Kruger

For 7 days i somehow managed to hire a car without a valid licence and proceeded to tour through Kruger National Park. It's kind of like our National Parks except with actual wildlife. I mean there is the odd blue-tongue lizard here and there in Australia but you could drive your way through them all and see near nothing. Not in Kruger.

 

Here there are the big 5 among other fantastic wildlife that you normally see in the zoo. The Big 5 is giraffe, elephant, lion, leopard and rhino. The last three are quite rare and seldom seen, fortunately i was able to spot all 5 among other rare finds, like african wild cat, wild dogs and a chamelon crossing the road. The great thing about Kruger is, you set your own tour. Hop in your car, pick a road and drive away. As you watch the tree and grass go past you spot something roundish, adrenalin kicks in and you slow down to see what it is, rhino? elephant? or the dreaded impala? After that there is the mad scramble of trying to frame the picture before it gets spooked and moves away.

 

I have to say the highlight was coming face to face with a lion. My mind froze and i was like, this is not right i'm within 2 metres of a lion with the window down. I thought it was about to jump me for a moment as there was a car to its left and right and I was in the middle and it was looking right at me. So i did all i could do and that was poke a camera in its face and snap as many photos as i could. At least it could be evidence for what killed me...It moved to the right, and i sharply wound up the window.

 

There was a lot of funny moments as i survived the 7 days by living out of a car. It's quite hard with no fridge, no electricity and just in general no "stuff" e.g. detergent. It's not that i couldn't have bought them, but then i would have to carry them. So i used soap instead of detergent, the oil from cooking chicken and beer instead of wine. In my desparation, I invented Beer Chicken Rice. This South African women thought i was quite the crazy chinaman meanwhile she was making some kind of white gooey thing called "Pop". There was the night it was so hot i decided, "hey this car is newer then mine, surely it can last a night with the fans on". This is sadly not the case for a Kia car, it was a great night sleep though. Just not so fun running around asking if anyone had a jumper cable.

 

Hmmm there was a lot of things that i will surely forget...oh like this one, a baboon snuck up behind a group of south africans and jumped around the table and stole all the food they were intending to bbq. It didnt succeed because the bag was too heavy carry. In turn it got very upset about that and yelled and screamed at us. After it was almost over, I whipped out my camera and snagged a very poor shot =( Oh wells...  

 

Oh and happy new years to all the people who read this blog. I slept through new years so i've decided to postpone ny celebrations until i return... Celebrating alone, just doesn't work.