Walked with lions and faced a charging elephant – Kruger Park done!
So, Kruger Park and Nelson Mandela. The two things I knew about South Africa when I was a wee little girl. Since there has been lots of talk about Nelson Mandela already, its time to hit the other big guy – the Kruger National Park.
We packed our bags and head out of Joburg at 6pm. Me and the boys. We had a pretty entertaining ride – lots of ragging on each other, lots of extremely rude jokes, lots of laughs. We arrived at the world’s possibly worse hostel ever. The proprietor smelled of beer and the room was spartan, the blankets were slightly musty and there was no water supply at all. I opted to sleep in the car. Still we were all in a good mood. We asked, politely, if there was a slight chance that there was a stiff drink one could procure on the premise. Well, as luck would have it, there was (no surprise, really) and yes, he could bring us a drink. We drank it down and hopped off to bed (for me it was to the car). The boys checked that every single surface of their skin was covered before crawling under the sheets. Morning arrived soon enough and I awoke everyone up at 6.30am. And as there was no water, it meant no shower, no breakfast, nada.
That was fortunately, the end of our misery. From this point however, the trip only got better.
We saw an incredible number of animals. Impalas, antelopes, ostriches, giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, zebras, warthogs, eagles, baboons, kudus and all sorts of bucks spotted regularly throughout the day. We even saw 4 out of the big 5! The buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant and lion (short of the leopard). A herd of elephants crossed the road right in front of our car just 30mins into the park. Around lunch, We saw a gigantic herd of more than a hundred buffalo grazing next to the road and one came up to the side and stared at us straight and unflinching. We saw a couple of giraffes munching next to the road, their long tongue reaching for whatever it is it eats on the top most branches of trees. One even crossed the road, its spindly legs in its slightly awkward gait was quite mesmerizing.
Then, we spotted lions.
In the afternoon, the excitement cracked up a notch when we came up to a pack of lions just 100 meters ahead in the grass, lying under the shade of trees. We parked and stalked them for a bit but they didn’t come any closer as the lions were content to laze about. It was all quite exciting, just sitting there and observing them. Wow – a pack of lions. We thought that with that sighting, our luck would have been pretty much used up.
But there were more adventures to come.
Soon after that while on the road again, we saw 2 animals walking ahead. Its quite rare that animals walk on the road, so we drove up quite quick and they were 2 lionesses! We followed them, literally on their tails, for 10 whole minutes. We were just 5 meters behind them. We saw each flex of their muscles with each step they took and the distinct clarity of the shades of brown of their fur in the sunlight. They turned around and looked at us a couple of times and then continued on, quite nonchalant as they went about their stroll. Their gaze was always straight, almost like royalty. We were in the car the whole time, windows rolled down. It was like we could almost touch them.
Later that afternoon, we came across a big bull of an elephant walking down the road as we rounded a corner. We inched forward. The elephant continued walking. We inched forward. And still he continued towards our car. We eased to a stop. At that point, the elephant flared its ears and raised its trunk over its tusks. And he gathered speed. It took us about 30seconds to realise that he was charging towards us! Toshi (our driver at this time), pushed the pedal to the floor and reversed. It was only then that the elephant decided to change paths and left the road. We were just about 20meters apart – car and elephant. It was pretty scary actually. I was in the passenger seat and caught the action on camera – along with a generous amount of swearing from the boys.
Along with the animals, there were spectacular views. It was as if the place was right out of the Lion King. Rock outcrops and vast plains as far as the eye could take you.
So here we are – done with the park. We rested the night in a beautiful hotel overlooking the park, had breakfast while viewing elephants in the distance, came back via a beautiful drive over the mountains through pine forests and fruit farms. And so the weekend concludes. Its back to work and its going to be full steam ahead the next 2 weeks. My project is due soon and I fear that next weekend, I’ll spend it working, but I think the excitement from day I had at the park will more than make up for the next 2 week’s worth of work.
