SOUTH AFRICA (Travel)

In April 2004 we had the privilege of visiting South Africa. This was the result of winning a "5 Day Bushveld Safari". To get us to South Africa on time for the early Sunday morning departure, we had to leave NZ the previous Tuesday. This gave us two nights in Sydney, Australia. Travel companions Al & Sue shouted us to "The Lion King" on the Wednesday night and we continued our flight next morning at 10:00 am.

After a 13.5 hour flight and magical, unexpected, views of Antartica, we arrived in Johannesburg. It was not difficult to make the most of the two days here. A sightseeing tour of the city and Soweto allowed us to see and feel something of the history of these places. In the past they had only been viewed from a safe distance, like a TV.
Early Sunday morning and we are off on Safari.

An 11 hour trip to our Camp site, a private reserve bordering Kruger National Park, was punctuated with stops to view places of interest. Standing on the edge of a large Canyon (said to be the 3rd largest in the world) while holding on tightly to the end of a guard rail (nothing in front of me) and looking straight down can give you awesome vertigo feelings. It was only 1200-1500 metres, or was it feet? My knuckles are still white.

The safety of NZ cannot be overstated or appreciated enough. The presence of a Scorpion and a Cobra snake through our camp site on our first night did bring this into perspective very quickly. A 4:00 am "call of nature" in the wild is not the sort of nature call you want. However, with penlight in hand, the 30 metre walk in the moonlit night to the facilities was bravely achieved. This walk was not repeated the next night while the roar of a Lion could be heard in the distance. Which begs the question, what is distance? 

The time in this area, Sunday night to departure for Hazyview on Tuesday morning, was spent driving around searching for animals and discovering various aspects of the bush. For three hours on Monday morning we ambled around looking at insects, guessing from bones and dung which animals had been in the area and viewing spider webs that would have been 10-12 meters wide and 3-4 meters high. It was a bit out of our comfort zone and, thankfully, the only large animals we disturbed were Zebra who moved a safe distance from threatening humans. Yeah right! Our guide only had a bamboo stick, about 2 metres long, and a knife for protection.

While driving around the park in the pitch black using a spotlight to capture animals in its beam, we incurred a puncture. "Everybody out of the vehicle" were the last words I wanted to hear. On TV I've watched Lions and Hyenas stalk animals in the dark and we had just gone past two huge Rhino. Pretending to be helpful in the tyre changing process, I kept very close to the vehicle and regularly checked behind me.

On our trip to Hazyview, taken during a torrential downpour, we stopped at a reptile park to view snakes, alligators and other reptiles. All from a safe distance or behind glass. One encounter was available with a snake and had to be taken however cautious one felt. The power that you feel from the snake as it moves is amazing.

Hazyview accommodation overlooked a river that Hippos usually could be viewed from. However the rain deterred their visit. Hippos were seen during our short trip in Kruger National Park. On asking our Guide how large Kruger Park was and how much we would see, the answers were 20,000 sq km and about 100 sq km.

At Kruger NP, we were assured of seeing Impala but the rest would depend on where we went and how good our eyesight was. We entered the park early Wednesday morning and within a short period of time Elephants were in view and very close. A herd with young was seen through binoculars quite some distance away. Our four hour trip to Pretoriuskop was long because we travelled very slowly to view animals and because of the downpour the previous day, some roads were considered impassable and a longer route was necessary. Our Guide wanted to travel his usual shorter route as we were in a Mezedes truck. However many tourists travel in private vehicles, so the diversion rules applied to everyone.

Now I think I understand a little of the magnetism of being on Safari. We spent hours driving around looking for animals. They didn't jump up and say "Nice to see you, how is Mosgiel?. Come back soon". These animals depend on their survival skills to blend in and not been seen. Of course some didn't seem to mind so, among the many we saw, there were Monkeys, Kudu, Impala, Giraffe, Impala and of course Impala. Birds were plentiful and colourful. Alligators and Hippos took their time to surface.

All this and more from cutting out coupons from the ODT newspaper and putting them in an envelope.

A safari needs to be much longer than five days to get a real taste of Africa but we are grateful to the organisers for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Hugh Donald