Here Kitty.

We just arrived back from vacation yesterday am where we spent 10 days in South Africa. My parents flew in from the States to meet Scott and I in Johannesburg which was the 1st stop on the trip. We all arrived safe and sound on Friday Nov. 21st and celebrated my mom's 60th Birthday with a nice dinner!

Saturday we woke up and all hoped in the rental car for a 4.5 hour drive to Kruger National Park. We checked in to our lovely resort, Kruger Park Lodge, and were sent off to our chalet which overlooked the 6th hole on the Golf Course. The resort was a typical game park resort, meaning bush lodges, thatched chalets, wildlife wandering the resort, etc.

We headed in to Kruger National Park that afternoon after settling in a little. A little history on Kruger now:

Kruger National Park was formed in 1898 to protect the wildlife in South Africa Lowveld and occupies nearly 2 million hectacres. Kruger is home to an impressive number of species: 336 trees, 49 fish, 34 amphibians, 114 reptiles, 507 birds and 147 mammals.

We of course were there to see the Big 5 as well as some other rare species but of course you always want to see the Big 5 if possible. For those non-safari people, the Big 5 are the Black Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Leopard and Cape Buffalo. They are called the Big 5 not due to their size but because they are 5 of the most dangerous mammals that kill.

Upon entering the park, I was missing seeing 2 of the Big 5 (Leopard and Cape Buffalo) and what would you know there was a herd of Cape Buffalo about 2 km into the park crossing the road.


After seeing probably about 100 Cape Buffalo make there stampede across the road and some of them taking their time, we moved along further into the park. The antelope were a dime a dozen in the park. It was funny because everywhere you drove you saw at least 10 together. In the end we kind of got tired seeing lots and lots of antelope so we decided not to stop anymore and take pictures. Below is an Impala, part of the Antelope family. Notice their little brown spots on the back of their hind legs?



After moving along we found this guy. Our 2nd of the Big 5 on Day 1! We are doing well! Elephants roam on their own only if they are a Bachelor otherwise they will be in herds. the African Elephants are larger than the Asian Elephants and they can drink up to 1,200 liters in a day. Talk about having to go to the bathroom. Another interesting fact is that they pump around 8liters of blood through their body every second. That is one large mammal.



After spending around 2 hours in the park we called it a day (the gate closes at 6:30). We grabbed some pizza for dinner and headed back to our Chalet for the night.

We got to the park the next morning around 7:30am and started our adventures again. We saw another Elephant by himself and this guy was on the move. He was running and taking a dump at the same time. He crossed the road in front of us twice and just kept running. They can run very quickly and they do charge so you have to be careful.



We finally then saw 2 Giraffe who were munching on some trees for lunch. This guy was gorgeous in color but couldn't get a full shot of him due to the tree hiding his body.




We then drove onwards and reached a nice river. Do you see what I see on the land underneath the driftwood???


Yes it is a Crocodile laying there with his mouth wide open. Lunch anyone?

Just a further bit down the road we saw this group of Hippos having a lovely time in the river. Just past the Hippos was this lovely Eagle perched on the rock looking for his lunch too!


We ended the afternoon with these guys! With this group was our 3rd of the Big 5, the Rhino!



After leaving the park for the day around 4pm, we headed to the grocery store and picked up some stuff for dinner! My mom and I headed off upon return to the Hippo Hide at the resort. There is a small body of water where 3 Hippos call home so we decided to go take a look.


It was starting to get dark when we went down to see them but this guy was active. He was swimming around and then decided to put on a show and yawn a bit and make lots of noise. You could see all three of them stick there heads out at various points but not full come out of the water.

We had a nice BBQ out and played some cards for the night.

Monday morning, we stayed by the pool for the day to catch some much needed sun, if you are from the UK you know what I mean! We left the pool around 3ish and headed to the Chalet to get ready for our evening game drive. We were picked up in front of our Chalet at 4:30 and brought to the Phebeni Gate. We then boarded a larger vehicle and started our drive.

We first saw 2 Black Rhinos wandering around then we got to see some Kudu!


The guys on top are Male Greater Kudu's and the bottom two are Female Greater Kudu's. I love the stripping on their bodies!

We then drove about another 10kms up the road and saw some Wildebeests. They are quite ugly in my opinion but they are cool to see. They typically are seen with the waterbucs and other antelope species.



We got to see some Elephants, Zebra, Cape Buffalo and then finally got to see some small Lion cubs playing with their mom. It was too dark and they were playing in the bushes that you couldn't get any good pics. We headed further up the road until we had to turn around due to our time. On the way back we saw a White Mongoose and 2 Spitting Cobras. They are all quite ugly but it is a reminder that you wouldn't want to be walking in the park at night.

A little further down the road we got our first spotting of a Lion! This guy was roaring and letting everyone know he was there.



He just laid there and let everyone snap some photos of him. You can tell that he was an older male due to some markings on his body and also the fullness of his mane.

We left him and went just about 100ft. further down the road and saw this male lion.




He was sitting in the middle of the road due to the asphalt staying warmer longer and then moved over to the left side of the road where Scott and I were sitting. I LOVE the last photo of him. He looks like you could just snuggle up with him! You can see he is a little sleepy and also had a little runny nose. Beautiful Male Lion!

The next morning we got up at 5am and wanted to try to spot our last of the Big 5, the leopard. We were at the gate just as they were opening their doors so we buzzed through the line and got in just after 5:30am, gate opens at 5:30am. We saw some more of the Big 5 first thing as we were coming in to the park, some really cool birds nest where the birds hang out of the nests, a rare spotted dog, Vervet Monkeys, Giraffes,





And then there is was down a dirt road a car was stopped at the side of the road, we sped up but going slowly so not to be really load and scare whatever this car saw away.

The Leopard! All 5 of the Big 5! Misison completed or so we thought.

Did you know there is a Big 6? You need to watch out for this one though. It is the "Illusive Trouser Snake".

Do you see it yet? The 5th leg??? hahaha You do need to be careful of this though since when this guy was walking the "Illusive Trouser Snake" was swaying from side to side and hitting the side of his body.

Ok. Back to the real animals.

We ended the trip with a Cape Buffalo and BMW X3 standoff.

Kruger was an amazing park to go visit and we were very lucky to see all Big 5 (or 6) in the 5 days that we were there.

Next up is Cape Town. Stay tuned for those photos!