Sunday, July 31, 2011

Following breakfast, we took a two-hour trip through Kruger before heading toward Johannesburg and the airport.  Marilyn will be catching up her pictures on Facebook, but we had no internet access in Kruger Park, and are now preparing to move onward to Durban for the World Methodist Conference.  I will add some pictures on the blog once we get to free internet service!  Stay tuned!

Joe

Saturday, July 30, 2011

The day began with a 6 a.m. departure in another form of rover and we had two of them for the 13 of us.  We did an extensive tour of Kruger Park seeing an amazing number of animals and had a delightful picnic lunch.  Marilyn beside herself taking pictures of the many animals we have never seen before, even in zoos.  I fell  in love with the baby elephants.  We saw lots of elephants, zebras, giraffes and hundreds of impalas.  Our guide was a bird lover and pointed out several forms of eagles and a host of other birds.  The wind was very strong and that probably caused us to miss some we might have otherwise enjoyed.  We returned home after a long day to another lovely meal. 

Friday, July 29, 2011

Our tour guide, Gill Taylor is wonderful!  She knows everything and takes wonderful care of us.  We had a picnic lunch onboard so that we could get to Sitara Lodge in time to check in, rest a bit and depart on our late afternoon/evening venture into the bush. The accommodations thus far are lovely, clean and modern, but lacking in many amenities (like Internet!)   On the drive in and during daylight in our open-air rover in the evening, we saw many giraffes, zebras, water bok and a host of other exotic animals.  What a delight to see four of the “big five” (which are cape buffalos, lions, elephants, leopards and rhinos) on the evening trip.  However, the biggest thrill of all while shining spotlights into the jungle looking for eyes of animals, was the discovery of a male and female lion in the middle of the road, apparently mating.  They proceeded to walk around for 10-15 minutes while the bus moved at different angles to view them, finally walking with dignity into the velt (grassland). Marilyn got wonderful  pictures , even in the dark.  We did not get to see #5, the leopard.    We arrived back at the Lodge for a late dinner and early bedtime as tomorrow starts at 6 a.m.  But that is another day!

Joe

Thursday, July 28, 2011

A LONG day  on our lovely bus with the 13 of us aboard, stopping at a beautiful little place, The Wild Fig, in Lydenburg for lunch.  We traveled through the Panorama mountains toward Hannah’s Lodge,  a lovely resort just west of Kruger Park.  They have a gate and very long driveway to the Lodge with many animals on the reserve.  We had a lovely cottage but with no heat, so it was a bit chilly!  The dinner was great and one of our group had a birthday, so she shared her cake with sparklers and the wait staff serenaded her and the rest of us with some fun songs.  After a lovely night of rest we again boarded our bus and headed to Kruger National Park.

Thanks for following!

Joe