The alarm sounded at 4 am and our ride was waiting to take us to King Shaka airport to head to Nelspruit. After a short hour and fifteen minute flight my brother, his friend and I arrived. We collected our rental car and headed to Kruger Park. Kruger Park is a huge national park approximately the size of Israel; it is located in the Northeast part of South Africa and extends into Mozambique and Zimbabwe. This is the heart of Africa and home to the ‘Big 5’; the Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Lion and Leopard.
When we planned the Safari, I thought we would be safe, in a truck with a guide, stocked with food, water and a shotgun; I was sorely wrong. The three of us spent 2 days in a car by ourselves. The only thing protecting us was the body of our car. We picked up some food and water but no shotgun. We drove through the park on our own accord on dirt roads trying to spot everything Africa had to offer. All we had to do was make sure we arrived at our campsite by 5.30pm to ensure we are let in before the gates closed. We HAD to do that because I had absolutely no plans on spending the evenings curling up with a leopard out in the bushes.
During our 2 days we spotted only four of the ‘Big 5’; the Buffalo, Rhino, Lion and the Elephant. It was quite surreal to see these amazing creatures in the flesh right up close. Once we had spent the better part of the day taking quite literally hundreds of photos at every animal we saw from Zebras, Giraffes, Crocodiles, Hippos and many more, we realized that we had insufficiently budgeted our time. Remember we HAD to be at our first camp site by 5.30pm and we realized we had 120 km to get there at 4.10pm. The conversion is 1.6 km to 1 mile. You do the math. It doesn’t sound bad at all if you were on a highway, but we were on dirt roads, with a speed limit of 40 km/hr and amongst all the beasts, any one of which could pop up out of nowhere and halt our progress.
Don’t ask me how, but we got there only 10 minutes late to catch the amazing African sunset. We were; however, slowed down in the process. While gunning down the road we bent around the corner and saw a herd of Elephants, 2 of which looked like they were fighting. Nope; it actually was 2 elephants mating. Yes I had to – we stopped and took photos. While the three of us were looking at those 2 elephants another one creeped up through the bushes right up to our car and startled us from the other side. I had to put the pedal to the metal to get out of his way. I did though get a good picture just before I jetted. They say not to get next to any elephants when they are part of a herd or mating. I promise I won’t do that next time I am here. It’s not often the ‘Big 5’ is spotted during one trip, it seems the Leopard that has escaped me gives me a reason to come back.
We met some interesting people at our camp sites during the evening. They were from all over the world; Algerians, who worked at the French Football Federation, Swiss and Americans. An American from Miami noticed my MLS jacket an commented on it. He is a big fan, and congratulated me on our 2008 championship when I told him my affiliation with the Crew. He told me he had put a deposit down for season tickets for an MLS team to come to Miami – it’s great to see there are so many fans committed.
Tags: World Cup
June 22nd, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Anyway I’m italian and I a supporter of your team. I think I can bring the italian management of the team and player for the columbus crew but I don’t know who I can ask to. I have a close relative working for Chievo Verona now. Can Anyone help me? Thank you.
June 22nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Avin, I love reading your updates! These pictures are amazing. I’m so jealous of your adventures and can’t wait to hear more a/b them!