By Larry and Joan Dolinski
What a place! What a Country!
We arrived in Johannesburg on Feb 14 and bicycled out the next day heading for Hazyview, the departure point for safaris into Kruger National Park. Kruger is the largest and best known of the 17 national parks in South Africa, and was created primarily to protect wild animals. It is approximately the size of Massachusetts. The great diversity of wildlife includes the "big five" - lion, leopard, rhino, elephant, and buffalo and some 500 different species of birds. During our time in the park we went on both a night ride and a morning ride (in open top trucks). The night ride started during daylight and went well into the darkness. The morning ride began in the darkness and extended past sunrise. During the darkness we were given powerful lanterns to help us spot animals (usually by the reflection from eyes staring back at us). When an animal was spotted we had the driver stop. So, in a sense it was a do-it-yourself safari. We got to see a vast number of animals closeup, including (! in order of appearance): impalas, zebras, wildebeest, baboons, mongoose, warthogs, antelopes, african wildcats, lions, hyenas, giraffes, elephants, hippos, a single leopard and many varieties of birds. The lions provided the best interaction. Three male lions were walking the road just ahead of our truck in a nonchalant manner. They kept stopping, turning, and staring back at us. Every so often one of them would lie down in the middle of the road, and roll over like a pet pussy cat. After about half an hour they moved to the side of the road (probably thinking "there goes another group of annoying tourists) and we continued on.
Between the night and morning rides we overnighted in a thatched roof cottage that provided a further enhancement to a truly appreciated experience.
As you are no doubt aware, parts of South Africa have been devastated by the same torrential rains and accompanying floods that have ravaged Mozambique, caused by cyclones spinning around in the Indian Ocean. Dams have collapsed, roads have been washed away and great damage has been done in the Southern regions of Kruger National Park. The two southernmost entrances to the park were closed, requiring us to travel about three hours to the nearest open entrance. At one point on our travels through the park we were only 5 km (3 miles) from the Mozambique border.
Because economic conditions are so bad in Mozambique, we are told that large numbers of its citizens attempt to sneak into South Africa by trekking through Kruger Park at night and are killed and eaten by the animals. (Its a tough world for too many of the human community).
South Africa has suffered from the consequences of a growing racial divide that had its beginnings before the start of the 20h century. The legal separation of black and white became known as apartheid. The periods following both world wars did much to exacerbate the racial unrest. The Afrikaaner governments of the 1950's & 1960's tied together the existing threads of racial prejudice to create one of the most all-embracing bodies of restrictive law ever devised. Every level of the social fabric was affected, particularly onerous was the "Bantu Education Act", which condemned the blacks to inferior schooling.
A liberal movement arose, grew, and later became known as the ANC (Aftrican National Congress), eventually lead by Nelson Mandela. With the coming of Mandela and the end of the Apartheid era has come great dislocation, economically, and culturally. At this time blacks have been politically enfranchised and are being given preference for many jobs, for which they are unqualified. As a result the economy has suffered greatly, and more resentment has been unleashed in the white community.
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