Back in South Africa

We're back in South Africa, a country I've come to both love (for its charm and resiliency) and hate (for the ugly societal issues that are rearing their head even this week).  We're on our way to Kruger National Park, and are enjoying a short stop in a town called Hazyview.

The last time we blogged, we were in Antelope Park in Zimbabwe, looking forward to feeding the lions.  We are pleased to report that we were not eaten, but the feeding was as intense as promised.  The lions are given basically half a cow, and they come charging out of their living quarters, descending on the huge pile of meat placed mere feet from where we were standing.  In the first feeding we witnessed, the lion kept the food near us, and fiercely defended its "kill".  We were too close for its comfort, so it kept roaring at us, and yes, even jumping and pouncing at us to keep us away.  (Don't forget, there was a fence.)  The next feeding featured a larger group of male lions who charged yet more fiercly to the meat.  We have some great video.

The next day, we left Antelope Park and proceeded to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins.  The ruins lie in the heavily weathered mountains of southern Zimbabwe, where huge boulders sit on top of huger boulders, looking about to topple off at any time.  The ruins were an acropolis built among these rock formations.  It was truly incredible to imagine what life had been like for these people, and to learn a little bit about their culture.  We saw the bird carving that is represented on the Zimbabwe flag.  The people believed that birds were responsible for relaying messages to heaven and back, and thus, they were given great importance in that culture.

After camping near the ruins, we crossed the border into South Africa.  There was a huge line-up on the Zimbabwe side, and we felt really bad when, after standing in line for a few minutes, the officials ushered us priviliged tourists up to the front of the line.  However, we were part of the group, so to keep our places meant delaying our bus.  We stopped at a mall just across the border, and were immediately struck by the vast selection available to us in all the stores!  (What?  More than two kinds of chocolate bars??)  The economic contrast is quite stark.  (The roads are also soooo much smoother, much to Katie's relief, who was starting to feel fairly nauseous from the Zimbabwe bumps.)  We picked up some souvenirs at the mall, and had a bit of a sketchy incident, where after I somehow got my credit card approved without using the PIN, the cashier was anxious to take an impression of our card.  This caused some nervous discussion about what to do, but I was convinced that the PIN problem would have been a problem with their terminal not our card, he didn't have the card, and he didn't have the security code off the back, so online or phone purchases wouldn't work.  Any thoughts?

We camped last nigh at the Tshipise hot springs.  This was an interesting experience since (as it would be  with most places featuring warm mineraly water) our group likely brought the average age of the place down by about 20 years.  It was a huge campsite filled with RV's many of which, we were told, were there for some kind of church gathering.  As it happened, we camped in the church courtyard.  The pool was really nice.  It felt good to wash off all the layers of dust in a nice warm pool.  (Which is also kind of gross when you think of it...)

We're camping two nights at Kruger (at two different campsites), our last opportunity to spot wildlife on this trip.  After that, it's back to Pretoria/Johannesburg with a stop in Pilgrim's Rest along the way.  As much as we love Africa, we're greatly looking to coming home.  Mattresses, spider-free showers, our new house, and pizza draw us homeward (not to mention family and friends)!  Talk to you soon.

D&K