Jo'Burg, Kruger, and the End of Another Continent

After all the horror stories we heard about Johannesburg we were expecting to drive into a city where the sun never was shining, where there were fires burning and the skeletons of buildings towered over abandoned streets where only machine gun toting mercenaries roamed. Funny how preconceived notions can so vividly shape your expectations of a place. As it turns out, Jo'Burg was a pretty metropolitan city, and because tourists are advised to stay out of the city center our stay there was pretty uneventful. We did manage to visit the Apartheid Museum, which is one of the highlights of downtown. This is the real scoop on what has been (and in many ways still is) a very racially oppressed country.

A few days and a bad haircut later we headed north to Kruger National Park. Of all the places to safari in the world, Kruger is known as the head honcho. With the famed 'Big 5' (Lion, Buffalo, Elephant, Leopard, Rhino) all in strong numbers, this is a wildlife watchers paradise. Our excursion consisted of a one night stay in mock-up tribal village (far from authentic, and rather corny) and then two nights camping inside the gates. Every morning we would wake up at 5:00 am (occasionally to a large hyena pacing the outside of the boundary fenceof our camp) and drive through the expanse of this vast park, which is about the same size as Israel. Although we encountered what the guides called a few, "very slow days", it didn't rain, and we were lucky to see all of the Big 5. We tried our best to get photos of everything we saw, but a nice 35mm camera is in order to really capture any great shots. The only animal we missed a photo of was the Leopard, and although he was very close to the road when we saw her, she only stuck around long enough to flash her massive teeth with a growl before disappearing into the bush.

Shanon kept saying we were like little kids in a zoo, and she was right. I don't think we've ever had that much fun looking at a giraffe, an elephant, or even a lizard. Seeing these animals in their true habitat was absolutely spectacular.

After Kruger we spent two more nights in Jo'Burg, including Christmas day. I've got to admit...you get away from all the hype of the holidays and it really doesn't feel like Christmas at all. Pretty weird. Although they do celebrate Christmas here it's not quite as big as it is back home, so we spent the day lounging by the pool at our hostel...and that's about it. Our hostess was kind enough to put some tinsel around the breakfast table, but other than that there was nothing to remind us the day was different than any other.

Happy Holidays to you all and thanks to everyone for being so good to us. Our families and friends mean the world to us, and this holiday season we're thankful for all of you.

Stay tuned for more excitement...after a sleepless night in the Qatar airport we have arrived in a very different (eastern) world. So to you all, Happy New Year from Sri Lanka.