Wind, Rain, Fire, ... & A Honey Badger

TIA: This is Africa. And something is always on fire. Fields, charcoal, garbage, trees, cigarettes, stoves, bush, ditches on the side of the road.... you name it. With the luxury of hours and hours to look out the Land Rover window, it's difficult not to notice. Every time I think the plumes of smoke or piles of ash are gone, I just need to look out the opposite side of the Landie... There will be something charred or burning. The first day of our 10,000km road trip, it happened to be our trailer tire bearing. Thirty minutes into our trip, we're pulled over by a guy yelling “Sparks! Sparks! Your tires!” - nah, not scary at all! Ha. Way to begin. Luckily, we make it to the next town and endure a 3 hour delay, but we now have spare bearings :) We race through Swaziland to Joberg, only to find out crew member numero 5 (the Brazilian) got his dates wrong – 5 hours at OR Tambo and an overnight at a gas station in the car? Yep, our tempers are a bit aflame to find he arrives the next day. Beer me. Fast forward – next day we get our final pickup – the Aussie – from Hoedspruit and head to the Kruger. There had been a major fire in the park, and much of the landscape was charred. It's cold and rainy, but the animals don't seem to mind – 2 days in Kruger and we saw zebra, buffalo, chameleons :), kingfisher, impala, termite mound cities, a rummaging honey badger, saddle bill stork, marshall eagle, scots owl, yellowbill horn bill, steenbok, kudu, warthogs (kind of cute), hyena (yeah!), waterbuck, sharps grysbok, lilac crested roller (gorgeous), nyala, baboon, crocodile, jackal, franklin, elephant... & more. Woo hoo! Quite an intro to African wildlife. Oh, and don't forget the 1 'Dodgy' South African, 1 Australian Siesta, 1 Mad Scot, 1 Tardy Brazilian and 2 American Gypsies. Next up? Bush camping in Mozambique...

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