Lion King, without the Lions

Katie has dreamed about going on safari, probably since she first saw the Lion King.  I’m pretty sure she didn’t imagine doing so while riding in the luxury of a 2004 Mercedes-Benz C180.  Not what you would typically consider an “Overlander”, but it was all we had to work with.  We bought the Benz surprisingly because it was a good price, much better than the Toyota’s we were finding.  Cars are very expensive here.  VERY expensive.  You can plan to spend 2-3 times more on a car in South Africa than you would back in the states. 

But who cares about that!?  Lets get to the adventure, the danger and the excitement that we were able to experience by fulfilling one of Katie’s life long dreams.

Saturday morning Katie and I woke up and had decided the night before that we were going to travel to Pilanesberg, one of SA many national game reserve parks.  Kruger is the largest and most famous of the game parks, but Pilanesberg is just about 2 hours away from our house.  It is still big though (135,000+ acres). We had heard it was excellent and you can see everything you want to see without driving the 5-6 hours it takes to get to Kruger.  We will surely go to Kruger at some point, but its great to be able to go up and back in the same day.

Pretoria, isn’t really that big of a city.  Which is surprising, because of all of the things available in the city.  I often forget that I am in Africa.  Therefore, it’s almost shocking how fast you can find yourself in the “real” Africa once you get out of the city limits.  We quickly found ourselves in the middle of the country were everyone lives very humbly.  Shacks made of corrugated steel make you imagine just how hot it can get inside one of those poor homes.  I am grateful to have been blessed with so many conveniences and luxuries in our lives, but there is something to admire in the simplicity of those who live so humbly without worrying about such petty materialistic things as we do in the states and even back in Pretoria. **For the newcomers to blogging (mom and dad)!!, you can click on the pictures to make them larger!**

On the drive from Pretoria to Pilanesberg

The landscape of South Africa is amazing.  It seems to change every kilometer.  We drove through plains that looked exactly like what you would see if you were driving through the back roads of rural Oklahoma or Tennessee, then they would change to rolling hills with big red rock formations to mountains ranges in the distant horizon.  Even the clouds looked more dramatic.

We got to Pilanesberg just about 11:30 and as soon as we entered the park we saw a small herd of zebra dash across the road.  I knew from then, we were going to have a good day.  We had no idea where to go, so we just randomly picked a road and found ourselves on a dirt road winding through the tall grasses.  I thought to myself from time to time that a lion could jump out of that grass at any moment and we wouldn’t even see it coming.  We drove for probably only 700 yards and came up on a family of Giraffes.  There were two adults and two babies, just enjoying lunch.  I get the impression that they pretty much enjoy lunch all day long every day.  They have to eat a lot to maintain those big frames. 

 



Just to prove we were there

  

Baby zebra



We never drove faster than 20 km/hr because we were afraid we would miss something.  We came up next on a few Impala as they were crossing the road.  Again, it was a mother with some little ones out and about.  I don’t even know how many Zebras we saw, but we snapped a few photos of some calves that were really cute.

Mama or Daddy trying to get rid of flies

We saw a pretty large group of wildebeest, but they were just lying around in the grass.  They couldn’t have cared less to see us there.  Some of the other smaller animals we saw were; Springbok, Warthogs, and lots of birds.

Wildebeest

Springbok

Impala with crazy horns

We were driving for a while and we were getting a little frustrated that we weren’t seeing any Elephants.  I mean, something that big can’t be hidden very easily.  I guess I’m wrong, because we were driving around, came around a corner and there she was, bigger than life, a huge elephant.  It is really awesome to see them in the wild.  She was eating leaves off of a tree, and when she saw some leaves she wanted but were out of her reach, she would just push everything in her way over, effortlessly, to get what she wanted.  Really cool to see, but she quickly went further into the brush where we couldn’t see her so we moved on.  Luckily we saw two more a little later that were not as bashful.

Elephant butt in the trees

The Rhinos were hilarious to me.  They were all just lying around under a tree.  They reminded us of Rugby, because of how they positioned themselves when they are resting.  One of them had a HUGE horn.  It’s sad that these big guys are poached for only their horns.  Seems really dumb, but SA is doing a lot to crack down hard on illegal poaching.

Hanging out near the Rhinos were some Zebras and Warthogs.  The Warthogs were the funniest because they would get down on their front “knees” to search for food and would just walk around like that.  It was really hilarious to watch. 

We stopped at the center of the park to grab lunch, which was very disappointing.  But they had a fenced area with zebra, wildebeest and warthogs.  By the time we were done we pretty much started heading out of the park.  We saw some cool birds right before we left.  All in all it was a great day, and we made it home before dark.

This was our first mini trip and I am sure there will be more to exciting locations.  I just don’t know if we will be taking them in the Mercedes anymore.  That car isn’t built for off-roading.

Since we got back we have really wanted to get a 4x4 vehicle as our second car to make sure we can get wherever we want to go.  But with how much we had to spend on the first car, the second car we were hoping to get on the cheap.  Sadly cheap and 4x4s don’t seem to go together.  Katie spent a lot of time today looking for good deals online and at the end of my workday she sent me a link to a 1989 Land Rover Defender 110.  It is a super good deal and pretty much my dream “Africa Car”.  I’ve always wanted a Defender but knew I could never afford one.  But this one is in great shape and at the right price.  Hopefully we will pull the trigger on it in the next few days.  The problem is, we are afraid it won’t fit in the garage (we pretty much know it won’t).  But, I think that is just a fine problem to have.  

We have many more pictures, but will have to put them on Picasa or something later for you to see them.  But we hope you enjoy the few we have here.