Driving to Kruger NP

Our home for the next three weeks.

Jay checking out after buying two carts full of food for the next couple of days.

The three Rondavels.

The Potholes.

Kruger Gate, named after the president who created it.

A boomslang snake with a lizard in its mouth.

Sunday, November 26^th.

Everyone was up and ready and down in the lobby by 5:00. There we met our driver, Colin, and saw our truck. It is a smaller version of the overland vehicles I have been on before. Jay gave us all a little breakfast box that the hotel had prepared with a croissant, a muffin, a juice box, an energy bar and an apple. We left and drove for two hours along a good two lane highway and across flat land, until we got to the big service station that I stopped at coming back from Zimbabwe, the one with the rhino display and the little shop where you could buy animal skins. After that we stopped at a large supermarket where Jay bought the food and supplies for the next few days and we bought items for our picnic lunch.

As we were driving I was very aware how much better organized South Africa is compared to Madagascar. The roads were great with lines painted on the road and stop signs when appropriate and the farms were much larger, industrial sized farms of corn, sugar cane and other crops. Later we came across a huge area of planted forests of pine trees, which the use for lumber and eucalyptus trees, which they use for poles for fencing.

From there we left the highway and took secondary roads until we got to the Three Rondavels. We had a break there and then continued on to a place called The Potholes. This is also on the Blyd River Canyon. This is a pretty waterfall and a gorge where rocks have been spun around in the current and have carved out potholes in the rock wall. We had our lunch there at picnic tables. Then we drove on to a place called God's Window where we were supposed to get a great view of the South African plain, but it was totally fogged in and we could see nothing.

We drove for another three hours before we reached Kruger Gate and the entrance to Kruger National Park. Right outside the park on the right side of the truck we saw two hippos walking along the river, and a few elephants out the other side of the truck. We registered and pre-paid for tomorrow night's game drive and then headed off to set up our camp. We are staying at Skukuza Rest Camp. As we drove to the campsite we saw a giraffe, more elephants, impala, and a boomslang snake that caught and ate a lizard. When we got to the camp reception area we were met by the last member of our group, an Italian woman named Valaria. Now we are 14. By the time we got to the camp, we had to set up our tents for the first time in the dark and then Jay cooked us a pasta and meat sauce dinner. We sat around and talked for a short while and then everyone headed off to their tent as we have another really early morning for our full day game drive.