Posted by Amanda

We had a long day of travel today. At the bright and early hour of 3:15 we got on a bus to the airport. We scheduled an independant safari that 60 other SAS students also scheduled independantly. One of the organizers of the bigger group got us a bus to the airport for a very reasonable price. We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg then had a long 6 hour drive to Kruger National Park. Of course we slept most of the way. At our one stop, I saw that gas is about $4 a gallon here. Noah tried the boerewors, a traditional South African sausage. I found it had a bit too much organ meat taste to it.

When we finally got to Kruger we saw elephants and zebra before we even got to our camp. Our bus dropped us off at the wrong spot and left us there. Luckily, the kid who had arranged the bus to the airport called our safari company who then sent vehicles for us.

We arrived at the camp, found a tent, and left pretty quickly for a game drive. Our safari vehicles are actual land rovers fitted for 9 passengers. They were covered but open. Our guide, Patrick, was good at finding animals for us. We saw lots of elephants, giraffes, a white rhino, impalas, but no big cats. Africa has what it calls "The Big Five." These are the animals that are hardest to catch. They are the buffalo, the lion, the leopard, the rhino, and the elephant. It seems weird that the giraffe and the zebra aren't on there.

When we came back, we hung out for awhile until dinner time. Dinner was made on the fire by the cooks and was very tasty. After dinner and conversation we went to bed to prepare for our early morning game drive.