Off the Grid, Part 2: Kruger National Park, South Africa

     So both of the side mirrors (or wing mirrors in South Africa) were stolen during our one night in Maputo. Whoops. It was all my fault. I had booked our place in Maputo and all Scott had asked for was off street parking. I could have sworn that the place had said off street parking. I was obviously wrong. But it happened and there was nothing we could do about it, so off we went to cross back into South Africa. It didn't take us too long, I hopped out and walked up to the border and was still in line to get our passports stamped when Scott pulled in with the car. With some slight confusion we made it across the border and back into South Africa, where we were greeted by amazing roads and grocery stores. We stocked up on supplies for the next few nights and we were back on the road.

Last Mozambique sunrise

Speeding towards the border

     Our next destination of the trip was Kruger National Park. South Africa has the big five game animals, unlike Rwanda, and I was really hoping to see a bunch of animals. I think Scott was a little nervous about how excited I might get over animals. And he had reason to be. Within 50 meters of the entrance gate we came across two giraffes and an elephant. I think I made him stop for about 15 minutes. In Rwanda it is very rare to see the elephants, but in Kruger... not so much. It's an enormous park, approximately 450 miles in length and we saw upwards of 100 elephants in our two days there.

Welcome to Kruger!

Hadn't been in the park for 5 minutes before we came across these guys!

Hello Mr. Giraffe and Mr. Bird!

     The plan was to stay at the Skukuza camp our first night, which meant that we had a little over 100 km to meander through the park observing the animals. Scott decided to take a road that followed the Sabie River, which provided plenty of sightings (and plenty rolling of eyes at me). Before we had even hit the river I saw my first ever rhino in the wild. We couldn't tell if it was a white rhino or black rhino at the time, but it was pretty cool. I was later informed by Barry that in fact it was a white rhino. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. He had clearly just taken a little mud bath and was enjoy some shade underneath a tree.

Rhino!

As we hit the river the animals just multiplied. I saw so much. And thankfully, Scott had bought not one, but two Kruger National Park info books. Both equipped with a checklist of animals, one even with reference photos of them all. You can imagine how Scott felt as I more than happily embarrassed the heck out of him by ticking everything we saw. He has no idea that as a child my sisters and I use to count every deer we saw on our camping excursions with our father. I would keep tally to report back to our mother first thing when we got home. In reality though, the picture list was quite useful in identifying the less common birds we saw.

Zebra & Impala (yes that is something in the middle of
the road, a young zebra was having some fun) 

Wildebeest

Baboons

Croc!

And I was so excited to see my first (but not the last) herd of elephants. They crossed the road just in front of us. There were about 15 of them ranging in all ages. They went down to the river to play and we were able to continue watching them from a bridge. Below is a video clip (you can't hear Scott laughing at my amazement... probably because I just kept repeating the same things) of them. But I'm fascinated with elephants and how their trunks work. I just think they're so cool.

Another guy later on our drive

And yet another elephant crossing!

     Eventually, once I'd gotten my elephant fix we arrived and checked in at the camp. We were staying in one of their tents so there wasn't much set up for us to do. We each had a glass of wine on our "porch," read a little, and watched a group of warthogs (that are so ugly they're cute) run through camp, before heading over to the restaurant for dinner. While we could have cooked ourselves, we decided that it would be one less meal to worry about so we splurged on steaks. Red meat is in no shortage in South Africa and it is so incredibly good and cooked perfectly. I was in constant food heaven on this trip.

Camp first night in Kruger

They kneel on their front legs to eat, probably because
their necks don't bend very well, but I'm no expert.

Our tent was right on the edge of the camp and just as I finished getting ready for bed, Scott popped his head in the tent and asked if I wanted to see a hyena. I clarified that this animal was outside the camp (i.e.- behind a big fence) and not just outside our tent. Sure enough, there was a hyena scavenging along the camp fence looking for any food scraps people may have tossed over it. It was very dark though so it was hard to study him.
     Fortunately, Scott is an early riser and we were up and on the road before 6:30 am. And I was very lucky in what we saw first thing...

Two spotted hyenas were still out and about, checking out something down at the river, though we weren't sure what. If you look closely the one on the left has blood on its front right paw. They were maybe 10 meters from our car. We didn't stay long to observe them, partially because we had cars behind us and also we had a schedule. We were meeting a park guide at 2 pm and we had about 5 hours of driving to get there. However, we had a few moments of luck and got to see some pretty nifty things along the way.

We decided to back up and give these guys room to cross the road

      We stopped for breakfast at a rest stop and Scott pulled out his skottle to cook some breakfast. We decided on egg sandwhiches. I somehow picked the worst table in the spot but we made it work. Why was it the worst table you ask? Well, as you know by reading this blog of mine, we have monkeys run all over the hospital in Rwanda. They are funny to watch and while I know they're wild, they're probably somewhat domesticated. They never approach you unless you're offering them food (which I never do) and they're just nice. They make the children laugh in pediatrics and they're fun to have around. Well in South Africa... they're wild. Truly wild. So me picking the table that was somehow the closest to them but still a distance away I thought would be fine. Nope. It almost resulted in out bread being stolen and did result in Scott doing some shouting, yelling, general waving of arms, and finally tossing some rocks their way. Needless to say, we ate pretty quickly and cleaned up and got back on the road.
     We saw three rhino on the move as we continued our drive and then some ostriches just hanging out. I had no idea how vicious those birds can be. Scott told me that people use them as "guards" because they won't eat meat like a dog would (people are known to poison dogs here) and they've been known to scalp people. After that I decided that there is a reason they survive in the wild and to not underestimate the ostrich. We were now driving through an area of the park called Satara, known for lions. I really wanted to see a lion. I've never seen one in the wild and Rwanda is still working on a deal with Kenya to purchase some. I kept my eyes peeled. We happened upon a waterhole and pulled over to get shots of this little guy...

Terrapin decided to hitch a ride!

There were a lot of game hanging around, impalas, zebras, waterbuck... then they all took off. "Well something made them run." We didn't see it at first, but then there she was...

On the prowl.

 We thought she was hunting as she seemingly was stalking something, first one direction, then the other before she finally decided to just plop herself down. She didn't even drink any water, but no other game was headed towards the watering hole anymore. We watched her for awhile before needing to move. We hadn't gone far before we saw a second lioness headed towards the watering hole. I was amazed at how well they blended in with the grass. I'm certain we drove by more and simply didn't spot them.

     We finally reached our destination and just as our park guide, David, arrived. We were headed out on the Malopeni Eco Drive, one of Scott's favorite things to do in the park. Essentially, we were going to drive down some more 4WD terrain and camp in the bush and hope that a lion wouldn't find us to be a tasty midnight snack.

They weren't joking about 4WD

 So off we went on some serious 4WD roads into the bush. We saw several giraffes but not much else on our drive to camp. It took us almost another three hours of driving to reach our camp right on the river. We didn't have much daylight left, so while David watched, Scott and I had the tent and sleeping pads and bags all set up, a fire going, drinks flowing, and dinner started within the hour. He made a comment that it was probably the fastest he'd ever seen a camp go up in all the years he's been doing this. I couldn't help but laugh (then again perhaps it was the red wine) as Scott and I met in college in the Outing Club, also known as hiking/camping/climbing/watersports club. Between the two of us, we've probably done it all.

Camp our second night in Kruger

     For dinner Scott made me guess one of the meats I was eating and while I wasn't correct as far as the animal, I was correct on the organ bits I was nibbling on. My description of, "It looks like liver wrapped in fat" was incredibly accurate of skilpadtjie. It was pretty good though extremely rich. Thankfully, he was smart enough to also buy me a steak and braai that for me along with some veggies.

     We stayed up remarkably late for us, as in 10 pm, enjoying wine and talking with David. The stars were unbelievable and just like in Akagera, I was able to see the Milky Way. We could hear the hippos coming out of the water and grazing on grass, but then all of a sudden we heard a lot of hooves. David jumped up from his car and flipped the lights on of his truck. "Buffalo!" he said. If we weren't careful in letting them know where we were, they could have easily run through our camp and trampled us. That made me feel safe. Even safer, was his answer to my question, "Why are they running?" "Lion." Fabulous. I was seriously camping with lions. And while Scott passed out easily in the tent, I laid there listening to the different sounds for what felt like hours before finally drifting off.
     In the morning David asked me if I'd heard the lions. Glad that I wasn't certain what I was listening to otherwise I probably never would have fallen asleep. We got dressed and walked down to the river with David and his rifle. We saw a bunch of hippos getting in and out of the water and a lot of tracks in the sand. Overnight a turtle had clearly come out of the water and headed straight for our camp. We could see where the buffalo had run and a few antelope were on their way down to the water for a drink. I'm sure there was a crocodile or two out there as well, but I couldn't spot them. We headed back to camp where Scott fixed breakfast, I got freaked out at a lizard in the bathroom, and David filled us in on more details of life in the bush.

David pointing out a hippo and their calf
about 30 m from camp 

     We headed back to the gate and after spotting more warthogs and elephants arrived about 11 am. We had to debate our next move. Either we could drive through the park back the way we had come the day before and exit from one gate before heading onto Part 3 of our adventure, or we could exit the park at the gate where we were sitting and start Part 3 immediately. I wasn't going to lie, I was a little animaled out and while I would have loved to see a male lion, we could drive (and by "we" I mean Scott) for hours and not spot another one. I was exhausted, I'm sure he was exhausted, and there was the promise of a swim in a refreshing river at our Part 3 destination...

     Decision made. We drove out of Kruger after 2 nights of awesomeness ready to tackle Part 3 of our adventure!

Read Scott's renditions of our adventure here!

Lessons Learned:
1) Never underestimate an animal, wild or domesticated.
2) It's good to get out of your comfort zone, whether that's an experience, trying a new food, or shouting at monkeys.
3) Liver is surprisingly delicious!

Saturdays

     There is nothing I love more than Saturday mornings. I get to attempt to sleep in, which doesn't happen often, but always worth a shot. I can sip my tea unrushed, read a book, and simply relax. Let go of all of the stress from the week and just enjoy my time. There are days that my UT and UVA roomies and I don't do much together simply because we relish days like this. The only thing that makes Saturday morning better? The rain. We are still in long rainy season and I love it. I have been up for hours just listening to the rain fall. It is probably the most soothing thing to wake up to here. 

     I'm beginning to realize that I may not have many more Saturday mornings like this one. Before I know it, the rainy season will be over and not too long after I'll be headed home. But for now, I am here in this stunningly beautiful African nation and I intend to relish this Saturday morning for all it's worth. 

Lesson Learned:

1. Every moment counts. Enjoy them all. 

Off the Grid, Part 1: Mozambique Easter Weekend

     I have been off the grid for the last 11 days and it was absolutely glorious. GLORIOUS. It did leave me with over 400 emails to sift through Monday, which took all day, but it was incredibly worth it. Last week was Genocide Memorial Week. It fell just after Easter this year and having been advised that not much occurs I decided to take vacation.

     Back in the fall a long lost friend from my Bucknell days messaged me on Facebook. Scott was a year behind me so we only went to university together for a year before I transferred to Maryland to pursue nursing. I couldn't tell you the specifics of a single one of our interactions back there, but once a Bucknellian, always a Bucknellian... Scott has been living in Johannesburg, South Africa for the last five and a half years. He first told me about a massive road trip he was planning from Johannesburg to Nairobi in the spring, then he invited me to Thanksgiving dinner.

Bucknell Outing Club Officers 2004-2005
Me to the Right of Jim the Advisor and Scott to the Left (baseball cap)
Taken May 2005

     And thus, the rebirth of a friendship started. I didn't go to Thanksgiving dinner, but happily offered our guest room on his journey. As my time here passed we kept in touch, me essentially providing what little knowledge I have of the region when asked and he completely debunking my ideas for this week vacation and convincing me to do something different. I originally was thinking about going to Cape Town. It's beautiful and I would love to see it and sit on a beach. I can't remember the last time I sat on a warm beach (San Francisco doesn't count). But I was informed very unceremoniously that Cape Town is cold and Easter is not a great time to visit. Why not come to Johannesburg? Because I want to sit on a beach. And yet somehow, about 30 minutes later I'd agreed and bought a ticket. It wasn't very long before Scott's, "I'll take a long weekend trip with you" turned into him taking the entire week off and planning one of the best vacations ever. 

     Not only did I get the beach, but I got great food, zero stress, beautiful scenery, camping with wild animals, and I didn't have to lift a finger and do anything but show up and have fun. Well I dropped the ball a little on my responsibilities. I didn't show up. 

     At least not on time. Delays in Kigali and a forgotten time zone change lead me to miss my connection in Nairobi by twenty minutes. I ran through the entire airport in flipflops and my backpack praying that for the first time everything was running on "african time." For once, things were running on time. I was deflated, sweating, and completely out of breath. Kenya Airways just bought me a two hour wait for my bag (I certainly wasn't trusting them to get it on the right flight the next morning), three hours of sleep in a hotel, and a whole lot of disappointment. (Read Scott's short rendition of the start of our adventure in his blog!)

     But have no fear! On the bright side, I got to see the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro since I was flying in daylight and I finally arrived in Johannesburg, 12 hours late, but in one piece. Scott was exactly where he said he would be, propped against a pillar reading Atlas Shrugged on his Kindle just outside customs. Ten years hadn't changed him much. We loaded the car, he handed me a cold Miller Genuine Draft and a sushi lunch, and we immediately hit the road. I was in heaven. Best. Surprise. Lunch. Ever. Then again, since moving to Africa, the way to my heart is through my stomach, it doesn't take much these days.

     The plan had always been to get on the road the second I landed, Easter weekend means lots of travelers and we were headed to Mozambique. I was going to get my beach fix and finally get to see (and swim) in the Indian Ocean. The queues to cross the border can be insane so we were in for a long drive around Swaziland to the southern most border crossing at Kosi Bay. As we drove I loved how South Africa looks. Parts look very similar to the midwest United States. Then randomly you would see zebras and ostriches fenced in someone's yard and recall that you really are in Africa. Scott had rearranged our schedule and booked a tented lodge just 4 km from the crossing. The staff was lovely. We showed up after eight hours on the road (I was quite impressed that I hadn't fallen asleep) and an hour after dinner was served. The staff stayed and cooked dinner just for the two of us. It was so sweet and delicious. Proper salad, scalloped potatoes and chicken breast without bones. It's the little things in life that mean so much.

     We headed out early nervous that the queue might be extremely long taking our place in line at about 6:45 am... Turns out everyone who wanted to go to Mozambique for the holiday weekend had already crossed. We would have cruised through the crossing if the South African side hadn't attempted to apply common sense to Scott's permanent residency. But once the gates opened at 8 am it only took us an hour to get everything accomplished.

Ever so serious with Atlas Shrugged

I was pretty excited... another stamp in my passport!

     I looked at the road before us... It was sand. Not gritty dirt, but pure sand dunes. I couldn't help but laugh as Scott put his car into four wheel drive and off we went and miraculously never got stuck. 

We drove into Ponta do Ouro, a little beach town with a similar market and a few shops and bars and lots of craft kiosks. At the very end of the road, right on the water was our accommodation. The Whaler, is a reed room dive camp. Did I mention we were going scuba diving?

     I became certified during my freshman year at Bucknell. I had gone diving in the Caribbean during my friends wedding but that was going on seven years ago. I was excited and then nervous as within an hour of our arrival we were on the beach suited up and headed for the water. I'd forgotten what a pain in the butt wet suits can be and it took Scott and his friend Barry hoisting it up and ultimately lifting me off the ground (I felt as though I was in a rugby match) to get the thing on. It was quite comical. In my first six hours in Ponta I did two dives and absolutely loved it. By the time I surfaced on my second dive the wind had kicked up and it was a little rough getting back into the boat. It was at this point that Hilton, one of the owners of The Whaler asked me, "Why didn't that husband of yours come on this dive?" I just about choked on my lollipop. Apparently in approximately 24 hours of seeing each other for the first time in ten years Scott and I were hitched.
     "Not my husband."
     "Oh, so your weekend shag?"
     "We're friends from university." That ended the speculation and the conversation was steered towards what the heck am I doing living in Rwanda and not South Africa (Hilton is South African). By the time I was back everyone else was waking up from their afternoon snooze session and we wandered out into town. The boys went to buy prawns for dinner after they dropped the ladies and I at the craft kiosks. We may or may not have ridden on the runner board of the SUV and jumped off as the boys continued on their quest for food.

Craft Kiosks
Photo Credit: Barry Tanner ©

The group consisted of six of us. Scott and I, Barry and Robyn, and Craig and Theresa. Barry and Robyn are two of Scott's best friends in Johannesburg. Had I attended Thanksgiving I would have met them there. Barry is a freelance photographer (Check out his website at http://barrytannerphotography.com), Robyn and Theresa are both physiotherapists, and I honestly have no idea what Craig does. We never got around to talking about it. Anyway, they were all awesome, sweet, lovely, and didn't mind that my delayed flight had held Barry and Robyn's scuba gear hostage a night. We had a really nice time together. Eventually, after bargaining for some pouffy pants made in Thailand the ladies and I found the boys at a local bar and joined them for the local "famous" drink, R&Rs. To me it tasted like cough syrup, but when in Rome, right? Actually, I waited until Easter Sunday to sample an R&R. After the boys attended dive planning and then disappeared to watch rugby, Robyn, Theresa and I wandered down the beach and shared some loaded chips before returning to find Scott cooking a fabulous meal for all of us. After feasting on prawns, chips, some Easter candy, and listening to Scott's Afrikaans while reading trivial pursuit questions, which required multiple translations at times for anyone to understand the question, we called it an early night so that we would be ready to go on our early morning dive Sunday.

The Ladies
L to R: Robyn, Theresa, Me

The Boys
L to R: Craig, Scott, Barry

Ten years after the last photo was taken of us... eek!

Chef Scott cooked some fabulous prawns
for dinner our first night in Ponta.

     I woke up a little early on Easter morning so that I could battle my wetsuit. With plastic bags on my feet and I was able to slide into it a little easier than the day before. Scott had to help me remove the bags but not before taking some photo evidence of my 5:30 am struggle.

After a thorough dive briefing and plan we were off. I was more than a little nervous. I have never done a deep dive and here I was about to do my first in the ocean with sharks. Because after all, that's the entire purpose of doing a deep water dive, to see sharks. It was about a 30 minute boat ride out to the reef and before I knew it we were suiting up and Johnny, the skipper, gave the 1-2-3-Go! And I rolled off and descended. My dive buddy was Marlo, the dive master so I made sure to stick close to him. We had reached our second depth marker when I had calmed myself enough to look around and marvel at the amount of deep blue water above me.
     That's when I also noticed one person at the surface and another still way above us. I glanced at the group. Scott and Barry weren't with us. I had to quickly force myself to not worry, which for anyone who knows me, is just about impossible. I worry and over think the dumbest things. But the thing with a deep dive is that you can't worry and you can't surface quickly, so reminding myself that they are both way more experienced divers than I am, I started to focus on what I was seeing as we approached 40 meters. It was a crazy sensation being down that deep. You keep looking down and forget how deep you are. There were some massive fish and a large sea turtle, but no sharks. I was a little disappointed. You can only spend 9 minutes at a depth of 40 meters and we stuck to the dive plan of only staying down there for five. Just as we were at our second safety stop on our way to surface a manta ray swam by and we all started to head back down a little to catch a better look.
     I was keeping a close eye on my oxygen and realized that I shouldn't go any further back down, because I was hitting the low marker indicating I needed to surface. I notified Marlo I was at 50 bar and slowly started up the buoy line to do my final stop and then surface. Apparently, while I was just finishing my final stop and surfacing a hammerhead shark went by the group. I was extremely jealous that I missed it. But on our way back to land we had a couple of dolphins swim beside us briefly, which made up for the lack of shark slightly. Barry and Scott had both had equalizing issues to start, Scott was able to join us, but Barry missed out but was fine. Once back we were wiped. Craig and Theresa were up so we all had breakfast and then split to do our own things. I was done with diving and probably a little dehydrated so I went to take a nap. Our reed room was sweltering so I finally gave up and went out to the beach.

Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique

It was hot but the wind was so fabulous that it felt wonderful to be out there. I swam, read a little, and then went for a walk out to the point. As I was coming back Scott had emerged and we jumped back in the ocean for a bit. Barry and Robin came back from their dive and Craig and Theresa from snorkeling and we all headed into "town" for a late lunch. They took us to Fernando's Bar, which wasn't much more than a hole in the wall and we decided to munch on bread and garlic hot sauce and cook a big dinner.
     After Fernando's we went to negotiate with the fisherman for some lobster or crayfish for supper. It took awhile, but finally Scott and Craig were happy with what they bought and leaving the rock lobster behind, we headed back to have a braai, or in other words, a barbecue.

Negoitiations
Photo Credit: Barry Tanner © 

Rock Lobster
Photo Credit: Barry Tanner © 

First thing first though, we watched the sunset on the beach and had a pre dinner cocktail before eating awesome seafood and fillet. I couldn't get enough of it. I love seafood. I'd be happy to eat it every day of my life no complaints, however, I live in a landlocked country. So this entire vacation I happily ate seafood and lots of well cooked steak, practically every day.

We all chowed down, had many a laugh, and eventually called it a night. It wasn't that late, but I felt as though it was 3 am when we finally hit the sack. I think it was actually closer to 10 or 11 pm but regardless, it was a great Easter Sunday.

 

     We slept in, and by that I mean 6:30 am, Monday morning, fixed a great breakfast of leftover fillet sandwiches and then Scott and I hit the road. He had heard stories that it could take up to 10 hours to reach Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, and with the early morning rain, he wasn't going to chance it. Off we went in 4WD over sand, which eventually turned to mud and lots of it. At the end of the day, Scott's white SUV was a lovely shade of tan with at least 4 inches of mud caked on in certain places.

Road to Maputo
Scott needed a cat nap, I needed a stroll.

Hippo in the water!!!

He was not photographing the hippo.
Not quite as excited as I was.

Maputo is a busy city and I was amazed at all sorts of things. For instance, traffic. When Scott scooped me up at the airport we drove immediately out of town and I didn't see Johannesburg at all. The airport is located on the east side of the city and we just kept heading east into the countryside. But Maputo... it's a real city and we were in the middle of it. It was a little overwhelming. Put me in the center of our insane bus station in Kigali and I'm fine. But put me in Maputo and I wanted to snatch Scott's hand and hold on for dear life as we walked a few blocks.

     Fortunately, we didn't have to walk far. We hoppped in a tuk-tuk and headed for dinner. I was on a quest for Thai food because I had read that I could get good Thai food in Maputo. I was sold. Our driver was a little bit of a liar and had no idea where the restaurant was that we named, but eventually we found a Thai restaurant and he spoke to the waiters and arranged for them to call him when we were done dinner to pick us up.

My first ride in a tuk-tuk!

After dinner we crashed. It's amazing how exhausting sitting in a car can be. I Facetimed my mom just to let her know that I was alive and well, got the latest Monkton scoop, ignored 99% of the whatsapps, emails, and texts I had received and crashed. The next morning we were headed back to South Africa for Part 2 of our adventure and we needed to rest up.

     And as always, it's pointless to plan or get upset when things don't go your way because as soon as we left our hotel a little after 6 am we discovered that both side mirrors had been stolen.

One night in Maputo

 Part 2 still to come...

 Lessons Learned:
1) When flying through Nairobi it is best to have a minimum of a 2 hour layover to avoid missed connections.
2) Never underestimate an engineer.
3) Thank goodness for Garmin and third party Africa maps.
4) Remember your past, Live in the present, Hope for the future.

Market
Ponta do Ouro, Mozambique
Photo Credit: Barry Tanner ©