Graskop, ZA: base of Blyde River Canyon
We are relaxing in a mozambican cafe with wifi, good beer, a chess board, couches with comfy pillows, and a great soundtrack while the rain is drizzling outside.
We just finished a five day, self-drive safari through Kruger National Park, South Africa! The wildlife and the scenery were unbelievable!
After renting a car and a 4-hour trek from Soweto (and two speeding tickets!! Mike had to bribe each cop with 500rand to let us continue)- we were greeted at the Malelane gates by a family of elephants!!! We quickly forgot about the tickets and were excited to make it in the park before closing time! There are fancy campgrounds with restaruants, stores, and bungalows spread through the park that have strict gate opening and closing times-6am to 6pm! So glad we brought the tent!
We slowly made our way through towards our first camp, Berg-en-dal, wide-eyed and awed by the array and closeness of the animals! Elephants, kudu, rhino, impala, and birds! In our first thirty minutes - we had already seen 2 of the big 5!!
Over the next five days we covered much of the park, staying in four camps and catching sight of the big five (elephant, rhino, lion, buffalo, and leopard.) All in all- we saw countless impala, hundreds of baboons, warthog, vervet monkeys, wildebeest, ostrich, giraffe,crocodiles , hippos, birds, a water monitor, hyenas, vultures, bush buck, waterbuck, turtles, salamanders, chameleons, black-back jackal, zebra, and mongoose!!!
A more detailed account will follow, as we are typing this on an iPhone! Sorry for the lack of posts! We have been camping and without Internet!
No comments:
Post a Comment