Just a note to let you know that, after five fantastic days in the huge (7,600 mi², 19,623 km2) Kruger National Park, driving and watching for animals at least eight hours each day (you aren’t allowed to leave your vehicle between camps or rest stops), I have returned to Hoedspruit for one night, flying on to Cape Town tomorrow.
Every day in Kruger was a new adventure, and we never knew what we’d see. Rosemary and I (kudos to her for organizing most of this trip) were driven around by the best guide ever, Isaack Maboea, full of information, stories, and, best of all, a crack spotter of wildlife. (I’m lousy at it; I can’t even see stuff until several people point it out to me, while Isaack can see an unobtrusive brown bird a hundred yards away.) The spottings included giraffe. lion, leopards, zebra, many species of antelope, Southern ground hornbills, lilac-breasted rollers, warthogs, African buffalo, and so on ad infinitum. All will be shown.
Since each day in Kruger provided a panoply of new stuff, I’ll divide my posts on the park into five separate installments, hopefully one per day after I get settled in Cape Town.
All I can say now, after the rude transition from the bush to the town, is that anybody with eyes who loves nature and wildlife should come to Kruger at least once, stay at least four nights, and hire Isaack to be their guide and driver.
After I’d heard that there were a handful white (leucistic, not albino) lions in the huge park, I kept begging Isaack to show me one. This morning, when we left camp for one final day of animal-watching before leaving the park, he told me that he’d had a dream last night that his ancestors came to him, telling him that he’d find that white lion for me (one of the ones in the park is named Casper). Sure enough, he turned right after leaving the hut encampment and, about two miles down the road was a tawny (regular) lion along with. . . . CASPER!!! Yes, a leucistic lion, though I’m not sure it’s the one called Casper. It looked like this one taken from Wikipedia. But you’ll have to wait to see my own photo until day five of my own photo posts on Kruger.
It turned out that Isaack belongs to a WhatsApp group of Kruger guides who tell each other where they’ve spotted wildlife, and he heard from it yesterday that a white lion was sighted near our camp. He was just ribbing me about his ancestors’ message, though he does have a form of spiritual belief involving consulting his ancestors.
I’ll be in Cape Town until Sept. 8, making the long flight back to Washington, D.C. and then on to Chicago. Let’s hope for no cancellations this time.
More when I get settled in Cape Town–in a hotel that has internet.
Can’t wait!!
Excellent trip. Thanks for the shoutout. Isaack is the best and both he and Claudia (his wife) are brilliant and lovely people and good friends.
Also, major baie dankie to Heleen and Peiter Louw for working with me on the itinerary and organizing the trip.
Cheers all. More l8r.
Awesome!
I’ve been looking forward to this – and, knowing PCC(E) has survived!!
This will be an epic level of WEIT!
Looking forward to the posts!
Once safely back in Cape Town, I heartily recommend a visit to Sea Point to see a location where Darwin visited and wrote about–the “Sea Point Contact.” This is a formation where the rocks show an igneous intrusion (forming granite) into preexisting rocks. This is something that was thought impossible by some geologists of his time, because granite was considered to be the basal rock on top of which other rocks formed (or something like that–I’m not a geologist). Darwin writes about this starting on page 149 of his “Geological observations on the Volcanic Islands…” (1844)(https://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F272&viewtype=text&pageseq=1), though he refers to it as “Green Point.” There is a plaque there now, and an abundance of beautiful tide pools. Another reference: https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532012000500012
Your guide ribbing you to the effect that one of his ancestors came to him in his dream … that’s funny. I approve.
I’m excited to see your photos. I have an affectionate feeling toward leucistic lions, probably at least partly from watching the dubbed, imported anime cartoon “Kimba the White Lion” when I was a kid. Also, they’re just cool, even for lions.
“Who’s the King of animals in Africa?
Kimba the White Lion is his name!”
Full marks for the ancestor joke!
Isaac does believe in ancestral intervention.
I tried to make that clear by adding “though he does have a form of spiritual belief involving consulting his ancestors.”
Great trip!
I am so glad that you got to see all that stuff! But not being able to venture out would chafe my drawers, since I’d always want to scour the bush for cool bugs.
You would be eaten within minutes. 🙂
… or crushed by an elephant.
Glad for you , and us, that the Kruger trip turned out so well. Looking forward to seeing the photos.
A note*: Isaac wasn’t exactly ribbing Jerry about the “ancestral” stuff, he (Isaac) believes (strongly) in ancestral powers and the intervention of the divine through ancestors long gone.
These are his (Isaac’s) beliefs. He believes in God/spirits/ancestral powers. Most Africans (particularly black Africans) are believers and their belief systems help them make sense of their world. To many, “not believing” would be outrageous; at the very least, they believe in a “great mystery” that is unknowable – to me the latter is myth laden/magical interpretation of agnosticism.
>A “great mystery” that is unknowable”
is better than ‘a mundane mystery’ that is known. The thought that there just might still be a great mystery, is worth pursuing.
Agree.
+1
That thought also breeds humility. One is made appropriately small by the wild. At the same time, also made complete.
Can’t wait for your photos!