Last days in Jo'burg & our Kruger Safari

Downtown Johannesburg is not a place we were encouraged to go, in fact many people are wary of going into the city centre, so we were naturally hesitant but we didn't want to leave the city without getting to know the place properly. And of course, how do you really learn about a country and its culture if you only limit yourself to one side of things. So, we arranged a private walking tour of the Maboneng area, a post-apartheid creative hub for it's emerging urban artists, business people and social music scene.

Maboneng is a Sotho word meaning Place of Light (sotho, pronounced soo-too, is the national language of the country of Lesotho. The term was coined by a private company that pumped money into the area from 2009, buying old warehouses and converting them into artist studios and galleries. Apartments, shops and artisan markets followed, attracting creatives and young people that have all contributed to making this section of the city a desirable, stylish but still edgy place to live and socialise.

A stroll up Main street and back down Fox street will be enough to give you a sense of this place. The backpackers hostel Curiocity is a great place to stay in the heart of this district, and shares the same edgy cool vibe that many of the coffee houses/ art venues do. The people are friendly and welcoming and the artists responsible for a some of the wall art around the neighbourhood, are relaxing and playing pool near the bar.

Visiting Maboneng helped us to see another side to this vast city and the people that live and work here. It's hard to explain but the political and socio-economic challenges and how people exist and thrive here is somehow clearer to me having been to Maboneng than it was before. If you are travelling here and want to get to know this city and this country, like really know it, then spend some time in Maboneng.

Finally it was time to say goodbye to Johannesburg and venture further afield. We were picked up at dawn by minibus and driven to the town of Hazyview in the East of the country (a 5 hour journey) where we were collected by our Safari company Wild Wings Safaris. Gaz and I didn't originally plan to do a Safari in South Africa because of our tight travel budget, but Wild Wings do a 3 day safari that is very affordable and focussed on making the most of the time you have, with a good number of game drives. And we couldn't have asked for a better 3 day adventure; Rufus our guide was full of information, fun, flexible and committed to making sure we got out of the experience everything we hoped for. He was also an excellent camp chef! He really looked after us.

Whilst we may have been a little apprehensive about who we would meet on the trip, this proved to be an unnecessary worry, A Malaysian couple Wee Lee and Meng Huat joined us, but there were only the 4 of us on the safari, which meant that it was a chilled and informal few days and we were able to have a drink and a chat late into the evening

which was really lovely. They were really good people. We were checked into the Krugar safari camp accommodation next to each other and Rufus prepared our meals in front of the cabins so we all ate together and got to know each other.

After eating, we'd share out the clearing up tasks and put the remaining food in the fridge in our outdoor kitchen. The first night Gaz and I were woken at 1am by a massive crash outside, we clambered out of bed and unlocked the cabin door, only to find a pack of Baboons had opened the fridge, removed the large casserole dishes containing leftovers and thrown them on to the floor. After clearing everything up and muttering under our breath about those f*ckin monkeys, we headed back to bed. Luckily even though they did come back and hunt through our kitchen a 2nd time, the baboons thankfully didn't wake us again.

Each morning at about 5.30am we got up and jumped into the game drive vehicle to head out to explore and see what we could see. Given it was still Spring, the early mornings were cold, so we wrapped ourselves in blankets, Rufus gave us hot coffee and rusks (a South African staple food - a type of large hard rustic biscuit that you dunk in your coffee to soften) and we headed out. The camp is locked from 6pm til 6am, so at dawn all the safari vehicles are lined up waiting to get out of the camp, and at 6am when that gate opens, they all file out as quickly as possible, hoping to catch a glimpse of an elusive animal before it disappears to sleep or keep cool throughout the middle of the day.

Kruger National Park is completely focused on protecting the welfare of the animals, so not only do they crack down hard on poachers, but they are strict on operations within the park - vehicles cannot leave the official roads that crisscross throughout the reserve, meaning that you will only be able to see animals that venture within sight of the road. while this can be frustrating at times, it does ensure that life within the park is allowed to exist without being bothered all the time. And of course when you do see something, you value it more.

Our guide Rufus worked hard to provide us with an amazing experience. Not only did we see the big 5, but we saw a family of hyenas basking in the evening sun on the side of the road, and hippos snorting and blowing in the centre of a beautiful lake, and a giraffe mother and her young calf out for a stroll.

We were so lucky; not only did we get to see a pride of lions fend off hyenas from the carcass of a large giraffe that they were still feasting on, a leopard (so rare) hauling the remainder of a gazelle carcass up a tree, and another set of lions hunting in the early morning, and sauntering on to the road, up to our vehicle and at one point they were about 2 ft from Gaz, which I think was probably a little too close for comfort given that they were in hunting mode. It so memorable and pretty incredible.

We even saw a White Rhino, though it was about 200m away, but we did see it!

I had an idea of what a safari would be like, but it wasn't like I imagined at all. I had this idea in my mind of a sunset, with a glass of wine in my hand and animals milling about, but the truth is not as romantic, but it was so much better. I learned that going on safari involves hours of driving, and an abundance of patience and respect for the animals and their environment. This all makes the whole experience so much more special.

We got on really well with our companions Wee Lee and Meng Huat that it was a shame to say goodbye to them, but it was time to move on with our next travel chapter. We piled into our transfer car and embarked on another 5hr journey, back across the country to the outskirts of Jo'burg where we had a hire car waiting for us that would allow us to explore this massive country over the next few weeks.