Johannesburg to Kosi Bay (Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa)

March 28^th, 2011 (January 2011) – It took a little while to get used to driving….again. The driving lane, gear box, and steering wheel are on the wrong side (as opposed to America where everything is on the 'right' side.*). Throw in Johannesburg traffic, nonfunctioning robots (i.e. traffic lights), and a general feeling of confusion for a relatively stressful driving experience. Builds character.

Getting around Jo'burg is a pain in the ass. Why? Well, when you design a city with apartheid in mind you tend to layout a series of semi self-contained areas with no real center, notwithstanding the business district which you don't want to visit anyway. As a result I saw more Western-style malls than I could have anticipated (every area needs a shopping hub). I found this to be both surprising and a little unsettling. It felt a little like I was somewhere between Tampa and Orlando. I also spent way more time at the mall than I am comfortable with (i.e. any time at all) but it was a necessary evil and it did make locating camping paraphernalia a bit more expedient.

We first headed north to an area known as 'The Cradle of Humankind', a World Heritage Site swimming in ancient history. There was also supposedly some sort of rhino and lion park where one can allegedly frolic with baby lions….if one were in to such an enterprise….which I am clearly not on account of how cool I am….which is entirely too cool for such childish endeavors. Unfortunately, we could find no where to camp in the area. We did locate a few bible retreats and a campsite that was inexplicably closed. Probably just as well because we stopped there for lunch and I almost got my ass kicked by a group of Vervet monkeys (with their signature blue balls) seemingly hell bent on confiscating my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. This is why feeding animals is a terrible idea. They turn into aggressive assholes. And they purloin sandwiches. Diabolical.

Addo Elephant National Park (Eastern Cape, South Africa)

April 7^th, 2011 (January 2011) – After Graaf-Reinet we were off to Addo Elephant National Park for two nights. We’d heard there might be elephants there. Turns out the rumors are true. I saw them with mine own eyes. When the park was established in 1931 there were only 11 of them left. Now they estimate there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 450. Dumbo lives....for now.

We arrived mid-morning, set up our tent near the park HQ (Addo Rest Camp), and restocked our supplies in the ‘town’ of Addo (if a petrol station, a market, and a liquor store qualify as a town) and spent our afternoon exploring the park in our VW Polo Vivo (Safari Edition). The park is roughly 164,000 hectares and split into three sections, one of which is where you find the majority of the larger animals. Over the course of two days we managed to see a variety of fauna to include buffalo, warthogs, elephants, flightless dung beetles, ostriches, jackals, a spotted hyena, lions (sort of), kudus, leopard tortoises, zebras, and a whole poop ton of birds.

Our first day was not such an auspicious beginning. The closing time for the park depends upon the time of year and duration of sunlight. On that day the park gates closed at 6:30 pm. We didn’t make it. Why? Well, the late afternoon/evening is the best time to spot wildlife and we got a little caught up. I blame the lions. And we (as in me) did something really stupid. While heading back we noticed said lions in a clearing up ahead but believed erroneously that the area in question was reserved for guests of a tented camp and not open to just anyone.