This past weekend four of us went to Kruger National Park, in Northeastern South Africa, which was an ambitious road trip from Lesotho, especially given that we had only one full day to spend there. But it was undoubtedly worth it. Kruger is Africa’s most famous wildlife reserve, and it’s easy to see why. Roughly the size of Portugal, it’s filled with the big five of lions leopards, elephants, rhinoceri, and cape buffaloes, in addition to countless giraffes, hippopotami, warthogs, kudus, impalas, and a lot of other animals I couldn’t begin to name. We left early Friday morning for the 10 hour drive through South Africa, and aside from a 1.5 hour wait at the maddeningly inefficient border crossing from Lesotho, the trip was fairly uneventful. I expected it to be more difficult to get there given the convoluted route we had to take, but with a good South African road atlas and an attentive navigator, it was pretty easy.
We had booked a lodge just outside the park, and it turned out to be fantastic. Two stories, four bedrooms, wet bar upstairs, beautiful terrace, and a price that made you triple check the listing when you saw the place. We woke up early (4:15am) again Saturday and took an all day safari in a jeep through much of Southern Kruger with a fantastic guide named Heinrich, recommended to us by the guy who owned the lodge where we were staying. We spent the day in an open jeep, scouring the bush and open savannah for animals, and saw essentially everything but a leopard or cheetah. Though it was supposed to only go until 1 or 2pm, Heinrich went two hours over to take us to a spot where a group of lions often hang out, and the gamble paid off when we were able to see a pair of lionesses and two young males lounging in the shade. We were dropped off back at our lodge at 4:00pm just in time to get in our car and head back inside the park for a night safari, which was less personal and in a bigger jeep, but during which we saw a number of elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and buffalo right in our grills.
After scrutinizing the landscape all day for animals that have evolved to blend into their surroundings, I began to see creatures everywhere I looked. The view from the moving jeep was a motion picture: dry driftwood would morph into a giraffe with its head craned; from the tall grass would emerge a herd of zebras; a mound of dirt in the distance would become a lumbering rhinoceros. Heinrich, with eyes like a hawk, saw virtually everything, and was masterful at picking out for us the subtlest movements in the peripheries.
The park was unusually dry, and so normally rushing rivers were left only as parched beds of sand; and barren, leafless branches replaced the usually lush, green foliage. It did make spotting animals easier, especially since they all had to go at some point to one of the few remaining, well stocked watering holes. For the same reason, it made hunting easier for the predators, as was evident by the halting, cautious way the impalas, especially, would gingerly approach the exposed watering holes for a drink. For their sake, I hope it rains soon.
So after 14 hours of safari on Saturday, we went to bed early and slept in Sunday morning, then left after a big breakfast for the drive back. We went back through Swaziland, earning the added passport stamp by traversing this beautiful, mountainous, and greener (though still afflicted by the drought) land filled with acres of pine trees, rolling hills, and hairpin turns. We made good time back to Lesotho, and the border crossing back was painless.
Back in Maseru, we dropped off Dan, a medical student from Virginia who’s also been working here, and headed down the mountain on the road back towards our cottage. Here we were forced to stop by a pair of cars that were at a standstill in front of us, and were summarily greeted by a pair of men with guns in their hand who gesticulated for us to pull over to the side of the road. Convinced we were about to get mugged and perhaps carjacked, we did as we were told. A third man, who spoke English, came up to us at that point and began explaining that he was a policeman (a dubious claim, as he was not wearing a uniform, and there was no police car in sight), a man had just had his car hijacked there moments ago, and they were stopping people to check them. Then, somewhat inexplicably, after exchanging a few more words, he waved us through and let us go. I’m still not convinced they were really cops, but I am also at a loss to explain why he let us go without mugging us if he wasn’t. I suppose it’ll remain a mystery, but in any case we were pleased with the outcome, and it capped a weekend of adventure.
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