Jan-Feb-2016_Final-1-4-16-attempt2

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 17 th , 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.

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 t-shirts.We 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.

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

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