Blogs from Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa

Hearing stories from both sides of the fence about Kruger we were very keen to see what this internationally renowned park was all about and we can easily say that it was a great deal more amazing than we were thinking. Arriving in the gate at 6am we planned to do a decent loop on the way to our camp Letaba for the first night, it is in the first 30 minutes that we had seen enough animals for last our five days including the leopard picture above. That leopard by far was the highlight of our time in this park and getting so close to this magnificent animal by ourselves (other than the time when we were on foot and it was two meters from us) was pure ass and to be by ourselves made ... read more

So, after our Garden Route drive ended in Port Elizabeth, we stayed a day longer to take in a day-long game drive with long-time guide Alan and then flew to Johannesburg where we were picked up and taken to a permanent tented lodge (similar to the type we stayed at in Tanzania's Selous Game reserve - see blog entry "Selous 1" for details) for 4 days of Sabi Sands Game Reserve and Kruger National Park game drives and bush walks. We took them in and relished them knowing that these were the final and still-amazing animal encounters and sightings that we experienced during our awe inspiring 3 plus months' sojourn in Africa. Two highlights stood out amongst the many wonderful creatures we saw for the last time. b. Rhino Encounters All of our previous sightings of ... read more

Many thanks to all of you who comment on our blog. Not only is it a connection to home, but it makes it easier to write the next entry! I have heard a rumour that our daughters even look at it- but refrain from commenting........Kids!!!!:) To respond to some of the comments: Yes, I 'll be sure we spend some time at home, even if Mark could stay on indefinitely......and yes- I was worried about the safety issue over here in Africa. We heard MANY stories of how scary it would be- and mostly from the native South Africans. We have seen NOTHING to be worried about. WE are careful not to travel at night, and to use common sense-we don't flaunt our electronic devices or money. The people have been nothing but friendly, some more ... read more

Late on our last night in Pretria we got the call from our tour guide to say we would be getting picked up at 5.15am!!! We hadn't realised when we booked that Kruger is a good 6 hours drive from Pretoria, add in a couple of hours for picking other people up from Joburg and we had been on the bus for 8 hours before arriving at our camp site. Bearing in mind this had been sold to us a permanantly erected tents with beds inside we were a bit miffed to be shown to a crummy 2 berth tent with wet mattresses inside due to the heavy rain from the previous days. This coupled with about 50% of our clothes being soaking from being in the trailor (seems things which are supposed to be waterproof ... read more