Four outta five ain't bad

Africa is famous for it’s diversity in animals, plants and landscapes. One of the main reasons we extended our layover here to 20 days was so that we could go and see these things. Only 3 days after we arrived, we packed up and went on a four-day camping safari in Kruger National Park.

The goal was to see the “Big 5” (elephant, rhino, leopard, lion and buffalo). We slept in tents within the park boundaries. We spent all day, every day (and some nights) in safari trucks crawling around the park, straining our eyes out into the bush. Finding animals in general wasn’t too difficult, they were everywhere. Things like impalas, zebras, waterbucks, steenboks, giraffes, and hippos were so commonplace that by the third day we passed them by with hardly a look. We were in search of rhinos and cats. By the time we had left we had seen everything except the leopard, and made a commitment that the continent of Africa will be a destination in itself for another trip in the future. I want to see the great herds of the Serengeti, and Egypt, and Mozambique, and a leopard, and … lots of other things. Anyway.

Now we are back in Joburg preparing to take a “hop-on, hop-off” bus from here to Cape Town. We have only 10 days left in South Africa, and are unsure how we are going to spend them. Drakensberg will be our first stop, then who knows.

We’ll be sure to tell you all about it,

The Smiths

Note: In case you haven't noticed, I have discovered how to make and publish panorama photographs. The one featured here is of the "Three Rondavels" of the Blyde River Canyon. Arriving at this viewpoint was one of the few "take-my-breath-away" experiences of my life.

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