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Other entries in Kruger National Park

Come on the safari with me...

Journal entry by Martin:

After a night in Joburg we set off to Kruger National Park. We arrive in the late afternoon and immediately went for a drive around a smaller park on the edge of Kruger.

We saw a few animals and then I spotted a dog (which turned out to be a Jackal). It was slightly behind the jeep so we were all looking back at it. It was only when we turned around we realised that there were a load of giraffes staring right at us.

If you go on safari in Africa you really want to see the big 5 - Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and Rhino. I went there full of confidence as Kruger is the best stocked national park in Africa. On arrival I found out that the park was the same size as Israel so the confidence disappeared. We were very lucky...

 On the first day we saw 4, everything but the Rhino. The highlights included a pride of 10 lions feasting on a buffalo and a leopard eating an impala.

The second day we saw the same 4 but were still missing the rhino. The highlights of the day were elephants within 5 metres of the jeep on 3 separate occasions.  

The safari finished a 5pm each day and we were on the way out of the safari park and a little disappointed that we didn't see a rhino. Then at 4.55pm we saw a few cars stopped and I knew it was an rhino. And it was. So the big 5 were complete.

We stayed at a place called Mark's Treehouse which is a camp where a number of the rooms are in the trees. Ours was on the ground on stilts. You are really back with nature as you share your room with lizards, frogs and insects. The camp also has its own animals. The sign on the way in says beware of leopards, rhino and buffalo! There is no fencing from the animals and the camp so the animals are in with you.

Our last day consisted of a morning guided walk around the camp before getting the bus back to Joburg. We had met some people who went on the walk the day before and they said I was crap but we dragged ourselves out of bed a 5am anyway.

We were walking along the trail and came face to face with a family of 8 or so buffalo. They can be dangerous if they charge at you but our guide said that the big groups are ok but you should worry about the smaller groups of about 3 buffalo as they are far more likely to attack.

We had to leave the main trail as we could get passed the buffalo. We walked for another 5 mins before we ended up face to face with 3 buffalo - the nutty young male ones our guide said we should be scared of! Our guide told us to freeze so we did, apart from Gem who ran off and hid behind a tree! Our guide was not armed so started throwing stones at them! All was ok in the end.

The safari was amazing and it is definitely something we would like to do again.

Next stop Joburg...

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