8 - First Day at Kruger

This morning we left beautiful Cape Town for Kruger National park, 750 miles northeast.   We left our hotel with the same bus driver that took us on our tours the last two days.  He was able to maneuver that large Mercedes Benz bus as if it were a Volkswagen Beetle. As we got off the bus and waited for our luggage to be gathered, "Anton" started a receiving line, beckoned everyone with "Come Come" (sort of like "Now Now”) and hugged every single woman! What a joy he was.

As we drove out of Cape Town we saw many of the shanty towns called "informal developments" similar to what we saw from the Blue Train.  The difference was that these developments had electricity.  The poles that delivered the electricity looked like maypoles.  Residents would buy a card from a local store and use it like a debit card to supply electricity for however long they needed it for their own unit.

Kruger National park is 7,700 square miles. It is the size of Wales.  The entire state of Israel would fit inside Kruger. After arriving at Lion Sands and our lodge, Tinga – which is located along a river and is very beautiful, we went on a 3 hour safari. The goal of our guides is to show us Africa's "Big 5" (elephants, lions, leopards, rhino, and cape buffalo). These animals are called the Big Five not because of size but because of their difficulty to "bag". On our drive today, we were able to see monkeys, baboons, impalas, crocodiles, elephants, cape buffalo, scorpions etc.  Below is the first elephant siting and a wildebeast.

Our safari tour is conducted in an 8-seater Land Rover with another seat off the front for the tracker. So, 6 of us are taken with the ranger (driver) and the tracker. 

As the sun was setting, they stopped the vehicle and set up for our first "sundowner". They served us appetizers and drinks as we stood and watched the beautiful sky and listened to the night animals. 

We returned for a dinner outside by candle lit lanterns. Ahhhh.