A Conversion Story

My cabin and my Colombian cabin-mate.
He gave me the best allergy drugs!

Our trail protection: rangers and guns

Trekking through the bush on the animal look-out.

Just stumbled across some wild buffalo. No big deal.

Water hole, hippos and sunset

Hello Mr. Rhino!

The vehicle that got us 60 km out to our camp.

Oh, hey!

Flora instruction

On a scale from 0 to 10, zero being "Animals are as boring as a monotone lecture" and 10 being "I want to be the next Jane Goodall," before this trip, I was a 3. I have always been way more intrigued by the human experience: the emotions, the relationships, the art. I would pick a museum over a zoo, a book over a pet.

But after four days in Kruger National Park, my scale rating is now a 6, maybe a 7. The change was almost instantaneous: within 20 minutes of entry into the park, I had already seen zebra, elephants and giraffes just hanging out on the side of the road. It was completely natural! Organic! Un-artificial! There was no human intervention to put on a good show, and Kruger is about the size of a small country.

In Kruger, you can't get out of your car or safari vehicle unless you are on a ranger-led walking tour sponsored by the park. I went on this three-day "Wilderness Trail" with seven other people: an English couple, a South African couple, an Australian father and son, and a Colombian dude. We spent three nights in rustic cabins in the middle of the bush. All the food, bedding and hiking supplies were provided; we even had our own cook.

I did not reveal to anyone in my group my semi-disinterest in animals. However, I suspect they picked up on it when I had to keep asking, "What was that we just saw again? A buffalo or a rhino? And which one was the wildebeest? And are there bison here?" I did however try to talk to them a lot about international politics so that they would not think that I was a completely idiotic American. Furthermore, I made a conscious effort not to spontaneously burst into songs from The Lion King although it was tempting - especially when we saw warthog!

For our first sunset, we sat at the edge of a huge watering hole that was full of giant hippos and crocociles. Around the water's edge were baboons, Egyptian geese (so I was told) and giraffes. There we all were, sharing different sections of the same waterfront. The only thing separating us from the animals was our rangers' guns. As we shared the sacred spaced and watched the sunset, people sipped beers and wine, or in my case, the most delicious grapefruit juice in the world.

Earlier that morning, on our first walk, we came within a few yards of elephants and rhinos and bison. The walks were thrilling because after long quiet stretches of empty land, we were suddenly face-to-face with a herd of wild animals. The ranger would take a strategic stance between us and the animals and then motion for us to silently file past. Even when we walked for long stretches without seeing any animals, it was thrilling to just be in their space: to step through their poo, to see where they had rolled around in the mud and where they had rubbed up against a tree.

One night as we sat around the campfire, we heard lions roaring from three different directions. Then our rangers told us stories about Mozambicans who were trying to cross the border and became lion meat. When we were driving out of the camp site this morning, we saw two lions sleeping on the side of the road.

My favorite animals were the graceful giraffe, the brightly colored birds and the amusing warthogs. Generally, animals strike me now as whimsical and entertaining. They are also so varied and random - the round body of an ostrich, the unique stripe pattern on zebra, the grace of a herd of running kudu.

Altogether on this trip I have seen: leopard, lion, python, zebra, elephant, wildebeest, penguin, shark, whale, seal, ostrich, water buffalo, heron, rhino, warthog, monitor lizard, mongoose, kudu, impala, millipede, giraffe, hippo, baboon, franklin, turtle, and crocodile.

I still think too many animal pictures are pretty boring, so I tried to include ones here that also feature the human experience.

I also want to clarify that this change of heart does not imply anything like a change in career from social worker to veterinarian. But when I go home, I think I might get a bird feeder.