Our first full day at Kruger involved waking up at 5:00am to be ready to leave at 5:30am for a tour of the park. Having gone to bed at midnight the night before I was tempted to stay in bed just a bit longer ... until I remembered what was in store for the rest of the day!
Our guide picked us up at 5:30am, a South African "self made man", who owned his own touring business. The five of us, as well as another man who was staying at the backpackers, then set off for Kruger. The morning was warm, much warmer than Johannesburg, but we had been advised to bring warm clothes. I had been a bit skeptical as the morning wasn't really cold, but we were in an open-air vehicle, and once we sped off down the road you could definitely feel the morning chill.
We crossed a bridge, through a boom gate, and entered in the park. Our first sighting was of impala, a cute little deer-like animal that we were all very excited about. It was soon discovered however that these animals are everywhere across the park. That didn't detract from their cuteness however. The rest of our morning involved cruising across Kruger in search of animals, before heading back to the main area and having a breakfast break. By 9:30am it was already getting warm, and was time to take off the second of my two jumpers.
Feelin' fresh after driving around for a few hours in the early morning
We managed to spot warthogs grazing, a hyena near its den, giraffes crossing the road, zebras, a lone baby hippo, and plenty of other hippos lounging in the water, wildebeest, buffalo, antelope, kudu, herds of elephants ... and the list goes on ...
Most of the afternoon however, was spent on the lookout for lions and cheetahs and other big cats, however to no avail. To quote our guide, "we've probably passed hundreds of them, but they blend into the landscape so you can't see them" [the quote went something like that anyways...]. We spent quite a bit of time driving, and would often have long periods of time where we wouldn't spot anything but the odd impala. It was on these stretches of the of the road that my lack of sleep would catch up to me, and I would slowly fall asleep and have a quick nap.
I had originally thought that a 12 hour safari would be too long and tiring, however, Kruger is massive, and although we spent all day driving around, we barely saw any of the park really. Even when we weren't constantly seeing animals, the landscape was peaceful to gaze at, just trees and bush, with little of mans impact to be seen. And while Kruger is a main tourist attraction, driving around you could feel as though you were the only ones there.
There is also something a lot more special about seeing animals in the wild, rather than in a zoo for instance. At home, one of my favourite activities is watching my dogs do things when they don't realise I'm watching, so seeing all these animals in their natural habitats just doing what they do, made me really happy. I also find that it's easy to forget that elephants and giraffes and hippos actually exist, and there are these large animals just hanging about in the wild, so seeing them in real life makes you realise what amazing and cool things there are in the world.
Warthogs (Pumba) - actually really cute little animals!
Kruger's landscape, mainly flat and dry.
A GIRAFFE CROSSING THE ROAD!!! (and heaps of impala). Such majestic creatures
Many, many, many giraffes (apparently a group of giraffes is called a tower)
Hippos in the water and giraffes and impala on the bank in the distance
Lil baby hippo who's lost his/her mother to another animal ... according to our guide this little guy was smart and sure to be a "winner" ... not sure if he said that because it's true or just to make us feel better ...
Zebra!!! 1 million times better than any zoo
Somewhere past that mountain is Mozambique ...
Vivian in our mode of transport for the day ...
Elephants and baby elephants!!
Right next to the road ... how amazing!! We had to be quiet so as not to disrupt them
An actual zebra crossing (pun creds to Vivian though)
Buffalo by the water
Our little tour group and our guide ...
Kruger was a fantastic day spent just being able to look out the window and observe the world. I wouldn't be able to count the amount of animals we saw, and although we didn't see any lions, the amount of elephants and giraffes, as well as the scenery, definitely made up for it. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, before heading out for dinner. A tiring but lovely day.
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