Blogs from Kruger National Park, Mpumalanga , South Africa, Africa - page 28

Leopard Hills is amazing. You can check it out at www.leopardhills.com. It is very beautiful and the staff is wonderful. You can work out in the gym overlooking the watering hole or have a massage in a glass room overlooking the entire valley. We also get cell service and the internet. Technology is amazing. We just returned from our morning safari (they set you up at 6:00 am with cozy blankets and hot water bottles to keep toasty. I would think it's about 55 to 60 degrees before the sunrises and it gets to about 80 to 85 in the afternoon. We have had perfect weather from the day we arrived in South Africa. Not too hot, nice cool breezes and white puffy clouds. Lucky us. This morning we tried to track a pride of ... read more

The day starts with a wake up call at 5:30 am. We have coffee/tea at 5:45 am overlooking the watering hole at camp. The monkeys are starting to surround us and challange us for the morning muffins - they are so cute but very persistant about the muffins! We leave camp at 6:00 with our hats, gloves and blankets. It's chillie before the sun comes up but not too cold. The mist is surrounding us and it's a view like no other when we spot two female lions, one giant male and four little cubs. Took tons on photos! We were then off to sneak up on a herd of elephants that must have numbered 60-80 and tons of little elephants....another 200 photos....we can't seem to stop ourselves. We saw African buffalo and the most ... read more

Kruger was fantastic, we saw lions so close to the truck we could have stroked them!! needless to say we didn't, even I'm not that crazy! And the best thing is we saw a leopard, that makes all of the Big 5! WOW. She was a young leopard with 2 small cubs, her 1st. then it was down to Jo'burg, didnt adventure out much but had a good 2 and 1/2 days just recuperating. We went shopping and to the lion park, not as good ass we thought it would be but it was OK. Then it was onward again. More stamps, new visa's. ... read more

Still haven't seen: Leopard, Rhino, Cheetah We left Satara rest camp at about 7:45am (a little later than I had hoped, but it paid off) and started our drive to Talamati Bushveld camp where we would be spending the night. Bushveld camps are basically a lot smaller than main rest camps--no shops nor restaurants--and much more remote, emphasizing the true African bush experience. Before I digress too much, let me go back to that morning leaving the camp and what has been one of the highlights of our trip (although Pops claims that he is the highlight of the trip). 30 minutes after leaving Satara's gate, Pops miraculously spotted a large cat and tels Erin to stop and back up. Sure enough, after backing up a little, we realized Pops' eyes hadn't failed him--there was ... read more

We decided to wake early and go for an early morning drive right wehn the gates open, figuring that we might see some cats out before it got too hot. We were right. About 8am we came upon a male lion lying down about 50 feet from the road. I was able to get quite a few pictures of him, including when he yawned and scratched himself. We even watched him long enough to hear him roar a few times. That made the day. The rest of the day wasn't too exciting. We divided our time doing laundry in the sink, hanging it in the trees, reading, swimming, and ultimately waiting for our scheduled night drive, which kind of turned out to be a bust (in my book anywayY. We had some newbies to the ... read more