loathing the "Big Five" and back to work

I’ve always wanted to see Kruger Park. It is one of those national parks that everyone has heard of. My general conclusion is that... going to Kruger to see wildlife is like reading the cliff notes version of a great novel. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Botswana where the wildlife is “wild” and the camping areas are unfenced.

Kruger is a well manicured park with tarmac (paved) roads throughout and luxurious lodges. The “off road” loops are perfectly even gravel and dirt roads (the road we take to drive home every day is more challenging). It seems odd to drive on lovely paved roads and see animals. The wildlife is abundant and we see elephants and Cape buffalo…two of the “Big Five” (which I hate, by the way). All over Southern Africa you see tourist marketed kitsch with the “Big Five” – elephant, buffalo, leopard, lion and rhino. Shot glasses, coffee mugs, t-shirts. I loathe the “Big Five.” Who decided on these 5? Why not cheetahs? Giraffe? And as someone marginally involved with tourism, I cringe when clients come with their check off list aiming to see all of the “Big Five.” Ugh! Africa cannot be summarized into a check list, one should enjoy what they see and be thankful for it.

We spend the night in one of the lodges and start heading for Botswana on Tuesday morning. We drive through beautiful lush green mountainous areas of South Africa. We have one flat tire (#9) prior to crossing the border at Martin’s Drift and spend a bit more time at one of these ramshackle tire repair places on the side of the road.

We spend our final night camping at Kwa No Keng (as we drive in we get flat tire #10). It is a bit of a coincidence that we end up here in that it has been almost three years to the day that Paul asked me if he could have “ten minutes” to talk to me alone at the end of our Botswana leg of the 2007 Furman trip. It was a ten minute conversation that changed the course of the rest of our lives and it’s hard to believe it’s only been three years. It seems like we’ve done so much together in what is a relatively short amount of time. It’s hard to imagine my life without Paul in it.

It rains like mad the last night of the trip. The first rain of any note that we’ve had over the entire trip. Thunder. Lightening. A real downpour. Keeps me up most of the night but, fortunately, Paul sleeps through most of it. Tuesday we make the eight hour drive back to Maun. We are greeted by the familiar sights of Botswana – animals (donkeys, goats and cows) that roam freely in the roads, veterinary control fences futilely attempting to stop the spread of disease, a hippo in the decorative watering hole at the fuel station (what?). We get flat # 11 about 5 miles from home. Ugh!

Back to reality. Back to work. Off to Johannesburg in less than a week to meet my group of twenty students from Furman who I will travel with for the next two months. Feeling very fortunate we had a chance to get away, at least for a bit.