My dear friend Willy decided to celebrate his 50th birthday in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, inviting his closest friends from around the world. Friends from Europe, China, the US, Africa and Madagascar joined Willy for an incredible week including some of the most incredible animals in the world.
The best game viewing times were in the early morning and late afternoon as the animals tended to rest in the shade during the day. We used open vehicles on established roads within the park to view the animals – – – and we were not disappointed. 
This was a boa (not poisonous) to which Willy explained could be caught by hand. He adeptly exited our vehicle winding around behind the snake and grabbed it by the tail. Unlike many animals that will try to escape by moving AWAY from the aggressor, this snake turned on Willy who promptly dropped the tail and moved away. The snake then raised up a couple of feet and moved away as fast as a person on a fast walk. It was incredible how agile and fast the snake was.
We were heading back to camp one evening when the drive caught a glimpse of this leopard out of the corner of his eye. Seems the leopard had caught and killed its dinner only to have a pride of lions steal the kill away whilst the leopard escaped up a nearby tree. To make matters worse, the lions once full, rested at the base of the tree keeping the hungry leopard at bay which could have lasted a day or more.
After a wonderful week in the Kruger, most of the part left for home whilst several of us traveled to Sodwana Bay, a popular diving spot on the Indian Ocean near the South African border. The hotel was a bit crude with individual wooden rough hune “cabins” elevated on wooden pilings providing a sleeping room and bathroom reached by walking out the door and around to the back side of the cabin. The shower was “open air” i.e. open to the sky.
The camp was infested with monkeys. I say “infested” because they may at first seem cute but they are major pests. In the early morning they would scour the camp by running from the tin roofs of the cabins. It sounded like a hear of stampeding elephants. An oh yes, the open showers: we had to clean out the monkey poop before showering.
Even while at the restaurant, the monkeys would jump from the open windows on to the table grabbing food from plates and be gone all in the blink of the eye. Cute yes, by a major pest.
There was a small game park not too far from the bay. There are a couple of game rangers patrolling for poachers. And yes, they are armed – a grim reminder of the tragedy of poaching in Africa and the serious attempt to contain it.
