Rather than go directly from one private reserve to another, the standard MO of most upmarket safaris in South Africa, I took my group Sunday into Kruger National Park.
You mean many Americans on safari don’t visit Kruger National Park? One of the best managed wildernesses on earth and the oldest? That’s right. Here’s why.
I remember when I was a young guide in Kenya, in particular about forty years ago when showing Purdue alums the Maasai Mara. After the first game drive I took the driver aside and yelled at him because he hadn’t found us a rhino.
We’d seen two prides of lions, one with cubs, about 100 ele, maybe thousands of various kinds of antelope, and a cheetah… all in about 4 hours. But no rhino. I remember those days shamefully now, but as I once was myself, so are the majority of first-timers on safari today.
For the last two days and nights we’ve been traveling on South Africa’s luxury 1920’s thematic train, Rovos Rail. It’s a pleasant way to get from The Cape northwards, in our case as we prepare for a week of game viewing in the east of the country.
The water crisis in Cape Town is over … at least for now. Dam reservoir levels are at 62%, twice what they have been at this time for the last two years, and well above the average for the last decade.
Even so water use restriction remains in force and it’s both irksome (because of the current positive conditions) and understandable (because of climate change). It’s ironic that while being nearly rained out of several of our planned attractions, our hotel continues to forbid the use of the bathtub.
As I continue my journey through Cape’s paradise of Springtime, it becomes increasingly difficult to write instead of just show you pictures!
And I’m no photographer. Nothing but my old Android phone that’s now my “African phone.” Poorly focused, no sensitivity to settings, I just click away, endlessly.
The beauty is exceptional. This is The Cape’s Spring Flower Show, probably the greatest on earth, even better than western Australia. I’m in Piketberg, about 150 miles north of Cape Town near Citrusdal and the Cederberg Mountains. Very poor internet. Will do my best. Stay tuned!
The picture above is from the lead article of the very popular Daily Maverick. South Africans of every political stripe remain furious with Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump’s patent lying about them yesterday.
Parts of this lead story now follow, written by one of South Africa’s most colorful authors and filmmakers, Richard Poplak.
(“Oomie” and “Suidlander” are explained in full after the article below.)
Let’s say you’re the chief astronaut on the Mission to Mars. Let’s say you’re 4 months into your 7-month journey. Would you take an 8th grader’s advice on where to make the next turn?
The very complex and explosive issue of land redistribution in South Africa was horribly confused and totally exaggerated yesterday by a Tucker Carlson Fox News lie which Donald Trump picked up and tweeted. The Rand fell. South Africa is now more furious with America than ever. What’s going on America? Don’t you have enough to lie about?
“State Capture.” No, that’s not a Russian transliteration or a jeopardy clue for the boardgame, Risk. It’s a South African English phrase describing the nefarious control that mobsters, international arms dealers and flagitious politicians held over the South African Republic for 9 years.
The great State Capture public hearings began yesterday. The Zondo Commission (similis Mueller Commission) wants to prove that the former president, Jacob Zuma and his family, sold out their country for personal gain. Sound familiar, Yanks?
Africans from every part of the continent look to South African for global guidance. And South Africa is telling them to dump the United States. Trump has destroyed “any reservoir of trust in American words and promises.”
Look instead to: Germany, for international norms and decency; China, for economic directions and instructions; and … get this … Russia for global security. “… this, sadly, is the world that Donald Trump hath wrought,” South Africa’s Daily Maverick sums it up today.
Look to the Dark Continent for light at the end of the tunnel. Cautiously.
There are a few parts of Africa falling even deeper into the abyss, but several important countries are coming out of their “Trumpian” eras. Understanding the difference might show the rest of us the way out.
Today in Johannesburg President Obama delivered what his PR people advised in advance would be “the most important speech since his presidency.”
African media went bonkers, believing that it would be in Africa that Obama trounced Trump, pummeled Putin and praised right-hearted souls around the world. It didn’t happen. His speech was inspirational but totally inadequate for our times. I was sorely disappointed.
Until Trump Africans relied heavily on an unilateral trade policy first passed by Congress in 2000 called AGOA. This week’s annual AGOA convention in Washington did not go well, but … they seemed to have a good time. What?
Yes, it was just another lark, as most African officials understand so well. Conferences and other international meetings are all for show. The only thing that matters in much of Africa, and what Africans now believe is the only thing that matters in America, is the chief of state. America is nothing more or less than Trump.
The Land Issue is heating up in South Africa, but opposition to the possibly terminal ANC is imploding. We Americans should be interested, because it’s a perfect outline of what will happen once the Trump era is over here.
South Africa suggests to Americans that post-Trump will be left-leaning but that because the left will be in such political disarray little will change.
Only one country in the entire history of humankind has voluntarily given up a complete, modern nuclear arsenal : South Africa. And they did so even while the one other country being asked to do so at the time, Israel, refused.
Times were much different in 1991. Virtually all South Africans agree, today, that they took the right decision. They retain a robust civilian nuclear industry that supplies much electricity, they are leaders in nuclear science, but the missiles of the world are not pointed at them.
So do they think North Korea can be convinced to join them?