XVIII. Kruger National Park: “Where Dreams Come True”

Sunday April 21: Travel to Kruger, Kruger Day 1

Sunday morning, we boarded our buses for Cape Town airport at 7am, so it was a pretty early morning. Everyone was in that awful pre-coffee zonked out state that coffee drinkers suffer. (It’s times like this that I’m grateful I dislike coffee.) Travel days are normally exhausting and somewhat stressful, but to say this day was relaxed is the understatement of the century. We arrived at the airport, checked in went through “security,” in about ten minutes or less. With a group of twenty foreigners. It was insane. At security, we didn’t even have to take our liquids/gels/aerosols out of carry-ons. And we didn’t even have to take our shoes off! I couldn’t believe it. It was the oddest thing and I didn’t even feel like I was traveling. When it was time to board our plane, we went through a door, boarded a shuttle bus that drove us to the tiny plane on the tarmac. On this lengthy 2.5 hour flight, we were served a snack box that consisted of roast beef, mashed potatoes, salad, crackers, cheese and I don’t even remember what else. I couldn’t bring myself to eat anything other than the crackers because it was ten o’clock in the morning. If only I knew then the things I would encounter in the 8 days ahead…

As we descended towards Hoedspruit airport, I realized looking out my window that the ONLY thing I could see was a bunch of trees. Everywhere. Trees trees trees trees trees. I’ve never seen so many. It wasn’t exactly what I pictured the African savannah would look like but it was cool. I was also expecting to see some sort of city or town or village or at least cluster of buildings to be an airport. Wrong. We landed with a bump (small planes make you feel the landing more), and taxied on the runway for about five minutes. Didn’t see anything still. Then then plane stopped, we climbed the stairs down, and then I saw the airport. It looked like a small log cabin. It was great! This was even odder than not taking my shoes off through airport security. Of course all of us had to use the bathroom before we left the “airport” so airport personnel told us there were more bathrooms, so we walked through about three doors with no entry signs on them before we found the other bathroom. Nobody even arrested us. We picked our bags up on a little cart outside the airport. It was truly the most relaxed, casual traveling experience ever. It made the whole thing feel rather surreal. Wish I could travel that way all the time.

Outside the airport, we met our guides who would be with us for the next 8 days on our epic safari and trek to Hamakuya. First of all, there is David Bunn. David is a really cool South African dude who from a snapshot I would have pegged as a 19^th century British hunter expert of the African bush. Except with a very proper South African, rather than British, accent. He is difficult to describe, but speaks in a very gregarious voice which would be aggravating except that he is down to earth, a sweetheart, a gentleman, and loves to poke fun at himself (and everyone else). He knows practically everything about Kruger National Park, loves telling stories, has millions of them, and has guided every Northwestern student who’s come to Kruger in the past 20 years. He went to Northwestern for grad school and got his PhD in English or something like that. He now works as a professor for Witwatersrand (“Wits” but sounds like Vits) University at their Center for Tropical Studies station right on the Kruger National Park (KNP) border. But he spends most of his summer (our winter) working at UNC’s Tropical Research Center because his wife is a prof there. He also spent lots of time talking about his ten month old son who David is clearly obsessed with. So that’s David in a nutshell.

Then there was “Jimbo.” He is a seventh year vet student at South Africa’s one and only vet school (and I thought the US was bad with only 27 of them…also their vet school is seven years! Yikes! He says it’s because Africa has so many more animal species than the rest of the world). I had actually been in touch with Jimbo via email, but I was under the very mistaken impression that he was an uptight old guy who took everything very seriously…oh how wrong I was. He was a clown, always cracking jokes, very laid back and casual about everything – the way he spoke, the way he walked, the way he dressed, the way he drove. But his professional side did come out a tiny bit whenever he talked about vet stuff…usually. It took me a whole day to recalibrate my Jim perceptions and recognize that this guy was the one I’d been emailing with all fall and winter. Haha!! But he is great. He has to take his final exam in a few months and then he will be a fully-fledged vet. It’s pretty exciting. I was super excited to take the opportunity to chat with him about vet stuff. In Kruger. For 5 days. My dreams coming true. (For reals, though.)

Xolani (a clicking “x” at the beginning), or affectionately known as “X” was the third of our guides. He was kind of quiet at the beginning, but was an absolute sweetheart and he drove all of our stuff around for us for the next 8 days in a covered vehicle. He also drove our two professors who traveled with us because the 20 of us students filled up the safari vehicles. X was the greatest and I could tell he was a genius – but then I found out he speaks all eleven official languages of South Africa!!!!! ALL ELEVEN! He’s crazy! Wherever we went, he could communicate with anyone and everyone.  X is also rather afraid of elephants, so it was even more generous of him to be traveling with us. He loves Northwestern students though, so he said he wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Having met our three guides, we were handed sandwiches that we had pre-ordered the week before we left from a menu David had emailed us. My sandwich was delicious. I don’t remember what it was, but it was great. Then we boarded our safari vehicles, which were so unique. Like no other transportation method I’ve ever used. They were open on top, so when we were driving full speed down the highway from the airport to the Kruger gate, the wind was almost more than I could handle. It was funny, we took lots of insane hair pics, and I’m pretty sure my face was numb by the time we got to the park. Along the way to the park, we saw random giraffes here and there. It was SO exciting. We also had a scary moment when a puff adder was sitting in attack position on the highway and then launched itself up at the car (did it really think that was a good idea?) and then bounced over the roof of our vehicle. Ahhhhhh!!!!!! A puff adder!!!!!

  

OMG! Look, it’s an impala!

Once we got to the park, the speed slowed down considerably, a big relief for the sake of everyone’s hair. And for the sake of viewing wildlife. I couldn’t believe I was actually in Kruger National Park. I think this is how little kids must feel when they go to Disney World. It has actually been my dream to go on a safari for so long. And I was actually doing it. It was amazing. I think I was on an adrenaline high that whole afternoon. Once in the park, we almost immediately started seeing animals. We saw an impala and then a whole herd of impala. They were everywhere. At first it was super exciting, and then we realized that impala are like the equivalent of deer, or maybe even flies, (or from the animals’ perspectives, the McDonalds menu items) in Kruger.

After about 5 minutes in the Park, we saw a jackal, right by the roadway. So pretty and one of the fiercest and most dangerous animals in the park.

We saw wildebeest (pronounced by South Africans as “VIL-duh-best”).

Then we saw a whole family of warthogs (Pumba!) and I’m not going to lie – Lion King songs started playing through my mind and that didn’t really change for the whole week. Haha!

Then we saw an animal I’d never even heard of before but which soon became a household name for our group, a kudu. I even tasted kudu biltong one day while on a game drive, it was kinda weird, tasted very gamey. This particular one refused to let me see her head, but whatever. You can get the general idea. 

            

Then the Lion King cast really started filling out as I saw a bunch of Zazu-birds (red-billed hornbills).

            

The savannah was beautiful and not exactly how I pictured it. I’m not entirely sure how I pictured Kruger, but I think it was as gently rolling hills with random cliffs perfectly placed for Mufasa to lift up Simba and for safari goers to view herds of roaming game herds below. I was a little off in my perception of it. I don’t think I imagined it would be extremely forested, but I guess that makes sense, because trees greatly contribute to biodiversity. It was so gorgeous. It was literally breathtaking. I could feel myself rapidly falling head over heels in love with this place. I can’t adequately articulate it in words, so I’ll just add some pictures.

            

The people in the other vehicle investigating the soft leaves of the "toilet paper tree."

A lovely little watering hole. 

South African savannah

David had warned us that our drive to our camp would probably be rather boring since it was the middle of the afternoon and the animals would be hiding and quiet and there wouldn’t be much activity in the park. However, it was an afternoon jammed-packed with animal experiences.

We saw so many lovely giraffes. I think they are my favorite animal, and we saw them all the time. They are just the cutest, they pose for the camera, they look at you, they have such remarkable eyelashes. And I can’t decide which one of my 500 (probably not exaggerating) giraffe pics to use as a desktop background. They are so tall (I know that’s obvious, but when you see them up close and they are everywhere, it gives you a whole new appreciation of what it means to be so tall). And they just seem so friendly and cute.

            

Darker spots = older giraffe. Look at this cute old guy. 

Just look at that face. And those eyelashes!

                    

   

Animals of all shapes and sizes too.

            

Zebras zebras zebras (the South Africans pronounce that with a short, not a long "e." Silly South Africans. Roll the “r” a little too. And all of a sudden zebras go from a random and dorky striped horse to a regal ostentatious animal of the veld. They’re still dorky though.)

Ok I guess they're cute and friendly too. 

 Impalas are actually really beautiful. Even though they soon became mundane and “look! An impala!” transitioned from genuine to sarcasm, I never lost appreciation for how beautiful they are.

            

Traffic Jam, Impala Style.

After about an hour or so in the park, we turned a corner, and there, lo and behold, not too far from the safari vehicle was an elephant! Right there! He stared at us for a long time, and we stared back in silence, all of us freaking out and super excited. And then – it happened – he started walking towards us. Not running, so it wasn’t a charge, it was a “fake charge.” Animals fake charge when they want to scare somebody but aren’t too serious about attacking. The best way to get the animal to attack you, however, is to run off. Animals instinctively like to chase things that run and move. And every animal in Kruger except for a scorpion is faster than a human and a safari truck. Yikes! So when the elephant started ambling towards us, David thumped his arm on the side of the vehicle to try to make the elephant stop. We all sat there in silence and shock. I’m pretty sure I didn’t breathe the entire minute that was happening. And I think my heart might have stopped. I was sitting next to my friend Neha. And when the elephant was about 8 feet away from the truck, she whispered “I think it’s time for us to leave now,” voicing all of our sentiments. David hadn’t explained the importance of not running away from animals to us yet. So we were all thinking “Why are we just sitting here?!” But it was fine. He stopped and turned and walked away just like that. David said he could tell that this elephant was not in the charging mood because when elephants are grumpy, they leak testosterone from their temporal glands, a condition called “in must.” This guy wasn’t in must, just curious, checking us out, and making sure we thoroughly understood he could outrun us and lean or step on our vehicle or pick it up and throw it somewhere with his tusks. Duly noted, sir. I instantaneously gained a lot of respect for elephants.

           

He was not super close when we first encountered him. 

Curiosity is peaked as he peeks around the tree at us. 

My hands were shaking so it's kinda blurry. 

And he's walking towards us and ears are starting to move. 

Coming closer...

And closer... 

There it is!!!! I think it's time to leave now. 

Couldn't resist a close-up of his eyes. 

I thought this would be the last thing I ever saw. I would have died happy anyway... 

            

The reaction of the kids in the other vehicle to watching my vehicle get charged. 

About five minutes later, we rounded another bend in the road and a rhino was chilling under a tree! He was just standing there seemingly staring off into space. We drove a little closer and he started spraying poop everywhere, which David explained is a territorial pooping behavior rhinos resort to. Lovely.

Ewwww disgusting. 

I am doing a research project on rhino conservation in Kruger at the end of my study abroad program. I am fascinated by them, and it’s really sad that their numbers are in such grave danger. So to see a rhino was a remarkable and lucky thing. David said that our kids will likely never have that chance because rhinos will be as extinct as woolly mammoths and dodo birds within a few years.  My friend Emily claims she saw a tear roll down my cheek when we saw the rhino, but I do not recall that. Nonetheless, it was one of the highlights of my life probably. Just to see a rhino like that out on the open, so close, with no fences around it, enjoying nature and life. So beautiful! After a few minutes, the rhino just meandered away content and carefree. I hope he doesn’t get poached!

         

Meandering away.

In the park for about an hour and a half or so, I’ve already seen two of the big five. I’d felt supreme and complete happiness. Not a care in the world. Just contentment and ecstasy.

After that, we saw lots of zebras, giraffes, zazus, and kudu, and even a bunch more elephants. Oh and of course, impala. We saw some waterbuck, animals that look super soft and fuzzy and cuddly and also from the rear, look as though they’ve sat on a can of white paint. 

            

As we neared our campsite for the night, we drove past a big watering hole/pond and we were staring at it’s beautiful glimmer in the sunlight but didn’t see any animals so David started driving away, but just then I noticed some movement off in the distant, and realized there were some hippos. And then they started fighting! It was crazy! I’ve never seen anything quite like it.

            

Safari vehicles look so silly

On our drive back to the camp, we saw some ostriches, vultures, giraffes, and a baby waterbuck nursing from its mom - all right outside the camp. So cute!

 

 

           

And then we saw #3 of the Big Five: a buffalo. Those things have nasty-looking horns. The crowd we saw was a group of three old males. They get really grumpy when they get old so they are actually kicked out of the herd because nobody wants them around! Sometimes they are total loners, sometimes a group of three or four of them will all be grumpy and miserable together.

            

We pulled up into Satara Camp and were assigned to our huts. There were three of us to each little round hut. The huts were great, had big porches, electricity, beds, running water and were really nice. Much nicer accommodations than I had anticipated staying in while on safari.

            

We settled in and then had dinner with all our profs and guides. These people would be my family and world and only source of human contact for the next eight days. I’m lucky they were all so nice. The week could have been disastrously painful had they not.

After dinner, we went on a little walk around the camp’s fence periphery to see if we could find any animals. With headlamps strapped to our heads, we set out and walked all the way around without seeing anything…until the very end, and then we saw a hyena chilling right outside the fence. Just sitting there having a nap, but I’m pretty sure all of our headlamps shining in his poor little face woke him up.

Day 1 in Kruger: a huge success! I think I went to sleep happier that night than ever before! WHOOOOOO!!!!!