Paper’s done, poster’s done, project’s done. Life is good! Especially with two beautiful days in Kruger Park! Our first day was extremely lucky—out of the gate and BAM! A Rhino! 5 minutes later…Quit looking at the antelope!—we have a lion to chase! Pretty funny story about that lion, actually. After a few hours of bonding with Team CLAMPEG and spotting some great animals, we were cruising around with Chrisman (our leading safari man) and I told our group that I was very satisfied with the trip so far…but, “I would like to see a lady lion.” Yes, that is a direct quote and yes, I do talk like that. The best part was the look of confusion on my group’s faces…and apparently we SAW a “lady lion”. And it was with the MALE LION that I took ten pictures of 5 minutes after entering the park. It was on the other side of the road. I was totally oblivious and did not look on the other side of the road (which was opposite side that I was sitting on, I might add). There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the running joke of the past two days. Don’t worry, I am not upset about a lack of lady lion in my life…I had a pretty good laugh. Multiple times. I am still laughing about it…so silly :)
Seeing all of those animals so close though was amazing! I would recommend it to anyone. Adam brought up a good point today during our drive when he was talking about making it one of the culture groups for next year’s trip. It really is part of their culture here and I never thought about it until now. They have this huge park dedicated to the conservation of their wildlife, they protect animals from poachers, and they educate all visitors about the animals and their lifestyles and how they survive. The best part is that these animals aren’t sectioned off…there are no “lion areas” or “leopard areas”. These animals just roam free and go through the circle of life and no one interferes. (Speaking of “Circle of Life”, it is very much like the Lion King and I could not resist referencing to the movie more than several times throughout the past two days. Awesome!) But anyways, the animals impact the way the people of South Africa live. Whether they are a source of food, income, or some neighborly animals…South Africans definitely are connected to them in one way or another.
I also learned a ton of fun animal facts over the past two days…probably too much to actually recount. I’ll try a few. Waterbucks (a type of antelope) smell after going in the water and it keeps the lions away from attacking them. Watching rhinos urinate is like watching a sprinkler system or misting system (that was from a personal observation). Rhinos also create their own “rhino toilets” on the side of the road, have very poor eyesight, and there are two types (white and black...we only saw white). Zebras fart, especially when startled. Elephants have very large blood vessels on the back of their ears and when they fan their ears, it cools them down. Chrisman told us so many more.
These past two days have been great to relax, take warm showers(!), and unwind from our packed month of travelling the country. It is really unbelievable that we will be leaving for the airport in the morning and going back to Boston. Back home? This date always seemed so far away. The past month has been crazy and amazing and the experience of a lifetime, definitely the best two classes I’ve taken with Northeastern so far! ;) As much as I would like to agree with some of my peers and say “I don’t wanna leave, I want to stay here longer”…I’m ready to go home. What we did here was great and even though we had absolutely no formal classroom time or lectures, I feel like I learned and gained so much more from this trip. I think I’m a very balanced kind of girl, I love to travel and see new things (even things with no heat or outlets or internet, in the woods) but I also like to stay connected with the outside world. Maybe that sounds too 21st century, but I’m okay with it. Most of all, I want to get back to share with everybody what I learned, what we saw, and what we did. Show some pictures, tell a ton of stories. South Africa will always be with us and we have this fantastic trip to thank for that.
Cheers!
Simbaaaa...Remember...Who. You. Are.
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