jacko the weblog

You got to get an early start to fully appreciate Kruger, so we woke up at 3am. Since that was an hour and a half too early we tried to sleep some more, but eventually gave up, got dressed and packed our bags for the day. Ate breakfast at 4:30 and our guide picked us up at 5am. Still dark, very dark. We drove an hour or so and arrived at the Phalaborwa entrance to Kruger park where we transferred into an open-air jeep-like safari vehicle. Kruger is criss-crossed by well maintained paved roads – you can go on dirt roads with permission, but is not necessary to see the wildlife. There are several campgrounds inside the park (behind high fences!). All of the shops, restroooms and camps are sparkling clean and neat. I was consistently amazed at how orderly and clean everything is, in the face of the wilderness surrounding us. I was also amazed at the amount of food available, dairy and fresh fruit!

The experience of Kruger was very different than the game drive at Edeni. The private game reserves tend to overstock their property and with their sophisticated tracking system can provide a more “entertaining” experience, with consistant sightings of “the bg 5″ and animals within a few yards of the game vehicles. It is controversial, because in some ways it amounts to more of a glorified zoo, in that the animals are not living as they truly would in the wild, but all mostly agree it is better than cages. Most of the time in Kruger, the animals were 100 yards away or greater. A good camera lens and binoculars were essential. As we had 1 camera and 2 binoculars we were in constant negotiation over them.

So, Kruger is a huge park and we saw about 1% of it, after driving around for 8 hours (my back is killing me by the end of the day). But, it was amazing. We had a Danish couple that took us around, the husband drove, the wife did commentary on what we saw. She was good at spotting animals we would have missed. It becomes apparent why animals are marked the way the are, they seem to disappear in the bush. A giraffe would be standing 10 feet away and we wouldn’t see it as it was absolutly still.

We saw many bull elephants, most by themselves, a few times there were two traveling together. This is normal elephant behavior. They are just huge animals, and quite stunning to come up upon around a corner. We saw hundreds of impala, usually in herds of 30 or more. Lots of warthogs, ugliest little animals, but when moving with the little tails held high, they have a certain grace. Many giraffe, mostly standing stock still with their heads in trees, but when moving fast – a beautiful sight. In the zoos, there is never enough space for the animals to get up speed and cover alot of ground, but in the “wild” the most amazing thing is to see them running across a large distance.

Saw quite a few groups of water buffalo, another rather ugly creature. This animal is considered one of the “big 5″ as in one of the most dangerous animals to hunt. They are incredibly smart. We saw a baby nursing it’s mom. The baby nurses from behind, not the side like most cattle. Not sure why. These animals were very close to the road so we got a good look at them and some good photos.

Also, saw many herds of zebra. According to park literature, there are about 32,000 zebra in the park. So, after awhile it was just “oh, another zebra”. We did come across several groups crossing the road. They are not phased by the cars as all the cars stop, but they are cautious. On one occasion, most of the herd had crossed, but a mom and a baby were hesitant. The mom kept approaching the road, but then shying back. She eventually run up the road from us, about 50 yards, got herself between us and her baby and then dashed across the road, the baby stuck by her side.

Kruger practices controlled burning. They burn up to 100-200 yards on either side of the roads at certain spots in the park, I think they rotate the burns. They do this because of the stupid tourists who flick cigarette butts out of their cars. This area has not had enough rainfall in the last few years (but you get a different story depending on who you speak to), and Kruger park is very dry. They keep the dry vegetation low by the roads, to try and reduce the possibility of a huge fire spreading uncontrolled, through the park. It is not the most attractive thing to see, a burnt swath for miles. Apparently, the animals and the bush recover quickly. Along one of the burnt patches, we spotted a lone jackal, intent on some purpose we could not ascertain.

By the end of the day, we had seen seventeen species of animals, not including some amazing birds. The highlights were lions, of course – although they were furtherest from the car, laying on top of a hill next to a watering hole. They are majestic, even while squinting thru binoculars. Also, we observed a group of baboons yelling and skirmishing, they are quite loud and boisterous. One big male jumped (or fell) from a branch at least 20 ft off of the ground, it seemed as if he was irritated with some of the younger baboons and was hollaring and chasing them. Later, we pulled up to a beautiful waterhole, a group of baboon and impala were hanging out together. A few waterbucks were standing around. There were several hippos in the water with just their ears and eyes poking out. I’m sure these animals enjoyed this spot during the day,when the lions are sleeping, but got the hell out of there at night.

We arrived home, after nightfall. In all about 14 hours of driving that day.

Check out all of our Kruger Park Photos! Check out all of our Kruger Park Photos!

The Next South Africa Entry: Driving Tour to Tzaneen and Haenertsburg
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

The lounge at Mananga was equipped with a pool table. This became our daily pastime. To say Natalie was hooked would be an understatement. After a few days of nearly destroying the felt, Natalie became quite the little pool shark.

See more photos of us shooting pool!

The Next South Africa Entry: Kruger National Park
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

One of the more unique adventures was the visit to the next door neighbor’s crocodile farm. It was incredible, but also incredibly disturbing. My whole body was screaming get out of there. It is just not natural to be surrounded by 800 or so huge crocs. We were able to walk out across a rather flimsy pier-like thing about 20 feet above the crocs swarming below. The owner has a huge operation, the concrete breeding areas are the size of several football fields. The crocs basically swim and laize around, do their reproductive thing then crawl into sandy bays that are situated all around the pond and lay their eggs. An employee then goes in a grabs the eggs, apparently he is missing a few fingers. Then the eggs are transferred to the hatchery. Once hatched, the baby animals are moved again into a “nursery” – I think they said they have thousands. Those that are raised for their skins (purses, belts, shoe, etc.) are grown further and transferred yet again to ponds and then killed as “adolescents”. The adult crocs stay in their pens, some are as old as 100 yrs, and they keep laying eggs. We were offered the opportunity to watch them feed a recently killed impala to the crocs, but as appealing as that sounded we decided to leave that one to our imaginations. The owner told us that they only need to eat about once every three weeks. They are mainly fed chickens and chicken parts. All in all, a very nasty, but reportedly lucrative operation. Animal welfare laws are lax here and folks get into the oddest businesses. More photos of creepy crocs!

The Next South Africa Entry: Trouble with a Capital “P”
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

Our first “Real Safari” was at Edeni Private Game Reserve. It’s basically next door to where we stayed, meaning only a 30 minute drive. Jo dripped us off at the Edeni gate at 5pm where our driver was waiting to take us to the Lodge. The vehicle was a Landrover, with four rows of seats open to the elements. At the lodge we picked up two other passengers (a nice British couple on holiday without their 3 kids) and were immediately off on the drive. Leading us was our “tracker” who sat on the left side of the hood in a special seat. About a minute into the drive, around the bend and wow! An elephant in the middle of the road. The driver stopped the jeep and observed for awhile and realized it was a whole family (about 10), including a 3-week-old baby. They munched for awhile and then walked across the road directly in front of us. The “tracker”, a guy who sits on a rigged seat attached to the front of the vehicle could have reached out and touched them, they were that close! The matriarch and several of the older females were extremely protective of the little guy, keeping themselves tight around him and between us and him. Once they crossed the road, one of the elephants felled a 30ft tall tree, just crack and it was down.

Onward, we spotted impala, kudu, waterbuck, zebra and rhino. This was our first rhino spotting (it was a white rhino, quite docile compared to the black rhino). These animals are quite habituated to the jeeps and people observing them. But it’s very nice to see them in their habitat, with amazing space to roam.

These game reserves (a preserve has a much higher standard for certification, requiring the owner to remove all non-indigenous plants,etc., so most in this area settle for being a reserve) are quite amazing operations. They are huge (this one is 21,000 acres), but employ many trackers that scout the property for animal activity. They are all hooked up with fancy communication equipment, no walkie-talkies here. When a tracker spots something, all the jeeps are notified and then race to that particular location. Sometimes we arrived at the same time as other jeeps, but in the most part they did a good job of keeping the humans separated and so each jeep felt they were “discovering” the animals.

After spotting the rhino, word came in that lions had made a kill. So, we raced to the other side of the park – it took probably 45 minutes, high speed, over very bumpy dirt roads. Anticipation and nervousness was high. We got to the spot and could see nothing out of the ordinary. The tracker showed us a bloody spot on the side of the road. The driver then drove the jeep off-road, I can’t even describe how amazing- we were literally trail blazing over small trees, big bushes and high grasses. It was slow going and all I could think is we could never make a fast get away if we wanted to.

About 50 yards off the “main road” we saw some lion ears sticking up over the grass. My heart was racing! Natalie got a little anxious and I had to calm down to calm her down. Kept reminding myself that no tourist had been attacked (but then a little voice in my head said that I really didn’t know that for sure!). We kept going until we were about 6 feet away from 3 lions, a lioness (about 8yrs old) and her two cubs, 1 male and 1 female, about 1.5 yrs. old. They were laid out, clearly satiated. Talk about lazy. It was major effort for them to raise their heads to look at us, and the only reason they did was because they became slightly alarmed about this gigantic loud jeep crunching over brush moving towards them. They would get up, stagger a few feet and plop back down again. They looked to be in prime health, with beautiful coats and bright eyes. The kill (a large kudu) was hidden under some other brush. One of the cubs got up and walked behind our jeep (that got everyone’s attention) and back to munch on the kill (right on cue), we listened to all the crunching chewing sounds and could see part of the carcass.

It took us about 10 minutes to back up and manuever out of the brush, the lions calmly watching us the whole time. Apparently, the lions perceive the jeep and everyone in it as one unit – like a large elephant. If a person makes himself distinguishable, then that person is fair game. So, we all stayed seated!

After that, the sun was setting and we raced to a rock out-cropping and stopped for drinks and a snack. It was cool, but comfortable in long sleeve shirts. No bugs or mosquitoes. Would have no desire to visit here in the “summer” – all of the vegetation would make game viewing very difficult. We have defintely come at the best time, considering weather and game viewing.

Then we continued with our drive, by then it was dark. The tracker on the front of the jeep had a high-powered spot light and would sweep the light back and forth to spot animals. Their eyes would light up red. We saw several “bush-babies”, small monkey-squirrel type creatures that live in the trees – they would leap amazing distances. Never got a very good look, as they are quite shy. Spotted a genet (small cat) sitting fu-man-chu style on a stump. He looked at us for a brief moment and then slinked off, showing his very distinctive markings. Also, spotted a cerval, another nocturnal cat with very big ears. It was hunting something in the dried grass that we could hear scurrying around.

Then, headed back to camp for an exotic buffet dinner, outdoors. Local girls preformed traditional dances around the bonfire. Very primal beat and amazing grace these dancers have. Natalie, who was still recovering from her flu, slept through most of the night drive and the entire dinner, dancers, beating drums and all!

Click to see the Edeni Private Game Reserve Photos!

The Next South Africa Entry: The Crocodile “Factory”
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

The Mananga farm comprises about 1700 acres. On this land, loads of wild animals are free to roam. Almost every day we took a safari to see what we could see. Sometimes in Jo’s Truck, sometimes in the Landrover “game drive”, and sometimes on foot!

Mananga is not large enough to have “Big-5″ animals. they need much more space. For those non-hunters out there, “Big 5″ refers to the 5 animals in South Africa deemed most difficult to kill: Lion, Rhino, Elephant, Cape Buffalo and Leopard. Ironically, the animal most likely to kill you is not on that list: the hippo. Mananga is surrounded by Big-5 lodges, however. Tall electric fences keep all the animals where they’re supposed to be (except for those that can go over, under or through the fences: leopards, cheetah, monkeys, wart hogs, and who knows what else). These fences, miles of them, are religiously maintained.

On Mananga, our favorite animal was the giraffe. We saw them almost every day, but they remained stunning to watch, as they would stare at us for a while before gently striding away. The baby giraffe were very interested in us. Nyala, Kudu and Impala were common sights. Less common were the waterbuck, reedbuck and zebra.

The groundskeeper, Manuele, grew up in the bush, and was a great tracker. One morning he led me on a 4 hour walk around the farm. We attempted to stalk many animals. Oddly the animals were more wary of people on foot than in vehicles. I guess people walking sounds more like predators.

See the safari photos taken around Mananga!

The Next South Africa Entry: Edeni Game Drive and Dinner
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

We woke around 5am on our first day at the Lewis Farm (it was probably 5 days before we had completely adjusted to the 11 hour time difference). Because we drove for hours in the dark the night before, we had no idea where we were. Stumbling out of bed, we soon discovered that we were in the middle of nowhere! The farm, which is officially named The Mananga Game Lodge, covers 650 hectares (about 1700 acres), and is surrounded by other much larger game lodges. Miles and miles and miles of bush. The lowveld, they call it.

Situated on a bluff overlooking a river (dry at the time of year we visited), the house commands an amazing view. It is beautifully constructed, with large open spaces and a stunning thatched roof. Apparently a well-made thatched roof will last you 25 years. Who knew! We took over the upstairs portion of the house. Lots of space to spread out stuff. They are finishing up construction of a guest lodge nearby on the property. It’s build to accommodate groups of six or so. Luxury safari style.

Our own stay was luxurious as well. Our meals were provided by our host, Jo Lewis. The meals were diverse and delicious and we dined, every meal, outdoors on a patio, overlooking the bush. No bugs to speak of. September is the end of winter/early spring which is a dry season. The summer rains were due to start in a month or so.

We were eating our first breakfast when the groundskeeper, Manuele, yelled elephants! So, we ran out and saw a herd of about 20, with some little guys mixed in. They were far away, on the neighbors property across the river. But our first wild animal sighting! Natalie’s impression: “You told me we were going to get really close to the animals!”. We then spent some time arguing over a set of binoculars before settling back to down to finish our breakfast.

Around the house were several not-so-wild animals, which we quickly befriended. Three cats, a dog, a couple horses. Natalie and “Peanut”, a “bush-dog” (mix between weimeriner and bull terrier or something) became inseperable. Most interesting though was a rescued dieker (a small deer-like animal), named Bambi, which the Lewis’ had adopted from some neighbor that had rescued it as a baby. Jo has tried to encourage it to go back to the bush, but it likes to hang around the house. It can run up to 40mph and when it gets nervous it tents to ram people. Because of this they kept it in a large fenced area while we were visiting. It is a tiny thing, about the size of Jackson. Natalie loved to pet it and was very calm and gentle with it. We had to limit these visits however, because, being a young male, Bambi was attracted to Natalie and probably any other female creature close to his size. The land surrounding the house is full of animals. Basically every kind of wild animal you expect to see in South Africa that doesn’t eat you and a few that might (that don’t seem to be troubled by the electric fences). More on this later.

View the Lewis Farm Photos!

The Next South Africa Entry: Mananga – Safari on the Farm
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary

We left our house in RWC at 130pm on Monday, Sept 5, and arrived at the Lewis Farm on Wednesday, Sept 7 around 7pm. Our navigation through SFO International was smooth and easy. The folks with Virgin Air were great and checking in was a breeze, despite long lines. Our 10-hour flight to London was not that bad since we each had our own TV monitor with literally 50 first-rate movies and dozens of TV shows on demand. Natalie was in heaven with her kid shows. Even though this was an evening flight, no one got much sleep and we were zombies when we arrived London.

Natalie had gotten sick on Friday before we left and was still feverish on the flight so we decided to sleep during our 10 hour layover. After customs and transfers (that’s Natalie on the transfer bus, sitting as far away from us as possible) we got about 5 hours of sleep at the local Holiday Inn before having to head back to the airport.

Our flight out of London to Joburg was delayed an hour or so. We were dismayed to find the jet to Joburg was not as well equipped as our flight to London. This was a low point in our trip, as the rest of the passengers just turned off their lights and went to sleep (the flight departed 9pm London time). The 3 of us were restless and bored for 11 very long hours. And since we had slept in London, we were all very wide awake for the whole flight.

Then came 7 fog-filled hours at Joburg domestic airport. We had to keep our luggage with us since our layover was so long – the airline wouldn’t guarantee the safety of our luggage in the handling area for more than 2 hours. So we sat, slumped over our luggage, and waited for our last flight to Phalaborwa. Natalie and I managed to get about an hour or so of restless sleep on the airport benches.

We did not capture any photos until the last leg of our trip as our original intent was to create a video with Natalie narrating our trip. She wasn’t that interested in our idea and was feeling sick anyways, so we gave up and switched to still shots. Chris took some shots during our flight to Phalaborwa. The flight was short and smooth and we landed without incident.

Jo Lewis and her daughter Gwen were on-hand to pick us up for the 1.5 hour drive to the Lewis Farm. Natalie rode with Jo and Chris and I rode with Gwen, watching the sun set as we barrelled along an empty 2-lane highway. Very quickly, we transferred onto dirt roads, which were passable at high speeds. Then, once on the farm, it was a very bumpy road in pitch black.

Can’t remember what we did upon arrival- I’m sure Jo fed us and then we fell into bed. See more photos of our journey…

The Next South Africa Entry: Mananga – The Lewis Farm
The Whole Trip: South Africa – The Summary