Week 13, South Africa: Safari Unplugged, Impalas and NABI

SAFARI!!!!!

The experiences

When I figured out I had enough malaria pills to get me through a safari, I got really excited but then I had to find a reasonably priced one for a single traveler that had appropriate dates available. I don't remember how I stumbled onto them but I found Drifters and am so glad I did. We had a small group of 5 (two Germans, a Belgian, a Bulgarian turned Brit and me, the American) plus our guide (South African born and raised) for our 5 day/4 night adventure. I'll try not to talk about the group too much since I got the impression people are pretty private and less keen on the idea of sharing their quirks on the internet but they were really fun and interesting people. I was very excited that one of the Germans was a foreign exchange student in Jefferson, WI recently so I got to have fun talking about all the comforts of home with him while the others laughed at us and our "American" accents.

Day one was very long drive north with a couple stops for lunch and shopping. Ramona will be happy to learn I disposed of one pair of shoes, although a $3 pair of GAP flip flops probably shouldn't count, and I bought some new crocs flip flops. By the demands of the group we also made a stop at a fruit stand along the way where we got to see and taste many local fruits. Arriving some 10 hours after we set out, we settled in our "tents" where were really more huts with complete beds and linen, full bathrooms, and porch. We started our stay here with a Braai (because we do not barbecue in South Africa, we have a Braai) overlooking the private game reserve and water hole area. We learned what buffalo sound like (as they made a lot of noise at the water hole after sundown), what hyenas sound like, and one of the German fellas collected bones in hopes of luring a honey badger out for a picture in the night (sadly, no dice).

The only "tent" portion of our dwelling

Bathroom

The porch on my hut

Braai pit overlooking the bush

We met Joe the resident lodge-keeper. Joe has an interesting job--he lives at the lodge 26 days of the month and goes home for the other 4. We all were in awe, but he's been with the company for 15 years so it must be working for him. Joe is the kind of person everyone naturally gravitates toward. Our guide called him grandpa Joe and I really would not want to be out in the bush without a guy like him. He showed us a lot of useful things on our morning bushwalk like which bushes make the best toilet paper, how to coax a spider out of its hole (I will not be using this tidbit), and how to fashion a tooth brush from another bush.

Golden Baboon Spider

Joe's new toothbrush

Then we had an enormous brunch (kudos to Bernard, our guide, who really makes some delicious scrambled eggs), took a nap, and headed out for a night game viewing drive. Unfortunately we didn't see too much other than Impala (looks a lot like a deer). So when we got back to the lodge after sunset we were upset to hear the buffalo at it again at the water hole. Try as we might we couldn't get a light bright enough to show them from the lodge so Joe offered to drive us out there and lo and behold there were 6 sets of glowing buffalo eyes peering out at us in no time. I don't really know the story behind the phrase "big 5" but this marked the first of the big five we'd spotted. (Big Five: Leopard, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant)

The Big 5 in Lego form

The next day we set out for our next lodge and a host of sights on the way. We visited the world's third largest and only green canyon, a sight called Potholes where the water eroded the rock in a fairly interesting fashion which subsequently also led to discovering significant amounts of gold, and a place they call God's window which I think we all agreed wasn't that stupendous although the rain-forest trek was pretty neat (if not just the people watching when women in four inch heels climbed to the top…I have no idea how they got down, or if they made it before sunset).

Blyde Canyon

Potholes

Top of God's window

Our last stop on the sightseeing part of our tour was a cultural one. We visited a Shangaan village (a tribe native to Mozambique) to understand at a basic level some of their customs. I was the lucky one (ala Medieval Times) to be chosen as the Chief's fourth wife. He seemed very persistent. The conversation went like this (keep in mind we had a translator as the Chief only spoke Tsonga).

Chief: I would like to ask you to be my fourth wife
Melissa: I thank you for the honor but I cannot accept
Chief: Your father would get 12 cattle
Melissa: My father already raises cattle
Chief: But he would have many more and be much richer
Melissa: No, thank you, I am not ready to be married
Chief: How old are you?
Melissa: 30 (snickers from the translator and Chief)
Melissa: I'm sorry but I cannot marry the Chief

The Chief and I

Our new lodge for the night was a very large log cabin on a river and really in an entirely different ecosystem (I was always amazed at how quickly the environment changed as we moved through the reserves and parks). Day four was an early one since we wanted to get to Kruger National Park as they opened the gates. For those who don't know, this is the place most people go to see the "Big 5" and many many many other animals. It's a park the size of Israel. We stayed a good 10 hours in the park and managed to see so many animals (however the Lion eluded us and thus we didn't complete the "Big 5"). We did see so many Impala that Bernard, our guide, let us in on a little guide terminology calling them NABI (Not Another Bloody Impala). I was most excited to see a family of wildebeests posing perfectly for a photo (the "Enduring Wildebeest" was my animal in the www.whatanimalami.com quiz we used for some team-building at my last customer in Florida).

Wildebeests

Since we didn't get a chance to see a lion, I offered to play the Lion King on my tablet. No one seemed too interested but one of the group suggested we put it on at least in the background in case someone wanted to watch. Turns out about half of us were paying attention at any given time so most of us saw a Lion, even if Simba had the voice of JTT or Ferris Bueller. If you want to see any of the animals I caught on camera, click the RTW album link on the right of the page to see the photos I've taken (safari should start around 900).

Our last day was a lazy one, we all slept in and had the most decadent breakfast (second to the Imperial Hotel in Delhi) before a very very long drive back to Jo'burg. All this while I was without any adapters for the South African outlets. It was fairly odd that most of us thought it was the same as the European outlet (which in some cases it is) but there is a second type of outlet we weren't prepared for. So all of my devices were without power (excepting the camera which I had a spare battery for). I was completely unplugged from the world. Not so scary but when you come back to being plugged in and hooked up to Wifi, there is a lot of catching up to do. This blog for instance has taken far longer than expected to get back up to date.

I stayed an extra day in Jo'burg at the lodge there and Gary, the nice guy who runs things there, gave me an adapter so I was fully charged and ready when it came time to board a bus for 18 hours to Cape Town. I arrived without incident but didn't get very much done on the ride (which of course I'd hoped to accomplish a lot of reading or writing), I shared a cab out of the city center and immediately knew this was going to be a good change of pace. I loved seeing all the animals and getting to know my fellow travelers on safari, but there's something great here in Cape Town, it's just different (in a good way). It has a look like New Orleans or Savannah but with a European attitude and the guy and his wife who shared my cab were very nice--always a bonus.

The lessons

• This is not a zoo. Don't try to get close to an animal because you really have no idea what they will do. My time with Gulab (the Asian elephant) in India showed me the difference between a very well trained animal who has always been captive and the wild elephants roaming game reserves and national parks.
• Hippos are one of my favorites but they are also wild animals and they can be dangerous and surprisingly fast. Within a minute of pulling up to a pool of Hippos we had one staring us down, in the next five minutes two more joined in and needless to say we got out of there.







• Ice Coffee should be black coffee cold brewed, in a cup with ice. You can add cream/milk/sugar/syrup/whatever. But in Australia, India and South Africa I found it to be more of an Ice Cream blended drink or at the least preloaded with all the condiments. I asked my fellow travelers what they would expect when ordering Iced Coffee and they replied "Coffee and ice cream" which makes sense to me given that Eis is german for Ice Cream.
• Rooibos--David and I once upon a time had a very huge argument about this (huge given that we worked on a project and traveled together for 8 months and pretty much didn't fight at all). I love the Tazo African Red Bush Tea, I would even bring it on business trips because you could never get it at Starbucks. At one point I complained that I couldn't get it and David corrected me by saying there was Roobios on the menu at whatever coffee place we happened to be in. I, in one of my lately less frequent but still insurmountably stubborn stands, claimed that it was not the same. I was right, google was inexact and wrong. Since this is in fact the usual warm beverage here I now know it is the same thing and thanks to a fellow traveler, Rooibos is more of an herbal tea than a proper tea. So, in print, I just want to say, David: you were right, I was wrong.
• It also looks like Tazo has renamed their version of Rooibos to be more accurate: scarlet citrus rooibos

Interesting

• Pools are extremely popular in South Africa, there was one at each hostel or lodge I stayed at.
• The first restaurant we ate at had a special substance they used to ward off flies and it really worked--wish I knew what it was, but all I know is it smelled quite nice.
• Most people I've met in Jo'burg and Cape Town were here on business and decided to tack on vacation.
• Since it's Fall here, we've had a few days of rain. I love thunderstorms…especially out in the wilderness! Through patience and persistence I was able to capture a couple great shots of the storm.