First Day in Kruger Park

We got picked up from our hotel at 5:15am! Our guide, Elvis, gave us a good day, but there was a bit of rain first thing in the morning, so what may have been why we did not see quite as many animals as he usually sees. However, we did see some things that we have not seen before on this trip: a tortoise, wild dogs, turtles, big huge bird with red on its face, and white under its large wings when flying, and a baboon eating a yellow-billed hornbill (yuk). We got some excellent photos, especially of the Lilac breasted Bird, which is a beautiful combination of bright colours, and when it flies, the underside of the wings are an incredible purple lilac colour. The other things we saw were: hippos out of the water, two rhinos (one lying in the shade and one walking in the open), a whole group of elephants trying to get themselves covered in mud, three warthogs taking a mud bath in another mud hole, an elephant spraying himself to get cool, a lot of buffalo, kudu, a couple of hundred Impala, giraffes, blue wildebeests, vultures, lots of baboons, two kinds of monkeys, a group of 7 or 8 small hyenas sleeping in the shade, fish eagle, and tawny eagles. We didn’t get back to our hotel until nearly 4pm...a long day which ended up to be quite hot. After a dip in the pool to cool down, we relaxed and enjoyed the air conditioning in the room, and got to bed early because we have an early day tomorrow!Read more