Krueger National Park and Sun City

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August 24th 2006

Published: August 24th 2006

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Raythatha

Giraffe in Krueger

Male Giraffe!

Early Sunday morning we headed to downtown JoBurg Park Station to take our 4.5 hour Greyhound bus ride to Nelspruit (East of JoBurg). It was a luxury coach with comfortable seats. After checking into our hotel, we hit the Riverside Mall where we had lunch, did some surfing at in internet cafe, shopped, browsed the local Casino, saw Miami Vice and then had dinner at Nando's (Niraj's favourite spot). After dinner we had an early night as we had a 5am departure for the Safari the next morning.

Monday morning we headed to Krueger National Park in our open-top Safari truck truck with our tour guide Bronson. We entered the park right when it opened at 6am to catch the early morning movement of the animals in the national park. We were lucky enough to see a leopard cross the road ahead of us 10 minutes after we entered the park. We then saw one lion near a pond right before breakfast. We drove around a lot during the day and saw 4 of the Big 5 animals (leopard, lion, rhino and elephant) and other smaller wildlife including zebras, giraffe, impalas, and kudus. We had stopped for breakfast at a

Crocodile

Up close, someone even threw an Orange at this guy!

park lodge and also for lunch at a smaller park picninc area. The tour ended right before dusk around 6pm. For dinner we headed to an excellent Italian restaurant in downtown Nelspruit (which is pretty much just one street).

Tuesday morning we headed back to Joburg via Greyhound after our buffet breakfast. The coach was full once again, but we luckily had seats in the first row so could see the countryside during the drive. Around 3pm we reached Park Station from where we rented a car and quickly and bravely left downtown Joburg towards Sun City. The drive was through the countryside and lasted around 2.5 hours. The goal was to reach Sun City before dusk and was possible with the 120 km/h speed limit on their undivided highways. We saw a beautiful sunset just before reaching. Dinner was at an elegant Indian restaurant called The Raj. After dinner we visited a couple other hotels in Sun City and then hit the casino.

The next day was spent at lesiure around Sun City and Lost City. The Palace of the Lost City was a spectacular resort (pics attached below) where you get guided tours.

Thursday morning

Family on the Safari

The 4 of us with our Safari Vehicle

was spent driving back to JoBurg through Pretoria (the capital). The Chinese dinner is currently being delivered by Mr. Delivery.

This is Niraj's last night as he treks back to Calgary via Dubai and London and will arrive in Calgary on Saturday evening. I guess someone has to go back to work!

Suraj, Mom and Dad are headed to Capetown and will be enjoying the Garden Route and drinking lots of wine!

Additional photos below

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