Kruger National Park – The Definitive Safari

It’s the game park to beat all game parks. The diversity of animal life in Kruger National Park is greater than in any other of its kind in the world. And it’s HUGE! We’re talking here of an area the size of the State of Israel! So it’s not quite an afternoon’s outing, if you get my drift.

My drive here started from Johannesburg, via Pretoria’s Voortrekker Monument, which tells the story of South Africa’s white, Afrikaner history. In my opinion, this is a cornerstone visit for anyone who wants to understand the complex history of this amazing land; where it’s been, where it is now, and how it came to be in both places.

The day’s drive from Johannesburg was dotted with stopovers in fascinating and beautiful natural locations. Had I driven directly along the highway without traipsing off onto side roads, I suspect it might have been boring.

Early (5 a.m.) the next morning, it was out into the bush, scouring the landscape for a sight of any of the “big five.” The first sighting was of a little one – impala. First one, then three, then twenty – beautiful little animals, but nothing to get too excited about. A herd of Zebra soon got my heart a flutter, and seeing a family of giraffe got me really worked up. This was turning out to be a great morning! Little did I know how really exciting it was about to become.

Shortly afterwards, the road meandered about some high bushes, and as I made the turn, there at the side was a family of elephants. A few big adults and a few more young ones. They were not pleased about being interrupted, and one them was seriously miffed! All of a sudden there was trumpeting and snorting. I smacked the car into reverse gear and slowly backed away. Well, seems like it wasn’t quite quick enough for papa pachyderm, and he began a swift shuffle in my direction. Now I was seriously scared so I executed the swiftest three-point turn in history and whizzed away in the opposite direction. I guess this is the meaning of exquisite pain – to be able to see this wondrous sight for so brief a time and without the ability to catch it on camera. The experience remains in memory only. Ah well…

The rest of the day was filled with some monkeys, gnu, assorted buck, and toward evening some Rhino in the bush and a hippo family in the river. No Buffalo and no lion throughout day one – a bit disappointing, and a little worrisome, because 50% of the time I had allocated to Kruger Park was now over.

Back at the camp I unpacked my barbeque and set out to experience the most wonderful of all South African experiences, the “Braai.” I had purchased a slew of meat products for the duration of my two days at a kosher meat store in Johannesburg. It came neatly packaged, labeled and frozen in Styrofoam containers. I wondered how come the smell of barbequed meat doesn’t attract the animals – I guess they prefer their meat underdone. There was a great camaraderie among the various guests in the camp, and we all swapped stories about the days’ events.

My second day also started at 5 a.m. – the animals spend much of the daytime hours hiding from the heat of the sun – and once again the small animals were aplenty. Antelope and kudu, and later on some wildebeest as well. This was definitely starting to look like a good day. Leopards followed, but they were lazing away in the trees and looking particularly hungry. At my lunch stop, a ranger informed everyone that there had been an elephant kill (the angry papa from yesterday?) and that many animals were expected in the kill area toward the late afternoon. I never saw a lunch spot empty out so quickly!

Well, I tell you, a dead elephant is not a pretty sight, even from afar and through field glasses. But the whole food-chain thing was fascinating. Wild pigs were there and hyenas, and assorted other animals. They were having a real feast! After a while they seemed to grow restless. Lots of howling and growling started. And then the best part revealed itself. A whole pride of lions made its way out of the tall grass – males with their enormous heads, females stalking behind and a few young ‘uns. A true parade of royalty. What a treat! With the exception of the hyenas, all the animals made a hasty departure. The howling hyenas drew back begrudgingly and left the kill to the lions. I don’t know if this was out of fear or simply because they had filled their bellies sufficiently. By this time, the sun was setting and it was time to move on. But that short window of nature’s finest was absolutely amazing.

As I drove back to the camp some scurrying in the bush alongside the road caught my attention. There were springbok and impala on the run parallel to the road. All of a sudden some of them began to bound across the road and one actually landed on the hood of my car and slid off the side. I jumped on the brakes lest I hit any of them, but by this time they had all headed off into the bush again.

Heard of the running of the bulls? This was the bounding of the buck!

Anecdotes of Airport Absurdities # 1

I’ve been through more airports than I can remember – I’m sure one for each letter of the alphabet. Hmmm, let me see: Amsterdam, Bombay, Calcutta, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Guilin, Harare, Ilha do Sal, you get my drift… Each airport is different, and many a business traveler will gladly tell you his or her favorite hair-raising airport tale. Something I’ve learned over the years is that a sense of humor helps you get by, whether it’s an overly-eager security official, an inept immigration clerk, a burka-clad New York airport scanner-operator 3 days after September 11, or the inevitable luggage that never arrives; a smile definitely helps this rather unpleasant-tasting medicine go down.

In a previous career I used to carry a lot of silver jewelry to fairs and sales in the USA. I discovered after two separate incidents in Los Angeles and Detroit that airport sniffers find the aroma of silver and that of gunpowder to be very alike. In both cases my baggage, after having passed through the detectors, was hauled to the side – with me in tow. When I offered to open my bag for the security attendant I was met with a barked: “Remain behind the line, sir!” Once my goods were examined and found to be harmless, I was permitted to continue on my way. I learned after the two said incidents, that this is going to be the case whenever I travelled, and so in every case I announced ahead of time that I was carrying silver jewelry, and thus saved myself the suspicious glances and the discomfort of being smelled up and down by a fierce looking hound.

One of my favorite - and probably the weirdest of my airport episodes - occurred during a layover I had at Ilha do Sal in the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese-speaking archipelago off the coast of West Africa. My 18-hour flight transatlantic flight made a scheduled refueling stop there, so I took the opportunity to say my morning prayers in the little lounge that the airport offered. The sweltering heat in Ilha do Sal made short shrift of the slowly turning ceiling-mounted propeller that tried hard - but unsuccessfully - to imitate a fan. Cold Cokes sold for $9 for a half-sized bottle in a bar that had an open canal of not very fresh water running through it. So I sought out a corner, put on my tallit and tefillin and proceeded to pray. I was facing the wall with my tallit over my head, when I heard a female voice, in Dutch, whisper “Wat doet die mens?” – “What is that man doing?” to which she received a prompt and well-informed male reply: “Oh hem? Hij is een Arabier.” – “Oh him? He’s an Arab.” Now while my birth certificate mistakenly identifies my nationality as Palestinian (I was born in Jaffa), I had never before, or since for that matter, been taken for anything but a Jew.

So what’s your “Absurd Airport Anecdote?” If you’ve got a funny airport story that you’d like to share with us, send it to me at the email address below with the subject: Absurd Airport Anecdote. The winning entry will be published here and the writer will receive a $100 discount voucher for any Multi JP Travel Club tour or cruise. So, pens out – write up your “Absurd Anecdote” and send it in! It may prove to be worth $100!

Anecdotes of Airport Absurdities # 2

Recently, I had occasion to pass through Tashkent airport on my way to Japan. After landing, the plane taxied to the terminal and connected to a sleeve. Once the sleeve connected and we all stood up to deplane, we were all instructed to do an about face, and head out of the plane via steps at the back door and down to a bus which took us to the transit lounge. The bus dropped us at the door to the transit lounge and the moment we were in, the door was locked behind us (I guess so no-one can escape and immigrate illegally to Uzbekistan…). Then half the people lit up their cigarettes and start choking the rest of us. It’s legal to smoke everywhere in Uzbekistan – in fact, seems like it’s very much encouraged.

In the hall in which we now stood everyone had to line up so a single clerk watched by three military looking gentlemen examined and rubber-stamped our boarding passes. Then we entered a passage where those who wished were able to pray. With Shacharit behind us, we lined up at another line where another single clerk watched by three other military looking gentlemen examined our boarding passes and our passports. From there we passed through the metal detectors and as usual, my suspenders set off the metal detector, and I beeped. Another large military looking fellow leaped forward to examine me. He patted me down the usual way, and then patted me up a little too friendly, if you get what I mean. “Hey” I said, “we haven’t even been properly introduced!” He nodded as if he understood and let me continue on my way. What a riot!

Now, how do you board your flight in Tashkent? Well, like at most airports you look at the board, right? Wrong! There were no boards in the transit lounge. There were uniformed airline staff coming into the transit lounge and calling out all sorts of things in a foreign tongue (well, not foreign to them) and you slowly figured out if you needed to go here or there. Well, we were led down the stairs toward a bus (based upon our arrival experience, a reasonable thing to do). I didn’t have a good feeling, so I scooted out of the line, went to another gate, entered and walked right onto a plane and asked if that was the plane to Tokyo and indeed it was. So I ran back to where everyone was lined up, called my group to come out of the line and follow me, and then noticed that everyone else was doing the same too. I felt like the Pied Piper of Tashkent leading the mice to Tokyo.

So here we are now on our plane, and one of my travelers finds someone in their seat. I check her boarding pass, and indeed the fellow is in her seat. I ask for his boarding pass, and he is in the right seat, but neither on the right aircraft nor on the proper airline company nor going to the correct destination. He just saw a gate and a line and got on a plane. Instead of going to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines he would have landed up in Tokyo on Uzbekistan Airways. Had we not discovered this situation, I wonder who would have paid for his one-way flight from Tokyo to Istanbul?

So what’s your “Absurd Airport Anecdote?” If you’ve got a funny airport story that you’d like to share with us, send it to me at the email address below with the subject: Absurd Airport Anecdote. The winning entry will be published here and the writer will receive a $100 discount voucher for any Multi JP Travel Club tour or cruise.

So, pens out – write up your “Absurd Anecdote” and send it in! It may prove to be worth $100!

“The Fairest Cape in all the World”

Along with the Houses of Parliament and the President’s Residence, Cape Town’s Government Avenue is home to the following buildings: the National Library and Archives, the National Gallery, and… the Great Synagogue. Located in the Company Gardens in the city’s center, a haven of beauty in a spectacularly beautiful city, the Great Synagogue (or Gardens Shul in local parlance) is the first synagogue to be built in South Africa, dating back to 1863. The original synagogue now serves as the ante room to the new South African Jewish Museum, a creative, experiential hi-tech museum that tells the story of the Jews of South Africa from their first arrival on the shores of the Dark Continent’s southern tip, and until today. Across the courtyard from it stands the Cape Town Holocaust Center, also an astounding museoligical experience, specially taking into account that it was built as a completely local effort and without public funding. Of all the museums I visited in South Africa (after travelling, museums are my next great love), these were without doubt the finest, and match up to any modern, well-designed, engaging and remarkable museum anywhere in the world. Between the two sits the Café Riteve, an upscale kosher dairy restaurant, where I was able to enjoy a wonderful meal and a great cup of coffee. Riteve, by the way, is the name of a Lithuanian Shtetl, from where the forebears of the of the museum’s founders hailed.

But restaurants and buildings are not what would – or should - draw you to Cape Town. What will bring you here is the desire to behold the manifest natural splendor of Africa’s southern tip. Way back in 1597, this area was so appropriately described by Sir Francis Drake, the intrepid British mariner, as “the fairest Cape of them all.”

Cape Town is a majestic city. What makes it so is the regal ever-presence of Table Mountain, around which the entire city is built. About a kilometer inland from the sea and also about a kilometer high, this imposing, overwhelming and powerful landmark is visible from anywhere in the city. There are a number of “must-see” items in any visit to Cape Town, and this is the first of them. You can climb the mountain by foot if you’re feeling adventurous - it takes about three hours to walk up. However, if you prefer the relaxed method of ascent, Table Mountain has one of the finest cable-car systems anywhere in the world. It takes about 5 minutes for the rotating aerial car to make the ascent to the top of the mountain. From there you can see, well, forever. Easy hiking is available on the top; fynbos, the archetypal flora of the Cape is all about you. And everywhere you’ll see Dassies, – Rock Hyrax for the Afrikaans challenged among us – a diminutive short-tailed rabbit-like animal that anatomically, is the closest thing to… an elephant! They’re cute and quite harmless, and seem to look upon us humans as a sort of necessary evil.

There’s another animal that you won’t be able to avoid when visiting the Cape – the baboon. Unlike his scampering pachyderm-relative friend on the mountain top, this fellow is not friendly at all! The baboons around Cape Point, the meeting place of the Indian and Atlantic oceans at the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, are aggressive, noisy, pushy and potentially dangerous. Best not to make eye-contact with them - and keep your food and snacks out of sight. But baboons aside, this is another one of the must-see sights around the Cape. It’s here that the Portuguese voyager Vasco da Gama must have realized that he had passed the major hurdle in his quest for a sea route to India. Here too Dutch East Indies Company Captain van der Decken, caught in a raging storm off Cape Point, hollered out his curse that he will surely sail his ship, the Flying Dutchman, around the Cape even if it takes him until doomsday. Legend has it that whenever a storm brews around Cape Point, the ghost of the Flying Dutchman can still be seen struggling to sail around the Cape. Cape Point, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans come together, while not the southernmost point in Africa, is indeed the tip of the continent. From here it’s water and more water all the way to Antarctica. It’s the end of the world. And it’s an immensely exhilarating feeling as the salty-water is blown into your face at the end of the world.

The third must-see are the wine lands around Cape Town. The Cape’s wine route is spectacular. Vineyards as far as the eye can see. It’s an area of pristine white gabled homesteads designed in Cape-Dutch architectural style, beneath towering corrugated mountains that form a beautiful and bold background among a mixture of greens, blues and the ever-red earth of Africa. While Cape Town is the symbol of British colonial rule in this neck of the woods, Stellenbosch and Franschoek tell the story of the early immigrants from the Netherlands and France. Farmsteads and wineries dot every available piece of land and produce some of the finest wines in the world – kosher ones too!

If you’re a plant lover - and I am – then Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens is a must-see. The Cape is home to more than half of the all the floral species in the world. But unlike the Butchart Gardens in Victoria, British Columbia, which is a much manicured, cropped, trimmed, primped and almost artificial – albeit very, very beautiful garden – the Kirstenbosch Gardens leave you with a feeling that you are witnessing astounding beauty in its most natural state.

If you’re a beach lover – and I’m not – Cape Town has some of the whitest sandy shores in the world. The beaches of Sea Point and Clifton throng with sun worshippers. Muizenberg, once known fondly as “Jewsenberg” because it served as the Jewish community’s primary summer resort town, has the safest beach around. And at Boulders beach you can get up close and personal with the local penguins.

If you’re a lover of history – and I am – you cannot miss either the Cape Town Castle or Robben Island. The former symbolizes white conquest of this beautiful country, and the latter - where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for most of his 27-year incarceration - represents how far this land has progressed since the end of Apartheid.

And if you love shopping – and I can go both ways on this one – Cape Town has a plethora of colorful flea markets and noisy outdoor bazaars as well as posh upscale malls and designer stores. You’ll be easily able to lighten your wallet as you fill your valises here in this splendid location, the fairest Cape in all the world.

Mpumalanga – Mystery of the Kruger Millions

In 1905, when Paul Kruger was president of the South African Republic, a man named John Holtzhauzen was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing a horse and carriage. A true horse thief! When in prison he let it be known that he and two others had been charged by the government of the South African Republic to bury gold and diamonds to the value of 2 million pounds in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the British. Whether this was true was never established, and the mystery of the missing Kruger Millions has never ceased to fire the imaginations of treasure hunters and intrepid searchers, who still seek out the missing loot to this very day.
According to the myth, the stash was hidden in the vicinity of the Blyde River, now in the South African province of Mpumalanga. I don’t know if there is any gold in the valleys and mountains of Mpumalanga. But what can be found there is a different type of treasure - some of the most magnificent scenery I have ever seen anywhere in the world. The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest of its kind on the planet after the Grand Canyon in the USA and the Fish River Canyon in Namibia. Unlike its desert-based big brothers, the Blyde River Canyon is covered in lush green bush. There aren’t enough adjectives to describe the spell-binding beauty of this great escarpment.

A nearby lookout point is called “God’s Window.” As I stood there it seemed that I could indeed see as far as the end of the earth. The lowveld beneath the Drakensberg Mountains stretch out as far as the eye can see. This is typical African high plains – very similar to those of the Serengeti in Tanzania. There are other viewpoints nearby, Wonder View and The Pinnacle, (the names alone suggest visions of great beauty and grandeur) each offering magnificent vistas of the area.
The Blyde River and Treur River meet at a place called Bourke’s Luck Potholes – named for the unique geological formations carved into the rock-face by the swiftly swirling water currents. Surreal cylindrical rock sculptures created by the whirling water have created a series of dark pools which contrast with the pristine white and yellow rocks. Amazing stuff!

I love waterfalls, so I made sure to take in all the waterfalls in the area – and there are lots and lots of them: high ones and wide ones and tall ones and those that are split into two and three falls alongside one another. There’s more than ten waterfalls within a range of an hour’s dive. It’s almost unfair to other places that there’s so much beauty here in such a small area.

But waterfalls are but the second item of incredible beauty in this neck of the woods. There are also some magnificent caves in the area, and for those who are spelunking stimulated, you can travel from the heights of God’s Window to the depths of the Echo Caves in a matter of minutes. The tunnels of the cave run 2 kilometers underground, and one of the rooms here has a ceiling that’s 60m high!

Not too far away from the Echo Caves are the Sudwala Caves, assumed to be 2,000 million years old. With a tunnel system that runs more than 30 kilometers, these caves contain not only impressive and dramatic stalagmites and stalactites, but they are covered with a fossilized remains of ‘collenia’ - a form of algae from which it is believed life on earth evolved.

The Sudwala caves were discovered in the 19th century by the Swazi Prince Somquba as he fled the wrath of his brother Mswati. During the second Boer War, the soldiers of the South African Republic used the Sudwala Caves as a storage facility for ammunition for their Long Tom Cannons which they used to fire on the opposing British forces. Some say that the Kruger Millions were hidden here in the caves. Holtzhausen the horse thief said otherwise. Whom are we to believe? Hmmm…

The Tiniest Kingdoms of Africa #2: Lesotho

Lesotho (pronounced Le-soo-too) – meaning “Kingdom in the Sky” – is a mountainous kingdom lodged in the middle of South Africa. One of the most ancient of Africa’s modern kingdoms, it came into being in the early 19th century when King Moshoeshoe the Great led his people into the inhospitable heights of the Drakensberg & Maluti mountains, where they would be protected from the Boer excursions into the hinterland. The difaqane (forced migration), helped forge the Basotho tribe into a fiercely independent nation, and today Lesotho is something of an incongruity in the sea of modernity surrounding it.

Here comes the summer thunderstorm!Like Swaziland to the north, Lesotho is tiny. I drove across the entire kingdom in five hours. It could probably have taken me less, but I slowed purposely to view the amazing mountains and the rock formations all over this tiny land. Seeing that it was summer, I was also caught in a drenching downpour – itself a wondrous event. The day started off completely clear and sunny – a typical summer’s day in this part of the world. Because the altitude is what it is, I saw the rain clouds approaching for some time, and as they approached they enveloped the highlands in thick mist. Then came the frightening thunderclaps and lightning, torrential rain for an hour or so, and as surprisingly as it all started, it also ended. The sun came out again, the clouds moved on to make other pastures green, the smell of freshness was heady all around, and the views became crystal clear. Wow!

After the side-to-side trip, I backtracked to sample some of the tidbits that the kingdom offers. Lesotho is a camper’s paradise – but there isn’t any “free” land on which to camp. In Lesotho, all the land is owned by someone. What I needed to do to pitch a tent was obtain permission from the chieftain of the nearest village, who was owner of the piece of land where I wanted to sleep. Upon hearing that, as a child, I had once lived in the neighborhood (in 1956) he insisted that I stay over free of charge.

The chief wore a typical Basotho blanket over his shoulders – a woolen one, not the synthetic stuff that can be found all over the place. Woolen Basotho blankets are status symbols here. The typical design has lines, which are worn vertically. According to local belief lines worn horizontally will stunt your growth. Among the other design features on your woolen blanket, there can be found maize cobs, which symbolize fertility or a cabbage leaf, symbolizing prosperity (I actually didn’t see much cabbage around). Young married women wear their blankets around their hips until after their first child is conceived, while young men receive their first blankets upon circumcision, which marks the transition from boyhood into manhood in Basotho culture.

Unlike many other places in Africa, Lesotho is not known for wild animals. This is a lofty land of pastoral, scenic beauty. You can fly into the capital, Maseru from South Africa. You can drive in by car via numerous border crossings. But the best way to see this land, is… by pony. So pony up to Lesotho, Kingdom of the Sky.

The Tiniest Kingdoms of Africa #1: Swaziland

In the 1930s Jews trying to escape the vicissitudes of European life weren’t really welcome in Southern Africa. Some of those who arrived, even bearing South African immigration permits, were only allowed passage through South Africa. Some of them landed up in the Kingdom of Swaziland. You can’t really pay a flying visit to Swaziland – even though it does have an airport. Flying over the country lasts probably all of 15 minutes – and that’s if you’re not flying too fast. But what it lacks in size, it makes up in fascinating traditions and amazing African landscapes.



One of the first things I noticed when flying over Africa for the first time in 14 years, was that the soil of Africa is red. In West Africa, from Nigeria through Sierra Leone, they will tell you it’s because of all the blood spilt there. That’s a tragic interpretation. From Kenya and southward, I was told it’s because of the copper ore that is characteristic of the African soil. Whichever is true – and there’s probably truth in them both – Africa’s soil - unlike our brown earth – is reddish.
Swaziland’s soil is too, but the lush greenery and the rolling hills; the vermillion sunsets and the protected black rhino; the colorful, intricate beadwork of the craftswomen and the innocence of the children – these all made my visit here quite exceptional.

From the dawn of its history, Swaziland has been something of a Switzerland in Africa – fending off British, Boer and Zulu to maintain its independence. Not an easy thing when you are the smallest kid on the block. But they have succeeded, and they’ve done it with dignity. African traditions mix with western influences here, and I was a little amused one morning, to see a man stepping out of his BMW 7 Series sedan and heading to the office, wearing an amahiya (the traditional Swazi robe), carrying a briefcase – and a spear!

The main point of my journey to Swaziland was to experience the Swazi version of Shavuot – Incwala - the festival of the first fruits. This is the occasion when the king gives his subjects permission to eat from the first fruits. It’s a six-day process starting with the eve of the full moon when the king goes into retreat. That’s when young men from all over the kingdom harvest the branches of the lusekwane tree, and begin an all-night hike to the king’s kraal. In the meantime, others have gone to fetch water from local rivers, and some even venture as far as the ocean (either in South Africa or in Mozambique). On day three a bull is sacrificed. The fourth day brings the king from his retreat, and he dances David-like, before his subjects. After the dance the king eats a pumpkin, signaling permission for everyone to eat the first fruits of the New Year. Two days later, all the items used in the rituals of the previous days are burned and the rainy season is officially declared.

The Jewish community that once existed here lived in numerous places, ranging from the capital Mbabane, to places like Pigg’s Peak, Manzini, and various other locations. Most of them were farmers. With a tradition that resembles Shavuot, its small wonder that Jews found a haven here.