Jo'Burg to Pafuri

We now have a giant motor coach for our long journey from Jo-burg to Pafuri. Hopefully we'll see a lot. David said (and I quote), "Don't buy wooden bowls...Zimbabwe killed 1.5 million trees last year to make giraffes for the Germans..." There is lots of immigration into the cities "roads paved with gold, diamonds, money grows on trees..."

The Big 5 are on the paper notes for South Africa. South Africa has one of the best road systems in Africa. All cars are made here, under contract with manufacturers. South Africa feeds most of Africa and is considered the only "first world" country in Africa. Currently S.A. is in the process of renaming many of their cities with African names.
Quote of the day: "He who fights with 1 woman is a fool, he who fights with 5 women is a corpse."
Krankskop - early travelers from Capetown saw it after 8 months on the road by oxcart and thought is was an Egyptian pyramid. The river near by was named the Nyl.
This is the beginning of the Baobob tree obsession on our journey. Apparently God asked the hyena to plant some trees and the hyena planted them upside down. Thus the baobob tree.
We passed a village outside of Pafuri where people's yards are only dirt because they are afraid of snakes and don't want them to be able to sneak up on the house.

On the drive into Kruger National Park we saw: Wildebeest/Gnu, Zebra, Impala, tree squirrels, cape buffalo, njala, baboons and yellow billed hornbills.

The only thing I can say about the Pafuri Camp is that you must see it to believe it! The whole camp is up on stilts/walkways so the wildlife can move beneath it. Our "tent" has 2 bedrooms, an indoor and outdoor shower, giant mosquito nets, and more. We went on a short evening game drive and saw the moon rise...not something that could be captured in a picture, simply remembered. More impala and birds. Our new wildlife was a jannett, a member of the mongoose family. We also hear bush babies crying in the trees. The lodge deck has lanterns and fires lit and night. We had waiter service dinner on the the deck. Outstanding!