September 2008 - Kruger Park

Fred was invited over the University to attend a Organic Chemistry Conference organized by a collaboration between South Africa and Germany in the Kruger Park! Each member was allowed to bring a partner. So there was our chance to get to see the famous Kruger Park and of course some famous Chemists who however, were ranking rather low on my interest scale... Being in Africa most certainly involves safaris and eventually if one is lucky enough seeing the Big Five of the Wild. The Rhino, Leopard, Buffalo, Rhino and Elephant.
Why they did not include in those the unbelievable pleasure of seeing a Whale I have not been to figure out until now.
While Fred was spending most of the days in the Conference room of the Berg en Daal Rest Camp in Kruger I had the whole day to my self, to either stroll along the camps's footpaths and sit and watch the elephants, rhinos and millions of antelope species coming to get water and rest in the shade from the burning sun or the more fancy option was to be driven by a 4x4 vehicle to game drives.

Nothing can bit the feeling of driving along a dirt path and seeing your first elephant standing in the middle of the road. While just a few meters further a rhino is hiding in the bushes and beyond the tree tops you can spot a couple of giraffes feeding of the leaves. However, writing this 3 years after the actual visit to Kruger and having seen plenty of other National Parks in the meantime has sort of altered my first impression. Kruger is something like a game drive factory. It is the biggest and oldest National Park in South Africa and maybe one of the most well-known to visitors to South Africa. It has an airport within its border, very well-equipped rest camps and well-maintained roads (every city car can easily drive around Kruger) all this can lead to ques of cars forming around waterholes. With such a great influx of visitors the true 'wild' experience is sort of flawed while at the same time prices may be double than in other parks.
Nevertheless, this first experience of 'Game Viewing' which is the South African equivalent to a 'Safari', was stunning.
One lecture-free afternoon we managed to escape the gates and drove north along the borders of the Park to the Blyde River Canyon. The rather flat, dry savannah like scenery of the Park is transformed into canyons covered in pine forests and due to the altitude most of it was covered in mist. Beautiful! The way back was longer then expected and the gates of the park had closed... This was rather embarrassing as a ranger needed to drive from the camp to the main gate to escort us back...
A wonderful experience all together!