Kruger Park and Onward

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From here, I was making my way towards Kruger Park where I hoped to see more animals in this famous game park. On the way, we had a mandatory Baz Bus stop in Swaziland, which is a separate country surrounded on all sides by South Africa. The boarder stop required our getting out and having our passports stamped by each country. My passport is filling up fast.

It immediately looks different here—mainly because of large-scale farming. Throughout the country you find sugar cane plantations, distilleries (very stinky) and sugar mills. This little kingdom has a lot of money going into it as is evidenced by the BMW dealerships we saw. You can see some pollution in the air from cane burning. The photos of the king and queen at the boarder were of them in tribal dress.

Nelspruit is the city you land in when you want to visit Kruger. It’s tropical here and vendors were selling mangoes and litchis on the sides of the road. From here I was hoping the backpackers could arrange a short trip into the park and luckily, one was leaving the next day. It was an overnight stay in a campground and included game drives morning, noon and night. It was just what I wanted so I booked it.

Staying at the Funky Monkey’s Backpackers was a large group of Peace Corps volunteers. They had gathered from their assigned villages to come together for a Thanksgiving dinner. When they learned I was also an American, they invited me to join them. What a nice job they did with the meal and with limited kitchen resources. Three turkeys had to be cooked in stages since the oven was small but the food turned out great. They improvised the cranberry sauce with shredded beets so it looked right. There were about twenty of them and I asked if they had any interesting stories to tell. It was really amusing to hear some of their tales. One volunteer was a 62-year-old woman who gave up her psychologist practice to do this.

Kruger was everything I could have wanted. The campsite was clean and comfortable and they did a good job with the food. There were only two of us staying there. I saw all of the big five. The lion and leopard were seen only on the night drive. Everyone on our vehicle became excited at the first sighting of the leopard. It wasn’t until he circled around to the rear of our vehicle that I got a good look at this beautiful animal. He was large and powerful and his spots were very clear. Prior to this, I had only seen one from a distance in a tree. Unfortunately there was only time for one quick photo before he disappeared into the bush.

From Nelspruit, it was a six-hour ride to Johannesburg—the infamous place where crime stories prevail. I had no plans to “tour” the city and only needed to sort out changes on my ticket with Kenya Airways. After that, I arranged for a shuttle to Pretoria, an hour north of JoBurg. Cecilea and Anton were newlyweds I met at breakfast in St. Lucia. They had invited me to stay at their home and wanted me to have an Afrikaner experience. I was looking forward to spending time with them because, so far I had had little contact with Afrikaners, and they were super nice people.

They went out of their way to make me comfortable. To accommodate me, they moved out of their guesthouse and into their parent’s main house so that I could have my own space during my stay. I felt bad about inconveniencing them but, after so many backpackers, I thoroughly enjoyed the privacy.

They gave me a lovely tour of the city and we went out to dinner. Cecilea took me to a big shopping mall where I was able to book my ongoing flights to Victoria Falls and buy everything I needed. She was even able to get me in to see her hairdresser—very important after six months of travel and I feel like a new woman! Their warm hospitality will stay with me and I only hope to be able to reciprocate some day when they come to America.

The end of my journey through this remarkable and complex country is coming to an end. The people have been very good to me all along the way. I’ve stayed for ten weeks—far longer than I planned--but it couldn’t be rushed. The country is in a state of flux—changing from the old ways to new ones that have not yet been forged. Most of the people are hopeful and there is promise. Everyone—black and white alike—know they have to work together and many are trying. The natural beauty of this land and the diversity of its people are its greatest resources. Time will tell what the future brings.

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