South Africa - The Big Five in Kruger!

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We flew from Goa, India to Mumbai, India.  Then caught another flight to Johannesburg, South Afica via Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Dubai has the most unique and modern airport we have been to.  It was shiny, new and had a large shopping mall in it!  The Emirates Airline is certainly the best we have ever experienced. Top-notch!

We were picked up from the Johannesburg airport by the Safari company.  We drove to Pretoria, the capital of South Africa and spent two glorious days at the Lombardy Estate.  A boutique hotel out in the country with Meditteranian-style food and lovely gardens. It was so cool as we had the entire place to ourselves, other than a couple of other diners one night.

On day three in South Africa, Kobus, our Safari Guide, picked us up from the hotel and we headed out to the Kruger National Park. In the first two hours we saw zebras, blue wildebeasts, warthogs, giraffes, babboons, steenboks, impalas, gaters and even the African buffalos and numerous exotic birds.  We were pretty excited!  After the five day safari with our guide, we were thrilled to have been lucky to see all of the 'Big Five' (elephant, African buffalo, rhino, lion and leopard).  We actually saw two leopards.  We were told by three guides that only 0.10 % of tourists see a leopard and we saw two of them.  You will not believe the photos (we were so close to a beautiful male leopard! We could see him panting from the heat.) We were able to watch the leopard for about 10 minutes as he was perched on a big tree branch - just like in the cartoons.  All of a sudden, he must have seen some 'lunch', as he stealthly snuck down the tree, jumped to the ground - in front of our vehicle - and walked across the road.  

Kobus, our lively guide, educated us on so many facts about South Africa and the animals.  I wish we could remember half of them. Here are a few interesting ones: 

Kruger National Park is 450 km long and 60 km wide - 2 million hectares.  A giraffes tongue is one meter long.  A leopard has the ability/strength to kill and pull up a tree an animal two times their own weight. When a baby giraffe is born it falls about two meters to the ground.  The Impalas in the park give birth the same day and all the babies become scentless for three days, in order to give them a fighting chance in the wilderness.  (Safety in numbers). Elephants way of training and disciplining their young, their life span and the way of showing emotions is all similar to humans... 

We saw eagles so large that they actually kill Impalas (a small deer that we are used to seeing at home). We also saw Leadwood Trees that were 4,000 years old. Yes, 4,000 years old. We were able to catch a giraffe drinking water.  This may not seem like much to see but it is truly quite a sight.  They move the front legs out to the side, bend them, then gracefully put their mouth in the water. After about a minute of gulping water they swoop up their neck and water spays all over. 

During our safari, we were 200 meters from the Mozambique border. 

The last night we were in the Kruger, we were heading out for our sunset drive and we passed by monkeys who were in their glory as they raided the tourist's fridges.  (There were fridges at each of the cabins on the back decks).  The monkeys were eating yogurt, mangoes, and anything else they could get their hands on.  All that was left were fridge doors hanging open. It was hilarious!

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

By the way, Kobus proudly told us that the 'Big Five B's' in South Africa are:  Braai (bbq's), Beer, Biltong (beef jerkey), Brandy and Bebelas (hang-overs). 

The South Africans like everything big here!

After the Safari, we returned to Pretoria to a gracious, historic hotel, The Victoria.  The rooms were very large and we even had two bathrooms.  We walked a couple of blocks down the street and found an internet cafe. Walking down the streets and also in the internet cafe, we were the only whites. A little akward at first but we quickly got used to it.  We felt like we were Ian on the Lonely Planet channel  - the internet cafe that we visited also was a hair salon and you could pick your hair style by pointing to one of the pictures on a chart.  Mike picked an up-do but they couldn't fit him in!    

Cheers,

Shelly & Michael  :)