It’s ironic that people rush to Game Parks ,spend huge amounts of money on going on safari whilst in the meantime countless numbers of animals and bird species are becoming extinct. To reach the park one takes to roads overloaded with trucks transporting coal to our ports for use by China and other countries whilst our Government allows our railways to go to rack and ruin. The world’s population continues to increase putting further pressure on our wild places.
Kruger National park is the largest park in South Africa and covers nearly 20000 km2. It became South Africa’s first national park in 1926 and while most private Game Reserves are for the rich and famous from overseas Kruger remains an affordable option for locals as well as catering for foreign guests. There is a variety of accommodation inside the park including the camping . For this visit I opted to stay in Komatipoort near the gate to Crocodile Gate and be a day visitor. I chose the week that SAN Parks deemed free to enter and drove my car in the Southern part of the park.
The first day it rained which affected game viewing but nevertheless I experienced one of my best sights, a leopard eating its kill wedged in the fork of a tree. Although it was some distance away I had a perfect view with binoculars.
Kruger has a number of camps containing shops and restaurants and I took advantage to have my breakfast, usually with a good view over the rivers.
There are many elephants in the park, far more than I can remember from previous, some of the viewings are spectacular. Being up close to these huge beasts is memorable and small babies are wonderful to watch with their funny antics. Viewing elephants has become matter of fact and many people just drive past.. Not me , I find them wonderful to watch.
Lions are plentiful but usually disappoint to watch with crowds of cars nosing in to watch their sleeping bodies tucked under a bush sleeping. I did see apar mating.
Another wonderful sighting was four wild dogs sleeping by the side of the road. I watched them alone for 20 minutes before the first car arrived. Like cheetahs they sleep and then jerk awake keeping their eyes and ears open for danger.
A huge herd of buffalo was another special sighting.
Birds are prolific but difficult to spot when driving.
I find that one can drive for a long time and see nothing and then turn around the corner and there is a wonderful sighting.
I didn’t see a rhino, an animal which has almost become extinct in the Kruger due to poaching.
The road back home is mostly set up for agriculture , pine forests, sugar cane ; and is a green desert with few birds and animals. Kruger is but an island in the middle of it all and our Game Parks are coming under increasing pressure. I fear for the future of our wild places.

This is a book by Elizabeth Gilbert as a sequel to Eat, Pray, Love where she has a good relationship with the man Philippe, she met in Bali but both of them are afraid to commit to marriage after surviving divorces and everything that goes with it. However, they are faced with marriage or nothing if they are to live together in USA as he falls foul of the immigration authority. Ms. Gilbert investigates marriage through the years up to the present day and comes up with some interesting information and ideas about relationships.
She has a talk with a wife from the Hmong tribe in Vietnam and finds that each other has totally different concepts of marriage. The idea of marrying for love, being a good wife or husband is totally alien to the Hmong and many other people of the world either because they have an arranged marriage or they follow age old traditions of marriage where men and women have their place and duties and position in the tribe. So, a ‘happy marriage” is not something Hmong women think about. We however expect to have happiness from marriage. Are we asking too much of modern marriage?
In the early days BC, the fundamental working unit of society was the family. From the family came food, housing, education, religious guidance, medical care and importantly defense. But with the coming of Christianity there was a rejection of sexuality and marriage. When we speak today about “holy wedded matrimony” or the “sanctity of marriage” we should remember that for ten centuries Christianity did not see marriage as being either holy or sanctified. In fact, Christianity was hostile to marriage.
Later as the need for safety reduced and people lived in towns and villages marriage became the single most important business arrangement most people would ever make in their lives. Great wealthy families stabilized their fortunes through marriage. The big romantic white weddings didn’t come into being until the 19th century, before that people got married in their homes.
In the 13th century the church became involved in marriage. Divorce was banned, as it is still in the Philippines. In those days marriage made life more difficult for women. They lost legal rights of their own nor could they hold any personal property. In USA in certain states, as in apartheid South Africa, it was illegal to have an inter-racial marriage.
So, this transformation of marriage from a business deal to a badge of emotional affection has weakened considerably over time because marriages based on love are just as fragile as love itself. Divorce is the second most stressful event after death of a spouse.
Infatuation is the most perilous aspect of human desires. It leads to what psychologists call “intrusive thinking”, the state where you cannot concentrate on anything other than the object of your desire. The problem with infatuation is that it’s a mirage, a trick of the eye. Infatuation is not quite the same thing as love. Real, sane, mature love is not based on infatuation but on affection and respect.
It would appear that there are two types of men, those who have the vasopressin receptor gene and tend to be trustworthy and reliable sexual partners, sticking with one partner for decades, raising children and running stable households. Men who lack this gene are prone to dalliance and disloyalty, always needing to seek sexual variety elsewhere.
Married people sometimes form a friendship outside of matrimony but begin sharing intimacies and this leads to a physical relationship and if partners find out then it’s curtains to the marriage.
Some issues about marriage that need to be negotiated are discussed. Firstly, fidelity is a nonnegotiable condition of marriage. Housework and domestic chores need to be established as a shared duty. Do both partners want children and if so, how many? Are the couple compatible in bed and no problems with human sexuality. Partners often have different ideas about the managing of money issues and this needs to be sorted out as it can lead to major strife in the future. Does one draft a prenuptial agreement, well it’s probably not necessary if both parties have little money but if one partner has plenty and the other not much then it’s strongly advisable. If you think it’s difficult to talk about money when you’re blissfully in love, try talking about it later when you are disconsolate and angry and your love has died.
50% of marriages end in divorce in USA. This is more complicated than it looks once you break it down across certain demographics. The age of the couple at the time of their marriage seems to be the significant consideration. Eighteen-year-olds have something closer to 75% divorce rate. Age 25 seems to be the cut off point and the older you are the more chance you have of not ending up in the divorce court. Other factors of marital reliance are 1) the better educated you are the better off your marriage will be.2) Couple with young children at home report “more disenchantment “within their marriage. 3) People who live together before marriage have a slightly higher divorce rate than those who wait until marriage to cohabitate. 4) The less similar you and your partner are in terms of race, age, religion, ethnicity, cultural background and career the more likely you are to divorce.5) Social integration. The more tightly woven a couple are within a community of friends and family, the stronger their marriage will be. 6) Religiousness. The more religious a couple is the more likely they are to stay married. But only just. Born again Christians in USA have a divorce rate that is only 2% lower than their more Godless neighbors.
It would seem that up until the present time women have had a raw deal out of marriage, giving up the possibility of earning their own money and staying at home caring foe others and doing the chores. So why do so many women want to get married and have the full white wedding experience? It’s because they feel chosen, it’s their moment of glory. Today women have to decide whether they want children or not and if so how to balance a work life with looking after and bringing them up.
Despite all these men and women will forever get together as a couple, make vows to each other and somehow negotiate the tricky road of being partners. Elizabeth Gilbert did marry Philippe despite her misgivings. I googled and found that later they divorced and she then had a relationship with a woman.
Today I find that amongst young people there is no rush to get married, often they will have two or three relationships, sometimes live in, before tying the knot. Many women delay until their 30’s until having their first child. With my generation it was expected that one gets educated, married, have children, take on debt with buying a house and the rights cars and work for 40 years saving towards a retirement that often they don’t achieve due to an early death. There are alternatives and many younger people are discovering them.