South Africa and the Animals

We flew from Hong Kong to Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 30^th. Normally we would have arranged for someone to meet us at the airport; however, we intended to turn our South African adventure into a driving adventure. Needless to say that just renting a car, driving on the wrong side of the road again, and driving a standard (stick shift in the left hand) was an adventure in itself. The map that we printed out in the airport lounge in Hong Kong indicated that our drive should take approximately 50 minutes to our hotel......3 hours later we arrived. Luckily we arrived early in the morning at JNB and our extended drive was perfect timing for our check in at the hotel we booked just outside Johannesburg for four nights.

The resort turned out to be incredible and the staff very attentive as the resort wasn't very busy --- another casualty of the world economic crisis. While we were in Johannesburg (northwest of Joburg actually), we took a tour of the South Western Township (aka. Soweto). The Soweto township first developed during the gold rush around the late 1800's, as a suburb outside of Johannesburg where Africans were forced to live. The number of people living in the township is unconfirmed–reports are anywhere from 2-5 million people. Turns out Nobel Peace Prize recipients Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu both lived on the same block in the "nicer" part of Soweto.

Today Soweto is more than just shanty houses, there is a growing entrepreneurial middle class and the neighbourhood is full of new cars, and brick houses complete with alarm systems. In addition, the government is slowly relocating residents into government housing projects.

Apparently the crime rate in Soweto is far below that of the rest of Johannesburg. I read that residents have their own form of justice…they find the culprit and set him on fire which seems to keep the crime rate low.

Our original plan was to head to Kruger Park to see some animals and then drive down the coast via the garden route to Capetown. I have always wanted to go to Capetown. In an adventure like ours, flexibility is very important. Although our trip will be 8 months long when we finish, we have had to skip many places of interest or sometimes stay longer than intended in some spots for various logistical reasons. South Africa was no exception to this continued flexibility. We found an incredible spot in a private game reserve called Marloth Park. The ingredients that make it ideal include: Big dangerous animals close by on the wild side of the fence; Smaller and safer wild animals within reach on what is, officially, the wrong side of the fence for them (we are told that zebra have multiplied prodigiously without their natural predators). Within three hours of being in our little cottage/lodge (Maujli River Lodge) we saw zebras, hippos, rhino, impalas, baboons and numerous exotic birds. We were pretty excited!

After the first five days we were thrilled to have been lucky to see several of the of the 'Big Five' (elephant, African buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard) considering it was summer time and the grass makes it more difficult to spot the animals.

A couple of days before we were scheduled to leave and drive down the coast to Capetown (about 20+ hours over a week) we had a family meeting to discuss the idea of staying at Maujli River Lodge for the remainder of our stay in South Africa and skipping the trip to Capetown. We were all in agreement in our decision to stay and subsequently contacted the owner in Ireland to work out the details.

Seven days at Kruger, and we still hadn't seen the big 5. We'd taken many self-drives (where you can drive yourself around the park) around Lionspruit, the private game reserve in Marloth.

Three of the big 5 are fairly easy to spot– elephant, buffalo, rhino. Number 4, the lion eluded us and we went on several drives just to find them alone. The wildlife was amazing. We saw many different things; giraffes "neck" fighting, impalas fighting, rhinos yawning, dung beetles making balls from zebra scat, wildebeest marking their territory, baboons grooming each other, a baby zebra nursing, a baby buffalo, the remains of a kill (bones were picked clean, only the skeleton of baby giraffe remained), elephants playing in the water, buffalo rolling in the grass, a herd of buffalo on a mini stampede, a younger elephant charging our car and then rolling over like he was in the circus, a fish eagle catching dinner, hippos playing with each other in the water, baby zebra jumping on its mother, and a large baboon in our lodge/cottage. And we learned random facts; the white rhino has poor eyesight, elephants are overpopulated in the park, giraffe sex between males is common, the impala is "fast food" for the lions, female buffalo prefer the young bulls and kick out the old male buffalo, when a baby giraffe is born it falls about two metres to the ground, a giraffe can break the jaw of a lion with its kicks, a leopard has the ability/strength to kill and pull up a tree an animal two times their own weight, the wildebeest is not a smart animal-very curious, giraffes only sleep 20 minutes per day and are also curious-leading them to be dinner for the lions, a firaffes tongue is one metre long. Kruger Park is an incredible place. Kruger National Park is 450 km long and 60 km wide - 2 million hectares.

When I first began to write this entry, while still in Africa, we thought we would eventually see a Lion. The Lions eluded us; however, the second last night we were in the Kruger, we were heading out for our sunset/night drive and we saw a Leopard! Our pictures didn't turn out very well but we did manage to get a video clip that we will never forget. Just before the night Safari was over we also spotted a group of wild dogs. We all agreed that the Leopard and Wild dogs were far better than a pride of Lions. We were told by three guides that only 0.10 % of tourists see a leopard. You will not believe the photos we will try and get them all up shortly as many people have been emailing us in anticipation of seeing them.

I really think I love Africa because of how raw it is. We saw the real South Africa because there's no other way to see it…the real Africa doesn't have money to cover up its flaws; you see it for what it is....real people, real life, and a real struggle. Nothing is easy, and things are bound to go wrong while traveling in Africa (ie. missing hubcaps and dented tail lights-we had insurance). If nothing goes wrong than I doubt you're experiencing the real Africa. We'd been told by countless people and read many warnings of the dangers of traveling through various parts of South Africa. All of which made us paranoid thinking we would be robbed, threatened at gun point or worse. Our imaginations were worse than anything we experienced (of course, you have to be smart when traveling, too). The worst problem we faced was the roads– the potholes are enough to drive me mad. But the Africans we met were warm and friendly, armed and ready with a smile.

Our safari experience was LEKKER! (Translated from Afrikan - great!).

I truly believe that part of each one of us didn't want to see a Lion before we left. Anyone who knows us well would see this as a challenge that the Misner/Kenny family would not want to lose; however, I think we had an ulterior motive.

Allow me to introduce our very good friend Mike. Mike looks after the cottage for the owner as he lives in Ireland. Mike has lived in Marloth for about 7 years. He has an incredible amount of knowledge about the bush, animals, Africa, politics and the world. Mike took us on evening drives in his Landrover, lent us his tennis raquets, gave Jeff several hours of private tennis lessons, came over with animal guide books, taught us to feed the zebras, lent us two pairs of his binoculars, happily ate every last drop of Elaine's sausage pasta put on his plate, introduced us to neighbours, and most importantly.....treated Samantha and Jeffrey like his own grandchildren. Everyone was just about in tears when we said goodbye.

Yes, we didn't see the Lions, but the real reason we will be going back to Kruger Park is to see our friend Mike again! Thanks Mike for making our time in South Africa and Kruger very special......we'll never forget it!!