Training Log Archive: maprunner

We slept in for a change, and went for a guided river walk later in the morning. It was weird to be accompanied by two armed guides!

It was a leisurely pace, but we learned a lot about the river, the plants, birds and hippos (which we saw at a safe distance). We also saw cheetah tracks (it had been there earlier that morning).

After lunch, we drove around on our own. Animal sightings are rarer in the heat of the day, but even we were surprised when we drove for almost two hours without even seeing an impala! Later on, as it cooled off, we did see impala. And hippos and crocodiles and wildebeest.

We stopped at a picnic spot to use the bathrooms (which are few and far between so you have to plan carefully). Another visitor told us that there were some lions just up the road, so we headed off in that direction. I'm usually an optimist, but this time I thought, there's no way they'll still be there 45 minutes after he saw them. But, I was wrong. It was easy to find the general area where they were, since there were 5 or 6 cars parked at the side of the road. But if it wasn't for that, we could so easily have missed them. They were maybe 30 feet off the road, lying down in the shade. Perfectly camouflaged. Three males and two females. It is mating season. Pairs hang together for 5 days, and all they do is rest and mate. Like every 10 of 15 minutes. We saw several matings in the short time we were there.

Lions are really big and powerful looking. They see the humans, but their whole demeanor shows that they could care less. They are the kings and they know it. Beautiful animals to see and watch.

On our way back to Oliphants, we stopped once again on the bridge. You're allowed to get out on the bridge. It is maybe 400 meters long, and I was sorely tempted to run up and down it a few times. I was starting to go stir crazy from lack of physical activity, which is so un-like me.

We went on another guided sunrise drive. The guides can drive you to places where they know something is happening, such as the lions finishing off the buffalo they had killed a few days earlier. So cool, we even saw a male lion (briefly). The kill was no more than 20 meters off the road. We also saw our first (and only) jackal on this drive, and our first ostrich. Quite unreal to see an ostrich in person.

After breakfast, we drove on towards Oliphants camp. We saw two unusual things on this drive:
1. we stopped to let the animals cross the road. There were zebra, giraffe, baboons and warthogs all crossing at the same time. Really! This place is that amazing.
2. we saw armed park rangers on foot patrol. Rhino poaching a serious problem (over 600 rhinos killed in South Africa already this year).

Other animal sightings this day included bush pigs, kudu, waterbok, wildebeest and steenbok. And lots of impala. They are every where.

Mike and I were up at dawn again, but this time we drove around on our own. Saw a herd of elephants crossing the road, our first up-close look at these amazing animals.

Then we drove on towards Satara rest camp. Along the way we continued to see amazing animals. We stopped at a water hole, where we saw a giraffe drinking! Quite funny and awkward. There were also crocodiles, zebras and cranes (correction: storks) at the water hole.

And we had our first hippos sighting! We were far above them, at a "get out point" along the river (they let you get out of your car at designated spots, "at your own risk"). Very cool to see them, but especially to hear them. They make lots of grunting noises, which carries very far.

Got to camp a little early. I was getting tired of sitting in a car all day, so Mike drew me a short course on the camp map, and I went out for a jog/walk. Lots of people were staring at me, and the map was outdated in a few places, but it was fun. I especially liked the part where I ran past the monkeys and the bushbok. route

Then we sat on our veranda and drank some fine South African wine before heading to the restaurant for a nice dinner. A perfect way to spend my 50th birthday!

C • Happy! 2

Up before dawn while on vacation, what was I thinking? We signed up for a guided sunrise drive. I'm glad I brought my winter coat, hat and gloves, because it was cold as we drove around in our open walled trucks:



But, it was SOOOOO worth it! On our first drive, we saw lions and rhino! Right near the road:



And we also saw wild dogs, which turns out to be a very rare sighting (our guide was the most excited person). They are very striking:



After the guided morning drive, Mike and I went driving around on our own. Kruger is similar to Yellowstone, in that there are plenty of roads (paved and dirt) connecting the various camps, and you're free to drive on any road. You're just not free to get out of your car!

Before this trip, I thought we might see some animals about 50-100 yards away, and we would need our binooculars. Binocs were fun and helpful, but not required. All of the animals can be seen close to or even crossing the road. It was so amazing to turn the corner and see something else. It seemed like a dream to suddenly see impala and and wildebeest as you're driving around.

That evening, we went out on a guided sunset drive. Saw a baby rhino suckling from it's mom; a spotted hyennia and a procupine, among other sightings. Totally, totalluy cool.

Just for the record, these are the animals we saw on the first day:
white rhino
lion
impala
gray dakar
kudu
wild dog
buffalo
baboon
crocodile
nyala
warthog
giraffe
monkey
mongoose
zebra
steenbok
bushbok
scrub hare
porcupine
genet
hyennia

Wide awake in the middle of the night again, but this place had wifi only during the daytime, so it was not so easy to keep myself entertained :)

We headed off towards Kruger national park. The terrain slowly changed from flat fields to rolling hills to lumber plantings. Along the way, we saw lots of wild fires. Some were planned, some were not.

We arrived in Nelspruit, and started looking for the botanical gardens (I had another O map I wanted to try). I made two big mistakes in planning this trip: 1) did not buy an international data package for my phone and 2) did not print out area maps for where were going. I just forgot that wifi coverage wouldn't be every where.

We drove around a bit, but couldn't fin the entrance. Finally stopped at a gas station to ask for directions. We commented that there were no road signs to show the entrance (other than one that said 4 k straight ahead). The clerk walked us outside and pointed to the big sign just up the road (where we had not yet driven) that said basically, "turn here". Smile.

This was a cool place to explore, even if we were just walking. The sprint course was great. I thought I would jog it, but in the end I did a mix of walking and jogging. I found it hard to read the map on the run, and I didn't want to knock over any other patrons (although I only saw a few). The sprinklers were running around 7 and 8, so I just skipped those. route

After Nelspruit, we were finally on our way to Kruger. Unfortunately, this was some of the most stressful driving of the trip. Mostly rural dirt or gravel roads, with tons of potholes. And pedestrians (mostly schoolkids) on both sides of the road. Yikes! The speed limits changed rapidly, and there were unmarked speed bumps in some residential areas. We had a couple of close calls, and plenty of times where I shifted wrong or turned on the wipers instead of the turn signal, but in the end, we made it to Kruger in one piece.

We stayed at the Skukuza camp for the first two nights. Our accommodations in the park were these thatched roof cabins. Very nice. Some included a full kitchen, and all included a charcoal grill (braai in South Africa) which is quite a popular activity here. Had a nice chat with our neighbors (who were from Sweden). They gave us their leftover charcoal when they left the next morning. We planned to eat in the restaurant, but it was closed, so we went to to the camp store and bought some salad, cheese and crackers instead.

The interestering thing about staying in Kruger is that the animals run free and you are locked up. You have to be in the camp from 6 pm to 6 am. Here's an example of the fence in Skukuza:

C • cabin 1

Went back to the airport to pick up our rental car. I decided I would rather drive and let Mike be the navigator; it was easier to concentrate on just driving on the other side of the road. Pretty stressful to drive in South Africa, not because of the left-side of road issue. One, there are very few road signs (outside of the big cities). Two, the towns and streets are all being renamed. Three, pedestrians and animals walk on the shoulder, and even try to cross the road. Even the super highways with 120 km/hr speed limits! Terrifying for the driver and passenger both!

We made our way to Pretoria and the Cradle of Humankind site. Very cool to explore our really early roots. We walked around the Sterkfontein cave, where they found some intact skeletons. This was fun. Then we went to the museum at Maropeng which was just a tourist trap, and in retrospect, we could have skipped.

I had an O map for a park in Pretoria, so we headed there next. Unfortunately, this was another bad decision. Rush hour traffic, no clear directions, hard to find entrance, tired and stressed driver and navigator; total fail. We gave up after a while and drove on towards Witbank (now called eMalahleni) for the night.

We drove through some agricultural areas, which sure looked a lot like Kansas! Pretty ironic to travel across the globe to the same scenery. Witbank is an area of surface mining (coal) so it was dirty and smelly, but it was just a convenient stopping point. We didn't want to drive after dark, especially since we passed a road sign warning us of a "high hijack zone".

Just a bit of stretching and moving around on the plane. The sixteen hours were not as bad as I feared.

Landed in JNB and got picked up by our hotel. So wonderful to arrive in a new country to find someone standing there with your name on a sign.

Weird to go from bright summer sun to cool winter sun in one day. Temps here are great though.

Took a shower and crawled into bed for much needed sleep. But now I'm wide awake at midnight. Thank goodness for AP, makes for good reading. Especially right now, when almost all of my favorites are traveling and posting cool stuff.