South Africa 2017: Kruger National Park
South Africa (WOW!) 5-day safari in Kruger National Park, South Africa was an experience of a lifetime!
Johannesberg 17 – 18 July
I arrived in Johannesburg almost 24 hours after my journey from Sicily began. The first leg of my flight was over two hours late. Having had to sprint about 2 km to catch my connecting flight in Rome, I was doubtful that my bags would have made it as well. Sure enough, no luggage. Normally not a huge issue, but there was a temperature difference of about 30 degrees centigrade and I was traveling in a light little summer dress and open sandals. Needless to say, I froze. I also realized that unless my bags arrived the following day (which they did, but not until too late to retrieve), I was left with decidedly inappropriate attire for a safari… one simply does not go on safari in the winter solely equipped with one dress, a pair of sandals, and a light cardigan.
I was saved by the awesome staff of the Outlook Lodge in Johannesburg where I was spending the nights before and after the safari. Thanks to Candi, who loaned me enough to keep me warm and get me started, and to Moss, who drove me all around the next day to buy more warm clothing and a camera with a zoom lens, I was all set for a 7am departure the following morning.
Kruger National Park 19 – 23 July
We drove 6 hours from Johannesburg up to Kruger National Park. Kruger is a not-to-be-missed game park in South Africa. On the way into the park we spotted some ellies. I was surprised that the African elephants weren’t larger. I knew they were bigger than their Asian counterparts, but there wasn’t as substantial a difference as I imagined. We arrived at the Skukuza camp mid-afternoon and dropped off bags just prior to doing our sunset game drive, a 3-hour dusk and night tour. The vehicles were open-air and we set out with great anticipation!
We climbed aboard a 20-passenger open-air safari vehicle and were ready to roll. The guide asked what everyone wanted to see and no one spoke up. So, I said that I wanted to see rhinos… lots of rhinos! He said they still had some in the park, which led me to believe that we may or may not get lucky enough to see any. Off we went in the comfortable afternoon light, but with layers to add on as the evening progressed. Our first animal sighting was a dwarf mongoose – we started small. The warthogs came next, followed by hyenas and baboons. Then there were rhinos off in the distance. I tried to zoom in to capture them, but it was too dark and they were too far away. Still, I was encouraged and had another five game drives to get a better view of them and the rest of the “big 5”. Ellies topped off the evening, with a quick sighting of a rare Cevit cat.
The next morning, we were off at 5:30AM with the dawn breaking. The landscape was scrubby and dry. We saw giraffe, ellies, hippos (above the waterline only: ears, eyes, nostrils, and back), and then RHINOS!!! Big beautiful and close up rhinos!!!
The photo below is probably my favorite… such beauties and they were posing so nicely. These big boys walked across the road right in front of our vehicles. It took my breath away!!!
The following day, we saw more rhinos. In fact, it started getting a bit embarrassing because we were seeing so many rhinos that people were asking me whether I had gotten enough of them and could we please move on to other things like lions and leopards so they could say they saw the “big 5” (lions, leopards, rhinos, ellies, and water buffalo). LOL!!! Eventually, over the course of that day and the following, we saw lions (though from a distance), a leopard, zebras, and buffalo.
It was all over too quickly, and time to drive back to Joho. The driver taking me back was Tuolaney, and he was very sweet. He stopped on the way out of the park so that I could get a shot of the hornbill bird, some more buffalo, zebra, and then at the watering hole, where I finally got to see some hippos on shore and in all their glory. It must have been a herd of 20 – 30 all laying on shore one next to another or standing and milling about.
Hippo, hippo, hurray!!! 😊