South Africa Part 1: Fences, Friends & the Big Five

Click here for the full SA #1 highlight album 

Apartheid Museum

Liam admitted when he heard that we were going to be in South Africa for 5+ weeks he was a little sad because he couldn’t imagine what we would do in one country for that long.  Now that we’ve been here for 3 weeks, he wishes we could stay longer.  We arrived in Johannesburg from Ethiopia and happily soaked in the English and (mostly consistent) hot water and electricity.  The high walls with razor wire everywhere and safety warnings (don’t drive at night, you will likely get mugged, don’t use your phone/kindle in the car for fear of “opportunity” smash and grab crimes, don’t leave anything in the car,  “high carjacking zone” warning signs) were pretty intimidating.  Like with pretty much anything, we’ve gotten used to both the fences and the driving on the other side of the road, and have all enjoyed this incredible diverse and beautiful country.  

We spent the first week in South Africa in the Johannesburg area recovering from Ethiopia and

getting ready for Madagascar.  Most tourists don’t venture out far into “JoBerg”, let alone stick around for so long, but we ended up having a fun week relaxing and exploring the area.   We went to the powerful Apartheid museum and only found out afterwards that it has an age minimum of 11.  (Nothing like scarring the kids when they’re young and impressionable). The change South Africa has experienced just in our lifetimes is incredible.  It’s been enlightening to spend time with (white) South Africans that grew up (like we did, albeit across the world) during the change from Apartheid.  We learned about the high level of discontent regarding the current government (“Nelson Mandela would roll over in his grave…”) because of the high level of inefficiency and corruption.  One older couple we talked to said that if they were younger, they would emigrate to a different country, and that all the families they know have at least one or two kids who have moved overseas. That said, we heard a lot of justifiable pride about how far the country has come in the last 25 years.  Some of the more amusing conversations involved us trying to explain the US use of the term “African-Americans” and hearing about how some South Africans assumed the Indians in Cowboys and Indians were from India.

In addition to the Apartheid museum, we went to the botanic gardens, and an amazing bird park at Monte Casino- a huge entertainment complex that has an indoor city with a painted sky similar to the Venetian in Las Vegas. Another highlight was a day trip up to the cradle of humankind (that has been in the news for the discovery of the oldest humanoid remains—as Liam noted, “everywhere in Africa says it’s the cradle of humanity”) where we went to the Rhino and Lion reserve and got our first look at big Africa animals up close. 

New mode of transport

After our adventure in Madagascar we came back to JoBerg and got to stay with Clinton and Tanja (Carolyn’s friends from work), learn more about Rugby (the Rugby World Cup is going on right now and the South African Springboks just crushed the USA team) and braai (i.e. BBQ grill) pork and chicken and sausage (yes, the same meal).  Carolyn was sad she was sick and couldn’t eat anything. Next we headed north east to Mpumalanga and the Drakensberg Escarpment, Blyde River Canyon and Kruger National Park for a week.  It was awesome. The Drakenberg escarpment is where the Highveld plunges 1000m down to the Lowveld- a stark lesson for Liam in different climates (his class is studying weather) and a lesson learned for Carolyn to make sure that guest houses booked in hot areas have air conditioning.   We spent a morning at “Elephant Whisperers”, where we got up close and personal with the huge and majestic African elephants, and a day hiking around the waterfalls and cliffs at places aptly named “Gods Window” and “Wonderview” (no pressure).

Views from the car at Kruger

Next we headed to Kruger National Park.  Kruger is HUGE  and we were dubious about going on a “self-drive” with the potential of driving slowly for a long time (the speed limit is 50kph) and not seeing anything for hours.  Turns out we averaged less than 20kph because we stopped so many times to see so many animals.  Jim is doing a great job driving on the “wrong” side of the road.    He reminded that us, “it’s customary to tip your driver.” Xander retorted “here’s a tip- work on your jokes.” Ahh, family bonding.  Right off the bat we saw a group of over 100 water buffalo aggravating a huge bull elephant.  It is unbelievable to be driving in your car and seeing elephants, rhinos and giraffes materialize out of the bush.  Freaky cool. We went for a sunset game drive with a park guide (there are very strict rules against regular people driving around the park after dark - 6pm) and had amazing luck-  we saw a leopard lounging in a tree less than 1km from our camp (!), lions eating a water buffalo and running off another leopard, a hyena den complete with surprisingly endearing cubs, a surprisingly light on its feet hippo walking through the forest and a tiny bush baby that bounced meters up into a tree.  “I am satisfied,” stated Xander (math translation 11 out of 10).  Happy, happy day.

South Africa Part 2: Cape Town, the Garden Route, and Pilanesburg Safari…coming soon.

Senses:

Liam: Floating in the cage of the UFO ride as I scream my head off and clutch the bars tightly in the hope to not fall out at the Gold Reef Amusement park, Johannesburg; the bristly wire-like hairs poking into my skin as I grab the 3.5 m tall elephant's trunk and drop small pellets into it's seemingly endless nostrils; the four lions digging their chubby snouts into the poor old cape buffalo's dead body searching for the last little bits of succulent meat; the majestic oddly shaped spots on the graceful giraffe as it sticks out it purple tongue to grab the sharp thorns and leafs of the plant

Xander: The African tortoise snapping all the twigs in its way as it treks across the flower bed in the Walter Sisulu Botanic Gardens; the Guinea Fowl clumsily running across the small grass field as the sun sets for our last day in South Africa before we leave for Madagascar; the hot air spewing out of the elephant's slobbery two holed trunk as it grasps for more pellets and lush bamboo; the haunting sound of the water buffalo's skin being torn from its body by enormous lions after they chased off the spotted, stalking leopard

Jim: The smell of fresh laundry reminding me that some of the pleasures in life are small; the delicious taste of meat followed by meat follow by meat followed by meat (chicken, pork, farmed sausage) from the typical South African Braai; The sight of a large bull African elephant sanding alone drinking his water peaceful until he was mobbed by 100 water buffalo that kept their distance but still irritated him; hearing the crunching of the impala bones as the lions feast on the tasty snack 50m from the entrance gate

Carolyn: the cars seemingly driven by ghost drivers on the other side of the road surrounded by streets bracketed by high walls topped with intimidating spiky barbed wire; the circuitous groves on the huge elephant's football-shaped front and rugby ball shaped back springy footpads; the hearty laugh of the African woman after she fell down into the stream on the mud-slicked river rocks above the curved canyon walls at the Potholes; the graceful glide of the family of giraffes sauntering around our car to join their friends on the other side of the road munching on leaves with their thorn impervious lips

Lessons Learned

• Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years from 1962 to 1990
• Keep your butt in the middle of the road to stay on the “right” side of the road
• Elephant's height is twice the circumference of their front foot
• Elephants walk with one foot off the ground at a time
• Elephant tails are wiry and very sensitive
• Elephants usually die due to wearing through their six sets of molars
• Elephant's front feet are round like a soccer ball and back feet are oval like a rugby ball
• Elephants are right and left handed like humans-- you can tell the by the calluses on the inside of it's trunk and that one tusk is more worn down than the other
• Mosquitos suck everywhere (both literally and figuratively)
• Hyenas can have wet nurses
• White rhinos are grazers and have flat wide mouths and three bumps and a ridge on their back while black rhinos are browsers and have rounded sway backs
• Bush babies can bounce about 5 times their height
• In South Africa, if you want to buy cough drops, you have to get them from the pharmacist, who will put them in a metal cage with a lock that needs to be taken off at the register
• Female elephants live to ~50 years, male to ~60 years and captive to ~70 years
• Elephants have temporal glands between their tusks and eyes that secrete when they are stressed or in musk
• Hippos walk up to 20km at night, and can reach speeds of up to 35km per hour.  They are one of the deadliest African animals
• Self-drive safaris are a reasonable way to see lots of animals in Kruger National Park
• There's no such thing as a 1 hour game drive in Kruger.  With the stopping and sightings, its typical for 30km to take about 2 hours
• Liam always leaves 3 bites of food from whatever he's eating
• Listen to songs from “The Lion King” if you’re driving around a game park in Africa