SAFARI IN KRUGER PARK, SOUTH AFRICA

During our trip to South Africa, we took a 3-day safari in Kruger National Park, one of the largest game reserves in Africa.

Kruger Park is located in the Northeast section of the country, along the border with Mozambique. It is about a seven hour road trip from Pretoria, where we were staying.

After we were picked up in Pretoria on December 5th, we stopped at the Outlook Lodge, owned by Outlook Safaris, our tour company (which we highly recommend, by the way). There, we assembled the whole group of 2 vans and headed for the park.

This was one of our travel companions, Lisa from England, who was enjoying a snack at one of our road trip stops on the way to Kruger Park.

Another one of our travel companions: Bruno from Brazil.

We stopped for lunch about half way there.

Arriving in Kruger Park!

The statue of Paul Kruger, for whom the park is named.

This is the gateway to the Skukuza Camp, at which we stayed. Each camp is carefully guarded with electric fence to keep the wild animals out.

As we checked into our Rondawels (round huts), William noticed that we were all on our phones! So much for a wilderness experience.

The main lodge at the camp.

Inside our Rondawel with real thatched roofing and our own porch.

Impala (African antelope).

A whole family of vervet monkeys. Many of the babies were playing around and leaping from the branches.

In the distance, you can see the male leopard we encountered on our first game drive. These are very difficult to find in the wild, so we were trilled to have seen this one hunting.

There were hippos off in the distance, swimming in the river.

For the first game drive only, we were transported in this open air vehicle. It was operated by a National Park ranger and was allowed to be out later than the 6:30 p.m. curfew. The second night, our game drive was conducted by our tour company, Outlook Safari, and had to be back by curfew. After dark, we looked for animals with spotlights.

We had dinner at the Outlook Safari tent. Even though there were no nets, the mosquitos didn't bother as we dined. Our group included people from Brazil, Pakistan, England and Mexico.

The rondowel camp.

The next morning, we had coffee at 4:30 a.m. then went off on a 5 hour game drive. Here I am gearing up for the early adventure.

Here we are inside our smaller game drive vehicle.

We saw baboons all over the road, many with babies on their backs like those on the right.

This one was comfortable stretched out on the road while his companion preened him.

We got to see a whole herd of elephants cross the road right in front of us.

There is a eagle perched in this dead tree.

We saw this very large ground horbill, a rare siting as they are endangered.

Our able guide, Kylie, pointing out more wildlife.

Can there be anything cuter than a baby zebra with its mommy?

Two male rhinos hanging out as an impala passes by.

A baby giraffe with its mommy. This little guy was really awkward, which was adorable.

Two hyena.

We saw two male elephants.

A herd of cape buffalo, considered one of the "Big Five" African safari animals.

The elephant on the right is lying down, which is a rare siting. They only do this when they are quite tired.

Our exciting siting of a lioness on the prowl! And look how close we got (shot with a wide angle). This the last of the "Big Five" that we were hoping to see.

Back to our campsite for breakfast.

A vervet monkey cruising past our porch.

A wildebeast.

Dinner the second night at the camp. The cook made excellent food even though he was cooking on camp stoves.

Here we are with our safari guide, Kylie. We said farewell to her as we headed out of the camp on the third day.

On our final game drive we saw a lot of zebra.

This hyena is wearing a tracking device. Since there is so much wildlife in Kruger, there is a lot of research being conducted.

Pretty big for a millepede, huh?

We took a scenic route back to Johannesburg that included site seeing at Pilgrim's Rest, a national monument of South Africa. It was a mining town in the gold rush.

The Methodist of Pilgrim's Rest.

We had breakfast in Pilgrim's Rest before pressing on.

We then went to Lisbon Falls, the highest in South Africa, just north of the town of Grasop in Mpumalanga.

Then we stopped at Blyde River Nature Reserve for these awesome views.

After a long drive, we stopped for lunch at a cafe with beautiful gardens called the Rose Cottage.

At the end of a very long day (and a safari we will always remember), we got back to Pretoria.