The Wandering Two: The Wandering Three on Safari

We set out on our journey to Kruger National Park in a rented Chevy Spark (google it, it’s a pretty funny looking car) with Naveed having a crash course in driving standard, on the left side of the road, sitting on the right side of the car. Let’s just say we all have whiplash… We got lost several times until we finally found the right highway to Kruger and got there. We entered the park with an hour until our rest camp gate would close for the night. We were informed by the park ranger, “You will not stop if you see any animals. Proceed to the rest camp directly”. Yeah right…30 seconds later….screeeech ELEPHANTS!! In the following hour that it took to drive to our rest camp we saw a hippo cross the road in front of us, a rhino, 4 elephants, many impalas and 6 giraffes; in each case we definitely stopped and took pictures for extended amounts of time. We arrived at Skukuza Rest Camp and checked in to our little safari tent and went straight to bed to sounds of the bush. The next morning we got up at 4:30am and hit the road. Pretty much we drove for 12 hours straight, on paved and dirt roads, around Kruger and saw so many animals all over the park. Often it was just us and the animals; we didn’t see many other cars. We were very close to them and at one point got scared and had to back away from one particularly large elephant that came walking quickly towards us. That night we went on a guided night safari tour. Everyone has to be inside the camps by 6:30 so this is the only way you can be out after sunset. It was nice to be out and listening to the sounds at night, however we only saw impalas and rhinos, no lions L and were smothered by a sea of termites for the 3 hour tour. The next morning we got up at 5am and slowly made our way out of Kruger and saw many more animals including a leopard in a tree which was amazing! We left the park satisfied. Here follows the final safari animal count as recorded by Telia:

14 elephants

1000+ impalas

10 rhinos

80 zebras and one almost-3-legged-zebra

41 giraffes

89 baboons

9 hippos

67 wildebeest

8 hyenas

97 buffalo

23 warthogs (Pumba!)

14 springboks

21 camel/deer/moose thingies that we don’t know the name of

10 monkeys

1 crazy lizard

4 turtles

1 lion

2 spotted pygmy owls

1 snake

1 mongoose

1 rabbit

2 carcasses

7 vultures

2 crocodiles

1 leopard

8 giant snails

10 meerkats

We then drove down to Durban through Swaziland. At Swazi immigration the lady held up a form and asked us for it. We said we didn’t have that form, and she waved us through anyways. In Durban we stayed at a psychedelic and surprisingly awesome hippie backpackers lodge. It was raining the first day unfortunately but our next day was beautiful and we enjoyed the sun and warm Indian Ocean. The last day of our trip was spent driving back to Johannesburg and visiting the Apartheid Museum. Throughout our trip Naveed would often curse the crazy South African drivers (such as people passing people who are passing someone else on a hill in the rain around a corner…) When we reached Durban the hot news story was about corruption in the driving schools and how just anyone can get a driver’s license. Shame.

Love,

The Wandering Three