Well, we were getting to be old hands of getting up so early. Another day that we needed to be ready to pick up our breakfast at 5 AM. Both of us had gone to bed so early that we were awake more like 3:30 and got up in time to go up and pick up our sack breakfast and our second lunch . It wasn’t reasonable to think that hotel staff would have a hot breakfast ready for us when we were hopping on the truck at 5:15. So we consolidated our breakfast and lunch. Some of it was delicious and some we held in suspicion, including perhaps meatloaf sandwiches, and some other dried beef of some kind. We were uncertain how some of these things would hold up over hours being out of the refrigeration. But we definitely had enough food to munch along on that. We were not hungry while we were out on another day's hunt searching for animals.
Today we consolidated to two pickup trucks rather than three from the day before since several of the group were doing something different. Dick and Patti hopped on one with a delightful crew of people from Europe and Canada. Our driver today was a 20 year veteran guide, Derrick. He told us at the beginning that he doesn’t make promises of which particular animals he can find for us, because he said that breaks peoples hearts. He did guarantee he would find us some animals as well as point out a lot of trees and birds which he did.
It was a little less novel and breathtaking to arrive at the park after about 45 minutes and then head off on some different dirt and paved roads that we were not on yesterday. We all had hoped being in the southern area of Kruger Park that we might see some rhinos which we had not seen earlier. Derrick shared with us that they used to see rhinos basically every day, but due to terrible poaching 10,000 rhinos had been killed in the park in the last 10 years. There are some Asian cultures which hold that the horn of a rhino had strong medicinal or magical powers. We learned that just one horn cut off of a rhino could ultimately bring $50,000 worth of profit. In this land where there are many people living in poverty, one can understand how people can be swept up in this poaching , even though the poor people who did the killing and cutting off of the horn would receive only a small fraction of the money. It used to be that poaching elephants for ivory was the big money, but that is no longer in fashion. So it is the rhinos who are now suffering.
During the course of the day we saw quite a bit of rhino dung and evidence that there were rhinos in the area. But not a glimpse of a rhino in person. Disappointing and in some ways, it became a running joke when we would see anything that perhaps this was a rhino. But, as our guide said, he believes the rhinos know that they are being killed and that they have turned much more elusive and hiding from people.
A highlight of the day was lots of elephants, including a troop of probably 20 elephants with lots of babies and teenagers and moms. And we saw several large bull elephants. The elephants are just magnificent and such a joy to see them.
There were also lots of zebras and giraffes. And then sometimes it would be something small such as dwarf mangooses. And there were a number of really, really interesting and glorious birds.
It is clear you have to take what you get when you are on a photos safari. Even the most experienced guides cannot make animals appear on command. There’s a lot of camaraderie among the guides and when we would pull up on a jeep that had been stopped, there would be lots of conversation in English and in Zulu about what people are saying. All of them wanted to have their guests have a good experience.
And one of the areas we saw a couple of young hyenas who were tucked away and probably waiting for their mom to return with food. It is just so amazing to see all of these animals to know that there were ever so many more of them for so long before they were mercilessly killed.
After a late lunch break, everyone was tired and ready to head back to the resort. We felt like we had had a very positive and wonderful experience in Kruger National Park
Because we’ve been waking up so early, both Dick and Patti took a good late afternoon nap, and then got up and had a lovely dinner talking with a number of people from our trip. We were the only ones from the United States and we are known as the people from California. But everyone was friendly and lovely with us.
Time to head to bed early early again. We wondered if we’ll ever be back on a normal sleep schedule but sound asleep by 9 PM. Tomorrow will be another traveling day at this time. Will take us from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
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