Day 26: Look Who's Back

Hello everyone! I have safely returned from my Kruger adventure, and what an adventure it was! I'm going to do my best to summarize my experience without going into way too much detail, or else this post will turn into a novel. So here goes... My adventure started at 4:00 AM on Sunday morning with the pitter patter of kitty paws. This time I am not kidding. Surely, I thought, surely the cat is just chasing one of my porcupine quills or some other inanimate object. There is NO WAY there is a mouse in my room again. Alas, there was indeed a mouse in my room again and I had to go fetch poor Dane and make him try to get it back out. We (meaning he) were (was) unsuccessful in capturing the mouse, so it probably was a good thing I was going away for a couple of days and not having to sleep in that room with the uncaptured mouse about. Despite this bump in the morning, I was still ready for pickup at 5:15. Estelle picked me up and then we went and picked up Cinita, Pieter's sister. Then it was the road for about eight hours. We finally arrived at around one in the afternoon at the Phabeni Gate.

There was so much to see in Kruger that I could spend an entire year there and still not see enough. I had such an amazing experience there, yet I feel I have only explored a fraction of what this park had to offer. Nonetheless, in the short two days that we actually spent touring within the park, I was lucky enough to see lion, white rhino, buffalo, elephant, and leopard. That is all of the Big Five animals seen in two short days! I haven't even mentioned the birds we saw. Cinita has gotten me hooked on this birding thing. When you are driving in a park like Kruger all day, you are not going to see big game all the time. Birds, on the other hand, are always around and they are so much fun to spot and identify. Some of the special birds were Bateleurs, a Saddle-billed Stork, a Giant Eagle Owl, the Rollers, and the African Fish Eagle. But all of the birds, big and small, were so much fun to watch and photograph. I can't even imagine what I might have been able to see had I spent a week or two there...African Wild Dogs, Cheetahs, lions making a kill. The sights to see are endless, and it seemed like something phenomenal was waiting around every bend in the road.

Cape Buffalo

Elephants at Sunset Dam

White Rhino Crossing a Road

Leopard (!!!!!!!!)

Lion

Giant Eagle Owl

African Fish Eagle

Lilac-breasted Roller

Saddle-billed Stork with fish

At night, we stayed in these permanent tents at the Skukuza Camp that were actually very nice. They had two beds each, a fridge, outlets and lights. While I was sitting on the porch outside my tent (yes, there were porches on the tents), a warthog would stroll on up the street or a lion would roar. Hearing the lions roar at night rivals hearing the wolves howl at Yellowstone. It was incredible, beyond words to describe. The only complaint I really had was that I was living off of fries and grilled cheese sandwhiches, but that really is my own fault since I am a picky eater and a vegetarian. I found several things notable about my trip to Kruger:
1: WE SAW A LEOPARD. The mantra about leopards is "...and you'll be really, really lucky to see a leopard". On Monday morning, we drove past a bunch of cars stopped on the side of the road because a leopard had been spotted. The leopard was nowhere to be seen, however, and after about half an hour of fruitless searching, we moved on. On the way back to camp, we stopped at the same place for kicks and giggles. Lo and behold, I spotted the leopard chilling out in the undergrowth! We were the only ones there and had the boy all to ourselves. We were all giddy and so incredibly excited. In fact, it was one of the most exciting moments of my life, no joke.
2. Monkeys are really horny. I don't know if it's breeding season or if monkeys just like to have a good time, but there were several instances where the baboons would go at it right in the middle of the road. The vervet monkeys were a little more modest, keeping their business to the trees, at least.

3. Birding is a lot of fun. Yet another fact to add to my nerd resume.
4. I was super excited to see three black-backed jackals. I didn't get to see any Wild Dog or Spotted Hyena, so the jackals had to fill in for my canine fix.



5. I think I had the best meal of my entire life on Tuesday night, when we ate at a South African homestyle cooking resturaunt. This may be actual fact or may be due to the fact that I had been living off of fast food for the last few days, but the butterfish with rice and pumpkin and spinach was so so so so good. I am getting hungry just thinking about it.
6. On the way home from Kruger, we were passing through all of these beautiful mountains. It just made it even more clear that I was only getting a small sampler of what this country has to offer. Also, we stopped at a small craft market on the side of the road while passing through these mountains. Before I got out of the bakkie, Estelle warned me that the stall workers would "descend" on me. I laughed it off and got out of the car. Estelle was right. The women who worked these little stands surrounded me, telling me to visit her store, that she had the lowest prices, or that she had the best goods. It was overwhelming, to be sure. One woman pointed to a small baby and said that she needed to buy food so he didn't go hungry. How do you say no to that? Half of you are probably agreeing, the other half are probably thinking I'm really niave for falling for a sob story. I don't know what to think. I did manage to leave with R50 still in my wallet. That's pretty good, considering that I have such a hard time saying no to people.

Now I am back at the Dell, chilling with the cheetahs. It is hard to believe I only have two full days left with them. I have grown so accustomed to the cheetahs that I think I've begun to take them for granted. It is now normal to give a bone to a cheetah, or hear the low purr of Jemima or the squeaky chirp of Finley. Penny's snarls and spats have even started to seem more like smiles (not really). I will go through cheetah withdrawal when I get home. No offense Tacobob and Nachosan, but you guys are going to look rather puny when I get back home.

Well, I think I've managed to write the most important things down.

See you soon,
Taylor