Blogs from Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 35

Animal time!!! Soon after we left the mountains we reached the area where Kruger and the surrounding private game reserves are located. In fact, had the visibility been better in the mountains, we could have seen Kruger from some of the lookout points we stopped at. You basically come down the mountain, pass some farmlands, and then there you are surrounded by game reserves . Before we went to Kruger we did one night at the Pezulu Tree House Game Reserve. This place was out of this world!!! Because there are no big five animals (lions, elephants, rhinos, leopards, and buffalo) in the private game reserve that Pezulu is on – you don’t have to have fences surrounding your camp. So we were literally walking around amongst the animals. We saw giraffe, zebras, monkeys, warthogs, ... read more

After a great night’s sleep at Africa Sky we packed up, ate breakfast, and headed out towards the mountains. The drive out of Jo’burg was fascinating as Pete (our guide) told us a great deal about the history of South Africa. He also gave us the scoop on all the things / places we were seeing during our drive. We drove by a squatter village (HUGE areas where illegal immigrants from surrounding countries build shacks out of whatever they can find and create their own little village), free houses for immigrants (one of the South African government’s ways of dealing with said immigrants – they build them free little box houses so that they can move people out of the squalor of the squatter villages), gold mines, and all different types of farms… On our way ... read more

M – The series of photos that follow are of a pride of lions moving through the bush and crossing the road in front of a growing group of tourists led by a Lioness. What was again amazing to me was how the lions give absolutely no indication at all that they know us tourists are amongst them other than to walk nonchalantly around our parked vehicles. They obviously can both see and smell us but at no time did a single lion give any acknowledgement of our presence other than a general stare in our direction. Again the silent communication between the members of the pride was fascinating as they took it in turns to move through the bush keeping a sentry posted at the front and rear during the movements. To answer the question ... read more

Next morning we got up, had the free brekky, checked emails, skyped my mum and dad and then just got ready to leave. We ate the left overs of last nights dinner that we cooked for lunch then at 2pm we loaded into a tiny little car with Henri our guide and another guy from the backpackers to drive us to their camp. The drive took about an hour and a half and the camp is inside Marloth park, on the boarder with Kruger, literally. We arrived at the gate and Henry (a different younger one) was waiting in a safari vehicle with 3 people from Spain. We hopped in and went for a little safari inside Marloth alongthe fenceline with Kruger as well. We saw Giraffe, Hippo, crocs, Impala and Zebra as well as many ... read more

Hey Everyone, this is the last portion of south africa, and we went to visit friends that we met in sodwana bay! :)... read more