The big South African park was a task waiting list for years. Along the way, a few African parks in Kenya followed one another before, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. My gaze was no longer the same as when I had read, imagined and tasted like words that have be savored soul. Kruger It had been stripped of the memory of the burly historical leader of the Boers and was now just a savanna teeming with wildlife., one more, that he faced with the same intensity of that distant first Aberdares.
Three planes and 25 hours, We landed at the South African airport Nelspruit with the joints in repair and the desire for the savannah intact. Kruger was only a couple of hours away by car and this time there was no agency guide waiting at the terminal, but a friend, what turned that safari into a real trip, honoring its meaning in Swahili.
The big South African park was a task waiting list for years
The sun is shining and it is very hot in our first minutes in South Africa. We travel six in the SUV. There are more expectation looks than tired. The joy for the reunion lengthens the minutes, leaves them in suspense until all its seconds spread on the ground, that cease to be important, Because time in Africa does not need the tyranny of watches. Only responds to the sun and the shadows of the night.
The R-40 for which we go to one of the entrance doors to the park is an asphalt carpet that winks you an eye, as soon as you start touring it, With its arcenes and medium painted. I have traveled thousands of kilometers on African roads and hardly exceeded the 50 per hour most of the time. See now the needle of the account kilometers beyond the 100 was the realization that South Africa, in fact, is nothing.
The R-40 is a carpet of asphalt that winks at you with its painted shoulders and medians
We were passing through eucalyptus forests and banana and orange plantations that seemed to have been drawn by a string., everything so Cartesian that it made you doubt that, in fact, We would have landed in Africa if it weren't for the street vendors who sold their grapefruits on the shoulders between radar and radar, getting safe from the numerous trucks transporting their goods towards Zimbabwe.
After leaving Numbi Gate behind, We finally entered the park Phabeni Gate. Admission 250 Rands (under 18 EUR). Most of the roads are paved (Now it seems that raising the asphalt is being considered), A peculiarity that adds comfort to the safari but has the taste of the adventure that chews in dust and earth. That allows, however, that anyone can approach with their car to enjoy the Kruger without having an SUV or leave the money in a travel agency, what undoubtedly democratizes access to wildlife. What was from South Africa is an exception (local tourism) Here is usual. I have always happy to cross in some safari with a "matatu" full of African excursion children in a national park.
I miss traveling by standing and that wind that disheveled the thoughts while the look is lost in the savannah
We had no folding roof, so we settled for watching the animals from the window, sharing the frames and privileged positions while we exchanged laughs, snacks and drinks chased by the sun. Here it is not possible to leave the track, as in Mara, and enter the savannah in search of animals, which makes it even more difficult to see them. But, nevertheless, the succession of wildlife does not detract: Giraffes, Rhinos, Buffaloes, Elephants, wildebeest and even a solitary lioness who soon gets lost in the bushes without even giving us time to finish the photo.
I miss traveling by standing and that wind that disheveled the thoughts while the look is lost in the savannah. I have never been able to do a sitting safari. No matter the tiredness, the dust doesn't matter, no matter the incessant jiggling. There is so much life out there that comfort is uncomfortable. It has nothing to do with aesthetics.. Los safaris, better standing.
The desktop is lengthened with beers and Amarula, The local liquor, Although at a quarter past five you have to get up
We left the park by the Satara Gate. Tonight we slept in some bungalows with fridge and barbecue at the door where the shower water goes hot. Dinner is appetizing and the company, unbeatable. The desktop is lengthened with beers and Amarula, The local liquor, Although at a quarter past five in the morning you have to get up to take advantage of those first hours of sun, When animals are more active and there are more possibilities to see them.
The day, After reunitting with a bed almost two days later, is up to the expected, Although felines are elusive to us. The Kruger is calm, No car agglomerations, Maybe because it's a working day. Lunch at the Lower Sabie, On a strategically arranged terrace on a high river, It is overwhelming. Dozens of hypos and elephants swarm along the banks while hamburgers and beers go from table at table.
To finish the day, Javier -which knows the park as few- Lets us drive the SUV for a while. Not every day you have the opportunity to drive for the kruger, So it's not a matter of letting it pass. Far away from those first safaris in which everything was submitted to the catalog of prohibitions, Which ridiculous, To continue making the fear business in Africa profitable.
Not every day you have the opportunity to drive an SUV for Kruger
at the end of the road, In a river bend next to Crocodile Gate, A surprise, The last wink that all good guide, Javier too, is saved in the hat. On a hill we park the car. It's one of those places where you know something is going to happen.. It happens. An elephant is shaping in the river, Fooking his enormous body with the indissimulated satisfaction of a child in the bathtub.
On the opposite shore, Another elephant approaches the river with parsimony. Enter the water and go challenging towards the other pachidermo, that he is no longer a child in the bathtub, but an animal willing to defend its territory to colmillaz. They are measured for a few seconds, looking with their fangs, until the melee occurs in search of the essential hierarchy in the pack. I had seen similar scenes in the savannah, But never in the waters of a river. If you warn our presence, We have to be prepared to start the car and get away, warns Javier. An elephant is able to run more than we imagine. I give up without grinding your position behind the wheel.
Do not wait for the perfect day, It is much to face a safari with the spirit of variable cloudiness
The African parks, I have proven it, The possibility of surprising you to the last second. You can never completely arrive the flag of curiosity, As much as tiredness aleche. It is the variable cloudiness of a safari, Able to alternate radiant soles (Some of the desired "Big Five") with clouds that seem darke up everything (those eternal minutes in which the savanna only offers you thickets and acacias without leopards). If we face a safari waiting for the perfect day, We are probably disappointed. It is much better to do so assuming the spirit of the variable cloudiness and let us surprise by what the day gives us, that is usually a lot.
We left Kruger behind the assurance that he deserved more days, And especially more nights and some beers, But we had to set up Lebombo, The border with Mozambique, that Africa that is Africa and that aspires, Like all Africa, to stop being, To be South Africa.
