Mbombela

I hadn’t given Kruger National Park much thought before going this past week. Part of that is due to the sheer volume of planning involved in this trip and the other part is due to…naïveté, ignorance maybe, lack of understanding of how this type of natural environment can wallop and overwhelm your senses in its vastness and beauty…but it got me. I was mesmerized each and every time I went out into the park.

We spent almost a week - 6 hours east of Johannesburg at a lodge inside of the Numbi Gate of Kruger National Park. Our lodge was without a doubt glamping - and I’m ok with that. We ate delicious meals on campus and then Either went out on game drives with the lodge or did our own “self drive”. When I say we did a self drive, I mean Brian drove (amazingly well on the Left side of the road - and steering wheel on right side of the car). He was a champ! There is NO way you would get me to drive - I do enough back seat or passenger seat driving for all of us when I don’t drive on the opposite side of the road!

He would drive us on these bumpy dirt roads past zebras, enormous giraffes, curious hyenas, one of my favorite - the mystical Kudu, lions, elephants, baboons and even rhinos!

The complexity, adaptability and interdependence within each group/pack of animals, plants, and birds were remarkable. Every time I went out - I learned something new and loved every second of it. I went on some sort of game drive daily and just let the wind blow in my hair , watching the landscape change, animals come out of hiding from the hot sun to get water, and experience animal life awaken as the sun went down.

Whether it was learning what type of leaves “bush” locals use if they don’t have toilet paper! Don’t accidentally use the similar looking leaf with hidden spikes!

Or learning first hand about puff adders (highly venomous snake) because Katie almost stepped on one near our tent!

Or seeing hippos up close at sunset, learning
About their territorial behavior in the water and soon after seeing the hyena mom, on the side of the road, who was breast feeding a bunch of hyena pups. Hearing our guide yell at said pups and then explaining to us “don’t let the hyena pups bite our tires - they’ll pop them and then those pups won’t seem so cute anymore because we’ll be their snack!”

Or seeing the myriad of colors in the sky at sunset. I didn’t know that many colors were possible!

Kruger - you won over my heart. We’re forever grateful and we’ll definitely see you again!

Next stop: quick stop in Cairo and then Morocco!Read more