At the end of Feb we had a 7 day break from the course where Rach and I headed to Kruger NP for 3 nights and a few days in Pretoria (it's safer than staying in Jo'berg!).
Pretoria was actually not too bad (we stayed in the student area of Hatfield) and felt fairly safe during the day although we didn't walk around at night. What is scary though is how the locals have to live, behind huge gates and electric fences. Crime is so bad that you basically have to build a fortress to live in - not my idea of comfortable living I'm afraid but this is the norm in S. Africa today. The scars and wounds of the past will take a long time to heal here I fear!
It was good to be out of the bush for a few days anyway and to get back to civilisation; the bush is great, but when you come back to the city you really do notice all those things that you've been missing (like ice in cold drinks, baths, internet, restaurants :) ). This was only a short stay though as we had hired a little car - Hyundai Atos, and by god is this car small but perfectly formed - and headed over to the Kruger NP.
This was about a 6 hour drive but the roads here are good and trafic is very light (at least compared to the UK) so it was really just a matter of putting the foot to the pedal and enjoying some spectacular scenery. And what scenery?! Some of the roads through the mountains were just breathtaking, although the little Atos did struggle up some of them :(
Kruger was actually easier to get to and navigate than I thought it would be - everything is well sign posted and the roads are well laid out. Perfect for a simple bush holiday using a hire car. Certainly something we would consider again if we wanted a fairly inexpensive safari from the UK (flights, hire car from airport, simple drive to Kruger - very easy).
We stayed in the Skukuza camp which is the largest in the reserve - it has a shop for all food stuffs, a restaurant if you don't fancy cooking for yourself, an info area, a post office, and even a petrol station. We stayed for 3 nights in a river view lodge/hut with our our kitchen area and brai (bar-b-q). We brai'd every night and felt like real Saffer locals :)
Despite having a tiny car we drove around the reserve every day for about 5 hours - we saw loads of elephants, buffalo, birds etc, but sadly no lions, hyena, leopard or cheetah. These predators were spotted whilst we were there (the camp has a map showing what animals were sighted and where today and the previous day, which is really useful) but sadly not by us!
We woke up at camp each morning to the sound of hippo calling in the sabie River. The other very local wildlife were the little Vervet monkeys that have learnt how to open fridge doors, and on more than one occasion I was havingto chase the little buggers way from the fridge as they went to raid it - I wouldn't mind if they had gone for the salad and veg but I was convinced they were going for my beer.... the little gits.
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