Phuza Moya Lodge Kruger National Park

... ing elephants got towards our motor. They would undoubtably have killed us if they got to us, there was a poster in one of the museums about a Dutch and a Chilean dude who had upset one female elephant who had then speared their car with her tusks before raising onto her hind legs and bringin her full wieght down on the passengers side, completely crushing it. The dudes escaped thankfully, as did we by reversing at full pelt until the ...

... br>
Writing this and thinking of a title for this entry, I couldn't help but being reminded of and hearing the song "Somedays" by Room Eleven (just look it up on YouTube if you're interested). It's positive and always makes me feel a giddy kind of happy like a little child "jumping, dancing, laughing, singing". This day gives me the same feeling and I will cherish it always and the Room Eleven song will always be the musical score to go with it in my mind!

... though. Later on we came across kudus, elephants, and the usual bunch except lion. We stayed at Satara rest camp for the 2nd night and upgraded ourselves from hut to bungalow, complete with bathroom, aircon, fridge and your own balcony. A bottle of wine to go along, fantastic!

Day 3, we joined the morning walk led by 2 armed park ranger. His instruction to us was simple, "follow the rules, walk in line, if the animal ...

... started so next day we were off heading for the Kruger park area on a luxury coach for 23 people with just the 4 of us !! so choose a seat & get comfy.
There were many stops at incredible scenic areas such as Bourkes luck potholes, Gods window & 3 Rondellas.....where water had sculptured the landscape....after 13 hours, we arrived in the dark at Manyaletti game reserve, this is part of the greater Kruger park where we were staying at Shalati ...

... overboard on the pictures with this blog, but it is such a special place we couldn't help it (and Tracy won the argument). After leaving Kruger, we had a 9 hour drive to our next destination, Royal Natal, which is part of the Drakensburg Mountains. So what clever thing did we do to prepare for this long drive? Why, we did another early morning three hour game drive in Kruger before starting out, of course. Yes, we really loved this place... * Honey Addiction Withdrawal Syndrome

... to Jo'burg. I checked my phone and saw that I had a message. It was from one of my favorite boys at my placement. I decided to call him back. We had a short chat, I told him I saw lions, which made him very happy. I asked how his weekend went and if anything "bad" happened. He assured me it didn't. I told him I was leaving South Africa shortly and I had to go but that I'd call him soon. He began to cry. I did too. I assured him that I have many people who don't ...

... there for a month or more. I had to stay in a tent for one night because the next day we had to go to KRUGER PARK to go on a safari.  We had a little meeting about what we are going to do for the next month.  We went to bed quite soon after dinner and I was bloody knackered! 4/11 - We woke up at 7 to go to Kruger Park; we had to take a small bag so it would fit in the bus. It was about 5 hours journey.  We had two people who also wanted to ...

... experience was there, then you can believe me when I say Kruger is an awesome place to visit. It's literally teeming with wildlife but thanks to it's relatively close proximity (5 hours) to the capital Johannesburg and it's vast network of comfortable tarred roads, it's also teeming with tourists but like Yellowstone, that didn't really bother us too much... the way I see it, the more people there, the better chance we had of spotting predators and that's exactly how it panned out ...

... as much of it of the ground as possible. Lots of them ended up with flour on there whiskers and in their fur. There were monkeys everywhere, trying to get into waste bins and checking every hut to see if anything had been left out inadvertently. Some were even up in the trees, behaving the way monkeys are supposed to behave but most of them were acting like naughty teenagers. Other wildlife around early on included African Green Pigeons, Grey Go-Away Birds, Impala ...

... After a couple of minutes my arms would begin to shake at the sheer mass I was lifting. After a quick breather, I would lift it again. The smell of the buffalo was intense. They were caked in mud and had tics the size of golf-balls all over. Their tails were coarse hair and the skin was thick and hard. Their weight was over a tonne in some cases, with even the babies being larger than me. Lifting their head was the least of my worries if this thing started to move. OK ...