Kruger National Park

www.krugerpark.co.za

After sharing our room with bugs, mosquitos and a friendly tree frog, we were off to see some wild life of a larger variety at Kruger National Park spanning across 2 million hectares, roughly the size of Wales in the UK (as my Lonely Planet informed us). First we needed to make sure we were properly nourished so went on a scenic tour of the surrounding towns of Sadie and Graskop (the G said more like you've got an annoying itch at the back of your throat, or the "jota" sound in Spanish) to look for a place for breakfast. After perusing the countryside, finding several scenic outlooks closed for the holidays, we ended up back in Hazyview at a place we had spotted earlier. It was nearly noon after our very pretty drive, so I quickly chose the largest breakfast on the menu: the Farmer's Breakfast. It had a bit of everything, fried eggs, toast, "bacon"/ham, garlic mushrooms, tomato, minced meat, Boerwors(sausage)and a fried banana. Lukanyo suggested that he'd get a smaller meal thinking I couldn't possibly finish mine without his help. I suggested he shouldn't attempt to touch any of my food. Being the runt of a large litter, I have residual defense mechanisms regarding my food, namely sharing. I only do it if absolutely necessary and even then, begrudgingly. It's something I'm working on, ha.

It was less than an hour's drive to Kruger. Once inside the park it was still 20 minutes to Skukuza Camp, one of the nicer areas apparently, which Lukanyo was lucky to find a cancellation when booking what's usually scheduled a year ahead. After checking in, confirming our lodging for the next two nights, we made our way to the camp's shop where we bought some lamb steaks, chicken legs and veggies for a dinner bbq after our scheduled game drive. It was time to settle our things into our hut with a couple hours to relax before the game drive. The hut was fully equipped with shower, bathroom, "aircon", and kitchen utilities, an interim indulgence between backpackers hostels. Interestingly, the kitchen utilities - refrigerator, stove, and sink - were on the open porch. After writing some postcards and working on a few Sudoku puzzles, it was time for the drive.

With about fourteen others, we climbed into an open-air safari truck, the window frames without any covering. The guide took us through Kruger for three hours, one hour during the dark where we used spotlights to sweep the landscape for green, yellow, and red eyes. The guide joked that we couldn't blame him for anything we didn't get to see, but that he could guarantee that we would find impala, a populous deer-like animal. Our first find was a white rhino, distinguished from the black rhino not in color but in several other ways. White rhinos are ground grazers so you'll find them with their heads down while black rhinos are tree grazers, so their heads will be up looking for food. If their young are with them, the white rhino will keep its baby in front of it while the black rhino protects its baby by placing itself in front. The guide said an easy way to remember this is that it's just like people here in South Africa, black people put their babies behind them on their backs, white people push the baby in front of them in a stroller.

We saw a wildebeest prancing around a group of impala and springbok (a smaller deer-like animal), thinking we would get to see some Discovery Channel feeding action, but it just kept bounding to and fro. Apparently they're known as the "clowns" of the bushveld. We spotted a bit of a giraffe strategically placed just out of view behind a tall tree. There were a couple zebras somewhere along the way and kudu, something like an antelope, the males having large spiralled horns, one twist for each year. We stopped to watch a vulture in a far-off tree for some time to see if it had spotted some dinner, while the song "We're you're friends" from the Jungle Book was almost audible on the warm night's breeze. The other exciting find was a hippo, almost fully submerged in a small pond. The guide said in all the times he had been to this pond, the hippo had not been there, which is particularly notable because hippos are known to never deviate from their established routes from vegetation to waterhole unless they are pushed out by another hippo. It seemed we had come upon a recently deposed hippo. As night fell we saw a hyena in the distance, but the scanning with spotlights for the next hour proved pretty futile. We had seen all there was to see for the time being, but would have the chance to find the early risers next morning.

We were back at our chalet, if it can be called that appropriately, by 8:30, hungry for dinner. Lukanyo started the grill with some charcoal, a bit of newspaper and copious amounts of lighting fuel, let it cool down to a proper cooking temperature, and then threw on the lamb, chicken and assorted veggies wrapped in foil. We had ourselves a very tasty Christmas Eve dinner.