An hour ago, I sat six feet from a lion. Driving through Kruger at sunset with my personal guide (more below), we spotted a lioness laying in the road at the top of the next hill. Pulling closer, she gave us a few good stares, but then looked away in disinterest. As we rolled up along side, it was clear that she was enjoying the heat rising from the road as the air temperature dropped. The sunlight lit her fur golden and here eyes a glowing orange. I was close enough to see the tufts of hair in her ears; to look straight into her mouth as she yawned and licked her lips. A truly awe inspiring sight. Between displays of her canines (felines?), she lay her head down on her paws, resting the tip of her chin on the pavement. 100% pet-able.
Other sightings today included a white rhino up close (which I'd missed out on at the rhino-heavy game park down south on Saturday), lots of elephants, including a baby, flashy birds, and some tiny ground ferrets that were super adorable.
As for my personal guide, he's an older Afrikaners named Jac ("Yuk"), who used to be the executive producer for the SABC evening news, and later director of programming for KZN province. In 1996, the entire white executive corps was asked to step aside for black leadership, and he turned to tour guiding. I got a fascinating account from him of South African history dating back to seventeenth century settlement in Cape Town, through a handful of Anglo, Boer, and Zulu wars (with a heavy emphasis on British misbehavior), the apartheid years, relaxation and violence in the 70s and 80s, and the process of reconciliation and nation building in the 90s. He speaks local languages well enough to recite the new national motto as written in click-heavy San (unity in diversity).
As awesome as he is, it's admittedly strange to be traveling one-on-one with someone I've never met before, and who is working while I'm vacationing -- in fact to facilitate my vacation. As soon as we got into Kruger, though, things felt much more relaxed. Hunting for game is a full time activity while driving slowly along the park roads, and he's very knowledgeable about which animaly is which, and what their mating, eating, and sleeping behavior is. Pretty handy.
Backing up a bit, it was awesome to spend last night with Em, Justin, baby Charlie, and Danny. Charlie is cuter even than the baby elephant I saw today. They live in the super trendy neighborhood of Melville, which is the first mixed-race middle/upper class neighborhood I've seen since I landed here. Very cute restaurant, with creative food -- the butternut squash, feta, and cashew risotto was quite good -- and a slick but comfortable vibe. Catching up with such old friends so far away from home gave me a sense of belonging here that zipping across the country in a car for the last week had not. I also really enjoyed feeling comfortable walking to dinner, and seeing a vibrant neighborhood without the strong lingering tension of apartheit in the eyes of everyone I passed.
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BTW, sorry for the sparsity of blog entries. ZA has some of the worst public internet availability that I've encountered on my travels. I've been diarying, though, so I'll fill in the gaps when I have a decent connection. . .
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