Kruger National Park is roughly the size of Belgium and has approximately 3000 Km’s of roads throughout the park. My feelings of the experience there were a bit mixed. It was great in the sense that we saw “the big 5” – Buffalos, lions, leopards (twice – a very rare sighting at the best of times), elephants and a rhino. The down side about the park is that when people make a sighting word gets around quickly and before you know it there are 100 cars trying to get a glimpse of a pride of lions that is laying camouflaged in the grass 200 metres from the sealed roads. People get frustrated and you get some idiots cursing and yelling while tooting their horn. *great tactic for keeping the wildlife around* – NOT!

The Cheetah Project is a private organisation that is interested in the preservation of this endangered species. We were taken throughout the sanctuary and were shown their breeding project as well as the facilities and local friendly faces. Other than cheetahs, this place is home to the African Wild Dog which is another endangered species, most species of antelopes and plenty of wild birds, cats and lions. It’s very touching to see the work being done at places like this in order to preserve the animals of today for our kids…

 

The final leg of our second tour was a stop at the Mafunyani Cultural Village. We were greeted by the beating of African Drums and the sweet smile of little children as they sang us a welcoming song. We were taken on a tour of the village and were shown how the women weaved mats, prepare meals and ground maize corn to make Nshima (the staple diet – sorta like rice for asians). Later that night we were treated to a tribal dance complete with authentic costumes and later on we were given a chance to get out boogie on! We slept over night in a traditional hut which was an awesome experience. It’s great to see that even in this day an age where countries are developing there are still places where the youth can still stay in touch with their roots. The children that descended from the tribes within the region who live in the town and cities are able to come and stay at the village to learn about their traditional way of life.

 

As the son of the chief told us; “you won’t know where you’re going… unless you know where came from.”

We met a great bunch of people on this trip: Yana, Peter, Kevin, Tom, Freda, Maria and Yuri the crazy Brazillian! It was good fun learning about each other and sharing stories. It was such a crack up to see Yana scream for Yuri as he plunged 68 metres on the gorge swing… it was even funnier finding out that Yuri didn’t know that there was a free fall of 2.8 seconds before you start swinging… anyways… the photos in the gallery says it all… Hope you guys keep in touch and I’m sure our paths will cross again…

While staying in Johannesburg I was lucky enough to spend some time with an old friend from Zambia. Eitzaz and I went to nursery, lower and upper school together and we lived across the road from each other. It was great fun watching old home videos, reading old school reports and reminiscing about our childhood in Africa. I’m so happy after 13 years apart that we managed to pick up where we left off, as if it was yesterday… Your mom’s cooking is tha bomb (just how I remembered it) and it was great seeing Amara as well.

Until next time… It’s goodbye once again…