Gazelles Galore and Hungry, Hungry Hippos

Kruger National Park

After a large breakfast that was included in our B&B price at Autumn Breath, the owner had warned us we would get a big breakfast. I just shouldn't have eaten the bowl of cereal before my omelet came. We left the quiet town of Graskop and took a pit stop in Hazyview to try and use the internet. The only problem being that it was Sunday, and the internet cafes are closed, but we did find one Indian store open that let us use their computer right in the middle of their display table as they looked over our shoulders. But first Bill had to help them get their modem working. What interesting small towns thinking it was going to be bigger than Graskop. So after a quick check of our email, we headed into Kruger National Park as the weather surrounding was cloudy and rainy looking. We figured it wasn't the best day to go and see some waterfalls and look at views that would be completely covered by the clouds, so into the park we went.

After completing all the paper work and actually being let into the park, we ran straight into Impalas, which in French are called Gazelles. So we were never actually going to see another animal called a Gazelle as we had originally thought. Now, the Impalas have a bit of a nick name for the Game Parks, which is McDonalds. There are two reasons: the first being their behind which looks like a black McDonalds, and we discovered the second reason during our trip through Kruger Park.

Now, Kruger Park is a bit different than a lot of the National Parks that include Safari throughout Africa as they allow you to drive around looking for animals with your own car. Yes, I actually let Bill drive through the park, and he actually never hit an animal though he may have missed one or two, but I missed them as well. But it’s a great way to give it a try all on your own, but having the low Toyota that we had may have been a disadvantage with how high the brush is. Apparently, winter is the best time to go spotting animals as the brush is dried out and not blooming like it is in summertime.

The other great thing about the park is that the speed limit is only 50 km about 30 miles per hour, since you can stop anywhere you like along the road, the only thing you can’t do is get out of the car or let anything protrude from the car. But the speed limit makes sure you get to see more animals and watch out for the other cars stopped, but if another car is stopped, it usually means they’re seeing something you’d like to as well!

So as we started to head into the park, we were greeted by the Impalas. After a little ways, we saw more impalas, but this time we saw zebras with them. In fact, many of the time that we saw zebras, they were with impalas. As we stopped to take a look at another impala, we were about to drive away when I saw a neck in the background. It was the neck of a giraffe. It was hidden between some trees, and as Bill went in reverse to see it, we saw another giraffe standing in plain site chomping away. And in total, we saw six, and we almost drove right on by them. We got to see some wildebeest, and then it was time to head into our camp and check in.

When we checked in, we noticed a map that people can mark with all the animals they’ve seen. We realized how many we’d missed, but we also saw more than we thought for just driving in the long way to our camp. Kruger is also different because they offer lodges within the park, so you don’t have to just camp if you want to spend some time within. They also have a range of accommodations. We stayed in the camp called Skukuza towards the middle of the park. Each camp throughout the park has certain animals that are known to be around that area, but of course, who knows when and where you’ll find them.

After we checked in, we unloaded all the food we had brought in as we had rented a cabin with a kitchen. We went to explore what the camp had, and found that it also had an internet café, so it was time to check up on a few things. Then we grabbed some burgers from the café, and then returned back to our cabin to find monkeys. Those cute little bluish monkeys were everywhere. I went to take some pictures of them to realize that they had gone into people refrigerators, as the kitchens are not enclosed, and were eating a whole bag of mangos. Shortly, we looked at ours to see that our bananas peels were next to a tree as well as the bag of bread I’d put in there trying to keep it away from the ants. I never thought the monkeys would get it.

I still didn’t have a very good picture of them, so Bill went out to try and get one. I was a little frightened of them because they seemed to get too close for comfort. Shortly, Bill returned without a picture. I asked what happened and his reply, “They started throwing branches at me.” Well, first he was trying to scare them away from the other people’s kitchen area, and so they retreated to the trees. But as he took the camera out and got ready to aim, the monkey must have thought that he was going to shoot something at him, as the monkey started throwing branches every time Bill tried to aim. And so, Bill came back empty handed.

We quickly ate our dinner fearing the monkeys would return. And as we sat at dinner Bill explained that he had wondered earlier how the refrigerators were outside without more protection from the monkeys, but figured since there wasn’t any sort of warning not to worry about it. He was sadly mistaken, though the thought had never crossed my mind. And so, we never left the refrigerator again without strapping it down and turning it to its side. No more monkeys got our food.

The next morning we got off to a late start meaning we were on the road by 7 am. As most people started around 4:30 to 5:30 in the hopes of seeing the big cats since that’s when they are most active and possibly with prey. But there was still plenty to see.

We had seen an overlook the day before, so Bill headed in that direction. As we were getting close to the overlook, we saw a group of zebras. We’ve been lucky with seeing them quite a bit as we start safari trips. As we got to the top, we saw the same group of zebras but some gazelles had joined them. Though we heard a car coming up the path rather quickly, and that noise scared many of them away.

After driving a bit, Bill saw some giraffes which he was happy about as he wasn’t too lucky at finding animals. I kept pointing out he was driving, but he referred further back to our other safaris where Shadrack was driving so I had nothing left to say. Then we ran into a whole family of wart hogs. They certainly are funny to watch especially as the little one trot along after their mother.

But then as we were driving, another car going the other way stopped us, and told us that up at the next junction, there were some lions. Bill tried not to race over there too quickly, but then we saw a car and a lion lying sleepily in the brush. The other car pulled out, and I got one picture in as the lion just suddenly dropped his whole head into the brush like a big plop. Bill and I were trying to make noise to get him to wake up as I sat there thinking, we’re trying to wake up a lion that’s 10 feet away from us, how smart are we. He stuck his head up one more time, and I got a few shots in before it went right back down.

Since the drive had told us there were a couple of lions, we went looking to see if we could find anymore. We weren’t successful, but there was a car behind us, so we thought we’d try to point out the lion to them. They did follow us, but they were turning away at the juncture, so I yelled out 10 feet away from the lion, “Sir, sir there’s a lion here,” pointing to the spot. They backed up, and the lion stirred a bit for them, and we left so they could look.

As we were heading back to camp, Bill suddenly stopped as there was a small turtle on the road. I was afraid it was going to get run over, so we sat there staring at it. And eventually, quicker than I expected, it retreated back into the brush. Shortly afterwards, we saw a baby one, and he retreated even quicker. I’m glad that they moved fasted that I’d expected.

We went back to camp for some lunch and a bit of a break. Looking for animals can be so tiring on the eyes as you’re starring everywhere trying to make sure you don’t miss anything. But you have to look at the brush for lions, but don’t forget the trees for leopards or monkeys; it can definitely be straining on the eyes.

Our second drive of the day wasn’t proving to be very fruitful until we almost drove past an elephant. I mean how do you miss an elephant in plain sight, he’s so big. Bill reversed and we sat starring at the elephant eating away. They eat almost all day long; I guess you’d have to considering their weight and size. Then we saw a kudu and later some baboons. The baboons were having a family reunion on the rocks as everyone was there. There were rocks with couples on them, and others with mom, dad and the kids. It must have been mating season for some of the couples. On that same bridge, we saw some hippos sleeping away in the water. They sleep all day in the water, and then come out and eat away all night long.

Then on our way back to camp we saw two male impalas fighting away. They’d bend down and go at it with their horns. Now, we’d seen impalas everywhere the last few days, I’d just stop mentioning them as it leads me to the second reason they’re called McDonalds. They’re around every corner and they’re fast food for the larger animals since there is so many of them. Sad fact of the food chain because they’re rather quite cute.

And so, on our last morning, we did get up at and left by 4:30 in the morning. You can leave the camp gate at 4:30, but you can’t enter from outside the park until 5:30. So we thought it’d be good to get an early start. It was still dark until after 5, so we couldn’t see much. And once dawn hit, well, we still didn’t see anything either. So we just returned to camp tired and wondering why we got up so early. Though I guess we had to try, you just never know. As we overheard later in the day when we made a bathroom stop that a group saw a whole pride of lions that had just captured a prey as they drove into the park. The gate they drove in was far away from where we were.

So I napped, and then we packed everything up, ate breakfast, and were back on the rode by 9. Our 5 ½ hour drive out of the park was full of more animals and a lot longer than we’d expected to drive. After driving awhile, we came across a guided safari truck, and the guide told us to turn around as there’s a stubborn elephant in the road, and they followed it for 5 km but couldn’t get around it. So he suggested we just turn around. We decided we wanted to see it, and kept going without seeing it. We figured if we didn’t see this elephant, it just wasn’t our day and we should just leave. Finally, we came upon the elephant and as soon as we got close, he went off the road and into the brush to eat. Bill went passed it before getting pictures to make sure we wouldn’t be stuck, but even after our pictures, we went on our merry way and laughed about the guide as we were almost at the end of the rode when this happened. We though he should of kept following him until the end.

We hadn’t been seeing much up to that point except for impalas, so Bill and I started counting to see how many time we’d see them this day. It came out to over 30 times, and that was even going through lion country where we saw less. Though after being patient we ended up seeing a kudu, another elephant we almost missed, shirebuck, giraffes, buffalo, an eagle, hippos, wart hogs, wildebeest, a black rhino, zebras. Now, the black rhino is one of the big five and the black ones are rarer than the white rhino.

We also stopped at a look out point over a river that had tons of sleeping hippos. Then we saw another lake where two hippos were fighting with each other or kissing, not really sure. And finally, as were leaving the park, we saw a hippo actually out of the river crossing the street. Though as we got closer, he got scared and ran quite a bit quicker than I’d expect from a hippo weighing so much. They are pretty light on their feet. After seeing all these hippos, I’d wondered if it was because I kept singing “Hungry, hungry hippo” all day? Maybe I should have been signing The Lion King, and we’d seen more lions. Though, the hippo saying “goodbye” was nice even if he was running away from us.

And so, we drove out of the park much later than we’d thought headed back to Whitbank where we’d started a few days earlier, but now we’d seen 4 of the big 5. And, we saw more of our own, but we enjoyed our days. We ended up crashing at the Formula 1 hotel which is much like our Motel 6. It even included a top bunk for a kid, and all the rooms are exactly the same.

In the morning, we headed to the same great breakfast spot we went to before, Cappuccino’s Café & Pizzeria. And we got to the airport super early after our Cairns incident. Capetown here we come…

Michelle