Unlike Etosha and Chobe National Parks, Kruger has a horrendously early start for the day to see the animals. Wake up calls begin at 5am and when you get woken up with a knock at your door six minutes earlier than the scheduled wake up call, you definitely feel robbed.
Kruger has private game reserves which allows the safari trucks to go off road and get really close to the animals which is exciting and scary all at the same time. We saw 4 of the big 5 with the leopard proving elusive, although we did see cheetahs and they have spots so I have decided I can substitute the cheetah for the Leopard. Purists may not agree with the substitution. The big 5 are animals where if you came across them in the wild, you have 50% chance of survival.
At one point, the driver put us right in the middle of a buffalo pack and one wasn't that thrilled and I wasn't too thrilled being so close to those horns. The buffalo eventually decided it was too hot to worry about us and lay back down with the others.
When I first arrived in South Africa, I read a news article about a black rhino that charged a vehicle at Kruger and hurt some tourists. I got to see that cranky rhino from a distance fortunately. Later on , the same rhino tried to charge our vehicle and surprisingly all we needed to do was move the car forward two metres and it left us alone. The guide suspects the rhino always likes a clear path so that small movement forward was enough to keep the rhino happy. My heart skipped a beat as I offered to swap seats with people on the other side of the truck when I saw a charging black the rhino. Amazingly no one accepted my offer of a seat swap.
I was glad no one accepted the seat swap when we drove through trees, parked in massive spider webs only a metre from a lion. It was a close call as to what was scarier, the lion or the spiders. While the guide has a rifle, I didn't believe he could remove it from its cover, take aim and shoot before the lion devoured someone.
The cheetah breeding centre was certainly an education and I still find it amusing to watch an orphaned Zebra follow a sheep around. A sheep is used for orphaned animals as they are very maternal, a herd animal and stupid enough to not realise it is not a sheep following them. The cheetah breeding program removes the cubs away from the mother after 5 months to disattach and become self sufficient, a process which takes approximately two weeks to overcome. Many of the animals have been abandoned by either their herd or the circus and some will never be able to survive in the wild but at least they have a home where they are treated well.
Now this trip is over I need to start thinking about where I go to next. Croatia, Greece, burma who knows we will all have to wait and see.
Wishing everyone a great 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment