Day 3 – Kruger National Park: Full Day Safari

Today we got up bright and early for our full day Safari around Kruger National Park (4:45am on holiday was not fun (but SO worth it!)). We arrived just as the park was opening at 6:00am and witnessed the beautiful African sunrise.

 

We rode around in 4x4 trucks (just like the movies) with our very helpful guide, Smart. This guy’s knowledge and eyes were incredible! Even driving around the Park’s unidentifiable labyrinth of roads he saw some lions yards away as we looked across the vast savannahs and he even saw a leopard’s kill – Impala legs just dangling, practically invisible, over a random tree 30 feet away! With the Park’s borders stretching out further than the size of Wales, the guides were incredibly helpful in finding us as many wild animals as possible. We saw four out of the big five:

LOTS of elephants:

Lions (although they were incredibly far away):

Water buffalo which are apparently one of the most dangerous animals as they give absolutely no warning signs when they may charge at you and may even do it unprovoked. Even Smart seemed wary of these guys:

 

White rhinos which we were incredibly lucky to find just on the track’s side. Sometimes they can be almost invisible as their body armour disguises them as rocks so this sighting was extraordinary:

 

Unfortunately we didn’t see a leopard. However they are notoriously difficult to find and may only stick around for about 10 seconds near the road even if one truck does spot one and then radios another in. By the time they arrive, the leopard will have most likely left and may only return hours later. However we did see plenty more animals:

A herd of  giraffes who crossed the road right in front of us!

 

 

 

 

Lots of Burchell's Zebras (which are distinctive due to the brown markings as well as the usual black and white stripes of other types of zebra):

 

Baboons which were incredibly funny to watch and there were even some babies:

 

 

A fish eagle:

Hornbills – a very rare thing to see in Kruger as they only lay one egg every 9 years and the trees with their nests are often bulldozed by elephants or eggs are stolen by monkeys:

 

Plenty of Impala (type of antelope) – often called the pigeons of Kruger because there are so many of them!

 

 

We also saw a Kudu (another yet rarer type of antelope and are the only animal where their horns curl twice):

 

 

A few crocodiles basking in the sun near the lagoon:

 

 

These were joined by some hippos:

We also found a wildebeest grazing quietly alone:

 

And a hyena just lounging in the shade near the roadside as the 2:00pm sun hit the desert-like vegetation – goodness knows what it would have been like in Summer where locals say the temperature can often hit over 40°C. For us it was around 23°C which was perfect (yes that’s their winter’s day in Kruger). However in the morning it truly was bitterly cold – around 2-3°C where we needed 6 layers to keep us warm!).

 

Overall it was an absolutely mind blowing day! One that will never be forgotten – just unbelievable!