Blogs from Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 12

Geo: -23.926, 31.4209Today was the start of our most anticipated Safari adventure!We started off from Graskop @ 7am, looking forward to arriving at the infamous Kruger National Park.It was around 9am when the Kruger Gate appeared before us. The Park was opened in the 1920's and is essentially a massive fenced off area of land in the north east of South Africa where animals roam free and do as they please.Upon arrival we picked up a guide, with all the inhabitants listed, and would tick off each animal as we spotted them. Our safari here would be driving around the area, in our tour vehicle, stopping wherever we spotted something.We spent the day enjoying the park, seeing all kinds of Spectacular wildlife including; Impala (not so exciting), Rhino, Elephant, Giraffe, Hippos and many types of exotic ... read more

Sorry I've not blogged for a while, don't know where the time has gone! I hope by now I have a few blog-ees following our adventure.. So, since the last entry we've see plenty, including 4 of the big 5 (you can guess which we haven't seen - leopard of course). The highlight being a lion KILL right in front of our chalet at Ngwenya Lodge - after driving around all morning, we called it a day and came back to the lodge for lunch only to see 3 lion (or is it 3 lions?) from our veranda, making their own lunch - impala tartare. Off to Satara tomorrow, so until then..... read more

Arrived, hot as hell and dry! Have seen giraffe, ele's, warthogs, crocs, hippos, from our bungalow already, thirsty and ready to crack open that first frosty.. Catch up tomorrow... read more

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

It took six hours of driving to get from Johannesburg to Balule Plains, a private game reserve less than an hour from the Kruger National Park. I was taken on a night time game drive on the first evening, and I can't say that I particularly enjoyed the experience. Being on safari at sunrise or in the middle of the day is one thing, but being on safari in the pitch black is something else entirely. The guide at the front of the safari truck has a big flashlight, which he constantly shines from side to side to reflect the eyes of any animals nearby. But not being able to properly see your surroundings, not knowing if there's a leopard in the tree above you or a pride of lions just feet away, is pretty unnerving. ... read more