The tar roads in Kruger National Park allow for just about any kind of vehicle to game drive, something we haven’t seen before. The park maintains the many dirt tracks, something else we haven’t seen in many parks. The camping experience is quite different, people come into the park with their travel trailers towing a small car which they use to explore the roads, somewhat like in the US. This took some getting used to. Special campsites in the Kruger are highly coveted and reservations are booked a year in advance. We haven’t gotten used to that yet.
Rules abound for visitors. Don’t get out of your car except in a designated site. Preferably fenced. No jogging – they had to make a rule for that?? Only block the lane where the animal is, leave the other lane open – now there’s a rule made to be broken in those “Yellowstone 
moments”, as we call them. No speeding, but even at 20k an hour, far under the speed limit, if you hit a lizard or a tortoise it is curtains for the creature. When I see a pile of bones by the roadside I used to think a lion killed something there, but now I realize it is more likely a vehicle. Some scavenger made a meal of the unlucky creature I hope.
One directive is consistently broken by everyone at sightings. Do not put any part of your body out of the vehicle at a sighting. Not your arm or your head and certainly not your torso. This is known as “breaking the plane.” As a rule animals see vehicles as something solid. Studies have been done using dummies to dem
onstrate what happens when a limb sticks out of the flat plane of a car. Lions attack and they are quick about it. Leopards claw what is sticking out of a window. But humans aren’t dummies, right? That’s questionable.
We witnessed an episode of breaking the plane on our way to the Orpen Gate. We’d stopped to admire a very pregnant lioness. She was relaxed, laying on som
e sand near the road. Other vehicles were observing. Then suddenly her body tensed. Her head went up and her vision narrowed and her jaw elongated. She was staring at the road – what could she be so fixated on? Along came a SansPark pick-up truck with four guys sta
nding up in the bed, their heads well over the cab. That lioness stared and stared as they drove past, eyeing them like they were meat at the butchery. The four guys broke the plane. Likely a good thing she was so heavy, there could have been chaos (plus some crazy YouTube videos). And then on we went, inside the Beagle where it is safe. At least from lion.
210 million years ago (!!) in the upper eastern corner of the Limpopo region where Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique meet, Plateosauraus roamed, one of the very first plant-eating dinosaurs. Long after these biggest of all beasts disappeared, others found this area to their liking. There must have been something special here, I think; the land has been inhabited through the dinosaurs, the Stone Age and the Iron Age. The landscape of red rocks, mixed grasslands and rivers supported thousands of people and a ruling class was established on a hilltop high above the common folk. Exotic goods from Arabia, India and China were traded for, and fine craftsman were valued.
The Mapungubwe National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural and Environmental site. Mapungubwe, which has been known by many names, was a city of significant renown in Africa. Established governments were nonexistent on the continent, or so the Europeans perceived. Sites such as Mapungubwe and Great Zimbabwe proved them wrong.
Mapungubwe declined in the 14th century, which roughly corresponds with the decline of the 
large American Southwest city-states such as Chaco and Mesa Verde. Undoubtedly
climate change was the cause. Respect for (and fear of) the ancestors kept the Mapungubwe site a secret known only to the natives. But by the 1930’s local farmers had heard rumors of gold and jewels buried in the veld. Much like treasure seekers everywhere, they eventually found someone to lead them to the hilltop site and by the best of fortunes, one of these seekers was associated with a university. What luck for this important place. Without that connection the world may have never known the most wondrous artifact of all, the Golden Rhino.
Wafer-thin gold sheeting once covered a wooden carving of a rhinoceros – gold so beautiful and shiny, gazing upon it makes you realize why wars have been fought over this precious metal. The gold sheeting had been fitted over the wood carving with delicate seams. The perfectly exquisite ears were made from folded plates of gold held in place with tiny gold tacks. The wood has long since rotted away. All that remains is the gold sheeting. It is simple and simply breathtaking. The fact that it was made by fine craftsman, centuries ago in a land once thought of as the Dark Continent, changed the perception of Africa.
Leopard and rhino spoor dotted the trail as we hiked up to the sacred hill. Our guide Cedric led us to an preserved pit where archaeologists have left a timeline of the village they excavated. Then we climbed to the hilltop where the former lords of the region resided. Cedric pointed out that it was a privilege being here, as commoners at that time were never allowed. Yes, a privilege indeed.
The Golden Rhino now resides in the Park’s museum along with beads and stone t
ools and other fascinating artifacts; no photography permitted. The remains of people whose bones were taken away for study have since been returned and ceremonially reburied. The National Park status protects the 30,000 hectare site, which, aside from all the cultural significance, is a world-class game park with fine camping. Spend some time at the bird hide, do a game drive or two, then take the Heritage Cultural Tour and hike up to the site of discovery. The Golden Rhino is waiting for you in the museum. It will stay here in Mapungubwe, its rightful home.
The road to Tarangire leads through a parched landscape where Maasai children herd goats and cattle; some look to be only six or seven years old. They run to the dusty road as we pass, holding their hands to their mouths indicating they want food. We are really struck by this – as proud as the Maasai are that they would allow their children to beg by the side of the road. And who stops and gives them anything? Has anyone ever? Or are we putting western values into the equation? But what a can of worms this opens. With as many goats and cattle as the Maasai have you’d assume there would be meat to eat or to barter for corn or millet. But Maasai (and other pastoralists) don’t eat their livestock. It is all for prestige; the more animals kept, the higher your standing. The pressure the cattle and goats put on the dry grazing land is extreme and leads to illegal grazing in the parks and poaching. The future is at stake here and right now it looks bleak as the dry landscape.
Tarangire Park gives respite to these troubling scenes. The park is fairly new, located below Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, and a river meanders through it. Even bigger baobabs than Ruaha Park grow here, as if to show up the trees in the south. At the public campsite elephant, giraffe, eland, impala, zebra and wildebeest wander by the first evening and an eland races past the truck after dark, running from who knows what. We are up early to explore. As the morning rolls on we find ourselves having coffee at the picnic site overlooking the river and as usual I find a bird to fixate on – the Ruppels Parrot. 
It is posing nicely, we admire it for a bit. Then suddenly there is a commotion directly below us in the riverbed. An impala and a waterbuck burst out of the bushes and right behind them is a lion giving chase. We see all of this from above, an uncommon view, and it is so cool. A second lion joins in but the hunt is unsuccessful even with us cheering them on, haha. The lion stroll off to give a herd of zebra a try. Unsuccessful again, they lay down in the shade. That they were hunting in the daytime is unusual; they looked quite healthy and it was almost as if they were just goofing off before it got too hot.
The iconic photo of Kilimanjaro, with the vast plain below it filled with animals, is taken from Tarangire and we drive over the hills to see this view. At last, here is Kili without cloud cover, standing tall on the plain. We chat with a fellow at the view point about game he is seeing in the park; he tells us there is a leopard kill in a tree on river route #4. Late in the day we park the truck there, and we wait. Vehicles come and go but since we are camping nearby we have plenty of time to get to our site by the appointed hour. So we do what we do best. We wait. It is finally quiet. I look at my bird book and Jim looks at photos. 
Movement in the bushes – and here is the leopard hoisting itself up the tree. It is simply stunning. Patience pays. We watch, take a few photos. The cat is shy and isn’t ready to dine on the impala while we sit there. We leave it be and wander off, back to camp. What a day.
In the night we hear many lion and we are off to find them before dawn. The plan is to go back to the leopard tree by way of the lion sounds – but we miss a turn. Not a problem. . . we drive through the half light and Jim slams on the brakes. The pride is laying in the road in front of us. “Nice spot” I tell Jim. Any less light and we’d have run over one of them. They are full of mischief this morning. The little one comes over to the window (yes, it is closed) then does a full truck inspection, as if to say “Now that’s a proper vehicle!” She motions her cousin over – “Check out this spare tire, cuz.” We are watching them in the rear view camera. Two more lion take a seat in front of us, hemming us in. Then a Land Rover pulls up behind us. The lions look up. They shrug. It’s just a Land Rover.
Finally they have had enough of us and the whole pride lies down in the rocks and falls asleep. We move on to enjoy more birds and mammals until it is time for us to relax around the fire at camp. We leave Tarangire for the road to Ngorongoro Crater tomorrow.
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