Just a few hours from [Paul Kruger] is Johannesburg (Jo'burg or Egoli for "City of Gold" in Zulu to locals). The city has a bad reputation for crime, yet felt perfectly safe by day. The funky university district of Melville has hip shops and leafy streets that attract bohos. Newtown (the city's cultural precinct) offers galleries and museums, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery and Museum of Africa. Nearby Soweto (South West Townships) was the site of the 1976 uprising that marked the start of South Africa's struggle for freedom from apartheid.

On Day Two, we go leopard spotting, roaming across savannahs in our tank-like Land Rover in search of the elusive cat. Rifos Mnisi, our Shangaan tracker, points to paws in the dust -- the higher the ridges in the prints, the fresher they are. We're in luck. One passed not long ago. Jason Bagg, a ranger with an infectious love of nature (among his factoids: leopard urine smells like popcorn; you can tell a lion's age by the colour of its nose), picks up his CB radio to pinpoint a location with other guides. And we're off, crashing through underbrush. We pull up within metres of a young male leopard hiding under a jackalberry tree with a limp impala in his jaws. His green eyes flash and he hisses and snarls, warning us away from his kill. In a heartbeat, he could leap into our truck. But our (unarmed, mind you) ranger assures us the diesel smell and size of our vehicle will ward off attack. As we watch, the leopard tears fur off his catch, then stands and tilts his head up -- considering the best way to drag his prize into the tree to protect it from hyenas. We don't wait for one to show up.