Day 48, Kruger

Day 48, The perception of distances is very different in South Africa. On our tiny little island back home driving for 6 hours gets us from one end to another, in fact we could probably be halfway through France if the traffic is kind. In my former life, the trip to Kruger National Park this weekend would have seemed epic, here it was just a long weekend.

My trip was technically an international journey as I had to traverse the border for the miniature kingdom of Swaziland, it was actually shorter to go through it than round it. Driving does not feel as much a chore in this part of the world as it does in the UK. I have yet to work out whether it is because having a car is a privilege or whether it is simply due to the vastness of this country.

Nowhere was the vastness more noticeable than at Kruger where the game park stretches for miles on end. Impossible to take in the entire park in any single visit we confined ourselves to the southern section. Yet again our days started hellishly early to reach the gates before the queues built up and sun was too strong.

The graft did not go unrewarded as we saw elephants, buffalos and rhinos. There was a group of chacma baboons with amusingly revolting rear ends doing everything from backflips to 360s and even a few the more senior ones just pausing to scratch themselves like only and old man can. Later on in the day we had good viewings of hyenas tending to their pups, and odd blend of mangy with a dollop of the cute factor. However the highlight of the trip had to be lions. We saw a group of four lions on our first day just sitting on the edge of a verge, looking fairly resplendent in the afternoon sun. We were quite pleased with that until the following day.

As we drove down one of the tracks we saw a little clutch of cars peering down a slope, at the bottom of which were three bushy maned male lions. You could hear a strange rumbling nose reverberating around the valley and it took me a few seconds to realise it was emanating from the lions. They seemed quite curious of the cars and proceeded to take a wonder around the vehicles as people poked out of their cars to see who could get the most outrageous close ups. One of them eventually wandered next our car and for the first time I refrained from leaning out to take another picture.

The excitement of the lions was fairly special but I was left slightly disappointed by yet another game park visited without spotting a leopard. On the upside it gives me an excuse to keep exploring all the wonderful parks in this country.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgn78fCZkbk