Safari - Part I: Jo'burg to Livingstone

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January 26, 2006

Our first day of the safari. The night before we spent re-packing our stuff, doing laundry and getting ready. We left the hostel at 8:30am, and headed on our way to Greater Kruger National Park. Our tour leader, Charlie, seems really nice and incredibly enthusiastic. She's full of energy and information! Our group seems really great...mostly Aussies, with two Kiwis, a Brit and an American. We're 18 in total, plus Charlie, Dzingi (our driver) and Heinrich, whose learning to be a guide. Heinrich is hilarious. He's pretty young, from Namibia, and is really enthusiastic. This is his very first trip, and he doesn't seem to know what's going on at all, but that doesn't stop him! The group itself is great, lots of really fun people, which is great. A horrible group would have really ruined the trip, I think.

We spent the entire day driving, stopping for lunch at the side of the road. We arrived at the lodge in Greater Kruger National Park around 6pm. We were really lucky, because we're the first group to start the new itinerary. We got to stay in individual chalets (huts) with our own bathroom. So, no camping for our first two nights! The lodge was beautiful, almost brand new. We had an hour to settle in before having some people from a local village come to put on a show for us. They did traditional dancing, and sang a bunch of songs using the drums, it was incredible. There were some adults, and several groups of young boys, dressed in traditional outfits. They even got us up to dance, and John was up for the finale. It was an awesome way to begin our trip. We spent the rest of the night getting to know our new group members, before heading off to bed to struggle with mosquito nets once again!

January 27, 2006
We were up at 5:15 this morning, to start our morning game drive and game walk at 5:45. We climbed into the open-top trucks and headed into Greater Kruger National Park. A few years ago, they incorporated a bunch of smaller parks that surrounded Kruger National Park, to make the greater park. We met our guide, Roger (pronounced Roge-ah by all the aussies), and were on our way by 6. We were warned that it would be difficult to see a lot of game, for several reasons. One, it's the rainy season here, so a lot of animals won't bother coming out to the waterholes when they can find surface water all over the place. Second, it's summer, and it's hot, so a lot of animals aren't that active. Third, because there's been so much rain, the grasses are really long, making it harder to see long distances. In the dry season, Roger said that you can see for miles.

Regardless, after seeing a couple of impala, we turned the corner and saw a cheetah in the middle of our trail. Roger said that we were really lucky to see a cheetah, it’s one of the rarest animals to see in the park. He said that while he sees lions about every four drives, he only sees a cheetah every twentieth. He also explained that it’s the animal to see because it’s going to be the next animal to become extinct in Africa. After watching the cheetah for awhile, he started to get nervous, so we moved on to avoid irritating him. We drove for a few more minutes before spotting a couple of zebras grazing near an elephant. It was incredible to watch them, and by this time we had forgotten how early it was! We stopped at a waterhole to have our packed breakfasts. A couple of us had to pee, but we had to wait while the guides checked the area for animals. They carry huge rifles with them, and they told us that there had been some lionesses in the area with cubs recently, and had to make sure they were gone. They checked the area, and kept walking around while we ate. We hopped back on the truck after we ate, and on our way to find more animals, the other truck got a flat tire. We had to wait while they changed the tire, so our guide decided that we could do the game walk while we waited. Unfortunately, since the group had now doubled and we weren’t in the area where normal game walks happen, we took more of a ‘nature walk’, We didn’t see any animals, but Roger took us past some huge termite hills, and explained all these incredible things about termites. We also took a look at all different kinds of tracks, and Roger explained how to identify them and tell how old they were. It wasn’t what we had had in mind, but still really interesting, and the other truck was ready again quickly, so we continued on the game drive. We had to head back to the camp, because it wasn’t safe to dive around without a spare, but since we were really far inside the park, we still had an hour drive to camp. On the way back we saw a couple of huge giraffes and some more zebras. The actual park was really green and lush. The plants and grass were green and tall. The waterholes were full, from all the rains, and it was a lot less “African bush” than most would imagine. We’ve been told that the Serengeti will be much drier and dusty.

Anyway, back at camp, we had a nap, then lunch. We couldn’t believe that it was only noon and we had already done so much. At 1:30 we went for a village walk with a local man. He took us through the village, which was a lot different from the villages in Senegal. Generally, it seemed that people were a little more well off, even where there were huts, most were painted and had glass windows. They had outhouse style toilets as opposed to holes in the ground. There were tons of cute kids following us around, and a couple of us took their picture. After visiting the villages in Tamba and realizing how excited kids were to see the picture afterwards, I decided to show the kids the pictures. They were ecstatic. It started quite the trend, including Graham showing them a video he took on his video camera. They were so excited; it was adorable. The heat was really getting to us all, we were sweating for the first time in awhile!

That afternoon we began our night game drive. We started at 4:30, and were pretty unsuccessful. We drove and drove and couldn’t find anything at all. We were started to space out in the truck after an hour and a half. We stopped at a different waterhole that night to have a ‘sundowner’ (sherry, of all things) and watch the sunset. At the waterhole, there was a sole hippo in the water, and he was less than impressed to see us. Roger explained that since he was alone, he already had a chip on his shoulder (because he didn’t have any friends), and now we were freaking him out. Roger told us not to get too close to the edge of the water, or he would charge us. We sat and drank the sherry, and watched the hippo snorting and splashing in the water. A rhino came out from the bushes, on the other side of the waterhole, when the sun had just started to set. He walked around, and we hoped he would come to the waterhole, but, since he was downwind from us, he caught the scent of us, and headed the other way. We watched the hippo for a bit longer, before getting back on the safari trucks.

When we started driving again, it was dark, and we had a tracker on the front of the truck with a large spotlight to light up the bushes. While we were really hoping to catch a glance of a leopard, we only managed to catch another glimpse of a giraffe and some more zebras. That night we fell into our beds, exhausted from a really long day.

January 28, 2006

We left the lodge early to get a good start on our drive for the day. We were supposed to cross the border into Botswana, and stay at a campsite just on the other side of the border. After about an hour of driving, we had to stop at a garage to get our tire changed on the truck. Another flat tire! We waited there for an hour and a half, playing soccer and rugby in the parking lot, before heading out again. We hadn’t traveled very far before we had to stop on the side of the road again. After lunch we stopped in a car park in Pietersburg in South Africa and were told to all get out. We found out there was something wrong with the truck, and that we’d have to stop in Pietersburg for the night. We sat in the car park (after hitting up the beer and liquor store), and eventually ate dinner there also (KFC of all things). Charlie was trying to organize a place for us to stay, when an Afrikaans woman came up to us and told us we could camp on her farm. Charlie had asked her where the nearest campsite was, and after talking to her husband, she told us we could stay with them. We ended up playing darts for awhile with some local people in a community center nearby while we waited for the details to be organized. We drove to the farm and were amazed that these people were willing to let us all stay with them. They had a huge farmhouse, with four separate flats. We had expected to camp on their lawn, but they insisted that we sleep in the bedrooms and in the living rooms. Then, they set up a fire outside, stocked the bar and turned on the music. The men were quite the drinkers, and dart players! One guy could hit the bullseye without looking. He also had lost one of his fingers in an accident, and kept it behind the bar on the shelf. He was really nice though, and very hospitable. We had a great night with them, and in the morning couldn’t express our gratitude enough.

January 29 - 30, 2006

We were up early, and off, after saying thank you to the wonderful Afrikaans family. Overnight, a new driver had driven a new truck up to Pietersburg for us. It wasn’t an overland truck, so it didn’t have the lockers and safe that the other one did. We drove the entire day, and crossed the border into Botswana without a hassle. We arrived at camp in Nata just before dark, set up the tents, had dinner and roasted marshmallows.

The next morning it was raining - a lot. The new truck was leaking - a lot. Everything in the truck was wet, our shoes, our clothes, the mattresses, everything. We started our drive to Kisane, Botswana. When we arrived, we went into town to get some snacks and hit up the Internet. Afterwards, we went to camp and were able to set up our tents just before it started to pour. We ate lunch while waiting it out, but it continued to downpour. There were ‘rivers’ pouring out from under our tents, and we thought they would be soaked. Despite the rain, we went on a fish-eagle cruise down the Chobe River. We saw the fish-eagle, a kingfisher, impala, small crocodile and a heard of 25 hippos. We managed to remain relatively dry, so we were happy with the day!

January 31, 2006

We were up at 5:30 and crossed the river on the ferry to the border between Botswana and Zambia. Charlie managed to organize VISA waivers, so we saved $200! Looking forward to Victoria Falls and a few days of free time for some activities.

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Photos

Kruger National Park
Some of the kids who came to dance for us

Kruger National Park
The Cheetah

Water Hole
Sunset at the water hole

Hippos
At the Chobe River, Botswana