Tag Archives: South Africa

Is that Elephant Charging Us?: A Kruger Play-by-Play

We spent two days driving around Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa. It sprawls over more than 7,500 square miles (for those at home, that is a bit smaller than the state of New Jersey), covered in a network of tarred and dirt roads that allow visitors to drive around the park in their own cars. Thousands upon thousands of animals –including all of the “Big Five” (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinoceroses, and buffaloes) –live in the park, and many of them are easily viewable, even by complete novices like us equipped with just a Toyota Corolla and some snacks for the road.

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Surrounded by impalas

NB: Even though I’m referring to the following as a play-by-play, I’ve edited for time and interest. No one needs to know about the zillionth impala we saw, and (amazingly) even the elephants and giraffes began getting repetitive. Only the most notable sightings are listed. (And it’s still a long post! Seriously, Kruger is awesome.) Continue reading Is that Elephant Charging Us?: A Kruger Play-by-Play

The Best Potholes We’ve Ever Seen

When most people think of Africa, they think of big game: lions, leopards, elephants, and the like. Somehow, we made it through our first three weeks in Africa without seeing anything more exotic than a monkey. 1

Accordingly, after leaving Johannesburg, we set our sights on Kruger National Park, arguably the most famous game reserve in Southern Africa. We left Johannesburg late on a Friday afternoon but, because of Kruger’s popularity on the weekends, didn’t want to arrive until at least Sunday morning. We conferred with our guidebooks for potential sights between Johannesburg and Kruger, and discovered the Blyde River Canyon in Mpumalanga’s Drakensburg Escarpment.

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Blyde River Canyon

Continue reading The Best Potholes We’ve Ever Seen

History Lesson in Johannesburg

After our idyllic stay in Vilankulo, we flew to Johannesburg, South Africa.

To be honest, I wasn’t that amped about visiting Jo’burg. It has something of a rough reputation. As someone who lived in New York for five years and Chicago (which has more than its share of gun violence) for three years before that, however, I always take breathless warnings about big city crime with a grain of salt. I’ve found that if you are smart about where you are going, discrete with your valuables, and aware of your surroundings, you’re generally going to be fine.

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Marc atop the ramparts at the Old Fort prison complex, with the Hillbrow Tower in the background.

Continue reading History Lesson in Johannesburg