Kruger morning walk and afternoon drinks

We woke up at 4.30am for a 4-hour walk in the Kruger with 2 game-rangers and 6 of us tourists. We were driven out into the heart of the bush and on location we watched the game-rangers fully load their rifles with live ammunition. It certainly got the adrenaline going as we ducked and weaved through bushes and spider webs, walking on sandy paths riddled with an assortment of buck hoof prints and other animal tracks. Within minutes we could see giraffes just a few metres away and then a few elephants only 25 metres away. We quietly backed away and gave them a wide berth as we circled around and continued down the hill to a water hole and stopped to take some photos of hippos in the wild.

We finished off the day at the restaurant overlooking the Sabie river, drinking cocktails of long island iced teas, pina coladas and a Mexican pineapple and ginger ale one that I'm now too tipsy to remember the name of. The animals came down to the river and I wonder if they were as focused on us as we were on them.Read more