South Africa -- Day 14

Today was the earliest day yet, having to get up at 4:00 AM. We were going to Kruger National Park today. Hardy had packed us breakfasts in a paper bag that had been loaded into the truck for us. We had to meet our safari truck at 5:00 to drive us down the mountain to meet the  Kruger truck by 5:30. We had our bumpy drive down the mountain, followed by another bumpy drive out the next road, then onto the main road and to Kruger. Our guide’s name was Frankie. He took us to what was called the Melelane entrance to Kruger. The park is so huge, there are about a dozen entrances. The park is the size of a small state! Upon entering, we immediately see an elephant, munching by the side of the road. He is huge and beautiful. We stop for pictures and then move on. We see lots of impala, of course, which we find out they call the McDonald’s of the bush! We see tons of bright, beautiful birds – yellow-billed, hornbilled, some in the brightest mix of colors you can imagine. We see zebra, of course. At one point, we see a white rhino. He looks black, but Frankie explains he is considered a white rhino because of the way his horns are. The white rhino has a small horn in the back and a large one up front. The black rhino has two horns of the same size. We see some giant wildebeest and some giraffes. Frankie tells us that, surprisingly, giraffes, for as big as they are, don’t really weight too much, that they are just tall. We see some mongoose running across the road. They are much smaller than I thought, like little black rats.

Frankie also shows us some interesting plants, like the toothbrush plant (which women use the root of as it also colors your lips), the Guarri bush (which shows you where the water is) and the toilet paper plant (which is nice and soft)! We see an animal called a water buck that has a white ring around its butt. Frankie says this is from sitting on the toilet seats in the bush! LOL! What was neat about these guys is they run into water when in danger, even though there are crocodiles in the water. Apparently, the crocs don’t bother them in the water, as they emit some sort of scent/oil in the water that makes them unappealing. We saw a leopard tortoise, some birds called hammercocks that build HUGE nests. We saw one in a tree, it was about 4 feet across and about 4 feet high. Huge!  We ran into another giraffe, this one so dark, his spots were almost black. Another white rhino, as well. Frankie told us the rhinos can weigh up to 3000 kilograms (that’s a lot of pounds, over 6000)! We saw a tawny eagle, hanging out in a tree. They eat the dead carcasses of things, but also hunt things like mongooses.  As we were wrapping up for the day, we saw some beautiful mountains in the distance, covered in sugar cane fields. It was quite a view. So our morning in the bush ended with us seeing everything but big cats. That was a little disappointing, but we did see quite a few other things.

We headed back to Bongani around 12:30 PM. We were exhausted. I had done the first part of that safari with no coffee and that was rough! By the time we got back to the lodge, it was around 2:30. Jess thought she wanted to go out on the afternoon safari with our other guide, Simian, but once she sat down to lunch, the tiredness hit her, and she decided against it. Mart and I had already decided we didn’t want to go in the afternoon, that we were too tired. We had a light lunch of venison and rice and headed back to our rooms. As we sat there reading and passing the time, the heavens opened and it began pouring rain. Thank God we had not gone out on that afternoon safari!

When Simian and the folks that had gone out on afternoon safari returned, they said the rain was freezing and driving, but they did manage to see two lions. But they were soaked and looked miserable. Dinner tonight was a prawn and vegetable wrapped in phyllo dough concoction that was delicious. This was followed with filet mignon and pork chop with pineapple salsa. The best dinner I have had there since we came. We headed back to our rooms after dinner to get some rest. We were heading home the next day and wanted to be able to be up and on the road at a decent hour. What an amazing experience!