South Africa 🇿🇦: The Kruger, and Johannesburg

We spent a week in South Africa 🇿🇦, mainly to go to Kruger National Park, where we stayed for five nights in nice little huts similar to the yurts in Canadian National Parks, but with bathrooms and kitchenettes. There were also excellent restaurants at every site. The park is 20,000 square km (that’s about four Prince Edward Islands)! The campsites are connected by paved roads, so every day we’d get up early, pack up, and drive our rented SUV for hours to the next camp, and look for wildlife. 

We drove and drove through beautiful and sometimes harsh-looking landscapes, dry and hot, seeking the animals. It was totally exhilarating to see gigantic elephants up close, in the wild, and quite shocking to see herds of forty or fifty of them. 🐘We saw dazzles of zebras by the hundreds, flipping their tales incessantly, and many alert ungulates mingling — kudus, impalas, wildebeest.  🦓🦌Brooding buffalos will stare you down for a joke. 🐃The big cats were definitely the most difficult to see, but we were lucky enough to see five cheetahs cross the road right in front of us, one leopard extremely well camouflaged in the grass, and four sleeping lions a few meters from the road. 🐆🦁We saw a few rhinos very close to the road, sadly still highly in danger of poaching. 🦏There were also many hippos in the water and they’re quite daunting. 🦛🦛

Sometimes warthogs and hyenas get put on the park’s homely list, but they are adorable, especially the babies. 🐗Baboons have an edgy silliness. Giraffes just seem like sweethearts, and we quoted the Teen Titans « Leg Day » episode whenever we saw them (Look-a-dem legs! Look at them legs — they’re amazing!). 🦒🦵🏽🦵🏽

We were in and out of the city of Johannesburg quickly (2 nights at each end). Every South African we talked to was kind and helpful, and without fail, they wished us a great stay, and reminded us to keep our wits about us, lock everything, and be vigilant. Joburg is a vibrant, sophisticated city, but with a traumatic colonial history, vast economic disparity, and a dangerously high crime rate. We managed to go to Nelson Mandela Square, a plaza connected to a fancy mall. Accommodations and food were of high quality at very affordable prices by Canadian standards. I hope South Africa becomes more stable, that its living conditions improve, and that more people can visit this amazing place safely. 🖤