We're back in Pretoria where we started this adventure. Today is our last full day in Africa, and this will be our last update from Africa. Our flight leaves Johannesburg at 7:45 local time and it will be a long one! 19 hours later, we'll land in New York and frantically take 5 different trains across to Newark, NJ for our flight to Regina, which departs about 3 hours and 50 minutes later. We'll have to be quick!
In the meantime, we'll spend tonight just relaxing here at the lodge. Tomorrow, we're booked to do a tour of Soweto (short for South-West Township). south west of Johannesburg. Soweto is home to about 3 million people, and I don't think any of them are white. This is because during the Apartheid era, most of the black people from Johannesburg were evicted from their homes and sent to live in townships like Soweto. Tomorrow we'll learn more about Soweto and its history. If I'm not mistaken, I believe that Nelson Mandela spent part of his growing up years in Soweto, and I think our tour may stop by the house where he was born/grew up. The others in our tour will likely stop by the Apartheid Museum. Since we were there at the start, we'll either go straight to the airport, or spend some time on the rides at the nearby Gold Reef City, an amusement park right beside the museum.
Yesterday. we were in and around the Blyde River Canyon. What an incredible area! The scenery is absolutely amazing. We went to "God's Window", which is basically just a really nice lookout point; the Bourke's Luck Potholes, big holes formed by the weathering of the rock at the meeting of two rivers (Bourke was one of the main gold prospectors back in the day, and he threw money into the holes for luck when he discovered them. Of course, he discovered gold soon after); and another lookout over the canyon. There were weird guys at the last place that wanted to be our best friends. We were a bit suspicous of them, but we left with all our belongings. Other than that, not much is new. We're looking forward to seeing everyone again at home!
D&K
July 24, 2010
July 22, 2010
Kruger
Kruger National Park is beautiful! The landscape here is as stunning as it is varied, and we´ve definitely seen our fair share of animals in the last 24 hours. It´s hard to believe that we´ve barely covered the southern tip of the park. It´s huge.
We got into the park and did a game drive yesterday, which basically consisted of driving slow on our bus. We got our first good sighting of rhinos (and several more this morning) on that trip. That basically is our last check on the list of major African animals to see. We saw rhinos on our first day in Botswana, but just their butts from a distance. We can even say that we´ve seen cheetah and leopard, the two that are most likely for people to miss.
After our game drive, we made our way to our campsite, getting there after dark in the rain (the first real rain we´ve seen on this trip). Everyone was concerned about setting up their tents in the rain. However, there was no need to be concerned, as the campsite ended up being full! Apparently, the Gecko´s office hadn´t notified our tour guide that our plans had been changed. We sat in the bus for about an hour and a half while we waited for things to get sorted out. On top of all this, driving after dark in the park can carry penalties as stiff as prison time! In the end, we had a park ranger escort us from the campground we were at to another one 75 km down the road. Since the speed limit is 50 km/h in the park, it took about an hour and a half to get there... and we almost ran over a lion on the way!! We arrived at the Berg-En-Dal campground tired and hungry, and with some less than enthusiastic traveling partners. We had supper at the campground´s restaurant and enjoyed a hard-earned rest in our tent.
We have one more night in the park, and tomorrow we start the trek back to Jo´Burg where our trip ends. One night here, one night in Graskop, one night in Pretoria, one night on the plane, and then we get to sleep in our own bed again! That will be very nice, although we´ll really miss Africa.
In other news, Katie thinks something bit her on the leg. She has an unexplained bruise and two little scrapes/red punctures in her leg. I suggested the possibility of it being a bat, which of course went over really well. We´ve noticed that Kruger animals are very accustomed to people, even bold around people. Whenever we eat, starlings and another kind of bird (the kind that Zazu is on the Lion King) are always going from person to person begging like dogs. If you look away, they´ll fly right up and steal food from your plate! Katie has also been thrilled about this. The birds are not the only thieves here. This afternoon, I was coming out of our tent, and I saw a monkey hanging out of an open window on our bus. A second later, another monkey flew out of the window to the ground below, clutching a box of goldfish crackers in its mouth. I yelled ¨Hey!¨ at them, as if that would do any good, and began to chase them, not knowing why or what I would do if I caught them. At the same moment, Katie came out of the bathroom and started doing the same. She wasn´t sure why either. In the end, all the monkey´s friends came over to share in the bounty, but it snarled at them and ran into a corner to hog all the crackers. Katie reminded us all that monkeys are evil. (Ask her about her experience in Mexico this year.)
The Internet patrol is kicking us off now, so we have to go!
D&K
We got into the park and did a game drive yesterday, which basically consisted of driving slow on our bus. We got our first good sighting of rhinos (and several more this morning) on that trip. That basically is our last check on the list of major African animals to see. We saw rhinos on our first day in Botswana, but just their butts from a distance. We can even say that we´ve seen cheetah and leopard, the two that are most likely for people to miss.
After our game drive, we made our way to our campsite, getting there after dark in the rain (the first real rain we´ve seen on this trip). Everyone was concerned about setting up their tents in the rain. However, there was no need to be concerned, as the campsite ended up being full! Apparently, the Gecko´s office hadn´t notified our tour guide that our plans had been changed. We sat in the bus for about an hour and a half while we waited for things to get sorted out. On top of all this, driving after dark in the park can carry penalties as stiff as prison time! In the end, we had a park ranger escort us from the campground we were at to another one 75 km down the road. Since the speed limit is 50 km/h in the park, it took about an hour and a half to get there... and we almost ran over a lion on the way!! We arrived at the Berg-En-Dal campground tired and hungry, and with some less than enthusiastic traveling partners. We had supper at the campground´s restaurant and enjoyed a hard-earned rest in our tent.
We have one more night in the park, and tomorrow we start the trek back to Jo´Burg where our trip ends. One night here, one night in Graskop, one night in Pretoria, one night on the plane, and then we get to sleep in our own bed again! That will be very nice, although we´ll really miss Africa.
In other news, Katie thinks something bit her on the leg. She has an unexplained bruise and two little scrapes/red punctures in her leg. I suggested the possibility of it being a bat, which of course went over really well. We´ve noticed that Kruger animals are very accustomed to people, even bold around people. Whenever we eat, starlings and another kind of bird (the kind that Zazu is on the Lion King) are always going from person to person begging like dogs. If you look away, they´ll fly right up and steal food from your plate! Katie has also been thrilled about this. The birds are not the only thieves here. This afternoon, I was coming out of our tent, and I saw a monkey hanging out of an open window on our bus. A second later, another monkey flew out of the window to the ground below, clutching a box of goldfish crackers in its mouth. I yelled ¨Hey!¨ at them, as if that would do any good, and began to chase them, not knowing why or what I would do if I caught them. At the same moment, Katie came out of the bathroom and started doing the same. She wasn´t sure why either. In the end, all the monkey´s friends came over to share in the bounty, but it snarled at them and ran into a corner to hog all the crackers. Katie reminded us all that monkeys are evil. (Ask her about her experience in Mexico this year.)
The Internet patrol is kicking us off now, so we have to go!
D&K
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