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SOUTH AFRICA
M y friend Bryan’s family emigrated from Johannesburg,
South Africa, to Houston in the early 80s, at the height
of the apartheid struggle. His parents had spent decades
opposing South Africa’s unjust and discriminatory laws. It would be
a long time before change, before Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was
elected president in 1994.
Bryan hadn’t been back to South Africa in nearly 20 years — his
parents, in nearly 30. But his daughter Leah (my fairy godchild)
had a request: Could she have her bat mitzvah not in her hometown
of Austin, Texas, but in her dad’s? Leah’s sister, Anna (another fairy
godchild), had set a precedent for a trip instead of a party two years
earlier with her bat mitzvah in Israel. So Bryan and his wife, Stacy,
who is one of my besties from high school, agreed. Aunts, uncles,
grandparents Bubbie and Zadie and close to two-dozen friends
from around the world were invited.
Joburg
The first thing I noticed when we landed at Oliver Tambo
Airport, besides all of the armed guards, was the cacophony of
voices. English is the “official” official language of South Africa
(the accent is Australian meets British), but there are 10 other
official languages: Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Northern
Sotho, Swati, Venda, Neebele, and Tsonga. And Johannesburg, or
Joburg as everyone calls it, is a very international city. Yet despite
all of the different languages, there seemed to be no obstacles to
communication — everyone from the guards to the gate agents
to the baggage handlers to the passengers appeared to understand
each other. It was the same case on safari, where the game rangers
and trackers spoke different languages, and in restaurants and stores
all over South Africa.
Most of our crew arrived in Joburg on July 17th, including Garth
and Sheelagh from England and Jules and Lisa from Australia.
Erika Goldring, who shoots for our Rouses magazine and Rolling
Stone had flown in earlier to photograph the Cape Town Nu World
Festival on Mandela Day weekend, and was waiting for us.
We spent a few days eating and drinking
before safari. The restaurant scene in Joburg
is very international with lots of meat, and
fresh prawns (think giant shrimp), calamari,
and kingclip caught right off the South
African coast.
The Big Five
We boarded a plane for Skukuza, then made
our way to Sabi Sands Reserve within the
Greater Kruger National Park conservancy.
Game rangers at Sabi Sands are aided by
trackers from Mabarhule and other local
villages. The rule is one tracker, one ranger,
one shotgun, just in case, per open-aired
vehicle.
On our first game drive through the
Bushveld (the Bush) we spotted lions,
leopards, cape buffalo, white rhinos and
a bachelor herd of elephants; in hunting
terms, these are the big five, so this was a big first day. There are
no words to describe the experience of seeing and hearing a bull
elephant up close and personal — it’s life changing. Elephants
are the great communicators — they use stomach rumbles to
communicate over long distances. They pay homage to their elders.
They mourn their dead. They are amazing.
We took two drives a day. Summer is winter in South Africa, and
the morning drives are freezing, but by the afternoon we were in
saw cheetahs, wildebeests, giraffes, and a dazzle of zebras
(pronounced ZEB-ruh, not ZEE-bruh). Hippos and crocodiles
were at the waterhole. Antelopes were everywhere — springboks,
nyala, kudu and impala, which are nicknamed McDonald’s because
of the distinctive M on their hindquarters and their propensity to
get eaten. Can I get fries with that?
Termite mounds — it turns out termites actually have a purpose —
provided the perfect vantage point for the big cats to stalk their
prey, and for Erika to get photos. We watched a cheetah watch a
couple of warthogs. We saw a leopard in a tree eating his kill while
hyenas scavenged below for scraps (these were no Shenzi, Banzai
and Ed from the Lion King). Our bird nerds were happy about the
eagles, hawks, owls and starlings. I wasn’t nearly as happy about
the baboons and monkeys who made off with my potato chips and
cookies after raiding my mini-bar.