A “Wild” few days

These last couple days have been an absolute wild ride! We did not have service in Kruger National Park, so I will post the last two days in one post.

Here is day one

Today was an eventful day, we woke up at 03:50 to tact the flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. The flight was uneventful I slept like always, then we hoped onto a bus a started to make our way to the campsite in Kruger national park. Our way there was far from uneventful after about 2 hours the front tie rod broke and thanks to the amazing driver who got us to the side of the road safely and no one was hurt, I’m very impressed with how he handled the situation.

There was about an hour and half wait before a new bus came so the leader set up a trivia game, there were four categories pop culture, music, general, geography. It was such a close battle, beck and neck the whole time, the teams were so good and there were many times I swore that we would have lost however in the end we managed to win by one point. It was so much fun, and what a great way to pass the time.

After the new van came we drove for half an hour and then stopped for lunch, after we filled our bellies and emptied our bladder, we hit the road again for about 3 more hours, where the leader explained how South Africa works, the political, the school system, the working pay and such, it was extremely interesting to learn how it all works. Then I chatted with one of my fellow tour mates and enjoyed the conversation immensely.

A little about Kruger National Park, the area if. 2.2 million hectares, with 727 km of fence, it is there to protect the animals from poachers and cars etc. the park is very natural, they don’t plant trees or take away trees or anything, they let the circle of life happen, the only time they step in, is if an animal has a trap or white stuck to them, or if there is a Forrest fire, other then that they let nature takes it a course.

It was then time to arrive at the safari, since we had the breakdown we lost out on the evening safari, it sucked but they are adding the time missed today on tomorrows two safaris to make up for it! The first thing I saw before I even got out of the bus was a worthog just sauntering along then as we entered the park and drove to our campsite we saw antelope and a rabbit and a giraffe! Like how cool is that to see a giraffe just mosying along, like hey what’s up, oh I’m just living here.  It was just so cool.  Then upon arriving at the campsite we went for supper and there is a wetland behind the restaurant, with a flashlight we saw farther away 4 hippos and the eyes of crocodiles! I was so excited and I cannot wait for tomorrow to come where I can see these ones again and more animals in the daylight.

Coming back to the campsite we sat around the campfire and admired the stars that are in this southern hemisphere, ones we don’t see back in North America, Now I’m tucked into my tent, listening to hyenas, birds and critters make noises.  Will be so nice to fall asleep to these noises.

Goodnight 🦛

Day 2

We woke up nice and early to the sun rising at 0500 and hit the road in the safari truck at 05:30. It was maybe about 2 minutes down the road that there were two lions, a male and a female, then shortly behind was the younger brother of the male lion with the female, it was explained to me that the two lions were kicked out of their pride because they are old enough to start their own, and they are a threat to the head male, also it is to stop inbreeding.

After that we drove some more and saw hippos and otters which seeing otters are considered very rare, then we saw a crocodile try to eat the otters but they were too fast.

The animals kept coming and coming here is a list of all the ones we saw

Lion

Hippo

Otter

Baboon

Antelope

Impala

African fish eagle

Helmeted gineue foul

Nile crocodile

Cape clawless sea otters

Giraffe

Golden tail woodpecker

Sparrow

Thorny or tourney eagle

Glassy starling bird – shiny coat

Kudu

White back vulture

Warthog

Wild dogs

Terepan turtle

Buffalo

Elephant

Buckwheat deer

Kingfisher bird

Stonebuck

Bush turkeys

Zebras

Secretary bird – hunt snakes

Nayla kudu family

Leopard

Rhino

Hyena

Leopard face vulture

Stone box

We managed to see the big 5 in one day, the big 5 are called that because they are the hardest animals to hunt. It is very hard to spot the leopard and it was not the right area for the rhinos but we ended up seeing a leopard that was laying under a tree relaxing in the shade, and then all of a sudden two rhinos were there not much farther up the road. Even the safari guide was shocked to see the rhinos in this area.

We saw warthogs and they are actually very ugly creatures, they just made me laugh every time I saw them. They go down on their front knees to be able to eat from the ground, it looked like they were bowing, then their run on their little legs but their big bodies just had me uncontrollably giggling.

We saw a herd of elephants, and were watching it when someone on the safari says oh there is one more on the other side, we all looked and he was walking towards a tree, then couldn’t reach the top so he knocked the tree down, he did it such ease, that it looked like you would knock a cool down with your finger. What a cool thing to see.

We stayed in tents for two night, it wasn’t really camping honestly, they called it camping but it really wasn’t, there were beds in the tent and electricity, so it was more like glamping,  but regardless it was a fantastic time, the food was great, the people were great, and the nightly sounds of the wild animals was such a cool experience to hear, hyenas, and lions with birds were the main ones.

Heading to sleep now with the sounds of nature.

Goodnight 🦁

Day 3

Today we got up again at 0500 and hit the road at 0530 saw some wildebeests which we hadn’t yet seen before, so that was exciting.

Then we came back to camp and packed up, had breakfast and hit the road to go back to civilization, before making it back to civilization, we saw a herd of elephants standing in the shade surrounding a baby elephant that was completely passed out on the ground,  we asked if they were protecting the baby, the guide said most likely not, that they were just trying to get the shade, however I wish to disagree, as they were all standing with the heads facing out and the baby was smack dab in the middle.

Seeing the natural kingdom in its natural environment was something I have wanted to see for a long time, I’m so excited I get to be here.

We are now driving 5 hours back to Johannesburg, where we will get a hotel and relax for the evening then fly out to Zimbabwe tomorrow.

Have a great day! 🐊

P.S. I took a whack of photos on my camera, but need to wait until home to put them on the computer, but here are some from my phone, they are in focus just this website doesn’t put them in focus.