travelswithalice

October 01, 2005

An African Safari

We play “Chicken,” the lioness and I. She looks straight into my eyes as she strides quietly and resolutely towards me. I keep my lens trained on her and wait for her to blink. Or veer away. She can’t be more than five feet from me.

“It looks like MGM!” somebody behind me quips. And the magic dissolves.

I have never before been this close to a wild animal. In truth, I have never been close to the animal kingdom as a rule. I give even household pets a wide berth.

Africa has changed me forever.

We are in Mala Mala, a private game reserve adjacent to the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The adventure begins in Johannesburg.

My suitcase is missing.

My suitcase is missing, probably still in Hong Kong where we started from or Singapore where the Africa flight originated. Whatever. I’m too excited, just being in Africa, to care too much. At the airport, the airline gives me shopping money to buy clothes in case the suitcase does not turn up soon. I blow the lot on a pair of yoga pants.

A small plane flies us to Nelspruit where we pick up a rental car. We stay the night in crocodile country.

“But where’s the croc steak?” Stuart asks the waiter at dinner.

There are no crocs in sight but a party of monkeys in the garden livens up breakfast the next day.

On the road to Mala Mala.

It’s a beautiful drive through replanted forests on the panoramic route and we’re in Kruger National Park before long.

A herd of impala look up to gaze at us nonchalantly. I see my first giraffe on the road. We arrive in Mala Mala in time for lunch. A party of nyala and guinea fowl graze on the lawn just outside our room as we get ready for the afternoon game drive.

We're on safari now and we don't really know what to expect.

Our ranger has a rifle mounted in front of the Land Rover. When I ask him if it's real or only a prop, he says it's real alright but he doesn't guarantee that it would really make a difference if and when he is required to use it.

"It's only to be used for damage control," he laughs.

To Stuart and me, they're all just deer.

The birds are beautiful, some of them native to the area and rarely seen elsewhere.

There are antelope of various kinds, differentiated by their horns, size, shape, color, and stripe. To Stuart and me, they're all just deer.

We see our first African elephant and Cape buffalo.

As daylight starts to fade, we watch leopard cubs on some rock formations above huge clumps of poisonous cactus-like plants called euphorbia.

We make four of the Big Five on this, our first outing but our ranger is not happy with some of the sightings, particularly of the rhino, which could only be seen darkly from afar.

Two welcome arrivals: my suitcase and a full moon.

Somebody from camp radios us that my suitcase has arrived.

We wait for the moon to rise. The sky is clear and Venus is so bright it looks like several stars stuck together. The Milky Way stretches a creamy vertical band directly overhead. The Southern Cross lies on its side. We applaud the arrival of the full moon. The Man in the Moon is upside down.

An animal blocks our path and we call for help.

On arrival, we were instructed never to walk back to our rooms at night unescorted by staff. We were also told not to approach any animals wandering about in the grounds. Well, on our way to the Boma, that wonderful walled campfire where dinner is served under the stars, an animal wanders into our path.

We get back to our room and call for help.

Someone on the phone reassures us, “It’s ok; it won’t hurt you.” He probably has not stopped laughing to this day. Imagine that! Two grown people, afraid of a sweet little bushbuck!

Well, what did you expect? We’re city dwellers, Stuart and I. We had to think long and hard before taking a pair of lovebirds into our home!

Labels: safari, South Africa.

posted by Alice Dimalanta Jones # October 01, 2005

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