The departure from Shamwana was quite stressful. All these months, I had been stressed about missing the plane on January 4th, and had all sorts of plan B, plan C, plan Z to make it to Lubumbashi by road, cancel my flight and book another one. What I didn’t count on was that the flight out of Shamwana would be on time and uneventful, but that it would be the stopover in Nairobi that might be problematic because of Kenya’s upheaval post-elections. Thankfully by the time I got there, the airport was quiet, and the airplane was on time. Yes, a strange itinerary, Lubumbashi-Nairobi-Johannesburg – but it was the only ticket that my travel agent could get (and the MSF office could not or did not want me out on Saturday as planned). Everything went well in Nairobi airport aside from my making my handluggage heavier by a few books.
Arrived in Johannesburg, happy to find civilization, a normal toilet, a fluffy bed, and my longtime friends from Chisasibi whom I greeted a day later in the airport. We didn’t explore Joburg much, being afraid of its reputation, and limited ourselves to much shopping at the local East Rand Mall.
Then we flew into Nelspruit and discovered the back country of South Africa. Beautiful green mountains and valleys, fertile fruit country and nature. We hit a freak patch of weather whereby it rained for three days and the mercury stayed around 22-27 degrees centigrade. The guide at our lodge said that normally, this time of year, being summer, temperatures could easily reach a grilling 45 centigrade… but it didn’t, thankfully.
Our lodge was situated in Marloth park, one of the private game reserves located South of Kruger National Park. We were told that there were wild animals around and that we shouldn’t walk alone in the dark at night. Our friendly neighbours were a little ugly, but to the point of being cute: a family of warthogs, mommy, daddy, and three little piggies, were living under the bush chalet right next door to us. They passed by and said hello on a daily basis J. At night, we heard loud cats calling around – apparently servals or leopard.
We had 2 and ½ day safari tour in Kruger National Park, the first day being in the nice tall open vehicles, the next days being from a van as it was raining. Getting out of the lodge would sometime time take time because we’d see all sorts of animals right around the corner from the lodge: kudus (some kind of big antelope), a herd of giraffes who were blocking the road, a bunch of zebras, a large family of impalas.
We were quite lucky for our three days in Kruger. The famous ‘Big Five’ are the game that was prized by hunters of last century: lion, rhino, elephant, leopard, and wild buffalo. These days, the only prize to be brought back are pictures. Safaris are from the road in the comfort of a car, and people are not allowed to open the door or step out of the vehicle. Cameras and binoculars proved handy. We had to wake up at 4h30 am everyday to make sure that we hit the park just before six o’clock. The big cats tend to be active until about 10 am, so morning was the best time to view the animals.
We were extremely lucky and did see all Big Five, an oddity this time of year when the animals do not need to gather at waterpoints, and even stranger given the fact that it rained most of the time, thus only allowing us to see the beasts from the road. It’s very easy to forget that the animals are not tame. But they are accustomed to the vehicles and do not associate it with dangers; it’s a different matter when they see bipeds. One lion appeared afraid of a ranger on a bicycle!
No pictures of rhino, because my camera’s zoom was too weak. But we sure saw it!
In Arabic: "zarafah", that which walks gracefully and rapidly
Un éléphant qui se balançait...
Can you see the thirsty elephant?
Careless lion not interested in bipeds in a vehicle
Wild buffalos on the road causing traffic block
Nile crocodile sunbasking
Carefree hyena going from one side of the road to get its food to the other side to eat it
Young impala males fighting
Beautiful, rainy Kruger scenery
Unhurried kudu on the bridge
Spotted one hiding carefully next to the road
Friends in Kruger!
Warthog family (Akuna Matata!)
Guinea fowl aka roadkill
Zebras are sociable. They hang out with impalas and kudus because they can share the same grass, just eating it at a different height. I was told I'm as gregarious as a zebra :)
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