South Africa: An adventure with a history lesson : Day 7

Day 7: Sabi Sands: The big five and the colors of Soweto, Johannesburg.

Our last day in the Greater Kruger area started at 4:30 am again. Our guide for the day had just returned from vacation and was full of energy. We started on our safari and soon we saw the mother and baby rhino close to where we had spotted them the previous evening. We then ran into a herd of elephants. One of the elephants was pregnant. A teenage elephant came really close to our vehicle and sniffed out our guide. They are such curious creatures. I don't think I ever got tired of seeing these magnificent animals. 

We saw some giraffes, impalas and zebras. We also saw some "Dagga boys" - namely a bachelor group of buffaloes which had been wallowing in the mud, "dagga" being another word for mud.

Sabi Sands claims that you are almost guaranteed to see the big five on their safaris. "In Africa, the big five game animals are the lion, leopard, rhinoceros (both black and white species), elephant, and Cape buffalo. The term "big five game" (usually capitalized or quoted as "Big Five") was coined by big-game hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot" (Reference: Wikipedia). We had seen 4 of the 5 so far. The only animals we had not seen were lions. Our trackers soon found us a group of lion cubs. There were 4 young cubs with a older cub. The older cub seemed to be baby-sitting the young ones. There was no sign of their mother. The young cubs were playing with each other and were climbing sand hills and having a good time. 

Lion cubs walking on the road.

We followed the lions for a while and then they headed off into the bush to find a good hiding place and we let them be. As we were heading back to the lodge, we saw a leopard. We had indeed seen the big five and all in a day. Once we were back at the lodge, we had continental breakfast, packed our bags and headed out of Sabi Sands. The last five days had been an adventure, an experience so unique that I will remember forever. We had been in a different world - where animals belonged and we didn't and now we were heading back to the human jungle. 

Our drive from Sabi Sands was via some hilly regions. We stopped at Dullstroom for a break. Dullstroom is a very popular fly fishing destination and is very picturesque. As we got closer to Johannesburg, there was some slow traffic due to an accident. The traffic was slow mostly due to curious observers slowing down to check out what had happened. We reached our stop for the night, Lebo's backpackers at around 6:30 PM. 

South Africa has really well maintained roads. Driving was a pleasure.

They were having an event that night so they were offering dinner for a fee. This was the best food we had in South Africa. Our dinner consisted of pap, lettuce, tomato and olive salad, shredded carrot and bean salad, and vegetarian potjie with rice. "In South Africa, a potjiekos, literally translated "small-pot food", is a dish prepared outdoors. It is traditionally cooked in a round, cast iron, three-legged pot, the potjie, descended from the Dutch oven brought from the Netherlands to South Africa in the 17th century and found in the homes and villages of people throughout southern Africa. The pot is heated using small amounts of wood or charcoal or, if fuel is scarce, twisted grass or even dried animal dung."(Reference: Wikipedia).

 

The potjie was delicious. As we filled up our plates with the goodness and headed to the seating area, the event started. The last Thursday of every month, Lebo's organizes fire side talks, where local people speak about a topic. The night's topic was jazz and how the music was influenced by the political climate and the speaker is the owner of a jazz club in Soweto. He spoke about how he got interested in jazz, the jazz style unique to South Africa, how difficult it was being a musician in the apartheid era and at the end of it, how he opened his own establishment - the jazz club in Soweto. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, he was not able to play any music for us. It was an interesting talk and we felt like we learnt a bit about Soweto through his stories. 

Fire side chats

After the talk, Sushanth and I shared a local beer, by the fire. We were staying in a 8 bed dorm. There was just one person apart from us in the dorm. He was from Egypt. We chatted a bit and then called it a night.