Most of you know I love Nature and animals, so when I found out I was going to SA, my first thought was yea! Kruger. Kruger National Park is one of the largest game parks in SA and probably the most popular. Why the big wait? Well, winter is drier, less hot, and far less mosquitoes and malaria risk, and less vegetation, so you may spot the animals better. Did it live up to the hype? Yep! I plan on going again too. Basically, the parks here are self-drive, though I did go on a sunset game drive which was cool (leopard, giraffe, white rhino, and water buffalo) though after the sun went down, not much was spotted, no eye-shine, bummer. The rest of the weekend was driving around and waiting to see something amazing, like so many weird and wonderful birds that I went and bought a book to identify them all, a lion taking a break, elephants, many deer like creatures (impala, kudu, and a so cute, springklip) a couple of lion cubs napping alone (mom and dad nowhere to be found, I think all the humans in their cars were the babysitters), zebras which were mesmerizing to look at when they faced you head on (one was pregnant), hippos cooling off in the waters (they are HUGE, much bigger than I would have guessed), and 100 or so monkeys climbing down from a tree and crossing the road. What was strange and wild, was that I would have never guessed anything was in that tree; it was like watching those clowns come out of the clown car at the circus. A great time! I even got in a swim to cool off during the hot part of the day, ate at a restaurant set up like train station, complete with an old steam train inside, and stayed in a rondavel which I loved. Think a rondavel in NYC would work? ... maybe not, but I wish.
