I am going to start by saying I apologise that the pictures aren’t going to probably do Kruger justice. I sold my mirrorless camera because I didn’t really learn to use it and wasn’t confident with all the settings so we have been using our iPhones for photos on this trip. We have two people with us (Peter from Brisbane and David from Canada) who have massive telephoto lenses.
We were up at the restaurant by 5am to have a coffee and pick up our packed breakfast. The breakfast boxes were pretty weighty and had a juice, two pieces of fruit, peanuts, a muffin and a quiche, which we grazed on throughout the morning.
We got to the gates by about 5:40 and Johannes went and handed our registration and liability waiver form in (we had to indemnify the park in case we were eaten or in an accident). Our jeep was driven by Gareth who certainly knew his way around the park and was very knowledgeable about the animals and birds we saw.
It was almost 20C when we left the gate for the park but it was still pretty cold in the open Jeeps for the first couple of hours. Stu and I were rugged up in blankets until about 8:30.
As we drove along we didn’t see a lot but once we did we started spotting the first couple of things we started seeing lots of things (especially Impala, Impala were everywhere). We were very lucky as we got to see all of the big 5 (leopards, lions, elephants, buffalo and rhinos) before lunch.
If I listed them all, I am going to miss naming at least one animal so lets just say we pretty much saw everything we wanted to see plus more including Kudu, the male Kudu’s horns are the emblem for the Kruger National Park. I just realised I don’t seem to have any Impala pictures (the Big Mac of the Savannah because of the markings on their rears).
As we left the park we came across a huge heard of buffalo and a leopard that had taken its kill (an Impala) up a tree. It was a long way from the road so my photos are terrible but I have included one of Peter’s photos of the leopard in the tree. In one of the shots Peter has you can make out the Impala (but not in this one).
We were in the park for the whole day and got back to our motel about 17:15, after we tidied up and relaxed we went for a Braii down by the dam as our final dinner at Umbhaba,
davstuholidays 