Kruger Park - From Antelope to Zebra!

After a couple days in Johannesburg, we rented a car and embarked on the 6 hour drive to Kruger National Park, in the far northeast corner of South Africa. Driving on the left side of the road took a while to get used to, but we managed. The main mistake we kept making was turning on the windshield wipers each time we meant to turn on the turn signals! All said and done, we spent about a day and a half in total in the park; far too short a time to take in all the sights. 

En route, we stopped at the Blyde River Canyon. By some measures, this is one of the biggest canyons in the world, and the scenery was spectacular. Unfortunately, many farmers nearby were burning their fields before planting so there was a lot of haze. We still had some good views down to the bottom of the canyon.

Roads were generally good, but watch out for cattle!

Blyde River Canyon.

Don't step backwards!

Left-hand side of the road driving is scary at first, but you get used to it.

We're here! We went in the Orpen Gate and out the Paul Kruger Gate.

At over 7,500 square miles, Kruger National Park is nearly the size of New Jersey. All accommodations inside Kruger are confined to restcamps, which are surrounded by electric fences. Gates to the camps close at a set time just before sunset, and you must be inside for the night before the gates close, because it's dangerous to be outside at night.

We reserved a little bungalow at Satara Restcamp, in an area of the park with large concentrations of prey animals in the hopes we'd see a lion. The park is really accessible. You can easily drive your own vehicle around, as there are several main paved roads. Despite being in a malaria area, we didn't see many mosquitoes, and spent most of our time in the air-conditioned car driving around the park.

Even though we drove for multiple hours each day, our route (the orange line) only traversed a small park of this huge national park.

It's not the Ritz, but it'll do for two nights, and it has AC!

David is ready for Kruger! This is one of the few places where it's safe to get out of your car.

When we arrived we weren't sure how much wildlife we'd see. We've been to state and national parks in the USA, and usually you'll see a few animals here and there but sometimes nothing at all. Within 500 meters of the gate to Kruger we were treated to a small group of zebra. The 50km drive to the restcamp was a veritable Noah's Ark of antelopes, giraffes, zebra, baboons, etc... Kruger Park is amazing! Here's a typical view of the wildlife, as seen from the truck taking us to our guided walk:

And a sampling of some of the different animals we saw over the course of our stay:

A cute little vervet monkey.

An adorable common duiker.

Impala. These guys were everywhere! We probably saw a thousand of them.

The zebra were majestic, but we heard they're mean.

A zebra family.

Zebra were a relatively common sight in the park.

Giraffe with bonus ox pecker!

A very large giraffe. You can tell he's a bit older because his spots are dark.

Giraffes have impressive necks.

Another huge giraffe.

Giraffes have scary faces!

Buffalo crossing the road. We saw a herd of about 100 of them.

Buffalo...always so serious looking. Or maybe they're just bored?

Big herd of Buffalo.

Our first elephant sighting was at night near our restcamp (viewed through the electric fence).

We saw many more elephants the next day. These are getting some water.

Elephant with bonus ostrich in the background!

Elephant's are HUGE!

Elephants seen from the Oliphants Rest Camp. They congregate in the Oliphants River to cool off in the afternoon.

Another elephant in the tall grass. They're beautiful creatures.

Waterbuck. These guys were also all over the park. You can ID them because their rear-ends look like white toilet seats.

Baboon with her baby.

Baboons hanging out.

Another baboon with a baby.

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill. There were lots of different species of hornbill in the park, and we spotted a few.

Ostriches aren't common in the park, so we were lucky to see a couple!

Kudu. Their stripes are unique like a fingerprint. Their horns grow an additional twist each year.

Hippos taking a siesta after a long night of grazing.

Hippo pod hanging out in the water.

Some wildebeest resting.

Crocodile on a rock across from us.

Warthogs were also a pretty common sight!

White Rhinoceros. These guys are really pretty rare and hard to find, so we were happy to have a few separate sightings, even if we didn't get a good picture.

Hanging out at one of the few places you're allowed to leave your vehicle.

In addition to driving ourselves around, we also did two guided tours. The first was a morning walking tour. Accompanied by armed guides, we took a 3 hour walk through the bush, learning about animal footprints and droppings. It was an interesting and unique experience. We didn't get too close to many animals, because they're afraid of humans, but we did see some elephants, baboons, and plenty of impala. We also heard a lion roar, but their sounds can travel for several kilometers so we're not sure how close it was.

We're ready for our walking safari!

Paul's enjoying a grape juice during our breakfast break.

Here's one of our two walking safari guides. Both carried guns.

A dead buffalo.

Single file, men with the guns at front!

That evening we took a night driving tour to see some nocturnal animals. Some of the passengers operated small spotlights to help find animals, but it was difficult because there were only three lights.We did spot hyena, jackals, African wild cats, rhinos and rabbits. Unfortunately, we didn't see any big predators (lions, leopards, or cheetah) at Kruger, but we were very impressed with how easy it was to spot huge elephants and herd of buffalo and impala. New animals were waiting around every corner. We ID'd a total of 40 animal species, and  saw a three of the big five - not bad!

Driving back to Johannesburg was sometimes terrifying, given the lack of lane markings.

Driving through a small city near Kruger.

We really enjoyed our time in Kruger and would recommend it to anyone visiting South Africa. The self-driving aspect is very convenient, as are the restcamps, restaurants, and gas stations. Later in the trip we visited the much less developed Chobe National Park in Botswana, and it was interesting to compare the two parks. Next stop, Cape Town on the opposite side of South Africa!

Johannesburg - South Africa's Big City

Welcome to Africa! The thought of visiting the continent evokes stereotypical images of wildlife, beautiful scenery and warm people. South Africa also evokes thoughts of apartheid, corruption and crime. Part of the reason we wanted to do this trip was to start to understand the real story behind the world's 2nd largest continent through experiences in a handful of countries in Southern Africa.

For this two week trip first we are visiting Johannesburg, Kruger National Park and Cape Town in South Africa. Then we're flying up to Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe where we'll visit Chobe National Park in Botswana as well. Finally, we'll visit Zambia's capital Lusaka.

First stop, Johannesburg... the commercial capital of South Africa and the city responsible for approximately 10% of the total GDP of subsaharan Africa. While we're in Johannesburg, we're staying with our friend Kalyan who lives in the leafy northern suburb of Sandton. Sandton is to Johannesburg as Buckhead is to Atlanta. There's lots of big commercial skyscrapers and glitzy shopping along with high end apartments and housing. The area popped up as a key commercial area of Johannesburg after the end of apartheid, for similar reasons that Buckhead did in Atlanta after the end of segregation in America.

View from Kalyan's apartment in Sandton. Very nice!

First thing's first, we need some South African wine!

The infrastructure in Johannesburg is pretty great. Similar to the USA.

On Sunday, Kalyan took us downtown for Market on Main, which is basically a Sunday food and crafts market. Afterward, he had to catch a flight, so we were on our own for the next few days until we meet back up in Cape Town. From Market on Main, Christina and David visited the Apartheid Museum while Paul quickly popped into Gold Reef City to ride Johannesburg's coasters.

Outside Market on Main.

Hipster coffee shop.

Market on Main, a Sunday market in downtown

View from the upper floor of the market.

Some people were truly frightened on the roller coasters at Gold Reef City. Check out those faces!

Anaconda was a great ride.

The Apartheid Museum is a must visit!

The museum included information on how the races were sorted and separated to keep power in white hands.

View from the apartheid museum: Johannesburg's CBD behind Gold Reef City coasters.

Walking around Johannesburg can be a challenge. Incomplete sidewalks and barbed wire fences are everywhere.

Tried a local beer! It was OK.

Sunday dinner at Craft in Parkhurst. David had ostrich!

Food in Johannesburg has been wonderful and cheap in American dollar terms!

On Monday we went to the city center to see the Origins Museum and Constitution Hill (the site of an Apartheid era prison). Afterwards we had lunch in Melville before heading downtown again to the Carlton Center, which is the tallest building in Africa. Finally we took a stroll around downtown Johannesburg, taking in the sights, smells and sounds of this bustling district.

On Wits University Campus. Is this really a sign-worthy issue? 

The Origins Museum had lots of exhibits on the San people of South Africa.

A gallery in the Origins Museum.

Witwatersrand University in Braamfontein neighborhood of Johannesburg.

An interesting sculpture in downtown.

Constitution Hill prison. Gandhi and Mandela were both held here. Conditions were awful.

Looking towards the CBD from Constitution Hill.

Constitution Hill.

Paul's Homemade Ice Cream in Melville! It was closed unfortunately.

Meat pie for lunch in Melville.

Johannesburg from above at the Top of Africa in the Carlton Center.

Neat zebra art in downtown.

After our walk around the CBD we took the Gautrain back to Sandton.

At Sandton City Center Paul got pumped up for the Rugby World Cup!

Johannesburg makes a big first impression, both positive and negative. While the roadway infrastructure is really excellent, walking can be challenging with sidewalks sometimes just disappearing. Safe transit isn't very prevalent in the city - there is the Gautrain, which is state of the art and relatively cheap, but mostly only connects the northern suburbs to downtown and nearby Pretoria. Our predominate mode of travel has been uber, believe it or not. Trips across town have all been only $5-$10.

The city is dotted with large glamorous shopping malls. These contrast sharply with other neighborhoods that are rundown, dirty and dangerous. The contrast between rich and poor is stark and largely follows racial lines, 20 years after the end of Apartheid.There is definitely a sense of worry over crime in this city. Countless websites and travel guides, as well as friends who have lived in Johannesburg have bombarded us with warnings about everything and everywhere. We were more anxious traveling around Joburg than any other place we've visited (Mexico City for example). Driving through the northern suburbs, where most of the wealthy people live, reveals street after street of walled compounds with electric fences and razor wire. Wealthy South Africans are terrified of the poor, and it shows, as we didn't see a single normal house facing the street in the entire city. The worry may not be unwarranted, as the crime rate is huge. Our friends have known several people who have been mugged or had their car windows smashed while they were stopped at a red light. The homicide rate is over 6 times higher than the US.

With the current record exchange rate, Johannesburg restaurants are very cheap when converted to American dollars...our excellent Sunday dinner in a trendy restaurant was R580 (or about $40) for three people, including alcohol, tax, and tip. The same meal in the States would have easily topped $100. The median income in Gauteng Province is around $3,000 per year...meaning our "cheap" dinner out represented the average household's weekly wage. In a country that is 80% black, it was amazing to us how often we found ourselves in places with only white people. Tourist sites, museums and well-reviewed restaurants were almost totally patronized by white people (some of which were tourists like us), while the staff was usually black. Segregation is still a fact in South Africa.

Some interesting graffiti in downtown.

Lots of South African pride around the city.

Johannesburg was an interesting introduction to South Africa. We enjoyed our experience, and learned a lot about the long history and culture of this part of the world. Next stop, Kruger National Park for some wildlife viewing.