Editor’s note: Nan Reedy is a Ripley resident who had the opportunity to visit Mick and Jeanne Grant, of Ripley, in South Africa. She wrote about her experience for The Ripley Bee.
I was recently given a dream vacation thanks to my friends, Mick and Jeanne Grant of Ripley. They are currently living and working in South Africa and permitted me, Nan Reedy, their Ripley house sitter and canine au pair, the chance of a lifetime to see the South Africa that they have come to know.
I flew to Atlanta, and from there took a direct flight straight into Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It was nearly 17 hours airtime, with no refueling stops thanks to the huge tanks of the Boeing 777. Good food and a full entertainment center at my disposal made it a pleasant trip - despite the coach class ticket.
Located on the southern tip of the African continent, South Africa is on a similar latitude with Los Angeles so I was expecting sunny California weather but I had not taken into consideration that the Johannesburg and Pretoria area, called the highveld, is about 6,000 feet in elevation. Then factor in three sides of the country area open to the oceans - Atlantic and Indian, and it’s not quite LA weather. In fact, it was far more exciting. Spring lightning storms, some very violent, sweeping across the veld (plains) were the usual evening entertainment, and they were spectacular. But the days were blue and warm and while Ripley braced for winter, we usually sunned ourselves by the pool.
The morning after I arrived, we left for a safari at Tshukudu Big 5 Game Lodge, a private 10,000 acre game reserve and wildlife rehabilitation center that borders the Kruger National Park. I should mention, they have a great web page. As we approached the dirt road leading to the reserve, in less than five minutes we had spotted baboons, wildebeest, guinea hens, giraffes, élan, kudu with twisty horns, springbok, warthogs, and waterbucks. I know, because I started a list and before we even got to camp, my first page was full of wild animals I had only previously seen on TV. In the three days that followed, we routinely found lions, elephants, cape buffalo, white rhinos, hippos, leopard and cheetah and that was just the big stuff!
We also spotted mongooses, dung beetles, millipedes 10 inches long, a garden snail the size of a large avocado (creepy!), geckos, skinks, porcupines the size of hogs, night raiding jackals, crocodiles, gazillions of termite castles and we got repeated and easy views of fabulous birds like the hornbill, hoopoes and turquoise starlings that are a dazzling jewel-tone. We stayed in thatched roofed huts and ate pap and grilled meat, some of which was not beef, but not endangered either. The camp kitty cat was an 80-pound cheetah named Timbo that had been raised on a bottle and that big stinker liked to sneak into one’s hut and pee on the beds. We were warned that baboons were camp raiders and had routinely broken windows to get inside to eat ladies makeup and soap.
And then we went to Kruger National Park where the animals put on a fabulous show just by being themselves. We saw every animal you can imagine - and most of them were in herds or family groups. We even witnessed a lioness guarding her kill - a gutted giraffe! As we left the park through the Paul Kruger gate, a view of unsurpassed wonder appeared before us in the evening soft light. From our perfect view from a high bridge, spread before us was a wide, crystal clear river bordered by lush vegetation and in that area, all that a human eye can encompass there, were nine hippos bathing, their ears wriggling each time they surfaced, crocodiles sleeping on the river bottom while enormous fish swam beside them, a giant turtle catching the last rays from a large rock, and a family of elephants slowly crossing the river in a disorganized line, ripping up huge tufts of grass with their trunks - fast food style.
South Africa is a nature lover’s paradise - there are carpets of wild daisies and the national flower, protea, there are weird trees, beautiful flowering trees and wondrous creatures.
Of course, there is more to South Africa than plants and animals. There are people everywhere, the streets are filled with the native African tribes with their love of color and movement and art, the Afrikan and English citizens are less seen because they live behind walls in high tech, modern, suburban environments but those I met were kind, ultra modern and tuned into the world.
While there, I was treated to many special trips, but an event I’ll never forget was when we took Julia, our housekeeper, home where we met her family and took photos of her children and grandchildren which we later printed and gave to her.
There is great beauty and great suffering in South Africa, all very public knowledge. Apartheid ended just 15 years ago, and it is a country struggling to spread its new and very different wings. Nelson Mandela is much revered for being the calming force that has kept South Africa stable during this long transition and giving all factions faith that a bright future is within reach. I learned a lot there. For instance, I learned that leopard pee smells just like buttered popcorn, but I’m not certain how I will use that information in Ohio.
