South Africa Part 1: The Safari

The flight to Johannesburg was uneventful, given we left Sydney at 10 a.m. and arrived around midnight (Sydney time) we failed to get any sleep. Of course that meant that we fell asleep around 6 p.m. Johannesburg time. I managed to get a decent night's sleep (only waking up around 4 a.m.) -- kevin was pondering great thoughts from 2-4 a.m. ...

We were quite surprised at the huge difference between South African and Australian cultures (at least as seen at the airport). The international airport is quite old and is infested with "official" porters -- knowing that with luggage carts and rolling bags they are not likely to get much use as a porter they more or less take charge and walk you to the hotel shuttle area (just outside of the terminal) and then wait for the shuttle to arrive -- forcing most people (at least us) to feel compelled to give them a tip for doing almost nothing ... The international terminal has a felling of a rundown third world country. This feeling was continued when we showed up at the holiday inn near the airport and the front desk quoted us a rate that was 1.5 times the rate we had booked and then we requested (as per our booking) a non-smoking room they had us wait 20 minutes for such a room when in reality it was a smoking room that had been sprayed with an air freshener ...

In stark contrast was our experience the next morning -- we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the modern domestic terminal -- where we could have been in any developed country --

We left Johannesburg and took a short flight over the Drankensberg Mountains to Hoedspruit -- there where three distinctive aspects to this airport. First, it was the smallest airport to which we have traveled. Second, our bags were transported via a tractor (really) -- this airport is so small there are not screening devices. Third, the runway is the longest runway in South Africa -- turns out the real purpose of the airstrip is for the Air Force ...

After landing we were picked up and driven to our safari lodge. The lodge was on a private game reserve that borders Kruger National Park -- of course the animals do not know about the division of property. Our reserve had 7 commercial lodges and several privately owned lodge (yes, you too can buy your own lodge on a private game reserve). At our lodge, there are 7 chalets that are protected from the rest of the reserve by an electric fence -- at most there are 14 guests, although during our stay there were between 6 and 8 guests. We were amazed at (a) how modern the chalets were (just like staying at a high end resort) and (b) how close we were to the animals. Next to the lodge was a watering hole -- it was not uncommon to watch giraffes, warthogs, and other animals drinking from the hole. One night we even heard the roar of the lions ... A typical day at the lodge includes an early morning and late afternoon safari (about 4 hours each) -- with the time in between spent eating breakfast, reading, sleeping, etc. The safaris are conducted using a completely open land rover (no doors, windows, roof, etc.) ... so there is nothing to protect you from the animals ... on each safari there is an experienced guide and a tracker. These two work together to figure out where the animals are (at the same time there are other vehicles carrying the guests from other lodges roaming the area -- so it is not uncommon for the the guides of these vehicles to talk to one another).

On our safaris (you have to go on so many as you never know what you will see) -- we managed to see all of the "big 5" (lions, leopards, rhino, elephants, and water buffalo) and more -- the lions were the most interesting and the scariest -- in general we tracked a family of 3 females (a grandma and 2 moms), 2 males, and 4 cubs -- the very first night we were there, we were watching this pod of lions and they decided to move on, walking right by us -- the male lions got within 3 feet of my side of the vehicle ... yes, I was quite scared ... while we did not get to the beginning of a kill, we did spend some time one morning watching these lions devour a zebra. Not surprisingly, the females kill the the animal but the males get to feed first ... And how did we know it was a zebra? Periodically you could see the lions pull from the skin as they were eating and a hoof or two would appear. While eating the lions do a combination of a loud purr (like a domestic cat but very loud) and chomp -- their teeth are strong enough to break bones ... during this feed, the males were mostly resting but one decided he wanted some more food. He charged each female lion (ignoring the cubs). As a result we got sandwiched between grandma and the other lions -- yes, another scary moment ... when we searched for the lions the afternoon after this big kill -- they all were sleeping and had very full stomaches (they continued to sleep at the same place through the night) ...

A typical safari day -- at 5:30 a.m. (yes, that early) there is a knock on your door -- you quickly dress grab a cup of coffee and are headed out around 6 a.m. for the first safari -- on our first morning, we saw in early dawn light several giraffes eating from the tops of trees ... basically you spend the morning driving around and watching -- there are lots of impala, kudus, and other small deerlike creatures wandering around -- and then it is really amazing when you find the lions, the leopards, elepants, zebra ... the leopards live on their own. On our game reserve there were several male leopards we were trying to track (the males seem to have realized that the territory is up for grabs and so they were staking out their territory). The leopard is very elusive -- it was much easier to find the lions. On one of the afternoon safaris we found a femal leopard who was walking down the road carrying a dead monkey back to her cub ... it was amazing to see the determination the leopard had to get back to her cub ... The elephants wander around in big herds -- we saw a huge group of them several times -- eating and stomping their way through the reserve. It is amazing to see how graceful these huge animals are when walking around ... At some point during the morning safari we would stop for special coffee (a mixture of coffee, hot chocolate, and amurilla (similar to baileys but is made in S.A.)) and treats ... once back from the morning safari, you get a huge cooked breakfast and then start to relax. Late in the afternoon you are served a tea and then are piled back into the vehicle for the afternoon safari -- the afternoon safari is different from the morning one in that the animals are starting to think more about finding food -- also, you get to watch the sun set (while enjoying a "sundowner") and then get to spend about an hour or so tracking the active night animals (lions, leopards, etc).

After the second safari of the day-- we have a dinner (usually a group dinner -- but one night we had a private dinner in each of our chalets) -- at that point we were exhausted and so would fall into bed, get a bit of sleep so we could again get up quite early. On one of the mornings instead of driving, we walked through the reserve -- a bit scary but our guid was extremely good about reading animal tracks and keeping us away from anything that could seriously harm us ...

When we think of ecotourism, we tend to think of things like camping in the brazilian rainforest. We have been slow to realize that we have taken various trips that fall under the category of "ecotourism." Although we have been blessed with many interesting trips -- thus far, the safari was the most amazing. It makes you realize how vulnerable we are -- how amazing animals are and just what a vast world we have ... it is an experience everyone should have!

In case you are interested in learning more about our safari lodge, check out the Jackalberry lodge at www.jackalberrylodge.co.za !