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Published: June 28th 2017
Geo: -23.926, 31.4209
Today we were again up early, for a full day of exploring Kruger National Park. We arrived at the gate at opening time, around 6am.
Early signs were indeed concerning, as rain fell steadily, and the skies looked dire and overcast.
The first half hour to an hour, revealed next to no animals whatsoever.
Little did we know, what an incredibly successful day of animal viewing we were to have... In fact, by the days end, Vesell, our tour guide had suggested it was the best trip for animal viewing he had seen in 6 years of doing this tour.
It started with the shock sighting of a hunting pride of lions, sitting right in the middle of the road initially. We sat by and watched them patrol the area.
Before long, the rain had lifted, and the animals all came out of hiding.
We were treated to all of the big 5 (Named the big, not due to size, but due to difficulty of hunting); Elephant, Buffalo, Rhino, Lion, Leopard.
The next on the list was the Buffalo to be spotted, getting up nice and close. We then saw some wilderbeast, more Impala (most common animal around), a very cool tortoise creature called a Terabin,
and plenty of hornbill (bird).
After lunch we saw plenty more, including a stand off between a couple lions and a pack of wilderbeast...
Kills are hard to come by, and our tour leader had never seen one in 6 years. We were so close today, but despite half-heartedly teasting the wilderbeast and chasing them a little, the lions looked full and disinterested.
We also got close to two grown male lions, some more giraffe, a great experience with a breeding herd of elephants (including very young cubs), and some baboons.
What an incredible experience.. i couldnt help smiling to myself all evening. One of the best things id ever done.
Checked off about 20-30 types of animals, and 40 types of birds.
To top things off, we even made it home in time to watch the second half of Holland Slovakia, the dutch of course getting through to the quarter finals by 2 goals to 1.
Then had a big night of cocktails (including the Springbok and Crocodile shots) with the tour group. Good fun!!
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Liat Biderovsky
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This is sooooo rare. You're very lucky to have seen this!!! WOW