, our Afrikan safari-bus-driving guide, sped on into the park. I had naiivly assumed that one would have to go deep into the park to see any animals at all. However, within those first ten minutes of entering the park we managed to see a herd of umpala (aparantly known as the 'fast-food' of the bush) and a mother and baby elephant. We quickly became aquainted with Safari photography which consisted of everyone crowding the side of the bus where the wildlife, however small, was situated and then proceeding to kick, elbow and jostle their fellow travellers until they achieved the perfect shot which was probably then too small due to the insufficent zoom on most cameras (I have a great photo of a typical safari scrum). Much to the despair of our guide, us ignorant westerners began referring to animals by their disney names rather than correct scientific terms ("Oh my god - look it's bambi" "Where?" "There over by dumbo" "You mean next to rafeeki" "Yeah and pumas there too!"). The groups disney obsession grew to the stage that in the suggestion box in the tours questionarre, the only suggested improvement to the safari was that Acacia tours should fit their entire fleet of safari vehicles out with plasma screens so that it's disney-loving passengers could watch the highlights of 'The Lion King' in one of those rare wildlife-free safari moments! It was amazing how diverse Kruger is. In just the first day alone I'd seen: Zebra, giraffe, Umpala, millions of birds, buffalo, wilderbeast ('the ones who killled mufasa...'), Springbok, elephant, crocodiles and hippos!
During the evenings TJ, our guide, transformed into Jamie Oliver and barbequed up some incredible culinery delights for us which we then had to protect from the hundreds of swooping big-beaked birds which would emerge out of no where to steal ones bbq sandwich. The evenings also became a period of cultural enlightenment. My fellow tent-mate and friend, Mike, was the world's silver medalist paralympic swimmer and an Austrailian which led to several awkward cultural jargon misunderstandings (Mike "I love wearing thongs in the shower" Me "What?" Mike "Oh all aussie blokes do it, it's an aussie thing" Me "Okay..." Mike "Thongs are sandals..." Me "Sure...") However we soon bonded in fear against the romanian girls whom we correctly assumed were out to steal our vital body organs.
The gypsies had emigrated to Austrailia at an early age in an effort to escape persecution in Romania and join their own kind in exile (ie convicts). They consisted of Getta (the leader and master-planner), Andrea (a reformed gangster), Alis (a puppet) and Cristina who spent most of her life asleep and so posed us no threat. When not chanting curses or attempting to take photos of me sleeping, they proved an amusing diversion whenever there was a shortage of wildlife (there was never a shortage, we just got bored of zebras and giraffes and craved a lion spotting). However, Mike and I never let our guard down and secretly, we attempted to sabatage the gypsies attempts at selling off our fellow travellers body-parts on ebay (you'd have to see it to believe it, but those romanians were merciless!). However, judging from the fresh scars on my torso, I'd say our guards weren't high enough and those crafty nomadic people ran off with at least a kidney!
Anyways, even at the campsite one was never off safari, and this was never more apparant than when one read the sign in the toilets which read 'Beware of Hyenas'. Although we were safe within the campsite, you could here them crying at night and patrolling the perimeter in search of human scraps.
The following day of Safari was much the same although this time we were in search of more exotic animals. We spent the entire afternoon searching for Lions and instead managed to spot a leopard which is incredibly rare (our guide has only seen 11 in his entire career and there are only 1000 in Kruger). Yet again the scrum followed, but due to the distance and the annoying fact that no one is allowed out of the vehicle whilst on safari we were reduced to looking through binoculars at it (although mike got a few good piccys). That evening, disheartened at not having seen lions on our last day we signed up to the sunset safari out of desperation. This proved to be a godsend.
The Sunset Safari is run by experienced Kruger Rangers who drive an open top jeep and go armed with rifles to areas no other tour can go. Whilst it started off slow with the drivers stopping for even the most boring animals (boring: wilderbeast, zebra etc) the guides had eagle eyes and just when thins got dull sped off the dirt road down to the river where there was a full sized bull elephant washing itself in the river. Normally drivers stay their distance but this time we drove right up close, that is until the elephant swerved around and started lumbering towards us! It charged out onto the road and then trumbled in front of the jeep, meters away, right into a small passenger car in front of us which quickly reversed at incredible speeds! After snapping some fantastic shots we sped on. After an hour of stopping for kingfishers and insects we felt things were slowing down, the sun was setting and we were frustrated at the lack of lion. In desperation I sighed 'Where are the lions' which happened to be picked up by our guide who replied 'here are the lions'. Sure enough, in front of the jeep, out of the dark emerged a pride of lions walking at a relaxed pace along the road towards us. Quite unnerved at the presence of a jeep full of tourists, the female lions, meters apart, calmly strode past to be followed by two males who didn't so much as look up at us despite the fact we were flashing our cameras mere meters away. It was quite possibly the best experience of the safari especially when we saw the four join two other lions who were waiting out in the plains. The night was topped off by the spotting of 6 rhinos and calfs at close distance in the dark and a female hippo grazing out of the water (very rare). All in all it was an incredible night and after a good sleep we headed back to Joburg with many stories to tell!
- comments