We travelled from Johannesburg via Nelspruit, where we changed over from our transfer vehicle into one of our open safari vehicles. After a short break in Nelspruit while changing the vehicles it was off via the little town of "White River" and then onto the "Numbi Gate of the Kruger National Park. After the formalities at the gate were completed, we made our way down to the camp of Pretoriuskop which would be our camp for the next two nights. After checking in, we had a bit of a break just to get to know the surroundings and a chance to have some lunch.
At about 15h30 and after a briefing from me, we left the camp and made our way down the "Napi Road", which is known to be good with animal sightings late in the afternoon. We managed to find Rhino and then elephant as well as impala and kudu on the route down. I wanted to leave the return journey as late as possible in order to try and find some lions that night have been on the road in the late afternoon. After taking a short drive down the H3, we decided to turn around and start making our way in the direction of the camp. After turning back onto the "Napi Road", i got a call on the radio about lions that had been spotted on our road, so we decided to speed it up a bit and see if we could find them. We got to the area after about five minutes, only to have 14 lions in the road in front of us. We pulled off the road and watched, keeping one eye on the clock as we were still quite a way away from the camp. After about 5 minutes, the lions got up and came to lie right next to our vehicle, only to find that we were totally surrounded by them. At this stage Andrea was taking quite a number of photos as well as feeling quite scared by the closeness of these big cats.
We had this wonderful sighting for about another 20 minutes, before the lions got up and started making for the bush on the other side of the road. It was truly a wonderful way to start a safari getting that close on the first afternoon.
Early the next morning, after waking Andrea up a 05h00, we enjoyed tea and coffee, and then it was off to see what we could find. The road was a bit quiter this morning, but as we were driving down the road, we came across 5 male lions lying next to the road. This proved to be a short sighting as they moved further back into the bush after seeing a large number of open safari vehicles stopped around them. After leaving the lions we made our way down the road, and got some good sightings of elephant, buffalo and rhino. As we were driving further down the road, we came across a leopard lying in the Marula tree, he did not look happy with us, and only stayed around for about 5 minutes, before climbing out of the tree and disappearing into the long grass. We made our way onto "Transport Dam" and after a short stop, we carried on. As we passed the intersection between "Napi Road and the "H3", we came across wild dogs in the road busy hunting, this was a wonderful find as these dogs cover large areas in a day and are very active hunters. After having a wonderful sighting, we went onto breakfast, arriving a bit late but in good spirits after having some wonderful sightings.
After a good breakfast, it was off to see what else we could find. We took a drive in the direction of the "Kruger Tablets", two commemorative plaques embedded in a rock remembering the formation of the first "Game Reserve" in the world in the year 1898.
On route we came across a large herd of female elephants and there young busy bathing in a mud bath next to the road. This was absolutely amazing as it was not 5 meters away from our vehicle. We stayed and watched them for almost an hour and after seen some of them move off, we decided to make our move as well. The rest of the day was spent driving around and getting good sightings of the animals found in the park. we arrived back at camp at around 18h00. After a good dinner, it was off to bed for a good rest before another early start the next morning.
The next morning after enjoying tea and coffee, it was off to find some animals on Andreas last game drive. We got some good sightings of buffalo, rhino and elephant while on the drive, before returning to camp for breakfast. After breakfast, it was time to prepare the vehicle to leave the park as well as pack all the kit.
We left the park at 11h00 and made our way to Nelspruit were Andrea met Mark, and then was transferred back to Johannesburg in time for her flight back to Germany.
Please find a letter, as well as some photos received from Andrea
Hello Verity and Dean!!
Thank you very much for your mail! I had indeed a very nice time in Kruger! Dean was awesome, very professional and answering the million questions I had :-). Everything was better than expected, especially because I got to see many animals. It was very exciting, a wonderful place and I was very comfortable with the accommodation.
I send you here some pics of the lions and also from the Leopard we got to see the last day, it's incredible how camouflage works with these animals! I made lots of pics, many more from the lions, from elephants playing in the mud, from wild dogs, hippos, giraffes,landscape, Kudu, etc,etc! I can send some others if you like.
Thank you very much for such a great experience, very well organized!
I wish you success and also fun with all visitors!
many regards,
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(`*·.¸ (`*·.¸¤ ¤ ¸.·*´) ¸.·* )
..::¨`·.¸** Andrea ** ¸.·`¨::..
.(¸.·*(¸.·*´ ¤ ¤ `*·.¸)*·.¸).
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