Day of Rest

Today we decided not to do anything, but instead rest and get ready for our long flight back to the US.

A listing of what we have done today... Breakfasted, napped, listened to part of an audiobook, played cards, napped, had tea on the veranda, caught up on emails (Sarah did, David didn't have any emails.), napped, dined. We're exhausted!

Tomorrow will be a travel day. We leave for Pretoria around 9 am and drive the 3-4 hours back. We then will take the Gautrain, Pretoria's version of Max, to the airport in Johannesburg, check in and wait. Our flight leaves at 8:05pm tomorrow.

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Kruger National Park - Day Two

Today was our second day at Kruger National Park. We started early in the morning, 5:30am.

We stopped by the lodge and they had picnic breakfast ready for us to pick up, it kept us fed all day. We arrived at the Malelane Gate before it even opened. There were six cars all lined up waiting to get in, plus, as soon as we lined up, several more cars lined up behind us. All total, there were thirteen cars waiting to get into the park when it opened at 6.

We spotted 4 Rhinos within the first moments.

We drove about 12 km to Gardenia Hide to have breakfast. A hide is what our hunters would call blinds. On the way we spotted a little impish antelope... a steenbok.

We didn't see any large animals, but saw several birds at the water hole. There were some very persistent little birds who were not afraid to come right up to humans.

Next we decided to drive 44 km east on dirt roads over to the Crocodile Bridge Gate. This is a very famous entrance to Kruger Park. It is named after an old railway bridge that spans the Crocodile River.

On our drive, we stopped along the Crocodile River at the Hippo Pools; an area along the river with deep pools that hippos love to swim in. We were able to get out of the car. An armed guide was there to protect and show us where to look.

Primitive cave painting at Hippo Pools

We arrived at the gate around 11:30 am and had some snacks and cold drinks.

Since we hadn't explored the east side of Kruger Park, we decided to travel up from Crocodile Bridge Gate along the Sabie River.

At another hide, we saw a huge herd of water buffalo trekking for water...estimated to number about 200.

A crocodile in the water...elephants...impala, and a male waterbok...

And cheetahs resting in the shade of an acacia tree. Wow!

We saw some sort of eagle as it swooped over the car...

Then saw a giraffe with birds on its back.

We left Kruger park via the Crocodile Bridge Gate around 3 pm to head back to the hotel. We had a 45 min drive along the highway to get back to our lodge since we exited out of a different gate than we entered with.

Sugar cane fields and banana groves dominated the landscape.

While driving down the highway, David was pulled over by the South African Police. Nothing to worry about, just taking a survey of traffic along the highway. Whew! We couldn't figure out what we had done.

Now we're getting ready for dinner and again listening to the hippos grunt as they forage for their dinner. We did happen to catch two baby hippos playing on the bank of the river.

Ahhh, if life were only like this all the time.

 

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Kruger National Park - Day One

Today was our first trek into Kruger. There has been a request for more picture of Sarah. We started taking picture of ourselves driving, to prove that we did drive on the wrong side. However after entering the park, the animals turned out to be more interesting than us, so here are the two picture of us, the rest of this post is to the animals we encountered.

We started the day at 8:45am by entering the park via the Melalane Gate (one of 8+ gates around the park that gives access.)

Right out of the gate, we cross a very long bridge to enter the park. We immediately saw crocodiles warming themselves in the morning sun. I can now see why the lodge we're staying in has the warning of the crocodiles. Look how close we are.

Next we encountered a pack of warthogs and a herd of impala. They're so beautiful to look at. Some were even fighting.

Next we saw a Lilac Breasted Roller near a herd of water buffalo. Holy Cow! Water buffalo are big animals!

Giraffe came next followed by a white rhinoceros. Horay! He was very shy and stayed behind trees.

Cool birds...

We saw a hippo with turtles on its back. Way cool!

Kudu and monkeys...

Elephants and a rare Southern Hornbill.

Another sighting of a white rhino! Still camera shy.

We're now back at the lodge. We made it back with 45 minutes to spare before the gates closed. We're sitting on the balcony of the lodge waiting for dinner to start. We can hear the honking of the hippos on the other side of the river.

Ahhhh, what a day!

 

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