Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Kruger Park: Day 1
8 AM: Rhinos! White rhinos! It looks huge, but Adrian (our guide) says it's a small one.
8:10 AM: Zebras. A whole family of them crossed the street.
8:15 AM: This is like a moving version of Where's Waldo. I'm traveling in a safari vehicle but I'm surprised at the number of high-end vehicles cruising by considering how ill paved the roads are.
8:30 AM: Base Camp Pretoriuskop. New Dorito flavor - sweet chili pepper. Every time I leave the U.S., I'm always shocked at hohw prevalent smoking is.
9:43 AM: Seen lots of elephant poo, but no elephants. Am getting sleepy. Breeze from car is great. Park doesn't smell as bad as I thought. Smells normal. Nothing like a zoo.
10:06 AM: Young bull elephant standing in shade of tree. Elephant's life: eat. drink. stand in shade of tree. smell for receptive female elephants.
10:53 AM: Impala. The "Mcdonald's" of the bushveld due to the M on the bum and because they're everywhere.
11:18 AM: In college, when we chose animals to represent each other, my roommates gave me the giraffe. Because I'm long, lanky, and a little awkward. Well, giraffes apparently have no vocal cords and are mute. They communicate in ear wiggles and snorts. I, as most of my friends know, am most definitely not mute. Though I like to think I'm okay at the body language thing. Giraffe's tongues are 60 cm long and can twirl around branches to rip the leaves off. Kinda makes my tie-a-knot-in-the-cherry-stem trick lame.
11:26 AM: more impala.
12:10 PM: Lunch. This vervet monkey stole my sausage right from my hands. I briefly considered snatching it back from him since I'm considerably larger, but I was afraid it might attack. In a battle between a 10 pound monkey and a 120 pound human, sadly I think the monkey might emerge victorious.
1:30 PM: Another giraffe.
3:30 PM: warthogs.
5:00 PM: Saw a croc! Too far for photo.
6:00 PM: This is a very very blurry picture of lion. If you look really carefully you can see him in the bushes. He was roaring and I was too frozen in delicious fear to gather my wits about me enough to snap him. They must have evolutionarily evolved to roar at a specific frequency that makes your chest cavity vibrate. I felt a very primal fear deep inside me in response to the roar.
10:30 PM: I'm sleeping in a tent. The sleeping pad is a little stinky (smells like feet) and the entire tent is a bit mildewy, but I don't care because I had the most wonderful day. I like the savanna at night better. I like the forest and how it seems dark and safe, like the night is enveloping the world. I like how the sky is so dark and the stars are so bright. It makes me feel like this, the sounds of the mozambique nightjaw and the chirping bats, is what life is. Not fluorescent lights, cubicles, and deadlines. I haven't heard the lions roaring outside yet but I hear they do that. I'm sure it will thrill me to my toes with fear but also make me feel so so alive. This is what generations of man has heard for much longer than the buzzing of an alarm clock. This feels undeniably real and alive. I'm writing in my tent by flashlight, which feels oddly reminiscent of those sleepover days, except I'm about a decade older, I'm in a smelly tent, and I'm in the jungle instead of at a girlfriend's house. But the thrill of fear, life, and discovery remains the same.
