Worst nights sleep of my whole trip, cold and lots of disturbances. Glad to be leaving and on our way to Kruger, no not glad, VERY excited!!!

I am going to do one big blog for this as saw so many amazing animals.

Drove into the park to be greeted by a group of monkeys, one on the top of Krugers head, investigating the potential contents of a plastic bag. It was empty but seemed to be keeping him amused, and us, watching him. The campsite was fantastic, certainly the nicest I have ever been to. Lots of people obviously agree as there were a number of other guests, definitely more glamping than camping!!

Right from the get go on our first game drive we saw lots of animals, including 3 of the big 5. We saw elephants (much bigger than the Indian ones I have seen), deer (of coarse, but Umpala are very pretty and their coats look as if they have had a blanket clip), antelope, hippo and crocs (both mainly underwater), vultures, buffalo (look like Lord Snooty, with parted hair!), white rhino (did you know the difference between the white rhino and the black is nothing to do with colour but sizing, plus the white has a wide square mouth and the black a smaller hooked one) and mongoose. Stopped at a waterhole and saw a fantastic display of 2 giraffes coming to drink. The male and female bend down to the water differently and I got an amazing pic of them drinking side by side (almost like a bow and a courtesy!)

After lunch and a brief break, we went out again in the afternoon. I have a new current favourite in my top 5 beasties, which is the warthog. They are hilarious, not only do their tiny little legs carry that massive head and body, but they run really fast. What makes it funnier is that they are very flighty so do ALOT of running, and stick their tails in the air so look like dodgem cars racing about!!! Since my first sighting I have seen many a Warthog and they still make me laugh every time. Think I'm going to get a photo blown up for my front door so I can have a giggle every time I leave the house. We also had our first glimpse of lions today, a male and cubs, unfortunately too far away for my lens to get a decent shot, but could see them milling about. To top it all we had a beautiful sunset on the way back to camp.

The evening was spent with a beer, star gazing. From here you can see the Southern Cross really clearly amongst the millions of bright stars. The night sky really is breathtaking.....

Best nights sleep, woke up to the sound of lions roaring in the park. Our morning drive was accompanied by another beautiful sun rise, and again within 30mins we had seen rhino, giraffe, elephant, ostrich and baboon. At this point I should point out that it is quite rare to see so much stuff over 2 days, so we were very, very lucky. At times it was hard to imagine we were on a park 1000's of hectares big and these animals were completely wild, so roam everywhere, rather than being at Whipsnade or Woburn!!!

We stopped for lunch at a local picnic site with a few extra guests, namely monkeys and starlings. All experts at nicking bits of food, quite clever how they weigh up when to make a try for a bit of food left unattended or trying to sneak into the truck. The starlings are quite beautiful as they have bright blue, green and purple feathers. Quite beautiful that is until you chase them away and they fly to a branch above your head and let you know they are not happy about it!!!

We also got some interest from the other tourists who thought we were a burger van. Understandable though, we did have bacon, sausage, egg, beans, bread (pretty much a full English) on the go. Could've been a bit of a money spinner!!

Afternoon was free time so I sat by the river for some quiet time (although there is only 3 of us, there is a lot of talking going on!). Was nice to sit in the sun and watch elephants by the water, very peaceful.....

In the evening we had booked to do a night drive. Wasn't too sure, but Meshack assured us it was worth doing (obviously though he couldn't guarantee what we would see). Well, entry number 3 into the top 10 of defining moments of my trip!! It was like a conveyor belt of nocturnal animals. In no particular order - white faced owl, spotted eagle owl, giraffe, small genet and small civit (mongoose type things), white tailed mongoose, dwarf mongoose, about 5 porcupines, (which are huge, didn't get pics of much stuff but the ones of these are fab as they look like they have fire coming from their spines, a bit like Sonic), 2 hippo -but flippin camera didn't take a decent shot, boooo, springhare, a white rhino mother protecting her baby from a male, who was after a bit of how's your father (the male will kill any youngsters to get to the mother), we watched this for ages it was fascinating, African wild cat (very rare), black rhino (even rarer, bit worrying as the guide said he smelt cigarette smoke whilst we were there, and thought there may be poachers about), we smelt and saw leopard kill - a big Umpala 3/4 of the way up a huge tree, can't believe how they manage to drag a dead weight bigger than themselves up so high, a black mamba (I have a pic of this, sorry to the snake haters as I will be putting it on fb) and finally a lioness stalking some deer, no pic, booooo, but it was amazing to watch as we could see both the deer who were non the wiser, and then the lioness not 40 feet away, stalking in the long grass. Oh what a night........went to bed very very happy!

During our time here Mesh and Shandle shared with us some tips on how to avoid being killed by a variety of wildlife in the park, and I thought I would share with you (you know, just in case) Lions - stand very still, they will charge to a certain distance then stop, they may repeat a few times but stay still. As they are used to animals running away they will not view you as prey and lose interest. Rhinos - white ones, hide behind a tree, if they can't see you they won't bother, black ones - climb the tree, they are more aggressive so will keep looking until they find you, they can't climb trees. Elephant - head for the bush and whilst running take off your top and hang on a tree or bush, they will focus their attention on this as it is how they recognise you. Buffalo - find a big rock or termite mound (preferably very big ) to stand on, if they do knock you over they are likely to stamp on you. If you play dead they will leave you then come back to check if you are dead by peeing on you, their urine makes you itch, and if you move they will finish the job. Hippo - say your prayers, there's no hope!!

So, my final entry for Kruger was the morning we left. Still amazed at the sightings last night, we first came across some velvet monkeys, with blue balls. Yes, that's right, blue balls. Apparently, it means they are ready for mating. I have a pic so will post when I get home. Now, I never thought I would hear myself utter these words but, his balls were quite pretty (like a powder blue)......the last gift from Kruger was ..........a beautiful leopard, who crossed the road right in front of us and then posed for a few pictures. Gobsmacked, the last thing I expected to see!!!! What an amazing trip, very happy lady.....