Well our trip didn’t start out how we had put into the 10 months of planning. At the eleventh hour, that is, one hour before we had planned to leave home to catch a plane the next day in Seattle, our 17 year old decides he doesn’t want to go. There was a bit of a heated discussion as you can imagine. But in the end instead of dragging him, clawing, tooth and nail, and putting up with the attitude on the 30 hour trip we were about to undertake, we made arrangements to leave him behind. This was to be a father/son hunt. Hopefully, someday he grows up to realize what his decision meant to the family and I, and just what he had missed out on. Now was not the time to get into it, so the decision to leave him home was made. The house and pets were looked after, and the neighbours were informed we'd be away. That done, we jumped in the car and headed out.
We arrived in Seattle and settled into our room for the night. After a meal out, knowing we had to be at the airport at 7:00, to go through security, etc., as we were connecting with an International flight in San Francisco to Amsterdam, we hit the sack early. Our first flight was delayed due to air traffic in San Francisco, by an hour. Knowing it was going to be tight, but thinking we had time, we hastily made our way to the International terminal in San Francisco. We found our check in terminal, but were informed that the gate closed at 1:00 and we were 15 min late so were denied our flight. Now we had to go through the airlines to try and change all our connecting flights to get us to South Africa. The best we could was a flight to Atlanta the next day, then direct to Johannesburg. The worst part was that our luggage had made our missed flight, so was on its way to Amsterdam. Because my wife had made connecting flights, car rentals and accommodations in S. Africa, all had to be contacted and rearranged, with a 9 hour time change, it was a royal pain in the ass. All changes were made, so we thought we would just pick up our luggage in Johannesburg, stay over to make our connection and all would be good. NOT! Apparently our luggage was pulled at Amsterdam and we carried on to S Africa. We made a baggage claim in Johannesburg with our accommodations and itinerary, so they could forward it on to us when it arrived. We then caught a small plane to Krueger International Airport, to start our adventure.
We arrived at the Krueger International Airport to pick up a car and as leaving the airport we saw three Impala. Off to a good start. Our first week in S. Africa was to be spent in Krueger National Park on a self driven photography safari. We made our way north to the Berg-en-Dal Rest Camp, 9km within Krueger, from the Malelane gate, in the Mpumalanga province of S. Africa. Before getting into camp, we saw about 20 Hippo as we crossed the bridge into the park, a Kudu cow along the road, a herd of cape buffalo, maybe a dozen, a couple giraffe, a couple warthogs and a hyena, all just an hour before dark.
Pull your head out of your Ass
long enough to see how stupid you look!!!!!
The camp is quite cool, with a restaurant and store and a bunch of small brick chalets that have kitchenettes and two bedrooms. A Laundromat, which could be a life saver for those with no luggage.
The next morning it was raining lightly, but we headed out in the comfort of our rental car. We travelled a back road to a watering hole and come across numerous Impala and several Leopard Tortoises. With nothing at the watering hole we carried on across country to meet the main road. As we crested a hill I spotted what I believe to by a Klipspinger, standing on a rock formation. There turned out to be two and they bounce around on the rocks about as easily as a Bighorn. It was not until we hit the main road that the game seemed to make their presence known.
Well we were into day 3 and still have only the cloths we had on and a change of clothes in a carry on. All my hunting clothes and everyone’s clothes were out there somewhere. We had bought a few to get by, but our safari is on Monday and we had to leave Kruger National Park on Saturday to make our way South to Port Elizabeth to make our safari connection on the 9th. I thought I may have to scramble to find something suitable to hunt in on the way.
Over the next couple days we encountered almost all the many different species that Africa has to offer. The photo opportunities were many and it was very cool to get this close to many different animals in their natural habitat. The only thing that seemed weird was as it is driving through Jasper. The animals are so used to seeing vehicles that they really paid little attention to you. Only the predators were scarce and tough to catch in the open. One of the most interesting things we came across was a giraffe chewing on what appeared to be the shoulder blade of a small mammal. He gummed it for several minutes before dropping it and awkwardly bending over to pick it up again. I assume this was for the mineral content of the bone. I do have a short video of it with the shoulder blade.
Pull your head out of your Ass
long enough to see how stupid you look!!!!!
In the evenings, as the was no internet, television, it was great just to sit back and have a drink, just talk about the day and maybe bbq a few Gembo skewers over the Braai. They taste awesome by the way. We also had Wildebeest t-bones on the grill
Pull your head out of your Ass
long enough to see how stupid you look!!!!!
Reply With Quote
