Vacationing together in 4 continents

As much as vacations help you take a break from monotonous routine, it also gives you an opportunity to peek into lives of others, where you spot similarities, understand differences and appreciate life and marvel creation. At least that’s what I happened on my trip to South Africa.

Join me as I share my experiences from visiting the most endangered species at Kruger National Park, interacting with the locals from the Apartheid struggle at Johannesburg to enjoying in the lap of nature at Cape Town over the next few weeks. Life is full of surprises and I had no idea a hot white chocolate came with donut.

Visiting South Africa and specially Kruger National Park was on my bucket list for some time. With my friend Paul’s assignment in North West Africa soon coming to an end, we decided to seize the opportunity and plan to trip to the cradle of civilization and creation.

Over the last 7 years, Paul and I have traveled widely: in Asia we enjoyed the architecture and ruins at Hampi, in Maine we cycled along the breathtaking coastline at Acadia National Park, and in Netherlands, Paris and Brussels we partied like college kids. We’ve fuelled our life and friendship with wonderful memories!

When we finished the paper work and got to the mid-size Renault, Paul entrusted me with a responsibility of getting us to Skukuza camp at Kruger National Park. Probably this was the only discussion Paul and I didn’t have about the trip – who was going to drive to Kruger.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t a showstopper and driving in South Africa is very much akin to driving in India. Cars here were right hand driven and people drive on the left side of the road, which gave me a slight edge over Paul who was used to driving on the other side of the road on a left hand driven car. I didn’t know if I were allowed to make a free left turn at Robots, but I told Paul we will figure it out during our 500 kms ride to from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park.

Though traffic lights were fondly referred to as Robots otherwise the roadways in South Africa is comparable to that in the developed world. There is no honking, almost all of them obeyed traffic rules, and highways had multiple lanes and signage helping people to navigate their way without ambiguity.

The navigation software in the car was spot on - it accurately showed us exits, petrol stations and pit stops along the way. Though the scenery was beautiful sometimes the six-lane highway turned into two-lane with a small unpaved shoulder giving us some tight space to navigate was a bit scary. Nevertheless, South African drivers were accommodative and squeezed themselves into the shoulder and let us overtake them without any fuss or fret.

At 120kms/ hour getting to Skukuza wasn’t that long a journey. Moreover, Paul and I hadn’t met in two years and we had a lot to catch up. The second thing that scared us during the journey was hitch hikers on the freeway. We were ready to accommodate a few, but were afraid after hearing about the carjacking stories in South Africa. Though South Africa has a well developed road network their public transportation is pathetic. Private tempos ferried people within cities and between cities. This probably explained why there were so many hitch hikers along the freeway.

 

Kruger National Park has 8 entry gates and the lady at Wanderes Marriot @ Jburg suggested that we drive through Melalane gate and sunset drive through this gate to Skukuza camp was incredible. For the safety of animals and humans, these gates are closed to traffic from sunset to sunrise. We got there a little after 4pm and the gate wore deserted look and cloud cover engulfed the area in darkness making it look like it was past sun down.

Before we enter Kruger, let's learn a few facts about the place. At 200,000,0 hectares Kruger National Park is the size of Israel. The Kruger Park is approximately 360 kilometers long, 65 kilometers at its widest point, it is 90 kilometers from east to west. There is a network of some 1800 kilometers of well maintained roads and the Reserve has 21 rest camps. It his home to 336 trees, 49 fishes, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammal species.

Source: https://homesofafrica.com/krugerpark/facts/ 

Were we allowed to drive through or were we asked to stay back in a nearby motel that night? Come back tomorrow.