November 2, 2021

0615

 

City Lodge, Johannesburg

 

Arrived at OR Tambo late yesterday afternoon. While the experience of the flight is grueling, everything went without a hitch. Everything was on time. Everything worked.

 

Flight from Atlanta to Jo’burg is just over 15 hours, and almost all of that is flying over the Atlantic, which is both miraculous and spooky if you allow yourself to think much about that. This was an Airbus 350-900, which is a very nice aircraft. Generally, we’d taken Boeing 777s in the past, but it looks like Delta has shed those in favor of these long-range Airbuses.  The flight was maybe half-full, so it wasn’t as miserable as previous flights in that there was a bit of room to spread out.  Watched some films, sucked at blackjack, couldn’t figure out some stupid game involving birds and vines. Another message from the universe about getting old. Slept very little and endured what I’m sure are the beginnings of pressure sores.  But it’s still a miracle isn’t it.

 

The process in the airport was about what you’d expect.  Hand someone an entry health screening form.  Show someone your negative PCR test.  Show someone your passport and tell them that you’re there on vacation. It didn’t seem like anyone was inspecting too closely and I’d guess that one could bluff through the process.  The airport wasn’t completely empty, but it was nothing like what we’ve experienced in the past.  Clear passport control, pick up bag and take the long walk through the airport over to City Lodge.

International arrival hall, OR Tambo.

My room, City Lodge Hotel.

 

City Lodge is a nice hotel, catering to the business traveler and tourist, attached to the airport. It’s such a pleasure not to have to do a transfer to another hotel. Again, it seems slow here.  I’m expecting that to be true throughout my time here.  International travel is certainly still very depressed and that must be having a terrible impact on business. We’ll talk later about impact on conservation and poaching.

 

Slept two hours, got up and had a light dinner, slept another 7 hours, showered. The dining area opens at 0600 so went down and got an espresso and a muffin and back to the room to write and pack up before meeting Luke at 0800. Luke and I will have breakfast here and then begin the 6- or 7-hour drive to Hoedspruit and the Timbavati, to Umlani Private Game Reserve.

 

Overall, I’m very happy.  I’m rested, but off.  That will take a few days to clear, I’m sure. I’m looking forward to the drive with Luke.  It’s not a bad drive and parts of it are very pretty. It’s obviously much more enjoyable when one isn’t doing the driving. It’ll be an opportunity to get to know Luke, hear his story, and start asking all the questions that one might ask with a captive representative of another culture.

 

And over the traffic noise, I’m hearing ibises, reminding me that I’m South Africa. I’m trying to remember that feeling of awe that I experienced when I first traveled here. That awareness that I’m on the other side of the freaking planet. That I’m in the southern hemisphere and will be able to see the Southern Cross at night. That I’m surrounded by a completely different cultural story, most of which I’m completely unaware of. 

 

I sometimes enjoy watching YouTube videos of first-time visitors to Kruger. They remind me of the wonder that one experiences when seeing this world for the first time and helps me to try and see things through those eyes again. It’s of course never the same as it is that first time, but I’d guess that part of the gratification of guiding is that one does get to continually be around people who are experiencing this for the first time, and to see it through their eyes. I’ve seen visitors remark on how amazing it is to see a giraffe (giraffe are plentiful enough that after a while, you just glance at them to make sure they’re not doing anything unusual, and just keep moving on) and I’ve heard first-time visitors refer to impala as ‘deer’, which is just endearing as hell. 

 

I expect that this morning will be the last time I have access to the internet for the next 4 weeks (and the hotel has excellent WIFI, which was certainly not true 10 years ago).  I’ll continue to write up some notes, but don’t know how often I’ll be able to post until returning to the US. There is decent cellular service in the Park, so I may be able to set up hot spots and post. That’s always sketchy. I have an international plan with Verizon, which includes some data, but it’s never clear how much you’re using and where you are in the plan, and I always end up owing Verizon hundreds of dollars at the end of these trips. But I guess Verizon needs the money….

 

In line at passport control, I was behind a young couple who were discussing the ‘digital cleansing’ they were about to undertake. It was a big deal to them, and one of them described going on a couple of short camping trips to try and prepare her for being disconnected from the digital world for a few days.  That prompts a moment of reflection of how much the world has changed in such a short time. The first time I traveled to Africa was in Sep/Oct of 2008. I was completely disconnected from the outside world for 3 weeks.  During that time, I heard two bits of news - that the US economy was on the verge of collapse (this was the beginning of the financial crisis and I think Congress rejected Bush’s first proposal, leading to this fairly histrionic interpretation), and that Paul Newman died. Thirteen years later, I can see that it’s almost physically painful for these young people to not be connected.  It’s strange for me too, honestly, but I’m also looking forward to it.  But the reality is that it’s not like being hermitically sealed from the rest of the world.  I expect that I’ll be in regular touch with friends via text, I’ll likely know who won the World Series and will get regular reports on our cat Tunzi.

 

But for now, a final repack (I pack differently for traveling here than I do for the international part of the trip), close my eyes for a few moments, and then go down and meet Luke.  More later.