I have always wanted to go to Africa for three reasons.
1. To experience the African bush,
2. TO go on an African Safari, and
3. To see Victoria Falls.
I knew I wouldn't knew be in the vicinity of the falls this year so Victoria would have to wait, but the other two were distinct possibilities. In November my team and I were in South Africa and were given the opportunity to go on a safari at a game preserve. Now, I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound "real" to me. It sounds like driving around a zoo in a jeep. And, to be honest, I've already been on that kind of African safari in New Jersey, at Great Adventure. Na, I didn't wanna do it. I learned later that as I suspected, it was small, there were fences and cages everywhere, and it felt like a zoo. No worries, I was still holding out hope for a great safari. Better yet, I was hoping to see a real live elephant out in the wild.
In December we relocated to Mozambique. After a great dinner in a normal home with an American couple, my team and I ventured out to the bush. The real African bush. A lot of trees, dirt, plants, and, of course, bushes. It was awesome! People carry everything from boxes and bags to chickens, bread, and sticks on their heads – sometimes all at once. Almost every woman has a baby tied to her back, you can eat mangoes right off the ground, and the stars at night are breath-taking. Kids make toys out of soda cans, pieces of wire, and old tire frames. The weather actually governs your activities. The people love to sing and dance, and it always sounds amazing. Transportation into town can take all day and usually consists of 10-20 people in the back of a tiny, little, pick up truck. The homes are made out of grass and banana leaves. People cook over coals, and almost everywhere you go they offer you something to eat – you may not know what it is, but it's a kind gesture none-the-less. I loved it!
Aside from my experience in the bush, I hated Mozambique. But January brought us to Swaziland which has totally redeemed my African experience. It is absolutely gorgeous! The landscape is breathtaking, the weather is perfect, it rains most nights and the sun shines in the morning. To top it off, I was given another opportunity to go on an African safari. This time I accepted. I was still a little skeptical because it was on a preserve but I had come to find out that, at least in the Southern African countries, these preserves are the only places you can see animals such as elephants, zebras, giraffes, and lions. There was such a high price being paid for these animals that hunting them became a big problem. So all the animals were corralled – kind of like Noah – and brought to preserves. Some are much more organic than others, and the animals don't HAVE to stay but for the most part they do.
The reason I decided to go on this safari was because it was one of the royal safaris – set up and sponsored by the king of Swaziland. That impressed me BEFORE I found out he has 14 wives and 60-some kids, but I went on the safari none-the-less. There were no cages or fences to be seen, just a lot of trees and shrubs, occasional watering holes where the animals would meet in the early morning hours, the sounds of birds and frogs by the ponds, vultures flying in the distance signifying something had died, dead trees that had been stripped clean by elephants, flocks of white fronted bee eaters, a lone brown snake eagle. We drove around for a while taking in the sights and sounds of nature without ever crossing paths with one of the big five. And then we saw him . . . I don't know how old he was or how much he weighed but we came face to face with a beautiful, graceful, magnificent lion. There is was, in Africa, on safari, standing five feet away from a real, live, uncaged, un-drugged, lion. I was as giddy as a child on Christmas morning.
We didn't see anymore lions that day, but we did go on to spot a couple of elephants meandering through the brush. One had taken a mud bath earlier and still had tufts of grass from the pond riding on his back. He stuck around for a while, watching us and allowing us to get some great close-up photos. The other one wasn't very interested and turned his back on us, so we continued on our way. Next, we happened upon some young wart hogs play-fighting by a pond. As we sat there watching the show a very young giraffe came along and began using some dead branches to scratch his neck. We drove around for a while longer on the lookout without seeing much of anything when we spotted a 3-4" monitor lizard just before he shuffled back into his lair. It wasn't long after the lizard's tail disappeared that we saw a giraffe's head appear over the tops of some trees. As we drove closer we realized it was pair of giraffes. They were taking their time nibbling leaves off the tops of trees and loping lazily around the area. We were busy trying get the best pictures of these large and graceful creatures as we could when we spotted something moving in the brush. Moments later, 5 white rhinos walked right in front of us, stopped, eliminated their lunch, and moved on. That was not a pleasant smell but it certainly made us laugh. After they moved from our line of sight we spotted a pair of dung beetles rolling a large ball of poo past our jeep. We shook our heads, took a picture, and laughed as we tried to catch a few more shots of the giraffes before they headed off into the distance.
