Kruger (8/2-8/4)

We've arrived in Africa!!! And headed off on our first safari. Read below for our adventures with rhinos, elephants, and lions...and what it's like to go on safari with Dallas Mavericks' coach, Avery Johnson.

For photos, click here.

Kimberly

Oh wow, our first safari! It was amazing! We were originally supposed to visit Kruger National Park on our own, just driving through the park in a rental car (think Yellowstone). We thought this would be a fun way to experience the African wildlife and is significantly less expensive than guided options. However, we managed to score a ridiculous last-minute deal to stay in one of the super-exclusive (read super, super-expensive) private game reserves just outside of Kruger Park. Normal people pay over $1000 a night to stay in the reserve at a pretty posh lodge composed of individual bungalows and go on safari. We managed to snag a deal that made this only $200 a night...so while it was certainly more than we wanted to spend, we couldn't pass it up! It does include all meals and drives, so actually the $200 price is pretty good.

So here's a typical day on safari:
-5:00am: a ranger comes by your bungalow to wake you up (and make sure there aren't any leopards, hyena, or lions outside your front door)
-5:30am: meet on the deck for coffee, tea, & croissants before your game drive
-6:00-9:00am: early morning game drive, with a stop for sunrise coffee, tea, and biscuits in the bush
-9:00am: return to the lodge for a full breakfast
-10:00am: relax for a bit or go on a walking safari with one of the rangers.
-1:00pm: lunch on the terrace
-2:00pm: more time for relaxing, perhaps get a massage or take a nap
-3:30pm: meet on the deck for afternoon tea, coffee, and cakes before your afternoon game drive
-4:00-7:00pm: afternoon/evening game drive, with a stop for sundowners in the bush
-8:00pm: enjoy dinner outside in the boma under the stars

Other than the high levels of accommodation, food, and service, there are two main other advantages to staying at a private game lodge.
1) Vehicles can drive off road: if your tracker thinks there might be a lion in the bushes to your left, he just drives in there (over bushes and trees) to see if he can find it!
2) You can drive at night: there are very few places where you can go on evening game drives. And if you want to see leopards or other nocturnal animals, this is going to give you a much higher chance of finding them. In addition, lions actually hunt mostly at night and sleep all day, so night time is better viewing too.

We arrived at the Sabi Sabi Bush Lodge just in time for lunch and some quick unpacking, to set off on our first game drive. It seemed like they grouped people together based on nationality, so we were in a Land Rover with five other Americans. Of course, we were the youngest people there, by far...and the other guests were incredibly wealthy folks wondering what the hell two kids were doing at the posh safari camp (keep in mind that Dan looks like he's 15, and I still get carded buying alcohol).

Our first game drive was really fun. We set off at 4:00pm and found a shy rhino that wouldn't come out of the bush and a small herd of impala before stopping for sundowners (drinks in the middle of the African bush). After sunset, we set out looking for a leopard. Most people come to Africa and never see a leopard, they are incredibly shy and are active only at night. We were really lucky that our tracker found one pretty quickly and we followed him around for a good thirty minutes (hoping he would be hungry and hunt something). In the beginning, he stayed on the main road, and we just followed behind him. But then our tracker wanted to get ahead of him, so he just swerved the Land Rover off the road and started driving in the middle of the bush. I kid you not, we were driving over small trees with 2-3 inch diameter trunks (the trees would spring back as the car past over them). At the very end of the drive, the leopard decided he was tired and wanted to roll around in the grass. Watching this amazingly powerful hunter playing on his back like a house cat was really funny!

Post game drive, we enjoyed a nice dinner outside in the Boma and went straight to sleep so we would be well rested for our 5:00am wake-up-call....yes, you heard that right. We did actually wake up before 7:00am many many times on this trip, which for two people who usually sleep until 12noon on the weekends is quite an accomplishment!

Our morning game drive was even more exciting. We saw two White Rhinos up really close just as soon as we left the lodge. I could have reached out and pet them, they were that close! After enjoying some coffee and biscuits in the bush, we set off looking for more animals and found a small herd of giraffes feeding. After we returned to the lodge and had a full breakfast (keep in mind that we've already had two mini breakfasts by this time), we went on a short walking safari. We only walked on a small path that basically circled the lodge, but just knowing that a lion could jump out at any point made it really exciting. Our tracker came with us (he brought his gun) and made us walk quietly in a single file line. The only big animals we saw on the walking safari were some female Kudu. (Large antelope animals that are really tasty...they had served Kudu meat at lunch the day before.)

That afternoon, after a big lunch and nice nap, we went out on our second evening game drive. Just as we turned the corner outside of the lodge, we found a herd of giraffe, with a baby, grazing on the trees. They were curious, but shy, and seemed to pose for the camera while we watched them. Our tracker told us he was taking us to try to find buffalo at the Sabi river, which is the border between the Sabi Sands reserve and Kruger National Park. While we didn't see any buffalo, just the view of the river was beautiful. We did see a bunch of Zebra and even two Klipspringers (the little goat-like animals that climb the rocks....if you've been to the Wild Animal Park, you should know what I'm talking about.)

In my opinion, the most beautiful thing about South Africa is not actually the wildlife, but rather the sunrises and sunsets. When the sun is just above the horizon, it turns everything this beautiful shade of golden red. It's hard to describe, and the pictures don't do it full justice, but look at the ones of the Zebras specifically, and you'll get a sense for what I'm trying to describe.

On our drive back to the lodge from the river, we had a bit of a surprise experience. We were driving along on the road, when all of a sudden the tracker slammed on the breaks and starts shining the flashlight around. He could tell something wasn't right, but wasn't quite sure exactly what it was. The spotter took his light and moves it from left to right and back again, all of a sudden stopping on a tree. Then, we noticed the extremely large bull elephant behind the tree...trying to knock it over with its trunk and tusks. The tracker scrambled to get the car into 1st gear and swerved out of the way, just in time for the tree to fall over right where we had been! We had heard that the elephants like to knock over the trees to eat the roots, but we didn't think we'd be seeing it first hand...and almost in the pathway!

The next morning, on our last game drive at the Bush Lodge, we saw animals galore! First we found yet another pair of rhinos...this time a mother and a baby. The mom rhino did not seem too pleased with our presence (and especially with the loud American man who was in our car and wouldn't stop yapping). At one point, she even fake charged the vehicle, stomping her feet on the ground and waving her horn around. Luckily, it was an empty threat, and she just turned around and went into the bush.

Our tracker and spotter were determined to find us lions this morning, so they kept getting out of the car to follow the fresh lion tracks into the bush. Unfortunately, we never found the lions, but we did stumble across a huge family of elephants. There were at least ten elephants, and three of them were babies. Watching them eat (and the babies play) was one of the highlights of our time here.

After two nights at the Bush Lodge, we moved to the nearby Earth Lodge--a smaller hotel on the same game reserve with a more exclusive feel. The entire lodge is built into the earth, with decor and accessories to match the theme. For instance, much of the furniture was made of giant trees that had been washed out of a river bank. (See the picture of the lobby). The hotel also had very different level of service--everything was much more posh posh and individualized--and the food was amazing! Even the snacks before our afternoon game drive were out of this world!

So after a relaxing afternoon by the pool and a wonderful lunch, we met with our new tracker for our afternoon game drive. He mentioned something about how we were waiting on another party, and asked us if we knew who Avery Johnson was. (We did not.) He explained that he is some famous basketball coach from the US and he/his family were the other group on our safari. Sure enough, we later found out that Avery Johnson is a very famous basketball coach, like 2006 NBA Coach of the Year of the Dallas Mavericks! Needless to say, it was a really interesting safari! Avery was there with his wife and two children, who were the nicest, most grounded celebrities I've ever met. His wife started this conversation about how she had given up her career as a nurse because she had to keep moving around because of Avery's career; we talked about their family and how Avery working in Dallas (they live in Houston) has been manageable, but has put stress on things... It was really quite a nice evening. There were a few moments when we were reminded that these people do not lead normal lives (like when they were talking about spending vacation time with "Dirk" (Nowitzki), or about how their photographer was meeting them in Paris to shoot their Christmas card), but the obvious extravagance of their lifestyle juxtaposed with their down-to-earth personalities and family interactions made it all that more refreshing.

The highlight of our evening game drive (other than being with Avery Johnson and family) was that we finally found the pride of lions we had been searching for that morning. We found them right at sunset, when they were just waking up from a nap. It was so amazing to be so close to these majestic animals! There were seven lions, all only a few feet from our safari vehicles. One of them was sleeping on his back, with his paws in the air...just like our dog sleeps sometimes, so we nicknamed him the "Zookie lion." It was clear the lions had recently feasted on a rather large kill, as their bellies were very full, and they were quite sleepy. When they woke up, they kept yawning and licking their lips...allowing us rather explicit views of their sharp teeth--and great photos!

The next morning, Avery and his family opted not to wake up for the early morning safari...which meant we got the tracker and spotter all to ourselves! It was such a treat to decide where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. Our tracker asked if we had seen a buffalo yet, which we had not. So he was insistent we try to find a buffalo, so we would have seen all of the Big Five. The Big Five are the five animals considered most dangerous to hunt on foot...kind of random, I know, but it's from the Hemingway era of safari hunting in Africa. They are Rhino, Elephant, Leopard, Lion, and Buffalo. So, by this point in our trip, we had seen all but the buffalo...so buffalo it was...and buffalo we found! We were driving along, when all of a sudden our spotter waved his hands in the air, and the tracker stopped the vehicle. Just in front of our car, but behind a bush, was a large male buffalo--an "old bachelor" is what they called him. The explained that it is these lone males who are the most dangerous because they feel extra threatened, as they are all alone in the wild. We watched him as he ate his breakfast, grateful that he had not decided to charge our vehicle with his large horns!

Our last treat at the Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge was a walking safari with a different ranger. We were lucky to see several different animals on this walking safari, but our favorite were the adorable Dwarf Mongeese who were curiously looking at us with their heads popped out of a termite mound. Our tracker also kindly explained how you can tell the difference between Elephant and Buffalo dung...and how to tell if a termite mound is being inhabited by a warthog...again, by identifying its dung...

Our safari really was an amazing experience...it gave us a different appreciation for nature and the animals we thought we knew so well from all our trips to the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park. And the landscape of South Africa is very striking. It's actually quite funny...it looks a lot like California. The part where we were on safari looked exactly like eastern San Diego...now I know why they put the Wild Animal Park in Escondido! But the African sunrises and sunsets are unlike anything I've ever seen before...simply stunning.

I should tell you that we did have our one and only scary South African experience on our drive just outside of the gates to the park. We were leaving the private game reserve, when we noticed a group of boys playing in the street, dressed in traditional warrior clothing (grass skirts and white paint). They were jumping up and down in the street...and I thought, "ooh, great photo opp!!" Well, I think that's exactly what they were hoping for, because just as I pulled out the camera, they swarmed around our car and started banging on the windows with their hands out. We didn't know what to do, but we certainly were not about to roll down our windows for fear of what might happen to us...but we couldn't go anywhere because the children were all around and in front of the car. Dan put the car in neutral and revved the engine a few times, which didn't seem to have much of an effect...finally he just started moving the car forward slowly, and the kids backed away...and we sped off towards Johannesburg (where we never had any safety issues, by the way).