South African Safari

In late June the school year ended. With tests corrected and final grades submitted, I had survived my first year of teaching and my first year of living in Liberia. It was time for a much-needed vacation. So I headed to South Africa and Swaziland for 2 weeks in early July. I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa on the Fourth of July and was reunited with some close friends I hadn't seen in a long time.  Here are some photos of our airport reunion!

African Sisters:  Me and Sadie, an Education PCV in Lesotho
(Photo credit goes to Maren.)

Thanks, Sadie, for planning EVERYTHING for our fantastic trip. :-)

Maren and Me, After Multiple Embraces and Tears of Joy
(Photo credit goes to Maren.)

Maren didn't know I was coming until the day I arrived. You should’ve seen me try to sneak up behind her in the airport that day. People were staring at me as I peered out from behind these giant marble columns, trying not to topple over from the weight of my backpack. Let’s just say the surprise wasn't executed all that well on my part, but the reunion itself was priceless.

The fourth member of our group, Joy, unfortunately got stuck stateside for a bit and would join us the next day. Once she joined us, our party of Trumanite grads went road-trippin’ small through South Africa and Swaziland together for just under 2 weeks.

On my first full day in South Africa, I got to go on a safari! We woke up at 5 A.M. to make our way to Kruger National Park, which is northeast of where we were staying in Nelspruit. If anyone ever wants to go to KNP and stay with a very lovely family for an affordable price, go to Nelspruit Backpackers! Our tour guide, Paul, runs the BP with his wide, Natalie, and they were so very friendly and helpful. I learned so many things from Paul during the safari itself…I just couldn’t write fast enough! During the two-day safari, I scribbled down as many facts as possible during the bumpy ride throughout the park. We camped there one night in the Skukuza Campsite. In Shangan, one of the local languages there, “skukuza” means “he who turns everything upside down”, and it was the name given to the white people that first came to the area. Sounds about right, eh?

Overall, the safari was probably my favorite part of the entire trip, so that's why I'm going to highlight some of the cools facts I learned from Paul while at KNP right here. For all the wildlife-loving, bio-nerds out there like me, I hope you enjoy this!

• The “Big Five” game animals in Africa include the rhino, elephant, buffalo, lion, and leopard, and we were fortunate enough to see ALL of these amazing creatures during out short safari.
• The white rhino was the first animal we saw there. It takes 70 bites per minute of low-lying vegetation.

• Starlings are blue, iridescent birds that are always near rhinos, and ox-pecters have a mutualistic relationship with their large friends, as they eat parasites right off the rhino’s skin!
• The black rhino is more endangered than the white rhino and has some different characteristics than its fairer cousin. There is no back-of-the-neck bump, it eats leaves so it holds its head up higher, and its mouth is narrower. It’s practically blind and this animal can get aggressive once provoked, which happens easily.
• Male bull elephants have such high levels of testosterone in their bodies that it makes them go a bit crazy. Their coordination gets compromised, so sometimes they drag one of their legs as they walk. Full-grown adults have seven sets of molars and get the last one when they are about 50. They live to be about 70 years old (woah!), and they essentially die from malnutrition when their teeth wear down. Females also have a 22-month-long gestation period and once their babies are born, they can’t control their trunks their entire first year of life. (Thank goodness the gestation period for humans is NOT 22 months. Can you imagine that? I wonder if that would serve as a population control measure if that were the case….)

I digress.

• The spots on giraffes get darker as they get older, and their lifespan is around 25 years. So if I were giraffe, I’d be an old lady about to kick the bucket.
• Female hyenas have higher levels of testosterone than males, which makes them bigger and stronger and more dominant during mating. Due to this, the scared males literally run away from the females immediately after copulation finishes! Also, hyenas can digest bones! Isn’t animal physiology just fascinating?!
• The lilac-breasted roller is a perfect example of sexual dimorphism exhibited in male birds.

• Here’s a snippet from my journal the second day of the safari:  “We just saw a pride of five females and three cubs walk right by our vehicle. They posed on the road for us, and we could’ve reached out and touched them! Ah! 3:05 P.M., Sat., July 06, 2013.” While it was awesome to be so close to such beautiful, powerful animals, we made sure to keep all limbs inside the vehicle at all times. The animals in KNP are used to the cars, trucks, and jeeps and don’t feel threatened by them. Even if they would be comfortable around humans outside of the vehicles and would come up to lick you like a friendly housecat, you wouldn’t want that. “Why?” you ask. Because the tongue of a lion is so rough that if it were to lick you, it would rip your skin off. (“Shit,” I said when I heard this. “That would really suck.”)
   
   

  

  (All lion photo credits go to Maren.)