Polokwane & Kruger N.P.

Today was a day we both had been looking forward to for quite a few months. It would be our first African game drive and also, later in the day, our first visit to Kruger National Park. In fact, Kruger NP has been at the top of Ev’s ‘to do’ list ever since we started planning the Honeymoon.

Unfortunately the day didn’t get off to the best start. To begin with, it was a freezing night, literally. It got down to 2 degrees overnight and was still around that temperature when we woke at 5:30am. When we put the tent up earlier we grabbed an extra sleeping bags off the truck thinking they were all the same, sadly not. The sleeping bag Dan unknowingly grabbed was a full body sleeping bag which a zipper up the centre as opposed to the side of the bag. It was also a very loose zipper and every time he would move the zipper went down to his knees. It hadn’t been really cold since we started camping, so we thought we’d be ok. At around 2am though, Dan woke up shivering and found his sleeping bag was completely open down to his feet with nothing to protecting him from the cold except his thin cotton sleeping bag liner. Worse still, he could not feel anything in his big toe. Even though he had socks on, his toe was frozen. He panicked a bit and stuck his left foot under his right leg to warm it back up. Thankfully we had a third sleeping bag so he got into that one instead. Ev woke up from Danial’s squirming and helped him into the third sleeping bag by pulling in the sides as Dan lay still and quickly zipped him up. Ev felt like whipping out the camera, but thought better of it. My poor snuggie Aussie eskimo. Dan had a very uncomfortable nights sleep, but eventually got feeling back in his big toe. The other sleeping bag was definitely warmer but it felt like a cocoon because he couldn’t move. It didn’t get much better in the morning either. He went to have an early shower and the nozzle didn’t move so he had to jump to get any water and the drain was clogged so the floor was completely flooded. Ev slept really well except for the zipping up, and had a wonderful nice hot shower. It figures.

Thankfully the day started to get better. We had another lovely breakfast of cereal (muesli and cornflakes), bread with jam and cheese and a hot chocolate. Last night, Deb befriended a stray cat and she found frost in its fur. Poor kitty. After breakfast we found frost on top of our tent as well while we packed up our bags and loaded it onto the truck. We left the tents up to pull them down after the game drive. Unfortunately only one of the ‘Big 5’, the rhino, was at the game reserve. No cats, elephants or buffalo, but plenty of antelope and giraffes. It was amazing to see the many types of antelopes that there are. Johannes told us that whenever we see something to yell out ‘Stop!’ or yell the name of what we saw, e.g. ‘Giraffe!’ and he would stop the truck so we could take photos.



‘Stop!’ Polokwane Game Drive

Of the antelope species we saw; water buck, hartebeest, a baby steenbok, impala, eland, gemsbok, bush buck, female kudu, yallah and the tsessebe. We also saw some ostrich, giraffes, march hare, guinea fowl, zebras, wilder beasts and the most exiting find, white rhinos which we saw crossing our path about 10 metres in front of us. Shawn also explained the difference between Black and White Rhinos to us as well. A White Rhino is called as such because the meaning got lost in translation. The name in Afrikaans actually means ‘Wide’ due to its wide square mouth but someone thought it meant white. So it actually has nothing to do with the colour of the rhino because both the black and white rhinos are grey. The Black Rhino is so called because it is the opposite of white. So if the meaning was initially interpreted correctly they would probably be called the ‘Wide Mouthed Rhino’ and the ‘Narrow Mouthed Rhino. ‘There you go, aye?

White Rhino

Kudu

Giraffe

Johannas Our Tour Leader

Dan at the Campsite

After spotting animals for an hour and taking about a hundred pictures, we headed back to camp eager to get to Kruger NP. We quickly packed our tents up and we were back on the road. We drove for about 10 minutes until we got to a large shopping complex to do some supplies for lunch and dinner for the next 2 nights. Ev wanted to do a chicken stir-fry and Dan had no idea what to do or buy, like most shopping outings. Johannes met up with us in the grocery store and filled the large shopping trolley to the brink with food. We grabbed some pre-packed sandwiches for lunch and also bought a heart shaped chocolate cake for the two Honeymoon couples to cut after dinner. (Dan picked the cake. What a wonderfully, special human being he is. :P) We also grabbed a donut and cream bun for the road. Very naughty!



Kruger National Park

We were still about 3 hours from Kruger NP and about 2 hours into the trip, around lunchtime, we stopped at a petrol station to refuel and have some lunch. We ate the sandwiches which kept us going until dinner. The final hour flew by fairly quickly and we were at the gates of Kruger National Park in no time. Before we continued to camp we stopped at a gift shop which was probably a bad mistake. We ended up spending about R600 (90 AUD) on stuffed animals and shirts etc. We actually bought something practical as well, a maglite and a Kruger National Park wildlife book that has pictures of the various animals and check boxes for us to tick as we spot each animal or bird. By the end of today this has proven to be very handy. We passed through the gates of Kruger NP and had about a 7km drive to our campsite at the speed limit of 40km/hr. The game drive from the gates to our campsite took about 90 minutes and we saw plenty of animals including elephants, giraffes, warthog, kudu, a family of wild dogs, zebra, water bucks, wilder beast, various birds and plenty of impala.

A real 'zebra crossing'

Elephants

Impala

We reached the campsite of Santara at around 4:30pm and once again unloaded the gear and put up the tents. We started on dinner and Greg and Katie were a big help. Ev was busy organising the meal and Dan was given the job to finely slice the veggies. Dan couldn’t cook to save himself so Greg, who is a bit of whiz in the kitchen, volunteered to prepare the veggies while Dan was relegated to mutilating the chicken with his bare hands like a caveman and squeezing things out of plastics bags. Katie also helped with the veggies. Dinner took about 30 minutes to make and we all got stuck in once it was ready. It was beautiful. Ev (with amateurish assistance from Dan) had made, along with Greg and Katie, a chicken stir fry with rice, coleslaw and jacket potatoes cooked in the campfire along with bread for thirteen people. It was a job well done and she deserved all the praise she got.

Kruger NP Sunset

After dinner the group toasted the two honeymoon couples and all four of us cut the chocolate love heart cake together (how sweet). The cake was yummy, too. Dan ask for help to drink his bottle of bourbon and found willing allies in Greg and Russell. Most of the group were pretty tired from the long day and it ended up being Dan and Ev with Russell, Johan and Regula. We chatted for a while and Dan tried to speak a little German with Johan and Regi but didn’t get very far. 2/3 of the bottle later, it was time for bed.

Today was a great day but tomorrow promises to be even better as we have an early morning game drive plus another around 2pm plus a sunset game drive at 4pm.


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