Adventures in Kruger Park

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Happy New Year everyone….. but not quite ready to get to how mine went.

My holidays were so jammed packed that I can’t fit it all in one blog entry so I’ll start at the beginning. After finishing work on the 17th, I got up early Saturday morning to drive to Nelspruit to meet Mike (who I met in South America last year, he is teaching in Dubai and decided to spend three weeks in Africa with me). Since I didn’t have a cell number for South Africa our plan was to meet where the greyhound would drop him off.

I was running a little late trying to get a new South African cell number (a giant pain in the ass) and get food for camping. I was literally driving down the road with the lonely planet map in my face trying to figure where I was supposed to pick him up when I hear “SHAR!” Stopped the car and he came running down with his bags. He had taken a different bus that got him in over an hour before and he had sat there freaking out that someone would rob him until I showed up.

So…. I’m sort of a messy person. Mike is not. I had the car cleaned and it was tidy before I picked him up, but when I realized what time it was when I was getting groceries I just threw them all in the back and started driving. He had a minor freak out that he could not handle the car like this, great start to the trip.

We were on our way to Kruger National Park, the biggest and most famous game park in South Africa. I did it 4 years ago, and while I had a good time, I didn’t see any of the big cats and was slightly disappointed. This time I went in with no expectations because I don’t have luck with seeing animals. Well, we arrived at the gate and went to show our reservation and the guy watching the gate says “Look, there is a leopard.” Seriously, the thing was 50 meters away walking away from the gate on the road. I threw the reservation at him, said we will come back and pay, and ran back to the car.

It was so cool, we were right beside her on the road. I was closer to her and when I turned to say something to Mike the guy had his whole body out of the car taking pictures. So embarrassing since that is soooooo not allowed in the park. I had to give him the lowdown that you stay in the car at all times. We watched her for a while, after we finally drove back for my reservation she had wandered off the road and was chilling in a tree.

So… I am not much of a camper. I can rough it when necessary, but I had no idea most of our trip would be in a tent. I was able to get us a campsite at Berg en dal, but when we arrived it was absolutely packed with rich white South Africans and all of their pimped out camp equipment. I on the other hand, had bought a cheap tent from Midas. Mike forgot a mattress but the campsite let us borrow a single bed from one of the cabins, so walking through the campsite with a giant mattress on my head made us look even more silly. We looked so ghetto next to all the big motor homes. We made friends with the older couple next to us who have been coming there for 30 years; bbq’d up some dinner while we sat on a bench close to our tent (no I did not have pimped out camping chairs like everyone else)

Next morning we got up early and all you do is sit in the car. Took awhile to see some things but then our day got more exciting. Zebras, giraffes, buffalos.. you name it. I drove for the first couple of hours and was quite good at spotting things. Amazing how crazy the animals look, yet they totally blend in.

When Mike took at turn at driving I was having a panic attack. He was all over the road, driving on the grass, or turning in the direction he was looking. When I called him on it, his response was “it is really hard to drive and try to scan for animals,” even though that is exactly what I had been doing for the previous 3 hours. His excuse changed to ‘You’ve had way more practice than me driving on the wrong side of the road.”

It was cute at first how excited Mike was when we started, but I was content to drive in silence. Not mike. Every two minutes it was “Oh… I think this is lion country. Oh I think this is where giraffes will be.” If I was a lion I would want to live here near this rock. Doesn’t it look like this is where a Velociraptor would hang out? Then when we would see a giraffe, rhino, or whatever he mentioned, he would be like – see… I made that happen. I called it. Please note he refused to acknowledge that the other 49 times he said (I want to see… or we should see a blank here) we didn’t see squat.

The impala is a stupid little deer that is everywhere. I was getting annoyed because Mike wanted to stop to take a picture every time we saw them when all of a sudden we spotted a lion walking into the bush. A caravan came up and said they had been watching for half an hour and thought she might kill, so we ripped around and waited for her to show herself occasionally from the bush, and then waited as she watched 2 impalas. More and more cars were coming up and I think she got spooked because she let them walk right in front of her and didn’t attack.

Timing where the rest stops are is hard because there are no random toilet breaks along the way. I had to go pretty bad before we saw the lion, and after watching her for over half an hour, we were still quite far from a rest camp.
Thinking I was going to pee my pants, we then encountered hippos on the side of the road eating away, and a massive bull elephant that Mike got far too close to that started coming towards the car. By the time we went to the bathroom, we didn’t have time to drive all the way back across the park, so we drove south, left the park, drove on the highway, and then came back in. Of course all you do is keep seeing more and more amazing animals the greater hurry you are in. I accidentally drove over (not with my tires, but just over) a leopard tortoise that was crossing the road. He was fine, it wasn’t my fault…. There was a whole bunch of elephant shit on the road and he kind of blended in.

That night we were adopted by another South African family for an amazing dinner. Mike was bound and determined to see a lion in the morning, and since people said you had to get up at 4:30 to go see them, he was getting up early. I am neither a night hawk nor a morning person. At I don’t even know what time chipper mike woke me up and forced me into the car. I was still in my pyjamas, but thankfully animals don’t care if you are wearing a bra or not.

I was quite cranky and we hadn’t seen anything for over an hour. He was quite eager to see a giraffe really close and kept asking me if I thought we would see one. I said no, giraffes don’t come out till 7:52 am. Mike – really? Why? It is so refreshing to have someone more gullible than me around. Please note we didn’t see a giraffe on the road until 8:08 am.

Our last morning was quite eventful. We got too close (mike was driving) to a rhino and her baby. I was taking pictures and she stepped on a twig. I got spooked and Mike blamed me for scaring the rhino. Um…. If she decided she didn’t like us, all she would have to do is take 3 steps and her horn would be through my door. Again… my fault. Later Mike spotted some elephants in the trees. We waited and one came tearing down towards us to cool off in a puddle. While she was hosing herself down, her baby came alongside her and rolled in the mud. I took a video which may or may not get loaded because of the crap internet here. Momma elephant was cool with us then came forward and flared her ears. Had to inch the car forward and give her some space.

Overall we were extremely lucky, we saw all of the big 5, and the only thing we didn’t see was a cheetah. Since it is only 3-4 hours from Swaz, I will definitely be coming back to Kruger again.

By the afternoon we were on our way out of the park and stopped in Nelspruit to get money and food. Mike tried to ask someone directions to Jo’berg and literally couldn’t understand the woman who was speaking English. She told him to turn at the robot. The what? The robot. You see, they call traffic lights robots here, and with her harsh Afrikaner accent all he heard was whoabot. Absolutely hilarious.

Drive to Jo’berg was fine. I know so many people who get their cars stolen there I was happy that the hotel we were at near the airport would let me store my car there while we would be on the overland trip. We had a decent night sleep before we boarded the Nomad’s overland truck on our way to Botswana and Victoria Falls.

Stay tuned…

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Comments

[michael]

Adventures with shar
Great blog on kruger shar.. we did see alot of animals.. had an awesome time sleeping in tents.. my backs is catching up to me.. looking forward to botswana blog..