Today was the start of a 5 day walking safari in and around Kruger
national park.
Elana, Alex, Garth & Lucky our guides and I were to spend the
next few days tracking and hopefully seeing animals in their own
habitat.
Day 1
On Safari! Elana and I got picked up from Pretoria and shuttle the
five hours east towards the Kruga national park. The safari that
I booked is a 'walking safari'. The idea is that you get to wander
about in the bush, get to see the animals on their terms, at their
level. We were met at the lodge and taken, with Alex the only other
person on the trip, out to our camp. We met Garth our guide at the
park entrance and he drove us up to camp. On the way we were lucky
enough to see a couple of
giraffe (Giraffe camelopardalis) from the jeep. Our camp's set in
a beautiful location. It overlooks a little
waterhole where, as if on cue, a family of warthog
were drinking. We went for our first walk after settling into our
accommodation
( I was lucky enough to get my own chalet as there were so few of
us on this walk). The camp and accommodation wasn't supposed to
be like this, we were meant to be sleeping in tents, but that camp
is currently being renovated and so we'd been 'upgraded' to this
one. None of us complained too loudly! It was very interesting,
if a little scary, to be wandering around in the bush where lions,
leopard, cheetah, rhino, giraffe and buffalo amongst others lived.
We walked as far as a 30 metre high lookout tower that seemed to
be used more by baboons than humans judging by the amount of dung
that was around.
During dinner I opened the bottle of Uitkyk Cabernet Sauvignon
(1997 carlonet) from the Stellenbosch region that I'd bought in
Durban and brought up with me. What a great bottle of wine! We'll
be up at 5:15 am tomorrow for a walk into the game reserve...
How'd I get those bizarre circular pictures? Simple, I held the
digital camera up to a pair of binoculars, using the screen on the
back of the camera to frame the piccie. It took a bit of practice,
but some of the pictures over the next few pages certainly made
it worthwhile. I hope that you enjoy them.
To tomorrow
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