Elephants and Fires

By Katie Peige

We finally made it to South Africa! James and I were able to sit next to each other and share stories about our pre-travels to Europe. We landed at the airport in Johannesburg and it was a weird transition for me to see all the advertisements and signs in English again. This trip is the first time I have been in a foreign country where English is an official language and won’t have to worry about anyone understanding me, or at least not in the city or a touristy place, I am not sure about the upcoming homestays.

After uniting with the rest of the group and sharing our stories about our travels in Europe and our canceled flight it was already time to go to bed, all I could really tell about South Africa in the dark was that it was in fact winter and was chilly compared to the Swiss summer. I was happy that I had brought a jacket and at least one sweater.

The next day we headed back to the airport and off to Hoedspruit. I was sad that I never got to see Johannesburg except for the airport, as I am fascinated with cities and would have liked to see an African city since most time when we see images of Africa in the media, it is of mud hut villages and sprawling bush. Looking out of the window, Johannesburg looked an awful lot like Phoenix, lots of brown yards, Mexican style mud shingles on large homes, a golf course, and dramatic rock formations emerging from the desert. As we approached Hoedspruit there was even a canyon that looked similar to the Grand Canyon, and then the dirt seemed to become redder and it looked very similar to Sedona.

We were greeted by Dr. David Bunn and our drivers Thomas and Godfrey and were loaded up in the GDV (game drive vehicle) which is a large jeep like vehicle with three rows of seats that sits nine people. We drove out to the Wits Rural Research facility and freaked out when we saw giraffes, warthogs and kudu. We arrived to the facility, which was like Girl Scouts Camp as we stayed in a large room with four bunkbeds with communal bathrooms called “pollution stations.” The group was broken into three, two groups of girls, one group of boys, and the professors enjoyed separate private houses. There were a bunch of Vervet monkeys in the trees around our rooms and we were told to be careful since they like to steal food and are not afraid to get close to humans. We were also instructed to always carry a flashlight to make sure we do not step on snakes or scorpions….luckily we never saw any of those guys.

The next two days we had lectures about the history of Kruger Park, the history of fire management in the park, and about the current management of eco-system services. In Kruger, after years of fire suppression, much like in the United States, they now let the fire burn and as a result they have seen more biodiversity. The fire lecture touched upon issues with the elephants though as the areas where there is fire and no elephants there are a lot of tall trees which are needed for birds to nest. However, when you add elephants there are hardly any tall trees. It’s hard for me to side over the elephants for trees but there may be a solution to have the large trees in the areas where there aren’t large animals….outside the fence. Hopefully the birds will be happy there.

On our last day at Wits Rural, we had to present our presentations to David and his wife Dr. Melissa McHale. We had created these presentations in groups of two about a month earlier but decided to group up and so we were now three groups of four. The presentations did not get the ideal feedback as Melissa and David did not like the idea of solutions coming from outsiders and so many of the ideas were shot down. This, I think, was to be expected as wicked problems do not have an easy fix. I am not sure what we will do when we need to present again. Will we see something that will inspire a great idea? Hope so, but in the meantime, tomorrow, will be our first game drive and I am excited and nervous about being out in the bush!