Elephant Plains Game Lodge Kruger National Park

... s completely loopy. As we began the descent from the Highvelt down into South Africa's lowlands through some of the most dramatic and beautiful landscape I had ever seen my belly was doing summersaults and swelling up to form a gaseus, noxious brew that was just dying to blast its way out of my sphincter. It got to a point where I had to stop the car and burst out, literally half a **** away from ******** myself and ran into the ...

... reached Skukuza restcamp. It was 10 am. Time for something to drink. We had already seen four of the Big Five on that day. The only one we hadn't seen was the Buffalo, but we had already seen them before. Lucky said he wanted to complete the whole Big Five before lunch. I commented that it would be nice to spot a proud male Lion as well.<br><br> Next up we encountered a large group of Baboons walking along a dirt road. The whole troop ...

... cool. A big change from the past few days.<br><br>On our way from Letaba to Maorola we saw:<br><br>Impala, goliath heron, jacanas, guinea fowl, hippo, waterbuck, steenbok, squirrels, snake eagle, bataleurs, kudu, Egyptian geese, vulture, francolins, lioness &amp; cubs, monkey, giraffe, eagle, zebra, hyena, nyala, wildebeest, wood hoopoe, grey duiker, elephant, spoonbill, crocodiles, vultures on nest, warthog, baboons, mongoose, bushbuck.

... of a fuss. Watching &#8220;Handy Manny&#8221; on the DVD player (in Spanish) was a little out of place in the African bush, but entertained her for awhile.<br><br>We had a lady from the lodge take our laundry, promising us we would have it back in the morning. We had a fine dinner in a kraal made of high reeds, campfire in the middle, and braiied steaks on ...

... when the walk was over I saw the ranger emptying his rifle....it was fully loaded and I was handling it like a toy! Thankfully I didn't shoot anyone's head off so I guess it was o.k. That afternoon we did another game drive and saw what has to be one of the most magnificent sites I've ever experienced. We drove for a while, all of us trying to scout something. There were some hippos taking a bath along the way, a lonely giraffe munching on some trees... finally we ...

... journey only lasted 3 hours. I had to wait for a while until my next plane left for Swaziland. I went to a camera shop to buy another camera in case my other camera broke again. I finally got on a very, very small old fashioned plane which was pretty cool! I began to feel nervous about meeting new people! When we landed, I met a guy who works for All Out Africa (it's part of Real Gap).  Two girls, Becca and Melissa, lost their suitcases ...

... part of the family for the night. We again learned a lot about the views of the Africaaner people as to the state of their country. Political problems are huge right now, illegal immigration (read: cheap labor) and of course aids is a major concern. It was an evening of laughter and insite! Next day we left bright and early for our last drive to Johannesburg ...

... to his noise. Big 5: - Elephant (tick) - Rhino - Leopard (almost tick, sort off) - Lion - Water buffalo We have hyenas sniffling our car ! The sunset gives the most fascinating views. Three hours later, we are back, in time for dinner. Again a nice buffet. An hour of games later, we are all ready for bed, since tomorrow we check out and drive to Lower Sabie, still in the park but south.

... spotted a pack of lions lying in the shade of some trees. We could make out about 4 but there were more there we couldn't see properly. We watched them for a while then continued on and couldn't believe our luck again when a huge elephant emerged out of the bush right beside the car. We had to quickly reverse back as he wanted to cross the road right where we were. Its just as well we did too, as he was immediately followed by about 50 more of his ...