Safari in Kruger National Park

We were up at 4:15 this morning in order to get ready and be on the bus by 5:15 so we could get into Kruger for the sunrise. The only problem with this was that it was raining and quite chilly so unfortunately there was no stunning sunrise for us!

Once we got to the park we transferred into our safari vehicles and entered through Numbi gate for an all day game drive. As it was still drizzling out we were given rain ponchos to put on so that we could keep dry as we zoomed along in the open sided vehicle.

It took us about a half hour before we came across our first animal sighting, wild (or painted) dogs lying beside the edge of the road. Kruger Park is huge - about two thirds the size of Vancouver Island or about the size of the state of Connecticut.
Because of this animal sightings can be quite spaced apart versus some of the smaller parks or private game reserves. This resulted in a lot of driving when there was a sighting reported over the radio.

We drove for almost three hours before stopping at Skukuza Gate to have a bite to eat and a bathroom break and then we were off in search of game once again. We made a second stop back at Skukuza gate another couple of hours later before our final drive of the day and before heading back to the hotel.

Throughout the day in addition to the wild dogs, we saw a couple of lions, a couple of cheetahs, several elephants, some baboons, some kudus, a couple of crocodiles, a vervet monkey, a few hyenas, lots of elephants, some water buffalo, a couple of hippos, some giraffes, a warthog family and dozens and dozens of Impala. All in all a pretty amazing day!!

Thankfully the weather cleared up shortly after we started our first game drive and got progressively warmer throughout the day. As we're heading into winter here, the mornings have been cool and hazy before clearing mid morning and becoming sunny and warm in the afternoons. The temperature range has been about 50 degrees in the morning and up to about 75 degrees some afternoons. The rain this morning was the only rain we've seen so far.

We had dinner and drinks with some of our travelling companions and turned in for the night after showering all of the day's grit off. Tomorrow we take a panoramic drive to Johannesburg.Read more