Day 29 – Kruger Safari Day 1

February 20th, 2008

Waking up at 7am isn't easy for me, and anyone who knows me knows that. Saying I'm not much of a morning person is an understatement. Anyway, we woke up at 6:30am to figure out the current safari situation. Our ride came promptly at 7am to take us on the 5 hour ride to Kruger National Park. The night before her van got broken into and they stole her CD/Radio/DVD player, her LCD screen for DVD's and other things that were in the car.

First off, EcoAfrica originally told her that we were going to be there a day earlier. So she was actually at Shoestrings (where we stayed) at 7am the day before. Then her car gets broken into during the night and she mentions to us the next day that she almost didn't come at all because of that. This would have been the worst thing that could have happened (especially after our long, frustrating adventure the night before). We would be stuck in Johannesburg, where almost everyone says is a bad place to be in, and really not know what to do next. We were very lucky that she did show up and we were able to take the 5 hour ride with her in her van to Kruger National Park.

Of course we stopped a few times before we got there to get food and snacks. Most people slept during the ride there but I can rarely sleep in vehicles, especially when it's really bumpy, so I just stayed awake the entire time. The countryside changed drastically in our trip. As you will see in some of my pictures, there is a large portion of South Africa that is exactly the same as the Midwest. Corn fields and open prairies were very common for a few hours before we actually got into some of the more mountainous region. The countryside the entire time was absolutely beautiful. You should be able to see all of this in the pictures that I'll post (hopefully sooner than later).

Just a side fact, Kruger National Park is actually the 2nd largest park in the world. The largest is Yellowstone of course. However, Kruger is expanding as they open up the borders into Mozambique and will soon become the largest park in the world.

Animal poaching is also a HUGE problem in the area, especially with more rare animals such as rhinos and lopards.

Our early-afternoon drive through Kruger was really nice. We were able to see lots of zebras, antelope, giraffe, baboons, and other more common animals in the park. Lots of pictures of all of these to come soon as well.

That night we had some sort of casserole thing with vegetables and wild boar. It was really good. By this time it was only about 9pm but we were all so tired after getting so little sleep in the past few days that we just passed out in our bungalows. Between the 8 of us we had two 3-person bungalows right next to each other and one 2-person bungalow a little ways away from us. The camp that we stayed at was actually a lot nicer than I thought it was going to be. Each place had its own running hot water with good pressure and air conditioning in the sleeping area. There was a kitchen area that was cut off from the sleeping area (where there were 3 beds) and a bathroom/shower area that was separate from the other two. Needless to say, it wasn't bad at all. I have some pictures that will hopefully give you a better description as well.