When exotic turned scary...African Safari Part 4

The Parfuri camp at Kruger had no boundary walls. All wood. A series of huts on stilts with wire mesh and curtains for walls. Right in the middle of the bush on the banks of Luvuhu river. The proximity to the river was intentional. This is because animals tend to hover around waterholes. At first sight the camp was 'exotic' and 'fascinating' and 'freakishly natural,' etc.  But soon my adjectives petered out. Have you ever stayed in the wild? I was scared to bits. We were warned that this was the wild. Animals were everywhere and on the loose. 'If you come face to face with any animal, retreat.' This was the advice drummed into us and then we were shoved into the huts with a fog horn (for emergencies...). My first problem was the complete absence of walls. Loo visits were a big nightmare and I was acutely aware of how embarrassingly noisy we can be. Then as darkness descended I began to see eyes everywhere and hear hisses and growls. Didn't sleep a wink the first night. Boy, was I glad for the dawn breaking in! I saw the forest herald in sun rise sitting in the porch of the hut. The birds sang in a choir and the bush and the sky changed colour as the sun turned its light to bright in slow motion. With the new day my fears receded into the disappearing darkness and I began to look forward to the three day safari, particularly the 'big cat' hunts.

Joberg: moonlight, hills and a noisy weaver bird

O R Tambo International airport looked desolate in the middle of the night. But once outside, Johannesburg appeared mysterious and enchanting. A bright moon beamed from a clear sky as we rolled over the undulating hills of the city. It is at quite a height and the beautiful landscape is what strikes you most.  The moon appeared closer, its light ethereal. The town seemed quiet and in shadows. Cars zipped by, their tail lights glowing red like rubies and I didn’t see a single pedestrian in the half hour it took to reach the place we stayed in.

Johannesburg is a society of gated communities. It means most of the affluent people live in compounds with high walls and gates. As you drive around you see a lot of signboards outside gates which scream ‘armed response’ and ‘no thoroughfare’. The sheer number of such signs do not take away the threat behind the words. The people don’t trust its police force. Hence, private security agencies call the shots and everyone is armed to the teeth…apparently. That was the most scary thought.

But it is a very developed city with beautiful roads and elegant buildings. The low hills and the undulating skyline give it a unique appeal. It’s also very green and gets a good share of rains. We were there in December which is the South African summer and it rained almost every day. In the suburbs it is as quiet as the countryside.

In my first morning I was woken up by the cacophony of a weaver bird right below our window. I’d never seen one before and till the day I left it had me hooked by its antics. Quite an eyecatcher our weaver bird was a bright canary yellow and green and had woven two exquisite nests on a bare branch. Not satisfied with either it spent the whole day pulling them down and starting a new one from scratch. I never really figured out if the bird was a perfectionist or just plain crazy but it sure made me forget the screeching DTC buses that hurtle down the road below my flat in Delhi everyday. And it was a sight for sore eyes! Well, I was always a sucker for good looks.

African Safari Part 1: The journey begins

I love travelling but I hate Safaris. I love animals but I get jittery when they invade my personal space. To me, birds are best left to the skies, the lions to their forest kingdoms and the crocs to their aquatic bastions. They look gorgeous on Discovery Channel, if you ask me. I marvel at all the wildlife enthusiasts in their cowboy hats and boots doing brave things with wild animals. But given the choice I would rather play safe and spend hours at a human habitation than in the jungle.
Well then, imagine my predicament when I landed in South Africa and actually found myself on a wildlife safari in the bushveld! To say that I just went for the heck of it would be a darned lie but I admit I hadnt seriously thought through the whole thing like I am prone to do with most aspects of my life. I just dived into it and thought- 'dekha jayega'! Somewhere at the back of my mind I had probably thought a safari would be like going in a covered jeep and watching animals prance around like in a 'jungle book' animated film, all sweetness and light as PG would say. To my horror there was no cover in the jeep, the bush was a stark dry open vast land where I had the most humbling experience of my life. But more of that later.

The flight from Delhi stopped at Dubai airport in transit. I've been to the middle east before and wasn't particularly overwhelmed by the glitter and shine of the place. If you ask me I quite took a loathing at first step. It was crowded, cramped and most unwieldy. We couldn't find a single money changer that had South African Rands and like extra smart travellers we had left it for the last. When the fourth money changer told us they'd just run out of Rands I began to wonder if they had some kind of genetic link with our Delhi shopkeepers. You know, "oh only yesterday I had a few thousands...!" types. Seething with frustration and barely managing to pee and grab a coffee we boarded the onward bound flight to Johannesburg. Boy, and was that a long flight or what. I looked with horror at the flight map and saw the vast continent that we were set to cover. A ten hour long journey along the coast of eastern Africa. There were all kinds of people on board- white, black, coloured, Indians. It seemed like a lifetime when we finally touched ground at Joberg International airport late in the night. Whenever I visit a new continent I'm always at my attentive best in the first hour- I like to smell and drink in the atmosphere- almost like an animal. Find the essence of the place. Unfortunately after 16 hours of flying my sense of smell was quite dulled and my droopy eyelids were an effort to keep open. But the first whiff of Africa was 'grassy' and windy. Africa literally blew me away.
Next: Joberg