October 11 - 14, 2003
Arrival in Johannesburg, South Africa
en route to Kruger National Park
| Jo'burg to Loskop Dam | 250 km | October 11 | ||
| Rest day | 0/250 | October 12 | ||
| Loskop to Groskop | 300/550 | October 13 | ||
| Groskop to Phelaborwa | 249/799 | October 14 |
We were met in Johannesburg Saturday morning in time to get some SA rand, the local currency, buy groceries and get a quick lesson on how to operate the RV -- caravan as it's called here.
In order to accommodate our bikes, which they were not wild about us putting in the vehicle, they had rigged up a bike rack on the front. That thing is not coming off! It serves well now to strap our bicycles to it, but in another life it could equally well serve as a roo-bar or battering ram. In the interim, while it interrupts the light from the headlamps, it will reduce our fear of the yet-to-be-sighted elephants and rhinos.
We were both taken aback a bit by the size of the caravan. Its 17 feet long, fully equipped and ostensibly sleeps five. While five would be crowded, there should be no problem for 2 people who are now accustomed to living out of two panniers. Given that we will be going to some very poor parts of the country, its both in poor form and poor judgment to flaunt -- however unintentionally -- such a display of relative wealth. But we're committed now -- and there's no question we're not exactly roughing it!
Jo'burg from the national highway looks big, modern and clean. But the many stories North Americans hear about the dangers lurking in the downtown core are echoed by the manager of the caravan rental agency -- a calm and jovial Zulu woman who doesn't look like she'd be intimidated by anyone. She herself, though, hasn't been into the urban core for five years. In-migration from countries experiencing political turmoil are changing Jo'burg, she tells us, with not a wit of irony.
Brent eventually takes over driving -- this left-hand drive talent seems to return to him easily. It probably would to me, too, but since I tipped the last RV in Australia, he seems not eager to have me demonstrate this. The traffic is very quick since its Saturday volume on what looks like it might otherwise be clogged arteries. Some of the time there are as many as six lanes on each side of the divided highway.
The road network in South Africa is great. The major centres have huge, safe, double- or triple-lane divided highways, good signage and wide shoulders. Then there are a myriad of secondary roads -- all paved, but many pot-holed, no shoulder, winding and slow. But if you don't try to make tracks, its possible to get anywhere without too much difficulty -- all it takes is time and patience.
The land outside Jo'burg is plain, plain, plain. Mile after mile of burnt stubble -- some literally burnt since controlled burns are widely used in South Africa. If the old stubble is burned off, the green shoots come through more readily, so the theory goes. This phenomena requires rain, though, and there hasn't been any. Its counter-intuitive to us, but the South African winter is dry, and its the spring/summer that brings the rain in the centre of the continent. However, its been 7 months since the last rainfall, which is now about six weeks overdue. Everyone searches the skies for signs of impending rain. The countryside is parched.
At first, we see signs of new residential construction and the shanties look largish, with corrugated steel roofs. But as we get further and further into rural areas, the bite of poverty becomes clearer and clearer. Tiny wooden shacks, barefoot kids watch with great brown eyes as we zip through their small communities.
There are many other things that strike our senses: dust devils are common, pink funnels rising into the sky from the red earth. Nuclear power plants are common and many are located close to mine sites, which also are common. In fact, there seems to be lots of seams right at the surface, since cola mining is clearly visible in addition to other mining activity.
Another thing that is different is the caravan park. This is camping in Australia, plus, plus. Our first campsite was typical of other large sites, including
This is admittedly one of the larger sites, but by no means atypical. At 125 rand (or $25 CDN) its at the upper end of the range, but not terribly so. It seemed a good place to "un-jet lag", so we spent two nights.
South African camping paraphernalia matches this exotic setting. Most people use tens, but they are huge (15' by 15'). The a green groudsheet of similar size in front creates a clean "front yard". Next, an awning or cover sheet of again similar size creates a third living space. Only a little more and it would be fit for a city lot. Since the sites have only water, electricity and the essential BBQ (called braai), people also bring their own tables, chairs, etc. Its no wonder there is an industry in trailers which magically unfold all their innards to create this instant camp. Amazingly, the first night the site had lots of campers, but the second morning (Sunday) everyone headed out and the area was virtually deserted. Clearly many families or groups had travelled the four hours from Jo'burg with all this stuff for a weekend camping outing. What a terrific amount of use of the great outdoors.
On the other hand, when we sought out hiking trails, people thought us crazy and when we looked for cycling roads, folks thought us really crazy. It is clear that camping and hiking are distinctly different activities.
The locations themselves are usually well-chosen. Often on a river of near a nature reserve so there are lots of birds and relatively little traffic noise. While shade on the bushveld or lowveld areas is in short supply, there are usually jacundi or acacias for shade. This we found invaluable since it is often hot, hot, hot. While the air cools to maybe 20 degrees at night, our first day in Africa was 31 degrees in the shade. I put the thermometer in the sun to experiment but when it hit 51 degrees and was still rising rapidly, pulled it away as a life-saving measure. Whew -- its toasty.
Our first four or five days ended in thunder showers, some with spectacular lightening displays. This is a characteristic I never tire of. What a place!
Traveling to Kruger, we had made a point of approaching via Blyde River Canyon, one of South Africa's most noted natural wonders. While it won't topple the Grand Canyon from top honours, it is a remarkable deep, narrow canyon with some notable features, including the Pinnacle, a huge quartzite column rising out of the bottom of the canyon; God's Window, a panorama view of the area, complete with a section which looks over giant forest cutblocks and replanted areas; the Mic Mac Falls, an impossibly long drop fed from an impossibly small flow of water; Bourke's Luck Potholes, an overrated but nonetheless interesting visual of the effect of swirling water over rock formations and the Three Roundevals, giant rock formations on the far side of the canyon covered with lichen, topped with tress and generally looking stately [They are shaped a little like the native huts - round with conical roofs, so are named for those huts]. Worth the diversion for a first visit, but unless we learn a lot more about geology between now and then, not a repeat visit.
October 15 - 19, 2003
Kruger National Park
| Phelaborwa to Letaba | 144/943 | October 15 | ||
| Letaba to Mopani back to Letaba | 129/1072 | October 16 | ||
| Letaba to Lower Sabie | 246/1253 | October 17 | ||
| Lower Sabie to Skukuza | 123/1376 | October 18 | ||
| Skukuza to Berg en dal | 125/1501 | October 19 |
Kruger National Park is all about game spotting and game spotting is all about game drives. The park is in the northeast corner of South Africa, a 400+ km swathe about 50 kms wide bordered by Zimbabwe in the north and the narrow strip of southern Mozambique to the east. Over the mountains and coastal areas of Mozambique's narrow width and you'd be at the Indian Ocean. It straddles the Tropic of Capricorn (23 degrees south) so is more northerly [closer to the equator] than one tends to think, but also less tropical than that latitude conjures up. In fact, given the prolonged dry spell South Africa has endured, it is very dry. The bonus is this means no mosquitoes in what otherwise is normally malaria territory.
Most people -- we included -- get focused on spotting the"Big Five": elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino. And we managed to spot all these, by the skin of our teeth. There is unquestionably real excitement when you manage to spot especially the more difficulty of these (the cats), but the real joy comes from keeping your eyes peeled and spotting any number of impala, kudu, mongoose, birds -- even unusual tress, flowers and rock formations.
The park has three general areas, although a larger array of very distinct eco-systems, to my surprise. The north is less crowded (both people and animals), the centre has everything in sparse numbers, and the lower part of the park, because of its proximity to Johannesburg and because of the teeming wildlife, attracts tons of visitors. Because we are here in the off-season, the people traffic is not an issue, but were we where in the busy Dec-Feb season, I think the numbers of people would greatly diminish the experience.
It gets light and dark early this far east in Africa (there is only one time zone for the great expanse of South Africa) and since mammals are known to be largely inactive during the hottest part of the day, the best time to see them is the early morning or toward dusk. With daylight coming on at 4:30 a.m. and dusk quickly falling at 5:30, we've had to adjust our inner time clocks.
A typical day is wake at 5:00 for coffee and a shower, be on the road by 6:00 a.m. This is the best time to spot the various antelope, water buffalo, lions. Most people game drive from 7:00 to 9:00 and again from 4:00 to 6:00 - we tended to be at it all day. While game is quiet in the afternoon, there's always lots of giraffe and zebras, elephant are always about (they are the tamest of animals, and scare me to bits) and lions are lolling if you are good at spotting. Hippos and crocs can be found at the waterholes and, of course, my personal ornithologist stops every 100 metres for a glance at some usually common species - but even there we sometimes get happy surprises. I knew it had gone too far when the two of us ignored the giraffe right in front of us and trained our binoculars on some tweetie-bird in the distance!
There are lots of tips for game spotting: go early in the morning or at dusk, watch for water holes, be attentive to the behaviours of the animals you see, since their movements provide clues about what's in the vicinity, consider the plant life and terrain, take advantage of the hides (blinds) scattered throughout the park, etc. But the most surefire are the most prosaic:
In truth, doing a self-directed safari in South Africa is remarkably easy. Many other countries do not have the same tourist trade infrastructure - transportation between sites is difficult, roads are poor and require 4WD if they're passable at all, accommodation is difficult to non-existent, maps are unheard of, language barriers are large - none of which is insurmountable but require a certain amount of spunk and a lot more time.
But in my book, in South Africa self-directed is the way to go - particularly if you've had a previous safari experience and have an idea how it all flows. There is a network of tarred roads, and even those which are gravel are easily passable. The public "camp grounds" have a wide variety of options from tenting through to chalets, as well as a restaurant, store, petrol station, laundry and sometimes even a pool and post office. All of these offer safari rides with guides and spotters to supplement the personal drives. And it is all relatively inexpensive, especially when compared to the luxury experience in a private game reserve. By way of example:
(But don't rent a caravan at $200 a day, get a car and stay in a modest room. Not only cheaper, but more nimble, better road handling, much greater speed for intercity travel.)
We did only one group safari ride - a night ride - because individuals cannot leave the campsite after 6:00 p.m. Guided drives also have the advantage that they are allowed on a more extensive array of roads and, of course, there are many pairs of eyes spotting. The disadvantage is the luck of the draw on who else is on the ride and, for Brent, no one wants to look at birds. On our one foray, the lunatic operating one of the night torches cast the spotlight around at such a kinetic speed that the odds of spotting something were nil and the odds of nausea very high. On the other hand, we would not have seen four lionesses and their eleven cubs amble unhurriedly across the road only a few metres in front of us. That was a very special five minutes. I don't think anyone breathed!
One thing we didn't try and will next time is a morning walk - again this must be guided and the two guides are armed with rifles. I'm not entirely satisfied that a guide who has never fired at an animal before would be much protection against, say, a charging rhino, but incidents of this nature are non-existent so its probably less dangerous than the proverbial crossing of the street. Still, I expect a sighting is more thrilling without the "armour" of a car.
All in all, we're both safari fans and I know there will be more in our future. The one thing we might choose to do differently to most other folks is spend time in the grand-daddy of KNP campsites, Skukuza, which can accommodate 1,000 people and serves as jumping off point for many safari goers. Its sheer size is a downer for them, but that's the attraction for Brent because, in their own weird way, safaris are confining.You must remain in your car when not in a rest site (or one of the very few picnic sites) and rest sites are fairly small. So for a birder who thrives on roaming or anyone who likes to walk, it's very limiting.
In theory, Kruger has 150 species of mammal and an astonishing 507 species of bird. In practice, some of the mammals are small and/or nocturnal and a good number of the birds are migratory, so you'll never spot them all, or even close to it.
I'll leave the bird chronology to Brent and one of his myriad bird program. Our main mammal sightings were:
Elephants - hundreds
White Rhinoceros - 2
Giraffe - 150
Black Rhinoceros - 0
Lion - four sightings, total of 21 animals
Hippos - hundreds
Baboon - hundreds
Leopard - 1 in our last hour
Cheetah - 0
Warthog - 50
Vervet Monkey - 100
Hyena - about 20, including one sleeping on the road
Water buffalo - few sightings, but one herd of 150 animals
Zebra - hundreds
Impala - lots and lots and lots
Bushbuck, Steenbok - a few
Mongoose - a few
Scrub Hare - 2
Klipspringer - 2
Crocodile - hundreds
Green Turtle - 4
Leopard Turtle - 1 (on road)
Waterbuck - many
Kudu - many
Tree Squirrel - a few
This has been an unusual period. In February 2000, there was a huge flood, which wiped out large sections of vegetation in river valleys. Hydrologists are now trying to figure out how to share the limited water (everything is dammed) to regrow the vegetation. Then this year we have drought conditions. For example, the Letaba River has only once before dried up. (This water shortage meant many game drives for us were largely fruitless since virtually all of the natural pans have dried up.) Add to this, the over population of elephants which are destroying the habitat and you've got one giant eco-puzzle. In the end, it will probably be mother nature who sorts it all out. But in the meanwhile, much effort and worry is dedicated to these thorny posers. We'll have to come back to see how the theories evolve.
On to Brenda's next South Africa diary.
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