Day 2 Safari adventure
4.30 up to get ready for our day in the Kruger National park, it covers 350 million acres and we would only do a very small fraction of that. In our book on the park it has pages that remind us of being a child on long journeys when you had 'I Spy Books' on different themes, I quite liked the road sign one!!! Well anyway today was a chance to tick off some of the xxxxx species of mammals and xxxx species of birds that can be found in the park. We drove or should I say we were driven 45 minutes to the security gate entrance of the park, which opens at 6 am. Then upto the park pay area, it was on this part of the drive we saw our first of the big 5!!! A White Rhino, amazing that meant that we had elephant, lion, leopard and buffalo to see to complete the big 5!! However there was still a fence between us and it so seeing a Rhino inside the fence would really be special. A dawn drive is suppose to be best, although we were going to stay in till 4pm, but it cold due to a few things. 1. The sun hasn't risen. 2. Heavy mists 3. We were in a layered 4x4 which the wind tunneled through!! So we were wrapped up in a few laters with shorts and teeshirts for when it did get hot!! We met out guides for the day, Josh and Michael, they were fairly young and the story is they went to the same university, then went their separate ways to work in the field and recently met back up and decided to get a vehicle and start their own business. They have been giving tours for 4 months, so they wanted to impress!!! They outlined what the day would be, with break stops and how we could stop them and ask them anything, they told us the best place to sit on the vehicle and that they had provided us with blankets, drinks and snacks. So we climbed on and off we set.... Hang on!!! Sarah and I looked at each other because again we had no one else join us, fabulous another private tour!!! As we entered the park Josh said it was luck as to what we would see, sometimes they see a lot sometimes very little. This is due to the fact that you have to stay to the roads and are not able to go off-road like you can in private game reserves. With in minutes we were introduced to the wild animals of Africa! The Impala is the joke of the wilds as there are so many but they are lovely antelope species, prey to many other animals you can understand why there are so many. Then zebra, each with their distinctive and individual stripes... We saw many zebra crossing!! Elephants are my personal favorites and within 30 minutes we saw a family group of at least 12 crossing from one side of the road to the other, feeding from the vegetation left in the dry season. Moving on we saw baboons roaming across the road and then our first sighting of another favorite of both of us, the giraffe.... Now Sarah spotted them and continued to proclaim throughout the day that she was good at spotting or as the call it in the bush 'tracking' giraffe!!! We then came across an Impala on the side of the road that had unfortunately been killed, it had an injury to its back end and for the next 20 mins or so Michael our guide was fixed on looking around the area through his binoculars to find out who or what had had it's kill but left it, for along time he was convinced it was a leopard but Josh was sure what he was spotting was grass!!! We will never know what had had it but when we returned to that spot later the vultures had polished it off leaving a carcass that was well camouflaged amongst the bush backdrop. The next sight was awe inspiring as another of the big 5, the buffalo was moving along the dried up river bed and the reason it was so amazing is because there must have been 300 of them on the march together. But the real highlight of the day was an action packed watering hole. It was just like watching a documentary on tv. At first glance we could see warthogs playing in the mud bath but at a closer look there was an Impala stuck in the mud (seems it's not the Impalas day!!) looking through the binoculars it was really trying to get itself free, then a hippo emerged from the shallow water / mud bath and a ginormous crocodile appeared. This could be interesting!!! As we watched the drama unfold the hippo made it's way slowly towards the Impala, it too struggling with the stickiness of the mud and the crocodile moved closer to the edge of the water. Who was going to get dinner today? The hippo was within a metre of the Impala and exposed it's massive teeth to reach for the Impala, who too tried to move its head in a defensive motion and then nothing. The guides told us the hippo was probably exhausted and would wait till the Impala had no more energy to get itself out, then again the crocodile may just be waiting for both of them to be exhausted!! Again we left after about 20 mins and would return later to see what the outcome was. We made our way to a rest area where we were able to get out of the vehicle and take a break. It was only 9.45 and already I was exhausted from focusing on the bush to catch a glimpse of anything of interest. At the rest area we were tipped off where there had been a sighting of lions, it was about 2km from where we were so when we returned to the vehicle we told Josh and Michael and off we went to go see some lions!!! Sure enough 2km along the road we saw our 4th of the big 5. There were 3 lions taking shade from the sun, lying about 15 meters from the road. About 10 metres from them was an Impala stood as still as a statue looking directly at the lions, the guides said it probably was just grazing around the area and spotted them. The lions seemed to take it in turns to look up and stare back at the Impala. The lions weren't going to waste energy to chase it unless it came closer!! This Impala was lucky today as it managed to slowly back off and run away to safety. The next 2 hours were relatively quieter than the morning and we saw more elephants, giraffes and zebras, in fact it was a real zebra crossing!! That is until I asked what bird was that I could see in the distance... It was a large bird stood under a tree, it was a southern ground hornbill, a good spot Josh told me not because it was far away but because it was in fact an endangered species and you are suppose to report spotting them to the authorities, pleased with myself I could then see another 3.... We returned to the rest area for lunch and had pizza with a well earned beer! The last few hours was to return along the road to the gate and find out what had happened to our earlier dramas, I've already explained that the Impala on the side of the road was now a carcass, the question is would the one stuck in the mud be the same? Along the road I was now fixated on spotting a leopard to complete the big 5!!! But no joy, maybe another day. The Impala was still stuck and the hippo was now lying on the dry land, probably too exhausted and the Crocodile was still in the same place, the only difference now was that there were baboons beginning to descend on the area, would they be the lucky ones who eat today? We will never know because we had to continue to the gates to meet Sidney and our Kruger National Park adventure would come to an end. Back at the lodge we had a beer, I had a very quick dip in the freezing pool and we ate another traditional South African meal, this time a curry type dish with fruit in it and a custard topping which contained banana... The jury is still out as to whether it was worth having again, I know for sure Sarah wasn't impressed, 'who puts a dessert in a curry?' When we return to our hut to go to bed we complete our 'eye-spy' book from our days game drive and realise that maybe we should take more note of the hundreds of bird species there are! Drifting off I reflect on what a truly amazing day we have had.