- Pre dawn, get up for our trip to Kruger National Park. It took us 6 hours to drive the 150kms from Malelane Gate to the Phabeni Gate last Friday. Kruger National Park Guidebook recommends 16 hours to get from Malelane Gate to Punda Maria, our rest camp for the next three days, two nighs. This is on account of constant stopping, animal jams, and 50k speed limit. So we decide to drive up to the Phalaborwa gate, 3 hours away, outside the park; Punda Maria will then only be a 6hour drive.
- The road trip to Phalaborwa takes us through some pretty poor areas and townships, where before the sun is up, people are on the side of the highway, queuing up for transport in the freezing cold.
- We stop off in Phalaborwa after a three and a half hour trip, grab some brekky in Whippys, and stop off at the Post-it for some postcard stamps. They don't have any and direct me and Roy to a Black Hawk Down tour through bazaars and dark alleys to the Post Office. Here we meet "the Dumbest Person in Africa".
- I says to the Dumbest Person in Africa: I would like 20 postcard stamps please (should be around 5R each). That will be 600 Rand. Again, I explain basic multiplication. He replies that it will be 240 Rand. By this time, I don't care. I'll take them 240 Rand. Then Roy pipes in and says he'll take 20 as well. Okay, says the Dumbest Person in Africaa, that will be 120 Rand. I look at Roy and back at the Dumbest Person in Africa, and reply, Are ye sure? 120 Rand. Roy pays him the money ad we hightail it out of there back to Chris, who by now thinks we are dead, and is calmly reading his book.
- The higher you go in Kruger, the more tropical and drier, apparently, but a good chance of seeing animals in the winter. We have already seen 1 of the big five - the elephant (the other 4 are the lion, buffalo, rhino and leopard) and are searching for the other four. Pretty difficult to see the leopard - Chris saw the other 4 last time - so we want to see as many as possible this trip. Of course we don't wan to be late for Punda Maria rest camp. Gates close at 5:30, and if we don't get there by then, we have to pay a fine. Probably 100Rand of something. Sixteen bucks.
- And as we head into the park, we see our first animal - a giraffe. Soon after we head into 3 buffalo! The Big Five! They are just muching away until we pull up then stare straight at us. Boy are they big! Wouldn't want to get in the way of them, so drive on.
- Just before we hit a bridge over a dry river (Letaba?), we see a protective mother elephant with her calf. Mum is eyeing us suspiciously and we see the rest of her posse emerge. Just as we start snapping, down comes the rain. We pass a dry river bed with a herd of elephants, all seem to be waiting or hiding from a predator. You never get over elephants. I bet I could watch them for a hundred years and still not understand how they think and feel, or why hey do what they do.
- We stop in at Mopani and Shingwedzi rest camps on the way, meandering off here and there to explore waterholes. Elephants, giraffes, zebras, impalas are a plenty (not at waterholes), otherwise nothing, save for the odd baboons or vervet monkeys chasing each other, climbing trees. Slide into Punda Maria with minutes to spare, into our thatched roof bungalow. Northern most camp, least populated and visited part of the park, surrounded by electric fence, so inside we can walk to the restaurant, watch monkeys play, buy stuff from the store. Head over instead to watch Japan play Paraguay, and lose in a penalty shootout.
- Tonight, we head out on a night safari; Roy, Chris and I in the back seat of the 4WD, six Afrikaaners in the next two rows. My job with the generator powered spotlight on the right is to spot eyes looking back at me; we see almost nothing. I wanted maybe a leopard yawning lazly from a branch, or perhaps a giraffe popping his head out before galloping off. Oh, we saw a few rabbits, some birds, a buffalo, and a porcupine that we chased for five minutes before he ran off, but no big 5. Hope Wednesday is more productive.
D
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