ELEPHANTS!

Editor's Pick Award

Our Editors awarded this travel blog entry for providing relevant information that may be useful and inspiring for other travelers.

I won't wax poetic about going on Safari in the Kruger Nat'l Park. I mean, I could, but I would never get to the point. I just reread my last entry and while I like it, despite the typos, I tend to leave out details about the trip itself and it is just about my impressions about this country. But it fascinates me, I can't help it. This place is amazing in every way, an incredible social experiment in an amazing natural surrounding.

It's the natural surrounding that we took advantage of on Monday morning as the guys from the Funky Safari picked us up at the crack of dawn and drove us to the Kruger National Park. Before we knew it we were introduced to a gentleman who would become our guide and inspiration for the next two day and nights, "Jayjay" or, "J.J." I don't know which, piled us in his open vehicle which was a converted pickup, rigged to have an elevated viewing area with three rows of bench seats behind the cut open cab. This was the main vehicle in the park, many companies used them and for good reason. They provided an excellent view of the animals, from a safe height, and maybe even more importantly enabled us to see over other cars parked in the road to gawk at a guinea hen.

We may be able to post the pictures from the trip so far in the next few days, they can really tell the story better than I ever could, but I'll just say that the safari was incredible. We saw all the "big five" in the first day (in order of appearance: Elephants, Lions, Buffalos, a Leopard and a Rhino) along with the whole African cast of characters, impala, giraffes, zebras and of course the "leopard snack" the Guinea Hen.

At first we were by ourselves in the back of the truck, J.J. at the wheel explaining the various dimensions of Elephants, gestation periods, etc. in his inimitable African accent. He was almost as entertaining as the animals at hand as he explained things while driving and spotting animals, and turning around (all the way around) to make sure we were keeping up. We had our private guided tour for several hours, spotting a pride of lions, and then almost immediately afterwards coming face to face with a male lion, striking out on his own. He crossed our paths just feet away and blew our minds with his rippling tawny furred shoulders, thick black mane of hair, piercingly disturbing yellow eyes. He was like the cover of a harlequinn novel, all male, completely nude. We have pictures.

This exclusive tour was an excellent beginning to our time in the park, we were to see more lions and have much more to gawk at on the African savannah. The moment was slightly soured by the actions of some idiot who last month got angry with his wife, flew to SA and lit four seperate fires in the park as a result of his passions. They burned thousands of acres of land, probably killing thousands of animals. So while the land was scarred by his senseless actions, the result was actually that the animals were easier to see. The trees were bare and burnt, and the little green that remained was like a magnet for the creatures of the park.

The highlight had to be our second day, having driving without sightings or incident for about an hour we came across a herd of elephants moving across the road. J.J., knowing exactly which buttons to press in the largest elephant in the pack and his passengers, provoked it to charge us by moving too close to the infant pachyderm. Sure enough, she charged. He reversed quickly as all of us screamed in terror. The Elephant, pleased at the results of her actions, backed off. Pleased at his own results, J.J. decided to replicate, and came closer than before. This time the mother was more than a little angry, and set into full charge mode. J.J. again reversed, and actually started to turn the truck to flee when the enraged mother felt she'd gotten her point across.

We agreed, but secretly thanked J.J. for the few moments of searing terror.

The camp was fantastic too. After dark the camp closes its gates against the night predators and we are left to talk amongst ourselves with J.J., who is staying with us, and many other fellow travelers who have seen much and had many stories to share. A few were also doing an around the world trip so we compared notes and learned a huge amount. The dynamic was great with Swedes, some Czechs and a few French folks to make things interesting. The lodgings were rustic, tents big enough to stand up in, with a banquet table/living room under a tarp. We even had a cook named Noni, who J.J. teased mercilessly but who only giggled and swiped her hand at him. She whipped us up all types of traditional meals, including a delicious impala stew and the ubiquitous staple of native South Africans, "Pap", a sort of maize mash that this American easily mistook for chewy mashed potatoes.

In the mornings we'd fight the chill with blankets and just beat the sun to go for a morning drive, when many of the animals are most active. It was then we saw our first hyena, which walked bravely around the truck, eyeballing us. Knowing that a hyena can crush your thigh bone with its jaws, and looking into its black beady eyes sent a real primal shiver down my spine.

On our last day, J.J. took us to the spot of a lion kill, a zebra had been unlucky enough become another South African murder stat. The pride was just cleaning up when we arrived, bellies huge and satisfied. Annoyed by the growing cluster of automobiles they moved across the road, feet from where Magda and I sat in the back of the truck, and made eye contact with me in not a casual way, but in a warning that said, I'm full now, but I won't be soon.

I wanted to make some sort of illusion to life bustling in the park despite the vast amount of senseless burn, of the ash creating nutrition for the charred earth, an illusion to the rebirth of South Africa as a whole. But it started to seem too easy, low hanging fruit for a guy who may be overanalyzing the situation here. Our trip to the park was mostly free of the politics here and maybe that's the way it should remain.