Kruger National Park

June 16 Day 7

Having survived the night with no elephants herds, lion attacks, nor any other wild beast rampages in our compound, we awoke at 5:45 am. Dawn only broke a little after 6:00 am. Faan served breakfast outdoors at 6:10 am, tea and crusts, dried bread similar to Zweibach.

Faan left before 6:30 to supervise his farm workers, who were ready to start the day's work. Farm work starting at 6:30 is not so compelling to us. However, Faan says he has had prospective workers begging him for work. "Count your blessings."

We departed the farm compound at 6:30 and set out for Kruger National Park. Our drive was about 60 miles, but pleasant in the clear, crisp early rural South African morning. We wondered what animals we would see in this world famous park. Rule Number One is: "Never, ever get out of your car to view the animals." Indeed, at the small elephant museum within one of the very nice rest areas within the park, there is a story about the two foreigners who emerged from their car to videotape an elephant herd. Apparently while these two survived, their car was rammed with tusks and then stomped into wreckage. There is a reason for this rule. We were not about to violate it, though we were tempted. Definitely this was not Kansas.

Our drive was about 140 miles inside the park. However, the speed limit is about 30 MPH. Also, one fairly frequently encounters a cluster of stopped vehicles, indicating visible animals nearby. The great majority of the time, we were driving slowly through the flat African bush terrain seeing nothing. First, we were only going to see animals hanging out near the roads we traveled, while there are numerous side roads and remote areas we did not explore. Second, the weather was in the mid-50's, though brilliant, clear sunshine, yet with a significant breeze. Like the people we have encountered, such weather is considered "cold" in South Africa, and we surmised the animals felt the same way.

Nevertheless, we saw many zebra herds. Whenever we saw zebras, we saw antelope of various species. Surely these animals have determined they are safer from lions in congregations. Further, perhaps these creatures believe they are safer near roads and the people traveling them. Clusters of baboons are also common. They have no compunction about scurrying across roads.

We drove for hours before we saw elephants and then only a couple dozen total at various locations. We had read at the elephant museum that as of 2005 there were 16,000+ in the park. We had thought we would see many such gargantuan creatures. We also traveled for hours before we saw giraffes. I was not intending to leave the park until we had some giraffe photos for Annabelle.

Every place we saw water, we looked very carefully for animals. Still, all we saw were some hippos here and there. A little after 5:00 pm, we started into access road leading to our rest camp where we would spend the night. There was a major back-up, I thought resulting from everyone trying to enter by 5:30 pm when winter darkness falls, and the compound gate is closed, to keep the animals out. As we finally emerged from the back-up, we caught a glimpse of the cause. Several yards from the road, a leopard was lounging in the bushes. Guess people do not worry him much.

We signed into the park and our night's accommodation, a round cottage structure with a woven grass roof. We dropped our stuff and immediately went out for important scouting--find a spot for viewing that evening's game, South Africa v Uruguay. The World Cup is on TV everywhere in South Africa. We decided on the camp restaurant.

Like the whole rest area, the restaurant was rather nice. Indeed, cell phones and Blackberry work well in the park. The restaurant motif was a train station and appropriately one end was open. The only problem is that the temperature had descended into the 30's by game time. Apparently such temperatures are not common, thus the open design. However, we all bundled up, ate dinner in sweaters and coats, while the show went on.

There were a significant number of locals in the audience, plus many of us foreigners. When the South African national anthem was played, they all stood at attention. One could imagine the whole country coming to a halt to watch Bufana Bufana. Going into the World Cup, South Africa was ranked 83rd, declining from as high as 19th in 1996. Still, the team played way above its ranking in the opening game against Mexico, the one we viewed in Madrid. All of South Africa expected great things.

Unfortunately for the fawning followers, midnight struck and Bufana Bufana turned into pumpkins. Their sluggish footwork and sloppy passes looked like an 83rd-ranked squad. In World Cup rankings, although there are about 200 teams worldwide, any team ranked less than 75 is weak, another world from the big teams. Even worse, not only is Uruguay a solid South American side, they came up with a lucky goal on an unlikely deflection off the back of a South African defender's neck.

Things went south from there and ultimately Bufana Bufana fell into a huge 3 - 0 black hole. Advancing to the next round was suddenly very unlikely. When the game ended, the patrons filed out of the restaurant sullenly. Dreams can be dashed so cruelly and so quickly.

We headed for our cottage and bed. We had more World Cup business the following day, back in Joburg.