After a long break from blogging….
A Weekend of Science!
So a long delay in posts – the last weekend in SA in December was as full as it gets and then the last week trying to get packed and work completed was kind of busy. Then the 29 hour flight home (and then back) in coach – I was not exactly in the mood to try and upload pictures to blogspot…. Now as I find myself in Phase 2 (and so enjoying the weather again) I got my notes together and finished these posts.
Cradle of Humankind
With all the emphasis on the safari, it would be easy to forget that we started the weekend (12/10) visiting the Cradle of Humankind. Although on the drive we saw baboons and several ostrich along the side of the road-animals are never far away.
Joburg really grew in the late 1800’s as gold was found in the area. Some Italians joined the mix and started mining around some caves northwest of the city. They found lots of limestone but no gold, and eventually someone found some of the oldest humanoid remains ever. Mrs Ples is the nickname for the skull (short for her scientific name). The caves are now open for tourists – we climbed down 119 steps, crawled through some tiny passages, and then climbed back up 109 stairs, so we got our exercise for the morning while learning about the rock formations and fossils.
Flat Stanley, looking forward to climbing down into the caves. My manicure is still looking good as well!
The entrance
This rock (dolomite) is older than life
A researcher died after getting trapped in the rocks in this lake so no one has been allowed in the lake since.
More formations
They call this one the elephant trunk
Work colleague testing out the sundial – unfortunately it was completely overcast so we had to rely on our watches. David, being from the UK, volunteered to do all the driving as it’s the “right” side of the road for him.
EEKS! I hate snakes….And we weren’t even at the game reserve yet
We tried to find a place to eat after all the climbing but everything in the area (exburbs) was booked for weddings. I realize it’s summer, but who would want to plan a wedding in the run up to Christmas? But then again, Christmas here isn’t like Christmas in the US. A lot more calm….
While looking for this one restaurant we saw a bird that had feathers in such a bright neon orange, I thought it was 1983. I will never again be able to say “That color does not occur in nature.”
So, without any restaurants (I did run in what turned out to be a dive bar, but turned around), we grazed on the snacks we brought with us and drove up into the Northwest Province (SA is comprised of 9 provinces). The scenery was magnificent with amazing mountains – there was one I called the “draft” Table Mountain as it was pretty much the same shape, but with some key “cutouts” that made it just a bit less perfect than what I will see in Cape Town. The mountains are also incredibly old as they were rounded – not jagged like the young Rockies. Using my friend’s GPS we made it safely to the hotel in Rustenberg, a small town just southwest of Pilanesburg, our destination. We checked in and headed straight for the Park/Reserve so we could get in a drive in the late afternoon.
We passed through the main part of town which was not very nice. Then all of a sudden amid the tiny shanty town is this magnificent new sports stadium – I thought it must have been built for the World Cup – it certainly stood out as something as “one of these things just doesn’t belong here…..” Then we passed a platinum mine (so maybe they can afford a nice new sports stadium? They certainly don’t pay the workers very much given the “homes” they live in). The following week in the office I learned that the owner of the platinum mine built the stadium for polo matches.
Finally, Pilanesburg….
Pilanesburg National Park
The area was – a long, long time ago – a volcano. The crater eventually formed a lovely valley where in the 1800’s people started living there and farmed/owned cattle. In 1979 someone got an idea to make the area a game reserve and within a decade they had built fences, roads, lookout areas (more on this later), and migrated animals from other parts of Africa. It’s quite fascinating really – you have “savannah” on the bottom of the crater and then it quickly moves to mountainous areas where there are rockhoppers. Even on the drive from Joburg we noticed there were cacti but then 45 minutes later there were fir trees. The climate here (and flora) is quite interesting and changes rapidly.
So we arrive at the park and head in. Right off the bat we see a Tsessebe, Then right up the road in the river there was a family of hippos just hanging out.
Hippo mom; her baby is right in front of her.
Next we saw wildebeest and zebras. Little do we know that the park is full of both. David decided that there are not enough lions in the park if there are this many wildebeests and zebras. But then again, he was really keen to actually see a lion and it was the one disappointment for us – we never did see one. I guess I spend too much time with numbers because I made a comment at one point that the wildebeests and the zebras seemed to correlate – they were always next to each other in relatively the same proportion. Later on I picked up our guide book that said the exact same thing.
Wildebeest playing (and then giving me quite a “look”)
Why did the zebra cross the road (RIGHT next to our car)?
To get back together with the herd
After that, a dung beetle, jackal, lots of birds, and impalas were the sights of the evening. We stayed as long as possible though – we were one of three cars in a line being “escorted” out of the park by one of the rangers at 7pm. We didn’t want to leave but the next day would prove to be amazing!
As the guide book says, dung beetles provide a vital service : )
This Impala’s little baby was just off to the right. But the picture didn’t come out very well as she was further back from the road and hiding in some grass. It was a great time of year to go as so many of the animals had their babies with them, including wharthogs.
Hakuna Matata! Baby wharthog in the grass
Pilanesburg Day 2
We didn’t get much sleep as we wanted to be at the park when it opened. We were greeted by a small herd of impalas as the gates and a friend who perched on the car as we paid the entrance fee.
We went down some of the same roads we had started with on Saturday. And we saw the hippos in the *exact* same spot – it was like they had never moved. We also saw zebras and wildebeest – we were thinking “hey we need to see some new critters as well.“ Then, almost immediately, we saw some giraffes on the side of the road. We were hoping to see a bunch more and boy did we.
The roads in Pilanesburg are graded but only the three main roads are paved. We went through the map and made sure we went on *every* single road. A few were closed due to the rains they had in the week prior but we went on every road that was open. As you are driving your focus is to watch what is on the side of the road. At one point I just happened to look forward and there was a family of giraffes crossing –
We thought that was pretty cool and then on the same road we noticed lots of tree limbs and deposits of material only a dung beetle could appreciate… Then out of the corner of my eye I saw this flash of movement in some trees. I was like “Back up! Back up!” And there were some elephants munching on the leaves.
Jumbo having brunch
Every turn down a lane yielded some really incredible scenes. Right away there was a small herd of hardebeest; the kids were playing and Mom had to come over frequently to get things back in order. We stopped the car and just watched them romp about.
Kids playing…
….Mom sorting things out…
…Dad assessing the situation (love the curly-q antlers)
Next we saw a rhino family – but they were much further back from the road so the pics aren’t as good. By now we were extremely hungry and went to one of the lodges in the park and ate a large quantity of food at their breakfast buffet. The Agapanthus in front of the lodge are everywhere in Joburg. I will always think of my time here when I see these flowers.
Rhino family (to the left of the tall tree)
African Blue Lillies at the lodge
We left the park to gas up and figure out our timing for the rest of the day. As we were leaving there were a couple of mongoose at the park entrance…
Riki Tiki Tavi and friend
We returned through a different entrance so we could get to some of the other roads we hadn’t yet been on. On one of these there was a lookout point on the map. My friend had described them to me, but I didn’t appreciate what he meant until I got there. There was a little parking lot and then a door that led to what is essentially a tree house. Once you get in the door, everything is fenced and electrified. But you do need to get from the car to the door. Apparently Ed met a lion when he went to the lookout on his first trip! Our entry was incident free. In the tree house there was a small window to look out – and right beneath us was a HUGE hippo relaxing in the mud. So awesome to see how big they are…S/he was about 15 feet away.
Lots of birds, impalas, zebras and wildebeest, mir cat, jackals, wharthogs, and no lions later. we decided to do one more loop around this one road and then we would head out.
The wharthog’s tusks can impale and kill a cheetah in no time flat. Ouch! This guy/gal was very mellow though.
We saw some more giraffe and then all of a sudden David says “Look!” And there was the mama elephant and her calf. They were right next to me about 7 feet away from the door of the car. It was really hot that day -- they were throwing mud on their backs to cool themselves off in the afternoon sun. They were absolutely *magnificent.* We kept pace with them for about 10 minutes – they never left our side, but we did get the sense they might be a little nervous so we moved on.
Our first sighting; Mom rushing over to...
…her adorable baby calf.
My absolute favorite picture of the trip
We did go to another observation point on the way out, this one was on the big lake in the middle of the reserve as we crossed over the park to leave. There were zebras and wildebeest right next to us as we got out of the car, but saw mostly birds and turtles once inside.
As we drove back to Joburg (a 3-hour drive), I noticed a sign on the road that said “Hijacking hotspot next 2 km.” Needless to say we sped up some! If the carjacking is so bad that they put a sign up, perhaps they could do more to police the area? Put some cameras up? Anyway the trip back was uneventful for us and it capped an AMAZING weekend.
I updated my facebook status to say – You know you had a good weekend when seeing giraffes, zebras and wildebeests becomes routine.”
Don't know how I will top this but I am going to try!
all pictures are copyright Denise Turgeon, 2011.
