Kruger NP, South Africa: Big 4 Out Of 5

So we survived, or well, we are at an internet cafe, so we still have to get back to our hostel, but we managed to figure out the driving-on-the-other-side-of-the-road thing, and doing that while dodging giraffes, elephants and all sorts of wild animals. Our trusty vehicle was a little Volkswagon Chico, and even though it was small, it served as good transport.

We weren't sure what to expect, especially when all we could really reserve were camping pitches. And given that we had left our tent in Canada we were hoping we could even find a tent to rent. Our hostel kicked in with one they had lying around, and even though it had no pegs and was missing a pole it still held out the rain (sort of) and provided a place to sleep.

The park is actually quite big and there are many roads both paved and gravel. This meant that even though it is a busy time in the park, you can drive for some time without seeing anything but animals, and there are a lot of them. The short list of animals we saw are:

Giraffes

Buffalo

Elephants

Impalas

Waterbucks

Wildebeests

Jaguar

Common Duikers

Steenboks

Tourtoises

African Wild Cat

Zebras

Warthogs

Hippos

Rhinos

and more birds than you can shake a stick at..

A few things struck us as we drove the park. One was that there is a lot of driving to be had, but with a lot of driving there are A LOT OF ANIMALS. The speed limit on the paved roads is 50km/h and you need to go slower to really spot them all. Often times they are right on the road, including giant elephants and giraffes. (this can be quite startling!)

It really is amazing to see the animals in their natural habitats, and relatively undisturbed by the massive human presence. They graze by the roads and in the land and it really was amazing how well adapted these animals are to their surroundings. Giraffes looming above you munching peacefully, not caged in and able to reach to the top branches. Elephants literally sneaking up on us and playing in the water holes, fanning themselves with their ears and using their trunks for just about everything. Warthogs staring at us and running with their tails held high. Impala EVERYWHERE. It truly was a great experience, and of all the things to marvel at, we marveled at not only the landscape and the animals, but how well Disney is able to capture some of these animals unique and interesting characteristics.

Umkomaas to Jo'burg: Pulling a Cotopaxi

So diving is turning out to be another expensive habit. We paid a lot of money to be able just to get to Umkomaas, the town near the Aliwhal Shoal. And then there was more money involved, including gear rental and paying for the dive and the room, which wasn't cheap by our travellers budgets standards.

Now did we mention this freak storm that has hit the coast? So, it really was kind of a fluke, not only did it hit on the spring equinox, but on that day they were due to have the highest tide in over 20 years, these two factors, combined with a storm in the Indian Ocean brought giant swells to the coast, erroding the coastline, pulling roads and buildings into the ocean. The shoal has been desimated and the visability under water was next to nothing. Not the best time for a dive for beginners. We were with a large group which multiplied factors and were given inproper weighting. A lot of things combined to make half of the group have to abort the dive, while those who remained underwater saw next to nothing.

sigh.

So with that we retreated to Durban and are now in Jo'burg. They say Jo'burg can be dangerous, and when we arrived in the bus station, immediatly people are trying to "help" you. One of the guards said he was "tipped" off that people could be following us. So we had to wait for our hostel to pick us up under the watchful eye of bus station guards. Hard to say if there was real danger in the bus station, and one never likes to believe rumours, but it was an interesting introduction to Johannesburg.

Tomorrow we head out on our whirlwind tour to Nelspruit and onwards for 4 days in Kruger National park. We are renting a car and driving ourselves around, so wish us luck figuring out a standard on the other side of the road!

As a note the drive to Jo'burg was beautiful with huge cliffs and dry mountains spread out among dry plains. It was what you see of Africa in the travel books, just no wild animals, only cows and huts. We will probably see more of the "stereotypical travel book look" in the coming days, get our fill of zebras and lions and then move on. (Easter weekend is more like two weeks here, so we were rushing to Kruger to avoid the crowds, only to find out they will be there in full force anyway... hopefully not another Machu Picchu style photo fest of avoiding humans in the photos)