Last day in the park, and I had to catch an early afternoon flight home to the States. Up bright and early, 6 am, and caught this beauty lit up nicely by the rising sun about 20 minutes later.
I tooled around the park for about 2 hours, with a couple of nice pics of Elephants, a Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill, and the ubiquitous African Oxpecker, perched on its favorite roost, a zebra’s rump. I didn’t have time or focus to explore much further; I kept 1 eye on the clock and the other on the drive time to Nelspruit airport – I had a plane to catch.
With full memory cards in hand, it was time to go home! Which brings me to my final Kruger National Park lesson:
There are 2 “Kruger” airports in Nelspruit.
Old wise man who should have checked this beforehand
I punched in ‘Nelspruit airport’ into Google maps, and though I had no data reception, I had pre-loaded the maps. Planning ahead for the win! I picked the one that was suggested. And off I went!
After about an hour, I found myself in downtown Nelspruit, in the middle of traffic.
“That’s weird. I didn’t drive through Nelspruit when I arrived 3 days ago.”
I turned down a dirt road towards the airport, and reached a dead end. The terminus strewn with old, abandoned cars. Here it is from google maps.
Wrong entrance? I turned around and spotted a shack, with an armed guard holding an assault rifle. “Um, excuse me sir, is this the airport?”
“This is the regional airport. You want the international airport on the other side of town.”
I was quickly overcome with a sense of dread. The dread that comes with the thought you’d be stuck in the middle of South Africa, 1000s of miles from home. It took me a while to navigate downtown Nelspruit to even get to this wrong airport – while driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road no less! – and I was sure there was no way I’d make it to the international airport in time to catch my flight.
25 miles and 36 minutes. I didn’t really have that much time… so I did what everyone else would do: I broke every driving law imaginable to make it in time to return the car, get my boarding pass, and get on that plane home!
I wish I could regale you with stories of jumping over crocodile invested waters on a broken bridge to catch the last ferry to the airport, or drifting through downtown Nelspruit doing 100 mph. But, of course, I made with a good 20 minutes to spare before boarding. I know there’s an old saying, that if you’re waiting at the airpot you arrived too early. That’s a stupid saying. Always give yourself plenty of time.
