Olifants Restcamp Kruger National Park

... People say 'I almost **** myslef' all the time but in all honesty they wernt even close to dropping a brown one in their keks, but i was very, very close, especially when Trigger stalled the car and proclaimed "I cant go forward, Im gonna have to reverse!". I used to think it was just a saying, how can anyone actually poo through fear? But now I know first hand that it can happen as my ring dilated wider and wider the closer those ...

... is home to all five of the Big Five, he could give no guarantees that we would see all of them. In fact, he himself had not spotted a Leopard for about two weeks. After this we set off into the actual park.

Just some hundred meters into the park, we spotted a solitary, old Elephant walking by the road. That's one of the Big Five and Jeroen's wish for the day fulfilled within the first 5 minutes of the actual game drive! Not bad!
Kruger National Park, South Africa robvv

... it was a pleasant drive to Orpen gate to register and onto Maorola Restcamp (satellite camp for Orpen) for the night. This is just a camping and caravan camp, a nice small camp with communal kitchen and good ablution block. Around the camp were quite a few hornbills and we even had a male bushbuck come visit the camp. The camp gate shut at 6pm and it was a quiet night apart from the fact that it got very windy and the weather ...

... at Mlilwane, a game reserve which I found to be better than expected. I loved unexpected highlights, and I loved seeing others in the group pleasantly surprised at how nice a place was.

We reached Timbavati Guest Lodge around 2:45 pm and checked in to our Ndebele style huts. We had a rondavel on the edge of the property where zebra and steenbok could be seen, and some ...

The guide books tend to recommend 5 days or so in Kruger. We budgeted 24 hours so I admit my expectations weren't particularly high on the wildlife spotting front. So when we saw a buffalo (our first of the "Big 5") within about 3 minutes of the entrance gate it took a few moments to realise it actually was a wild animal and not another cow (and another minute of mad scrambling to then get the cameras out). We then ...

Kruger National Park is the largest game reserve in South Africa. Nikki and I rented a 4x4 so we could drive ourselves around the park. She was teaching me how to drive a stick shift when I almost hit an elephant that was in the intersection hanging out eating the trees! It was an experience! We saw many animals while we were in the park, elephants, giraffe, hippo, rhino, lions, zebra, lots of buck ...

... a lot of turbulence due to the high ground temperature, 36 degrees. Arrive in Jo'burg okay and get the suttle bus to our hotel. The Airport Grand Hotel is only a 3 star but is absolutely excellent, more like a British/Irish 5 star hotel!! Food, room and service really great, staff very friendly. Just going to upload a few photos for Kruger. Neil took most of them on his camcorder so you'll all have to wait until we get back. Next stop Thailand.

... slightly exhausted keeping 9 lioness happy! One of the prides has 9 cubs who are absolutely gorgeous and we spent quite abit of time both tracking them as they hunted but also istting in our truck in the middle of the pride while they feed and played - it was quite special. We also say rhinos, leopards making a kill - one that did a mock charge at the truck - I almost dorpped my video camera! - and also ...

... a drink at the waterhole. Our first big animal sighting (see photo). At 4 o'clock we went out on our afternoon/evening game viewing drive which we saw a glimpse of a Rhinos bum, impala, buffalo and kudu (large deer). We had sunset drinks while listening to the wildlife noises. Tonight we were treated a beautifully cooked chicken and vegetable curry by Peter our tour guide. Tomorrow we are off to Kruger National Park in search of the BIG 5.