Category: Africa

Just a bit north from the coastline of the Eastern Cape, you’ll find a game park called Addo National Elephant Park. While it boasts of the Big Seven (adding the Southern Right Whale and the Great White Shark, which can be found in the park’s small coastal section, to the typical Big Five), it’s named what it is named for a good reason: elephants abound. After first spotting a solitary bull male elephant casually strolling down the road and passing by our car so close that I could have reached out and touched him (or, seeing as he was absolutely enormous, I probably could have driven our car under him!), we arrived at a watering hole, where we happily found a large family group of about 20 elephants, ranging from teensy baby elephants to full-grown adults.

Having just recently read a National Geographic article about elephants and the way they interact in their groups (September 2008 edition, I believe), we were very content to just sit and observe the elephants. We watched as one elephant stood watch, as the tiniest baby elephant hid entirely underneath her mother, as multiple elephants splashed in the water, and as a couple of juveniles playfully trunk wrestled. We heard them grunt and bellow and even trumpet. It was cool.

But that was just the beginning. Apparently an elephant meeting was scheduled for the day at this watering hole, because just after noon, a parade of elephants lead out from the trees, down the hill, and to the watering hole. It was a seemingly endless parade, elephant after elephant, one behind the other, dust flying, and the grey of elephants poking out over the trees for as far as we could see. By parade’s end, probably somewhere around 50 or so more elephants had peacefully joined the approximately 20 already there. It was incredible.

We observed for nearly an hour before finally pulling ourselves away. At that point, one of the groups was beginning to depart, but plenty of elephants were still joyfully frolicking in the water.

On the rest of our drive, we spotted a few other animals, some we’d seen before (zebras, kudus, leopard tortoises, ostriches, black-backed jackals), and some that were new to us (meercats, as well as the dung beetle, which, by the way, has right of way in the park, so please don’t run over the poo!).

We also found another watering hole, where another group of elephants was cooling off. Though not as numerous as the group at the first hole, they were still fun to watch. Somehow it never gets old. Even though I have now, at this point, seen literally hundreds of elephants in the wild, I don’t tire of them. They truly are magnificent creatures.

During the era of Apartheid, blacks in South Africa were forced to move from white areas into designated black areas, which came to be known as townships. The townships were crowded and poor, and the people, many of whom had come from nice homes and stable lives, were left to live in squalid and often hopeless conditions. (Though, unfortunately, many also lived difficult lives prior to Apartheid as segregation and repression were not new ideas; simply more strictly enforced ideas.) Pass laws required blacks to carry passes designating when they could enter white areas and for how long they could stay. For these people, who could rarely find work, who were not given good education, who were forcefully kept out of society, the future—and the present—was a bleak one.

With the end of Apartheid, change came to Africa, but as with all such dramatic changes, it’s realities came slowly. Today, nearly two decades into the “new” South Africa, many blacks still live in townships. Some still live there, despite opportunities to move elsewhere, because it is now “home;” many others still live there because they, practically speaking, have no other options. For those visiting South Africa, a tour through a township is almost a must, an opportunity to see firsthand how the majority of South Africans live. Soweto, the famous township in Johannesburg where the uprisings that eventually led to the end of Apartheid began, is the most popular place for a tour.

We, while interested in visiting Soweto, were also a bit turned off by the info we’d seen on the tours, as we felt it might feel too much as if we were treating the people and their neighborhood as a sort of “zoo.” You know, a big group of probably all white people, walking around, taking photos, and gawking. But we did want a chance to see a township and to learn more about life there. As luck would have it, we literally ran into the perfect opportunity. While walking down the streets of Graaff-Reinet, a man said hello and stopped to talk to us, asking about us, telling us about himself, and discussing the politics of the day (Presidential elections in South Africa are April 22, and the president of the ANC, the party of Mandela, was just that morning cleared of charges of corruption, though it seems he was probably quite guilty.).In the course of conversation, we learned that he was the guy listed in the Lonely Planet who gave excellent tours of the Umasizake township outside Graaff-Reinet. It seemed like fate, so we set up a tour with him.

It ended up being an excellent opportunity. It was just Jeff and I with our guide, Xolile Speelman, and he treated us like friends, talking to us with complete honesty. He didn’t sugarcoat life in the townships, but he didn’t dramatize it either. He didn’t make the people into martyrs, and he didn’t make them into sinners. He talked of their challenges (both others-imposed and self-imposed) and their successes. And being a popular guy in the neighborhood, Xolile (pronounced with a clicking sound as many of the words of the Xhosa people are) introduced us to many people, quite a few of whom asked us to take their photos (so that we could send copies to Xolile and he could pass them on, as many of these people don’t really ever get an opportunity to own a photo of themselves). We met an older gentleman out with his wife, women working in their yards doing laundry and preparing food (each house has water and electricity provided by the government), and a lot of children, a bunch who hammed for us while wearing Jeff’s sunglasses.

We also were able to get a close look at some of the houses, which ranged from shanties of discarded wood, cardbood, and tin roofs, to nice brick homes.

We saw the schools, which are getting better, but are still not great due to the past inequality in training of teachers as well as distribution of resources. We visited a clinic, where free health care is available to the population, of which 14% is known to have HIV/AIDS. But as we learned that number is probably low, because most people don’t get tested, and unfortunately the disease is still highly stigmatized (more on this in a later post). We talked about international aid and development, politics and voting, corruption and crime, employment opportunities and government handouts, the ups and downs of affirmative action, and the problems of poverty. It was eye-opening, interesting, and highly educational. We left the tour feeling as if we’d gotten a true insiders look at life in an African township, and were not left at all with the feeling that we’d imposed or treated the people as a tourist attraction. So if you’re ever in the area and want to understand a bit better how a huge portion of the population lives, look up Xolile (Irhafu Tours in the Lonely Planet).

When we were first charting our course through South Africa, we asked at our hostel in Johannesburg whether the Karoo, an arid area that composes over 40% of South Africa, was worth a visit. The response: “Only if you like a whole lot of nothing.”

Well, apparently, we love nothing, as we bucked the advice, headed into the Karoo, and then stayed longer than we planned. Though on the surface it can easily seem like vast emptiness, it’s actually not at all barren, and the seeming endlessness of it all only makes its beauty more striking. Plains stretch out, flat as can be, until a mountain jumps up from the ground. Purple wildflowers break up a sea of golden grass. The sky is big and brilliant and blue, at least until sunset when it glows every shade of red, silhouetting the mountains and making you wonder if this is what heaven looks like.

If you love a sense of wide open space, it’s a perfect place. Mountain Zebra National Park, though not highly visited and not especially packed with game, is amazing. We didn’t see wildlife as up close and personal as we did in most of the other parks, but instead we saw them framed against magnificent scenery. It wasn’t just about the animals; it was the entire scope of life in the wild in Africa.

And the Valley of Desolation, inside Cambedoo National Park, left us feeling not desolate, but awed. Huge dolomite formations, some one hundred meters high, jut from the ground, while behind them the land stretches seemingly empty until the mountains on the horizon. Both Jeff and I were reminded of Meteora in Greece. To us, there’s something majestic about a place so stark yet so beautiful.

Adding to the wonder of the whole place is the fact that amidst all this natural beauty and so-called “nothingness,” there’s also a really fabulous town, Graaf-Reinet, the fourth oldest town in South Africa. It’s quaint, with a slew of Cape Dutch homes that have made the national registry, house museums, a tasty farmer’s co-op store, and a grand church. It’s also exceptionally friendly, as people said hello on the streets and shop owners took the time to ask where we were from and tell us about themselves or about all their favorite places in the U.S. We were so smitten that what was supposed to be a two-hour morning visit turned into a two-night stay.

For us, that’s the beauty of road trips: finding the unexpected and discovering that one person’s nothing might just be someone else’s everything.

A big draw of South Africa is its long coastlines. The Indian Ocean waters are warm, the sea life plentiful, the sun hot and the beaches beautiful and sandy. With well marketed names like the Wild Coast, the Elephant Coast, the Garden Coast and the Shipwreck Coast all willing to accomodate you quite comfortably, South Africa wants you to go spend some time at the beach.

So we tried. We tried hard. Multiple places. We headed to Sodwano Bay and Cape Vidal in St. Lucia Wetland Park (along the Elephant Coast). We stopped at Buccaneer’s Backpackers, widely regarded as one of the best backpackers in the country (along the Wild Coast). And we lasted all of two nights (and three half days) in total at all of them.

It’s not that they weren’t lovely beaches. Both cape Vidal and Sodwano Bay had great snorkeling and beautiful tide pools to go along with warm, lazy water in protected “coves.” It’s hard to imagine a more beautiful beach than Cintsa (where Buccaneer’s is), where the backpackers overlooks an estuary separated from the ocean by an island of sand an green hills on either side. These are all lovely places to lose yourself and do nothing for a day or ten. As many a traveler we met has commented, “we spent five days at (insert beach town here), but I can’t think of anything we actually did.”

But for some reason, we have the hardest time losing ourselves in doing nothing. I am perfectly content to spend half an hour on the beach laying in the sun. But then I am looking for something to do. I try snorkeling, I don’t see much. The walk around the tide pools can captivate me for an hour or so. But then, I’m done. I made it almost three hours. And I am much more patient than Theresa. Usually by this time she’s halfway to the car ready to go.

We lasted all of an hour of daylight at Buccaneer’s. We arrived an hour before sunset, walked down to the beach, enjoyed the sunset, dipped our feet in the water and realized it was not nearly as warm as the St. Lucia area. The next morning we woke up to grey skies, decided it was pointless to stay at a cool water beach on a grey day, and hightailed it.

It’s not really that we can’t spend time at the beach, its just that we need things to do at the beach, we need to be able to be active. There needs to be a good surf for body boarding. There needs to some toys to play with, be they footballs or frisbees or what have you. Stuff to build sand castles with. Great snorkeling. A book to read, but that only goes so far. We just can’t be passive beach goers and sit and soak up sun all day.

I know, it’s a great shame and we should start a fund to help rid ourselves of this disorder. We’re just gonna have to try again in Mozambique. And Tanzania. And Thailand. Hopefully, with enough practice, we’ll be able to break our habits and enjoy a completely lazy day at the beach.

(Editor’s Note: The “invisible hand” is back with the first of four posts. There will be one new post a day for the next four days, including today.  So please to check back and leave your comments. The “invisible hand” was able to chat with Theresa for a few minutes and she said things are good as they move their way through Africa.)

For those of you who like pictures:

4 Lions (3 trying to hunt us while we ate at an open picnic area!)

6 Rhinos

1 Black Mamba (sorry, it was too fast for a picture … but its leap into the air next to our car still haunts our nightmares)

A Family of Hyenas

1 Tortoise

Countless:
Elephants

Water Buffalo

Zebras

Giraffes

Warthogs

Hippos

Crocodiles

Wildebeests

Baboons

Ostriches

Impalas

Kudu

Lots of Birds

In our four days of driving around, the only big mammals we missed (that we cared to see …): Leopards and Cheetahs. It’s ok though, I get the feeling we may have a chance or two more before we leave to take care of this.

So smack at the top of your dream trips list is an African safari, yet whenever you flip through whatever travel magazine it is you subscribe to and see the prices listed for safaris, you whistle through your teeth, take a deep breath, and then renew your membership to the local zoo. Sure, seeing lions, zebras, elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and other creatures roaming freely across the plains of Africa would be awesome, but you just can’t justify throwing a huge chunk of your retirement fund or a year of your child’s college tuition at one trip, whether or not it’s the trip of a lifetime.

Fortunately, you don’t have to bankrupt yourself to make your dream trip a reality. Despite the fact that no one ever says so, going on safari doesn’t have to cost your life’s savings. In fact, it can be downright affordable. At South Africa’s Kruger National Park, one of the best known wildlife parks in the world, you can live out your safari dreams on a backpacker’s budget.

Here’s how to do it.

1. Book a flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.
Sure this part won’t be cheap, but be on the lookout for good deals. Don’t worry about time of year and all that rainy season/dry season nonsense. For instance, March, which is in the South African autumn, is an excellent time to go. Technically it’s still the rainy season, but on our visit, we didn’t see a single drop of rain. We also didn’t see the hordes of people that the park welcomes come winter. Everything is green, which some say makes animals harder to spot, but we managed to see everything from lions to rhinos to hyenas to warthogs. So harder? Maybe. But hard? Not at all.

(Upgrade option: Go first class. It’s a long way to South Africa!)

2. Rent a car.
Though plenty of safari outfitters will gladly let you pay them scads of money for the pleasure of having them driving you through the park, the beauty of Kruger is that it’s a self-drive facility. You are free to act as your own guide using your own car. Even better is the fact that all the roads are accessible to even the wimpiest 2WD, so book the cheapest car on offer (you don’t need AC when your windows are down the whole time so you can snap photos!) and call it good. We found the best deal through Around About Cars (www.aroundaboutcars.com), with a daily rate of $25.

(Upgrade option: Go ahead and get the 4WD if riding in a VW or Kia doesn’t feel safari enough for you.)

3. Pack your bags.
You don’t need much–a couple of pairs of comfy clothes (there are laundry sites in Kruger, which cost about $1 for wash and $1 for dry, so no need to over pack), a good pair of shoes in case you plan to do any of the walks offered by park guides, a camera with lots of digital memory, and a good pair of binoculars. A field guide to animals of South Africa is a nice addition. Pick one up at home or upon arrival. You’ll also want to buy the park map, which shows not only the roads and camps but also depicts the varying habitats and what animals you’re likely to find in each area.

(Upgrade option: Splurge on a nice zoom for your camera. Though you’ll encounter many animals at distances so small that any point-and-shoot will be able to capture their images, you’ll need a quality zoom to photograph some of the more elusive animals.)

4. Land in Johannesburg, pick up your car, and head to the nearest Checkers Supermarket.
The basic Checkers Supermarket is where you’ll stock up for your self-catered safari. Camping is the way to go in Kruger. It’s the most economical option, and hey, this is a safari, after all. Being close to nature is part of the deal. If you didn’t bring your camping supplies from home, you’ll want to get what you need at Checkers: a tent, sleeping mats, sleeping bags, a pot and pan, and a dish soap and sponge. Don’t worry; it’s cheap. The tent, at about 300 rand, will be the big purchase. While you’re there, pick up a cooler and some groceries for picnic lunches and a dinner or two, should you wish to cook.

(Upgrade option: Splurge on the air mattress. Your back will thank you for spending the extra 200 rand.)

5. Hit the road, destination Kruger National Park.
At a distance of 480 kilometers from Johannesburg, Kruger National Park can be reached in a day’s drive. The trick is deciding which of the many gates to enter the park from. My suggestion: head north, entering at Phalabora, and work your way south. The north is home to large populations of elephants, giraffes, zebras, and other easy-to-spot animals, so rewards will come quick and easy. Once you’ve gotten into your safari groove, make your way south, where, with patience and a bit of luck, you’ll locate lions, leopards, cheetahs, and rhinos.

(Upgrade option: With an extra day or two, make a stop at Blyde River Canyon, the third largest canyon in the world, on your way to the park.)

6. Pay your admission and enter the park.
At just 140 rand per day, admission to Kruger National Park is probably cheaper than admission to your local zoo! Seriously, that’s all it costs to enter into over 2.2 million hectares of wild lands filled with wild animals. Gate opening times vary depending on the time of year, but aim to arrive as early as possible for your best chance at seeing animals.

(Upgrade option: Opt for the Wild Card if you plan to spend more than six nights in the park or will be having an extended holiday in South Africa and visiting other parks. Good at all of South Africa’s national parks for one year from purchase, the Wild Card is an excellent deal at 1640 rand for a couple or 900 rand for an individual.)

7. Spend all day driving through Kruger.
With a park map in hand, pick your path based on the habitats and likely inhabitants that interest you most. Mix the paved roads with the gravel roads (all 2WD accessible), but don’t overestimate what you can cover in a day. You won’t be moving very fast as you stop to search for animals and snap photos. Picnic spots located throughout the park allow you to refuel without having to return to camp.

(Upgrade option: Spend part of a day or evening on one of the guided tours offered by the park. Options include morning and evening walks and sunrise, sunset, and night drives. At between 120 rand and 270 rand per person, the tours a good deal. To guarantee a spot, you’ll want to book ahead, especially for the tours leaving from the camps and gates in the south.)

8. Check into your overnight accommodations.
If you plan on camping, there’s no need, except during highest holiday season, to book a spot in advance, so roll into whatever camp is closest as gate-closing time nears and hand over 130 rand to secure a piece of land for pitching your tent. If you’re worried about roughing it, ease your mind. The campgrounds here have nice, clean bathrooms with flush toilets and hot showers; communal kitchen areas with electric burners, sinks, and hot water heaters; and grill areas. Some even have pools. You will also have access to the camp shops, where you can buy any food items you’ve forgotten or run out of, cleaning supplies, and souvenirs. If you don’t feel like cooking, opt for the camp restaurant, where you can enjoy a multi-course dinner for 135 rand. The bigger camps also have delis, where burgers and the like go for about 35 rand.

(Upgrade option: Skip the tent and reserve lodging at the campgrounds. Basic rondavels, which share bathrooms and kitchen facilities with the campground, start at 275 rand, and chalets with private facilities start at 640 rand. Make reservations in advance for any non-campground lodging.)

9. Repeat steps seven and eight to your heart’s content.
Stay until you see all of the Big Five (elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhinoceros). Or you’ve counted over 100 elephants. Or you’ve witnessed a kill. At Kruger, every day’s an adventure, and you never know what the sunrise might bring.