ice cream is delicious: Kruger Safari, South Africa

(Very late post)

In Oct 2015, CY, YN, and I decided to take my car up to Kruger National Park for a Safari/camping trip. We borrowed a 3-person tent, some sleeping bags, padding, and drove the 9.5 hour drive up to Kruger, South Africa. We had booked a sunset "drive" that day, so we needed to get there by 5:15pm. We got up bright and early before 6am, had no issues at the Lesotho-South Africa border, but were met by many construction zones that slowed our drive. When we got close to the park, we realized we might be late, so we called to see if they can hold the drive for us. But as we entered the Skukuza camping zone, we saw the safari trucks drive by. We barely missed it by a minute!

Thankfully, we when we did sign in, someone took us on a separate car to catch up to the safari truck and we were able to join the rest of the drive. Thankgoodness! Because we managed to see nearly all the big five on that trip! We saw some hippos in the river with low tide, elephants roaming the trees, and of course the plentiful impala.

Hyena

We set up our tent in the dark, ate some mixture of tuna, canned beans, and noodles, and went to sleep in our tight tent. The next morning we woke up early to take a morning drive, because animals are most active in the morning or dusk and sleep during high sun time. On the drive we saw a big rhino barely perceptible because it looked just like a big rock. Our trip was cut short when a tourist got car sickness and we all had to turn back.

Wild dogs

Leopard blur

The next day we headed North to Satara camp. On the way, there was a traffic jam, but soon we realized it was because a lion had just killed a buffalo and was resting within 50 feet of the road. The lion was still breathing heavily, guarding its kill, as we spotted another lion nearby eyeing everything going on. It was amazing seeing nature in its rawest form, with the entrails of the buffalo spilling out and flies swarming it.

We continued up north, but the rest of the drive wasn't as eventful. We did however get to have lunch at one of the stops, which consisted of Kudu sandwich. Mmmmm.

Kruger is a park that is very lengthy north/south, that just driving up to the halfway camp of Satara took a whole day. After we set up camp, we decided to drive around some more before the night drive we booked. We saw some jackels and a pack of wild dogs, which were rare to see. But then we saw in the distance what seemed like a black line moving in the distance. We realized it was a massive migration of hundreds, maybe thousands of buffalo. There were numerous, and they started crossing the road. We became worried because the crossing was going to take a long time, and we needed to make it back to camp before 6p otherwise the camp closes its gates and makes us pay a fine. The cars in front of us also noticed, so they just started slowly driving forward, making a way between the line of buffalo crossing the road. It was risky, especially since these 1.3k lb animals could easily get agitated and start charging, but fortunately, we made it across safely.

During the night drive, it was very very difficult to see anything. They gave us lights to flash around, but we didn't see anything for the longest time. But then, a ranger who was driving ahead of us told us they just saw a leopard near the road. It was a young leopard, just strolling along the road, and sure enough, we caught a site of its spotted coat among the shrubbery. We continued to drive along it, until it disappeared into the darkness again. Finally! On the last drive, we found the last 5 of the big 5!

On the way back the next day, we saw another pair of lions strolling along the road. We drove slowly behind the lion when it came on the road, and interested in taking a better picture, CY lowered her window. The sound of the window lowering startled the lioness, and she twitched aggressively, which gave all of us a start, and CY immediately rolled up the window. No more lowering the windows!! We didn't want to be lion lunch!

Kudu and pap - yum!

Impala

This one elephant came super close to our car:

On the way back, we went via a different route through the Blyde River Canyon River Reserve. We visited Echo caves, which had some interesting formations, and also through Blyde River. We saw the Three Rondovals (Lesotho/South African huts), God's window, but didn't make it to the Lucky Potholes.