SAFARI IN AFRICA

Now for the blog you’ve all been waiting for… SAFARI!!!!

After a long and exhausting 7 hour drive to Kruger from Johannesburg we finally made it! Within the first 10 minutes of being in the park we saw an elephant on the side of the road just hanging out! We were in our giant tour bus so we couldn’t get too close but still were able to get some pictures of it! We then checked into our HUTS which we would be staying in for the next two nights! They were pretty legit, equipped with straw roof and AC! Not too bad a deal! The interesting thing about the huts was that the refrigerator and kitchen were kept on the outside of the hut so that baboons that wander around the park would not attempt to break into your hut!

As soon as we got to our huts we had to run to get on a safari jeep to take us to our sundown safari from 5 to 8pm! Our safari guide, Lettus, was a giant African man with a shot gun and lots of knowledge on all sorts of animals so we were in good hands! On our evening drive we got to see pumba in the flesh! (aka a warthog), a couple of pythons in the road, an entire colony of baboons and velvet monkeys, but by far my favorite thing we saw on our first drive was a family of elephants! There were three baby elephants and two older ones all walking around, eating, and playing together. We got up so close to them and they even crossed the road right in front of us! I literally could have watched them interact with each other all day! The baboons were really neat because we got to see a baby baboon latched to his mother, and see how they all interacted with each other.

The next morning we had to be up at 4am for our sunrise drive which ended up being quite a rainy experience. Despite the rain, straightaway we ran into a couple of giraffes right off of the road! We also saw zebras up close and personal which I loved! Also, because of the rain we ended up seeing a few hyenas which normally are nocturnal animals but come out during the rain.

During the day the sky cleared up nicely so we spent the day exploring the park, lounging by the pool, and discovering a disserted train station that was converted into a bar/restaurant and had a bit of a photo shoot there!

That evening we booked tickets for another sunset drive because the weather was so nice and we were set on seeing lions before we left! We saw a water buffalo which is part of “the big five.” The big five is the five most dangerous and difficult to find in animals in Africa that you are supposed to see on safari. The big five consists of water buffalo, elephants, rhinos, lions and leopards. We then saw a tree filled with vultures, which could indicate that an animal was killed near by and they could be waiting for leftovers! We looked our hardest but could not find any lions or animals in the area so we continued down the trail where we spotted hippos, an alligator, and more baboons and giraffes.

Then we ran into another tour group and they told us that there were lions in that area where the vultures were so we turned around and drove straight back there! By this time it was dark out but we ended up spotting a giant hippo right on the side of the road SO CLOSE TO US! It was kinda freaky because hippos are one of the most aggressive animals towards humans but we were fine! After that we continued onward and spotted two female lions napping right on the road! They must have been 10 feet away from us it was insane! I got lots of pictures and a video, but because it was so dark out the bugs were loving the lights we shined on the animals and literally eating us alive so we had to continue back to our huts.


The safari at Kruger National Park was such an awesome experience and even though we didn’t get to see the full big 5 (we were missing rhinos and leopards) I was still content with the variety of animals we saw especially on a rainy weekend!