See below for our final Tanzania posting (also added today).

Currently, we are in Cape Town, South Africa -- an absolutely magical city and a must-see on the african tourist circuit (or any circuit for that matter).  We arrived in SA on Aug 1, spent a couple of days in Johannesburg, went on a 5 day safari in Kruger, and then arrived in C'town on August 8th.  More on our C'town adventures later -- for now, Kruger details.

First, our arrival in SA was quite overwhelming -- paved roads, highways, and stop lights!!!  The modern world, so to speak, which we had not really seen since we left Turkey at the end of June (and in a sense, really, since we had left Denver in mid-May).  Thus, despite Joburg's very bad reputation, we had a good time -- mainly walking around a mall ("downmarket" by Cherry Creek standards -- but a mall nonetheless), drinking vanilla coke, and eating fast food (Wimpy burgers rule).  That may not sound exciting, but for us at the time, it was amazing.  While traveling through E Africa, we did not really think about those things . . . at least not until they were made available to us again.

From Joburg, we took a 5 day safari to Kruger National Park in eastern S Africa.  First, we visited the 3rd largest canyon -- Blyde River Canyon -- in the world.  Although we only spent a few minutes there, we certainly enjoyed the view.  The drive was also amazing as we entered the highveld of S African and then descended into the lowlands that lead into Mozambique and the Indian Ocean beyond. 

Next, we spent 4 days/nights visiting Kruger and the surrounding area.  While we did not stay at a "luxury" camp, we were not exactly roughing things either.  We stayed on a private game reserve (Olifants) and in the Tremisana Game Lodge.  The room was fairly basic, but the grounds were beautiful . . . and right in the middle of the African bush.  In fact, our lodge was surrounded by an electric fence with a sign that said, "danger:  this fence can stop an african elephant, so can send you to the hospital."  More like the morgue, I thought. 

The game viewing in KNP did not match up to that in Tanzania, but we still had a wonderful time and saw a lot of animals (elephants, a few lions -- but only from far away, buffaloes, hippos, kudus, impalas, giraffes, baboons, zebras, crocs, eagles, and many other birds).  The highlights were seeing KNP's famous and huge "tuskers" (elephants) in the river valley, and seeing a pod of hippos scrambling from the land and into the water.  In addition, we saw a lot of KNP -- and it is an incredibly beautiful park.  It is very diverse, with beautiful rivers and a lot of colors (trees, plants, and flowers). 

The other great part of this trip was the diversity of our activities.  Over 4 days, we not only went on 2 long game drives in the park, but also went on 2 bush walks and 2 night game drives on the private reserve (during which we saw the incredibly rare aardvark).  The bush walks were fantastic, particularly when we tracked, saw, and were mock charged (2x) by a wild elephant!!!  Finally, we also visited -- for a 1/2 day -- the Mohololo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center.  Jenn was in 7th heaven and had they let us, we would have stayed as volunteers!!!  We learned a lot about the different animals we had seen, but also heard a lot of sad stories related to poachers.  We got very close to some eagles, vultures (wait until you see those photos), lions, a leopard, a hyena, a cheetah, and an ornery honey badger (which Jenn got to pet).

For those people who want to see african wildlife, but perhaps avoid some of the travel difficulties associated with parts of Africa, then Kruger is for you.  Here in SA you can do it all -- the magic of C'town (which is, in some ways, more like Europe than Africa), the wildlife of Kruger, and countless other tourist opportunities.