Animals Everywhere!

Feb 9 (Pictures: baboon, hippo, elephants!)

Today we woke up at the crack of dawn to drive to Skukuza, Kruger National Park. It was a fun car ride and we stopped for these famous pancakes (crepes) in a town along the way. When we finally entered into Kruger we saw an elephant and tons of Impala wandering about and grazing. They were beautiful. They call Impala “the McDonalds of the bush” because when you look at them from behind you see an M drawn in black on their behinds. It was cute. Further into the park we saw monkeys, warthogs, all sorts of birds, etc. And then we got our lesson on how to deal with dangerous animals when they’re approaching. Which terrified me.
-Rhinos: run up the nearest tree and get at least 10 feet above the ground; or, lie flat and wait for it to trample you because that’s better than being impaled. (I really really really don’t want to be trampled though.) Or you can stand behind a tree because they cant really hook their horns around the tree, but this isn’t really a safe option.
-Buffalo: same as rhino except you cant just stand behind a tree because buffalo can reach around a tree and impale you.

-Hippos: I forget, but you’re really not supposed to upset them because they’re responsible for the most number of human deaths…
-Elephants: run, and discard clothing as you go. When you discard a piece of clothing, the elephant then goes up to it, sniffs it, and tramples it, which buys you some time. So basically by the time you’re through you’re either naked or dead…
-Lions: stare them straight in the eye, wave arms about to make yourself look big, swear loudly at them, and slowly back away; NEVER RUN
-leaopards: same as lions but NEVER look them in the eye because they WILL attack.
So those are the basics. I’m going to start practicing climbing difficult-to-climb trees tomorrow. Although with the thorn trees you can just jump as high as you can and the thorns hold you on like Velcro…