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Published: October 3rd 2017
20171001_161330
Our Safari vehicleAfter the thrilling visit to Kimberely we went to the airport early because there was nothing else for us to do. The Kimberely airport is tiny. One small café and seating for 50 people. That is, it. Wouldn’t you know it…. Our flight to Johannesburg was delayed due to rain storms. Then delayed again. We finally got on board and got to our guest house close by the Johannesburg airport after 11 pm. We had a short night sleep and were up early to be picked up for the 4-hour drive to start our safari. The gentlemen that picked us up was named Daz. He was great. He talked to us the whole trip about South Africa and what we were seeing on the trip. He is a true wealth of information. We finally arrived at The Kruger national forest and transferred us to our safari vehicle where we meet Cedric our guide. Cedric had 13 years experience being a guide and it showed. He knew about everything in the Kruger Forest and where to go when. I realized very quickly that the money we spent on this safari was money well spent. Within our first 30 minutes we saw a
crocodile, elephants and hippos. These were not close but still very exciting. We had a quick lunch then the safari started. Impala was the first and most frequently spotted animal on the trip. They are the main food for all the predators in the park. Next were two male adolescent giraffes. These were not very close but still thrilling. Then we say a large male adult white rhinoceros. He was huge. Cedric told us that due to poachers they were losing 3 rhinos a day and in the next three to four years there would be no rhinos left in Kruger. So very sad. As we continued we saw more giraffes (this time very close by) then a very large elephant. Talk about being gob smacked. They are just so close to the truck and so huge. They are so docile and majestic. I just cannot comprehend how anyone could shoot these amazing creatures. We also saw some very large Kudu and a large heard of Cape Buffalo. We were astounded on how much we saw on just our first day. We headed off to the Boulders lodge for the first night. It was located on a very large private
reserve and this place was amazing. On the way in we say several wild warthogs and several wilder beasts. We arrived at a cocktail reception and a warm welcome from the staff. The main lodge was a huge two story all open, thatched roof building. There was a paved trail to our room. Each room had its own thatched roof building. This place was amazing. We got settled in then meet some of our fellow safari tourists for drinks before dinner. Early to bed for a 4:30 wake up and breakfast at 5. Off we went for a full day of safari. We started the day with sightings of giraffes and elephants. Then Kim spotted something. She asked Cedric to stop and he confirmed that there was indeed a lioness in the distance. We peered through our binoculars and to our surprise there was more than one. Two then three then four. They were walking in a line heading where we just came from. Cedric jumped into action and quickly got us turned around and stopped right where he thought they would be crossing the road. Here they came. In total, there were tree lionesses and 9 babies. All slowly
walked right in front of our vehicle. OMG this is so far beyond what we expected to see. Even Cedric was very excited. This was a true rare thing to see this many lions this close. Thrilled doesn’t even start to explain how we were feeling. It took about an hour to get the smile off my face. Here is a link to the video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/dKMKvB5SYRGDntLI3
Not to long after that we came across a large family of elephants. There must have been 20 of them. At one point, they were surrounding our vehicle. There were even some babies that were still nursing from their mothers. WOW this is amazing. It’s hard to put the feelings into words. Later, we came across some Zebras and another large male Rhino. The birds were a bird lover’s paradise. So many that were so beautiful. Three kinds of eagles, iridescent starlings a two of my favorites were a pair of adolescent saddle billed storks that had to be three feet tall or more. We saw the tiny steenbok and the small rock climbing Klipspringer. We crossed paths with more elephants. They seemed to be everywhere. Cedric told us that there are more
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Giraffe - Taylor this one is for you. than 15,000 elephants in Kruger National park which is roughly the size of Belgium. Next was the spotted hyena resting with a full belly, a heard of Plains Zebras and a spotted totris crossing the road. Time for a break and to check into the next Camp for that night. This was Nkambeni camp. This one was very big and not nearly as nice as the previous one. We had lunch and across the main lodge we watched giraffes, zebras and impalas grazing on their lunch at the same time. We rested for a few hours then off for a sunset safari. We spotted some Water Buck and a few elephants. As the sun was going down we stopped for a drink of Amarula liqueur (similar to Baileys but made from a local fruit from the Amarula tree). We continued and spotted a group of Hippos that were awaking from there evening nap just in time to watch them go for their evening swim. We returned to camp and had dinner and headed off to bed.
Or last morning on safari started at 5:30 breakfast and away we went. We spotted mother and baby giraffes and a
few large male Kudu. Just then Cedric got a radio call letting him now there was a large leopard in a tree close by. We hurried over to find a very relaxed female leopard in a fig tree. She was napping and looked very content. Her tale was hanging down what looked like 3 feet. She was AMAZING. What a thrill. This was one of the animals we really wanted to see and we were so thankful that we got to see her before or safari was done. Our time had run out and we had to get on the road back to Johannesburg. The animals we saw far exceeded our expectations and we were truly honored to spend a few days with them in their world.
Here are links to a few more very short videos:
Giraffe: https://photos.app.goo.gl/A5Whx1p3BIsPGFqZ2
Elephants: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YRPH2sIvQz5HG3od2
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