Part Four: Kruger National Park

Day 9

We checked into Hotel @ Tzaneen on a dreary, rainy morning. We spent the whole day sleeping and watching movies as a vacation from our vacation.

Day 10
Early in the morning we hit the road again, with an hour and a half drive to Kruger National Park. We made it to the park before noon, filled out some papers, and started our adventure. The park was way different than I thought it would be. There are paved main roads reaching from one side of the park to another, along with smaller dirt roads that will take you to the watering holes and lookout areas. We entered at the gate in the middle of the park and drove south, towards our backpackers accommodation for the evening. We were all chatting, excited for our self-driven safari when all of a sudden, an elephant comes out of the brush and out into the road! Later we passed a water buffalo off to the side of the road.

After that it was kudu and dik-dik, both deer-like animals, for the rest of the morning. We stopped for an early lunch before hitting the road again, hoping for better luck with the big game. We met a turtle friend who was trying to cross the road. We stopped our, hoping to get him across safely, but instead he went under our car and we had to wait for him to come out the other side before we could move again. Shortly after that we saw a zebra in the road! We drove down some of the dirt roads to the watering holes, hoping to see some hippos but it was a cool day so the holes were deserted. 

Next came my favorite part of the day: our first giraffe sighting! One minute I'm getting sleepy, my eyes heavy from watching the sides of the roads for animals, then all of a sudden Emmi slams on the breaks and there's a giraffe neck popping out from the trees next to us. I did all I could not to scream, but I think a squeak still forced its way out. Then, as if Emmi and I could ask for anything better, we saw a giraffe next to some zebras! 

Our next stop was a big baobab tree. We got stuck behind a big pesky van of tourists (the khaki safari gear kind), along with another car. Once we finally were able to zoom around them, we found the tree and hopped out to take another of our infamous jumping pictures. As you can probably guess, this one didn't work either. Just about the time we were setting up the camera for a second try, that van of tourists pulled up and wanted to take pictures. We got back in the car and  took off, hoping to beat the rest of the cars back to the main road. Then we realized the road we were on made a loop around the tree. Damon was driving and slammed on the breaks not to hit any of the tourists, causing the car to stall out. At that point they were all staring. He started and stalled the car twice more as the tourists laughed before we were finally able to get out of there.

Next we stopped at another watering hole, one that finally had hippos in it! We were a little bummed that all we could see was their eyes though. Then the boys got their wish; we saw a rhino sitting alone back in the field, and a few minutes later we passed one hiding in the bush only a few feet from our car. Now, usually when there is a car stopped at Kruger it means there is something to see. As we drove along we came up on a man out of his car with a tripod set up so we knew it had to be good. It turns out a leopard had killed something and drug it up a tree where it was sitting and eating. This was so awesome considering it's very rare to see cats in the park. We kept driving to see a few more cars pulled over at a watering hole. There were a bunch of hippos in this one, and most were way more active than the ones we had seen earlier since the sun was beginning to set. We even saw a few out of the water, in the bushes next to our car.

We knew that we were starting to get crunched for time because the park closed at 6:30 and we had just begun to see signs for the crocodile bridge gate that we needed to get to. Since it was getting dark it was pretty easy to see the lights of the cars stopped up ahead. That's when we saw the best thing yet: two lions laying on the side of the road. The first one was hurt and got up to limp over to the next one. As he walked he let out a roar. Now, everyone's heard a lion's roar on the tv or somewhere, but nothing can prepare you for the way it sounds in real life. You hear the roar, just like you've heard before, sounding the way you'd expect it to. But then there's an inaudible rumble below the roar that you can only feel. The only way I can think of to describe it is that it's like listening to a marching band during a parade. As they pass you, you can hear the music of the drums, but the bass drum just makes a pulse that you can feel. It was such an incredible experience, and the best possible way to end our day at Kruger. 

We took a last glance before rushing off to the park gates. A guard met us and asked if the lions were our reason for being late (only by two minutes!), and of course we said yes. He said  that he should make us pay the R4000, about $400, late fee, and then asked us to open the trunk. He took a peak around and told us we could go but not to be late next time.

We slept like babies that night at Kruger View Lodge for backpackers, knowing that we had accomplished something amazing: seeing the entire Big 5 in ONE DAY! :)

Keep reading to hear about what the eastern cape had in store for us in Part Five! :)