tonggump is finally back from the longest hiatus! Happy 2017! Missed writing so much, can't wait to share with you the South Africa trip WL and I took in Mid Nov. I love walking ALOT and exploring/experiencing the City in an offbeat way. Travel packages are no-no for me, except for the occasional one day tour for activities like shark diving/ safari tours. But given the choice and extra familiarity, I would definitely have gone for the self drive.
I was asked a few times over by friends why South Africa and why Cape Town as a travel destination. Of course there are many places I would want to visit (long list), but Cape town is somewhere I have read from magazines and seen from movies and music videos, so here we go...
Part I: Kruger National Park & Johannesburg
To get there:
6 hours flight from Singapore to Dubai (With 3 hours transit)
9 hours flight from Dubai to Johannesburg
4 hours car ride from Johannesburg to Kruger National Park
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| Emirates A380 was a very comfortable ride. |
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| hmm yup. WL wants some fashion shot he says |
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| Pretty fascinated with these LEDs |
After 236873621748364 hours of flying and travelling on the road, we finally reached Kruger National Park. Stayed in Sabi Bush River Lodge, which was at the perimeter of Kruger National Park, overlooking a river in the park. You can spot the occasional hippo/leopard bathing or drinking water in the river. Service was impeccable and food is so much quality. It made us really sad to have left the lodge after just two nights.
The Safari tour was 3 days 2 nights, you can have as luxurious accommodation as you want, so long as you are willing to pay. Sabi Bush River Lodge was good enough for us though, and its about 400 SGD per person for 3 days and 2 nights inclusive of a game drive.
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| Enroute to Kruger National Park from Johannesburg Airport. Save me, I think I'm quite done for long distance travelling for awhile. |
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| Negotiated for the juiciest, succulent slab of beef with Calvin. He is super thoughtful and very sweet. Watching Calvin worked his magic is the ultimate grill amateurs' dream. |
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| I'm pretty impressed how good they grill their meat. They just know how. |
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| Eating with the bonfire. Beer/wine on free flow. Enjoy like a bottomless pit. |
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| In the cold of the night, the lodge stayers gather round the bonfire with more wine and talked under the stars. Our guide told us about his Botswana camping experience. |
Lucky for us, the game drive on the second day was very productive. We managed to catch a glimpse of 4 out of the Big 5. Amazing experience, and that was probably the whole point of going to Africa for WL and I (:
Kruger National Park is about the size of whole of Wales (Obviously I got this off the web, please google if you want to know exactly how big that is.) The point is, the park is so big, we have to circle an area (Say for example in Singapore; Tampines to Clementi) for the animal sightings because the animals are nomadic by nature. But with some knowledge of the animal behaviour and habitual patterns, we were lucky enough to spot some(:
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A picture with the super funny driver and guide, Lucky. He is our guide for the game drive. His parents worked in Kruger and he practically grew up here. Love listening to his animal stories: Amarula tree, hunting strategy for giraffes and how stupid Wildebeest can be.
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| Met some Brazilian friends who were warm and friendly. Love their laughters and jokes. They just know where the best beef is at in Johannesburg. |
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| The Great African Adventure |
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| Our open top 4WD |
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Plenty of Impalas here, I also tried impala meat for the first time here. Quite delicious I must say..hahaha
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| We had that ZEBRA CROSSING MOMENT when we stopped to let this pair cross the road. All I had was an iPhone, can only manage to shoot this much. |
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| Crocodiles infested water, no joke. |
I think everyone should go to Africa and its Safari at least once in their lifetime. The experience is real worth the 287389473294 travelling hours, and you feel like you have seen the real deal of wild animals like you see in NatGeo. It is not like zoo where the sad animals are kept in enclosure waiting for tourists/ visitors to come say hi to them. Their eyes often lack lustre and spirit, waiting for life to pass.
The ferocity and tenacity wild Safari animals have is something you'll never get to find in a zoo.
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