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Kruger Sunset |
I spent the last few hours of the London-Johannesburg
(Jo-burg) flight staring out the window and
the relatively road-less land in the southern half of the African
continent.
The few roads I saw looked
made of only dirt.
The landscape
drastically changed within about 45 minutes of landing in Jo-burg.
The barren landscape turned into what could
have easily been any suburban area in the US.
The whole city seemed like any other city in the developed world.
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Warthog |
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Leopard |
I didn’t explore the city much at all because I’ve walked
around enough cities in the last week and have some more to come next week that
I actually want to check out.
My first
night there I went out to dinner with my friend Alex who lives near
Johannesburg.
He said, “here in
Johannesburg we’re very first world, but just remember, you are still in
Africa.”
Then he told that I shouldn't leave the walled/gated compound of my hostel at night due the part of town I
was in.
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White Rhino |
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Rhino Poop! |
I had planned on renting a super long telephoto lens and
extra camera body for wildlife in Kruger and it was going to be delivered to my
hostel in the evening and I had to pay for it in cash since I wasn’t going to
their shop.
The closest ATM what more
than half a mile away so I got some good exercise that day because I made a few
trips back and forth so I wasn’t carrying hundreds and hundreds of dollars all
at once.
I don’t know how many miles I
logged that day, because half the time my debit or credit card would be
declined at the ATM and I’ve have to go back and call the bank on Skype and
tell them that it was really me using my card in an “at-risk” country, despite
having already called them and notified them of my travel plans
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Spotted Hyenas in the rain. |
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Burchell's Zebra |
The next day I got picked up early in the morning for the
five hour drive to Kruger National Park.
We drove through poorer areas and shantytowns on the outskirts of the
city.
The landscape for the next few
hours reminded me of the Central Valley in California with a few million less
people.
Citrus groves, macadamia nut
trees and tree plantations lined very well developed (thanks to the 2010 World
Cup in the area) highways.
The horizon
was dotted giant coal fired power plants with coal mines every few miles to
fuel them.
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Nile Crocodile |
Kruger National Park:
When it comes to wildlife, Kruger is like the Yellowstone of
South Africa. If there are cars stopped
along the road it means there is some sort of animal there, even if it is only
an Impala. I say “only” because I’ve
already seen thousands of them. The
guides call them the McDonalds of Kruger for a few reasons: 1. They have an “M”
in black on their butt, 2. They are absolutely everywhere and 3. Most
carnivores eat them. The driver laughed
at me when I asked him to stop so I could take some photos, but since they are
everywhere we’d never stop to check them out. We finally did stop. They are smaller than I expected…a large male
is probably only about three feet tall. I
now compare people stopping to see them to people stopping to see a deer or
chipmunk in Yellowstone. Elephants are
becoming the same; they might be compared to stopping to see an Elk in
Yellowstone—a bigger deal, but they are still everywhere.
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A small group of the hundreds that I saw every day. |
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African Elephant |
As soon as we entered the park we saw a few hundred impalas,
a water buffalo and a baboon within the first five minutes.
We got to the fenced in camp and I settled
into a permanent safari tent (with a fan and fridge) situated right next to the
electric fence with a sign telling me not to feed the hyenas that roam outside
the fence at night.
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One of six lion cubs we saw during a night drive |
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White Rhino in the bush |
Our only game drive that day was very productive sunset
drive where I got my first taste of real African wildlife: 3 elephants, a
warthog, 2 kudu, 2 white rhinos, 3 giraffe, a lioness with 6 cubs, a martial
eagle and 3 banded mongoose—all in 3 hours.
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African Bush |
I’m in day four right now and have seen pretty much every major animal except for a cheetah. More to come next time the internet is working.
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The only wildebeest we saw |
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Those things are huge! |
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