SOULjourner: SA Road Tripping 3: Kruger National Park

Howisit? (South African version of what’s up? and it is written and said just like that) Here is the last set of pics from my May Get Away Road Trip! These are the most exciting pics because they are from the game park, Kruger National Park. I finally feel like I have experienced Africa or at least the Africa that everyone imagines because I have seen elephants, zebras, and monkey walking down the street. I kept feeling like I was in the Lion King, lol.

I so badly wanted to post these pics and act like they were from a normal random day here in SA. The one question that people always ask me when I tell them I have traveled in Africa is, “did you see any animals.” Sometimes I will make up stories (that amazingly are believed) about having a pet monkey and zebra. Unfortunately, though across most of the continent the only animals that you will readily see are cows, sheep, goats, and dogs. OOOHHHH and chickens can’t forget the chickens. Here in SA I have seen the random monkey on the side of the road though.

So to see wild animals you go to Game Parks. South Africa has numerous Game Parks or National Parks, but the Kruger National Park is the most well known. Kruger spans 20,000 sq km (I’ll let you convert that he he) and is roughly the size of Wales (not such a great reference for Americans either lol welcome to my world). OK how about this…it is the size of Israel!!! It is actually the largest protected wildlife area in Africa (maybe even the world) and crosses the South African border into Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

We entered into Kruger from a gate near Hoedspruit. As I mentioned earlier, we spent the night at an Afrikaans family’s house/Lorena’s (the volunteer I traveled with) “host family’s” house. Lorena and I were able to also get in a visit to a cheetah reserve before we all departed for the park. The coolest thing about the park is that it isn’t like safaris on TV. We drove on paved roads that wound through the park. And when I say we I mean WE drove. We took personal cars and slowly drove through looking for animals. When we came close to animals, we kept a safe distance and quiet to not disturb them. It was pretty awesome!!!! We also stayed one evening in the park, which allowed us to get up and do an AM drive. The family we went with LOVES the park and they actually go once a month. So they made the experience that much better as they recanted stories from prior visits to the park or told us about the lifestyles of the animals we saw like they were intimate and old friends. We even braiied (BBQ’ed) under the stars so it was a great traditional SA trip!

2 of the Big 5: An Elephant and an African Buffalo at play.

When going to a game park, the big thing everyone wants to see is the Big Five! The Big Five is a phrase hunters coined to refer to the toughest five animals to hunt: Rhinoceros (which are being horribly killed and poached right now for their horns, the Chinese believe its an aphrodisiac), Leopard, Elephant. Buffalo, and Lion. We saw 3 out of the 5: Rhino, Elephant, and Buffalo. Not too bad for a first visit!

To enjoy Kruger for yourself and from the safety of your home, check out the live feed from cameras in the park: http://www.sanparks.org/webcams/

Enough suspense. Here are the pics! Again, if you click on one you can enjoy them as a slideshow.

Enjoy!

--Mei

Hoedspruit Endangered Species Centre

A Male Nyala, one of the many "deery" type animals I saw on this trip

A Female Nyala

This ugly bird is endangered. They are mating him at the center to try and protect the species. The ugly bird (whatever he is called) is actually trying to trade (see he has something in his mouth) with another bird.

The male and female cheetahs actually are kept separately and only come together to mate.

Interestingly...when cheetahs mate, the female cheetahs knows once she has become impregnated and immediately pushes the male off of her after.

Animals that live in packs/herds like zebras can't survive alone. This zebra was adopted by a sheep couple. He is pictured here watching over his mother.

Vulture Restaurant

Vultures Chowing Down

Lion's Resting. These lions were abandoned by a circus in Europe. Both were severely abused. The male on the right never grew a mane and can't growl because of how he was mistreated. :0(

Hyenas Enjoying Lunch. All animals at the centre are fed beef.

Kruger National Park

Elephants bathing!

Closer look at an elephant at a watering hole.

Impalas

Waiting for a chameleon to cross the road. Every animal is important!

View of the Kruger landscape. I am really into trees lately.

Getting up close and personal with an elephant.

Kruger landscape.

Site along one of the water holes, the camp where we stayed the night in the park.

Inside our lodging--the bedroom. BTW it only cost us $40 a person w/ 2 people in a room to stay here. Not bad!

Inside our lodging--the kitchen and dinning area. We also had an outdoor braii area.

View of the watering hole by the camp site

Crocodile at the watering hole

There are a couple of sites, including this bridge, where you can get out of your car for a better view.

Its so crazy to drive down a road and just stumble upon zebras.

This one posed for us!

We also encountered a herd of buffalos on the road. We had to wait for almost 30mins before we could proceed.

We also got surrounded by a herd of elephants. It actually was a bit scary. They were coming from all directions and we didn't know which way to go. Check out how close they were.

We actually saw so many elephants its stopped becoming exciting. :0)

This male was in heat (you can tell by the black tear drop shaped gland above his ear) and actually quiet dangerous. These male bachelors do not travel in packs and are searching for a female to mate with. You are warned to avoid these males and stay out of their paths.