"Oh! The Places We'll Go!": Apr 24 -25. Kruger Park South

Apr 24 Kruger Park South

*** don’t forget to have a look on FaceBook and Instagram at ‘Hosted Africa’ for Dee’s posts of our trip***

This morning we left Hazyview heading for Kruger National Park and our last safari.

We took a couple of photos modeling our new tshirts ( complete with a map of our itinerary on the back! ).

We drove by small communities where the roads were lined with stalls selling oranges, tomatoes, and who knows what else? There were even hand painted signs saying ‘car wash’ tucked into structures open on four sides, supposedly where someone will wash your vehicle by hand!

Once we left the main road we travelled about 10 km on a dirt road to the park gate, and then a further 10 km to reach Nottens Bush Camp It is a family run safari camp with views from the deck overlooking a huge grazing area and waterhole where we saw several different animals wander in and out throughout the afternoon.

Once again, we are the only group here and the huge dining table was set for lunch. It was a light meal of salad, condiments, quiche, bread, crackers cheeses, etc on serving dishes / platters for every four or five people to share.

After some brief announcements about our stay we we taken to our rooms. Ours is actually a two bedroom suite, with both an indoor and outdoor shower! incredible!

I have been noticing my ankles swelling over the last few days. I think it is a combination of shoes, the heat, and more salty foods than I am used to. So I decided to take advantage of a leg and foot massage to try and get the fluid moving. Maevis was wonderful! She applied just the right amount of pressure and massaged my legs and feet for almost an hour! She suggested I put my feet in cold water and sleep with my feet raised. The swelling has not come down, of course, but I decided to forego the game drive this afternoon and lie on our porch with my feet up. I know Mary will share her photos as she went on the safari!

Apr 25 - Day 2 at Nottens

Wake up call (knock on the door) at 5:30:AM to go out on the morning safari.

Our guide, Jeffrey, was ready to go at 6:10 and within 10

minutes we had had our first sighting - a leopard! He was just sitting in the tall grass contemplating his next meal, unperturbed by a couple of jeeps full of spectators!

Then a plover…

And then a giraffe….

Impala have become so commonplace that we have almost stopped photographing them!

Next we saw a zebra that had been injured. You can sort of make out the blood on his rump; Jeffrey suspected it was from being attacked by a lion.

The saddest sight was a young giraffe with an injured left leg perhaps from stepping in a hole. He was limping noticeably. His future, with that injury is not very bright!😢