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Published: November 9th 2008
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Long long long long long long day . . . but a great day.
5:30am this morning (which still feels even earlier, cause back home it’s not even midnight), we were off to our next campsite, where we left our bags, boarded our open-air safari trucks and were off.
Kruger National Park is massive - the size of Israel! So even driving all day, we only cover a portion of it. But even in only that portion, we’ve seen a lot. One thing that Kruger is known for, is it’s home to “The Big Five”: lions, leopards, African elephants, African buffalo and rhinos. So of course, these are the big ones you hope to see. I was hoping to see lions (cause we didn’t see any in Uganda) and zebra (cause I haven’t seen them before and I think they’re cool). Cheetahs and leopards would also be great, but I didn’t expect them - the park only has about 200 cheetah and leopards are the most difficult of the big cats to see (because they’re solitary and mainly nocturnal).
Lots of the day was spent just driving and seeing not much of anything. There have been a few
Feed the Birds?
Not sure what type of bird this is, but there were a bunch at our picnic site, trying to get at our food. The guides kept shooing them away the way people do with seagulls back home. spots that I’ve found scenic. Apparently, in their summer, everything is green and the mass expanse of it is just breathtaking (though all the plant life and trees make spotting the animals difficult). Right now the park is still quite bare, the trees are mostly dry, there’s lots of brown grass and rocks and dirt. A few pretty exceptions, but mostly it’s all the same. So at times, the day is just lots and lots of driving and I found that meant lots of daydreaming.
But then suddenly the brakes are hit and we stop and stare.
Right away, we came across impalas, which is pretty easy because they’re everywhere. Their population is massive. There are other common types of antelopes and we’ve seen lots of them too: kudu, waterbucks and steenboks. Quite quickly they lose their excitement factor, and the guides care less about them, but I still like them. They’re still a novelty for foreigners!
Early in the day, we saw a pair of white rhino. Fairly far off, but still - one of the five. Also quite early in we saw a cheetah! Very exciting cause that’s a rare see. It was brief though,
as it quickly moved off into the brush.
Soon after that we stopped for breakfast. The park’s facilities really impress me. Picnic sites provide not just tables and chairs, but gas cooking stoves, kettles or hydroboils for hot water and kitchens with running water for dishes and food prep! Bathrooms are all clean and well maintained (always toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap) - it’s really quite incredible for a park and such a massive one too! Every time I come across another amenity, I marvel again at this country and how “so right” they’ve done stuff, while at the same time they’re struggling so much with other stuff. (That was the big understanding I wanted to come away from this trip with - the extreme opposites of this country and how they all co-exist. I’m still perplexed.) So we cooked our breakfast and lunch at different sites around the park.
Between breakfast and lunch is when we saw the most, but overall we did well with the rest of the day . . . Lots of giraffes and elephants (2 of 5). To my delight, also lots of zebra - though I still can’t get enough! We
also saw a Nile crocodile, an ostrich, a slender mongoose, a tortoise, a black bellied bustard (bird), a dwarf mongoose and a few blue wildebeests (aka “Gnu”). There were quite a few warthogs - a couple that walked right around out truck. And there were tons of baboons, a couple that gave us an extra show. Our guide, Elson, had just finished saying that when a female is ready for mating, her rear turns red - then the lady in question passed us and a young male hopped right on her! It was (very) brief, but we heard her call of satisfaction and then they were off again. And we were off to see more.
At one point we crossed over a small river with hippos. I still think they’re scary. This was nothing lie the hundreds in the Nile, but still.
And the real highlights of the day . . . we saw a second cheetah! Two in one day - and again, the park only has about 200! We saw a bunch of buffalo (3 of 5). And we spent about 20 minutes watching a pack of lions (4 of 5) lying in the shade and
taking turns to feed on a kudu (antelope). That was wild and incredible to watch. You could hear them eat, the bones cracking . . . intense.
Other than our meal breaks, we were driving pretty much non-stop from 6:30am - 5:30pm. So much driving, but so many animals! And there’s still more to come.
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swills82
Sarah Willett
AMAZING!
African Safari is definitely on my life list. WOW. So many animals! Lucky you! totally jealous.