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Published: August 27th 2015
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Hi all,
We arrived safely in the Kruger on Sunday. Many apologies for not having blogged this week. Although we were having lots of fun this is not the reason for our lack of contact. We had no internet would you believe!
After arriving at the park gates, we made our way to the first camp we were booked into, Letaba. On the way we spotted: Elephants, Fish Eagles, Vultures, Hornbill, Bats, Buffalo and Hippos. When we had unpacked the cars, we made our way to the restaurant for dinner. All feeling tired and the sky being pitch black we debated turning into bed until we realised it wasn't even 9pm! This is the problem with the sun setting so quickly here.
Monday we enjoyed breakfast looking at the deer like creatures that were grazing on the grass outside our cabins. Whilst the girls made the pack lunch (don't worry the boys will be doing it tomorrow) Rob and Tim went to the restaurant for a cooked breakfast and to order us coffee. When we arrived the food was just coming out. Good timing!! Now feeling satisfied, we packed up the cars and set off for more animal
spotting. We managed to see a large number of animals including warthogs, tortoise, waterbuck, wildebeest and giraffe. We made our way to our second camp, Olifants. For dinner we decided to do our own BBQ which is called a Braai. However, we encountered two problems. Number 1 - our huts had no cooking facilities which also meant no plates, cups and cutlery. This was overcome easily enough by speaking nicely to a man in a Kruger uniform who told us we could hire the equipment and promptly went to get us everything we would need. So, having solved this, Suzy and I went to buy the meat. This was where we encountered problem number 2 - all the meat was frozen! Not to worry, the bathroom sinks were filled with cold water and whilst we had a drink and a chat the meat began to defrost! Tim cooked the meat and feeling satisfied, we went to bed having agreed that we would all wake for sunrise in the morning!
Tuesday morning came and Tim, Eva, Amy, Suzy and I all got up to watch the sunrise. We then had breakfast and packed the cars again for another day of
travel. We were going further north back past Letaba (so we stopped there for our picnic lunch which Rob made) to our final camp Mopani. Rather than being in 3 separate huts as we had been, we were all booked into a guest house with a river view. This meant that we looked out across the dam to see the crocodiles and hippos in the water and on the opposite banks the elephants came to drink. We sat in the silence for a while (as Rob had gone for a swim!!!) before going for an early dinner. The menu offered some familiar and less familiar dishes. Tim, being the daring one, ordered Kudu steak. We had booked ourselves onto a night drive starting at 8pm. The receptionist had told us that we needed to be there at 7.45pm so we arrived earlier than that! We had thought that there were16 people booked for this but, Amos our guide arrived, loaded us into the van and off we went! It was a rather quiet night as we had been hoping to see Lions but they were not coming out to play. We did however learn a lot about the animals from
Amos and did manage to see a Porcupine.
Wednesday morning was a slow morning for some but Eva and I (just missing sunrise) enjoyed a coffee looking out across the water at the morning activity of the local wildlife! We had decided to split today. One car would do a shorter drive and then enjoy a quiet afternoon back at camp whilst the other would do a longer drive. Tim and I did the longer drive but neither group managed to locate the lion or the leopard that we are desperately searching for! On the way back to camp, I had to stop the car as a huge herd of buffalo were crossing the road. However, as they stretched for miles cars were having to edge their way between them.
Thursday morning (today) came and again we enjoyed a nice breakfast looking out at the hippos and crocodiles in the water. We are beginning to get use to this!!! We then packed up the cars again before doing our last drive through Kruger. We had been driving for miles when we spotted a lot of cars bunched together. This is always a good sign! "2 lions" a lady
said but we couldn't see them. Suddenly, a tail moved and we could see 2 male lions lying under a tree in the sun. They were so well camouflaged we would never have spotted them. I'm sure we must have driven past so much in the last 4 days without realising it! Now feeling satisfied we carried on to the gate and waved goodbye to Kruger. Next stop, a lovely guest house called Bramasole where we will be staying 2 nights. This afternoon we took a quick drive to Cheerio Gardens before enjoying a lovely dinner. Arriving back at the guest house, Tim has made his way to the summer house on the lake and has lit a fire which some of the group are enjoying! After all it is winter here!
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