Realising her dream of experiencing an African safari, Jay Jayaraj
recounts to Community the close encounters she had at the
Kruger National Park and an adventurous trip to Cape Town
Before I left for South Africa, I was bombarded with crime alerts from concerned family and friends. In fact, safety was the only thing that got mentioned when I announced my holiday plans to them. By the time I left, I was quite bothered by all those alerts. And then, came Johannesburg.
I took a cab and went out that very night when I realised what I was doing: I was looking at every person on the street and judging them indiscriminately. I felt guilty, and very ashamed of myself. That night, I changed my tarnished mindset about the whole safety issue.
Would I go out alone on foot or even in a car to some places in my own country? No!
Crime risks are anywhere and everywhere, we just have to be street smart. I could have been pick-pocketed in Paris or robbed at gunpoint in New York too. When I was able to release that mindset, I saw the people in a different perspective.
My trip began with a brief stay at Johannesberg for the night before being whisked off to the Limpopo province in the north where I stayed three wonderful nights at a game lodge. It has always been a dream to experience an African safari so the main agenda of this trip was the Kruger National Park.
Kruger Park was, to me, a dream come true. It made the most interesting few days of my life among the lives I’ve only used to read about, watch in documentaries and imagine in my head.
Making it much more interesting with live commentary was our guide/ ranger Shoes Mathebula. A Shangaan Tsonga, he was born in Kruger itself. His family has lived in the park from the time Kruger was declared a national heritage in the 1920s. They were amongst the last people to evacuate Kruger in 1989 when Shoes was 10 years old. While taking us through the park, he showed us the burial site of his late grandfather. Shoes’ late father was a ranger too, and instrumental in setting up the Satara camp at Kruger.
When the family moved, they lived just outside of the park in Orpen where his father had acquired a piece of land. You can say it’s in his blood. Shoes’ understanding, knowledge and great respect for nature is astounding. After leaving school, he studied at the Southern Africa Wildlife College, also known as the greater Kruger due to its unique location in the park itself. Kruger wasn’t just his playground as he grew up, but also his practical field when he studied.
As to how much this man knows was evident when we passed by a vehicle with a bird-watching couple in it. They had been sitting with their binoculars and bird reference books for a while to figure out a bird. After approaching them, Shoes drove further front, looked up at the creature perched right on top of a tree and got back to them.
“See page 79 in that book, the second para. It’s a Bataleur. A young one, that’s why the colour isn’t fully developed yet”.
Just like that, the couple was astonished, speechless for a brief second and so were all of us in his vehicle. That deserved applause, the couple said, and we readily obliged. That evening, I learnt that my tent at the Phelwana Game Lodge where I stayed was also called Bataleur. By then, I had expert knowledge on the eagle.
With Shoes, I was able to experience some of the best the park had to offer. I learnt how to spot the differences between a fresh and a day’s old lion spoors. I learnt to wait and watched a large herd of elephant crossing, adult male lions feeding on their prey which was a Cape buffalo, the much-poached African rhinos, wild dogs which are becoming increasingly rare among many other wonders of savannah.
I also witnessed countless giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, impalas, springboks, kudu, baboons, hyenas, jackals and many bird types. I was particularly overwhelmed when we were surrounded by at least 500 Cape buffaloes, left and right in the vast savannah. It was simply surreal.
Shoes’ commentary on wildlife behaviour was spot on. It was like he had a pact with them before taking us out on the ride. For example, he was able to narrate the heavy duty that fell on a leading male’s shoulders in a herd of female impalas just as we watched the drama unfold before us. He said something and they played it out!
Back at the lodge, there were the Big 5 too except for the elephants. The Big 5 is a term that originated from hunting games. The most hunted African animals are the elephants, black and white rhinos, lions, leopards and buffaloes. Just outside my private tent were the hippos which soak in the lake all day long.
There were also giraffes, kudus and wildebeests that made their way to the lake while I watched them from my pool. During my last night, I was kept awake all night by the hippos. They were grunting, splashing away in the lake and it was just like 15m away from my bed! I left that part of the holiday with a very heavy heart. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. It was just perfect.
The second part of the trip led me to Cape Town. The city located on the south is known for its harbour, natural settling in the Cape Floristic Region and natural landmarks such as the stunning Table Mountain and Cape Point.
Table Mountain is self-explanatory because the rocky mountain top is flat like a table. It’s listed as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and is a major something that adds to the beauty of this city. I went up the mountain via a cable car. It was a three-minute ride up but alternately one can also choose to hike up for two-and-a-half to three hours. I’d have preferred to hike up if I had the luxury of time.
The view from atop 1085m was magnificent on a clear day like that: the city of tiny boxes, the pristine coastline, the blurred line between the blue sea and sky, the merging of two great oceans — Atlantic and Indian oceans, rocks and greens. My eyes couldn’t have feasted enough when I saw a couple abseiling down the mountain. Of course, I had to do it, too — at least for a new Facebook cover photo!
I signed my life away. It seemed easier this time after the skydiving papers in Dubai. Fear was matched with the loony drive for adrenalin. All hooked up, with some juvenile fans cheering me on, I headed down to the abseil point, posed for a picture confidently like I did this on a daily basis and began my way down, dangling my life on a piece of rope I’ve never met before. It wasn’t too bad, I thought, until it came to a point where the mountain had no place for a foothold.
It sort of caved in like a mammoth C and I was left dangling in midair in every sense of the word! Sea, sky and rocks versus a tiny me. Amongst the elements, I was a speck of nothingness but it was something: a beautiful and humbling experience. The abseil was all for 112m and I hiked up to the top, soaking in the view and occasionally meeting the resident lizards and mountain dassies.
On the ground, the city was a hype of activity along the coastline. I did the hop-off-hop-on bus tour and fed on interesting information along the way like why the water was chilly during summer and warm in winter, the creatures that lived in them and some history till I hopped off for some food, sight-seeing and people-watching. The last stop along that stretch was at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront which was beautiful and contemporary hub for tourists and locals.
It seemed to me like the city was late to rise and early to bed. The shops and markets opened up much later than the given time. Vendors began shutting down an hour before the actual closing time. It was a hurry when it came to grabbing souvenirs. The local products were lovely, especially those crafts made from beads. Being a bead junkie, I was spoilt for choice as there were just too many things to choose from. At the end of the day, I also bagged many ideas for my own beading projects.
Africa is just so that beautiful and blessed. I don’t know if her people know it well enough! A few I met said to me that they’d like to leave the country and see other places.
“Travel when you have the chance. You can go anywhere in the world. You’ll come back and still think, all of this is far more beautiful,” I told a local girl who seemed a little jaded with her life.
Every traveller should experience the African continent at least once. I am not done with Africa just yet.
MAKING A STATEMENT: It’s an overwhelming experience to be amongst a large herd of Cape buffaloes at the Kruger National Park. Photo by Jay Jayaraj
