Kruger

Sorry for the delay in posting, more lightning has meant interrupted wifi here at the house! It's now quite late so this won't be a huge post but I know an update is overdue. 

We got back from Kruger last night and it was the most amazing trip. We had a 7 hour drive to get there but it was well worth the travel and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to get there while here in the country. 

Travelling in Kruger involves a LOT of driving and you can go for quite long stretches without seeing anything. There are also never any guarantees as to what you'll see. The park is huge, about 350kms long and 80 wide. That's a lot of space to try and find animals in! However we were very lucky. Sadly we missed out on seeing cheetah, but that is extremely rare and I suppose we can't say we've had a shortage of cheetah on this trip :) And we managed almost everything else! Elephants, giraffes, lions, leopards, warthogs, impala, wildebeests, zebras, buffalo, baboons, monkeys, hippos, rhino (black and white!), African wild dogs, crocodiles to name a few. Also about 50 species of birds, most of which were the most stunning colours. 

A few of those were special sightings. Leopards are by no means guaranteed and we were very lucky to get a fantastic moment with one on a night game drive we did. Black rhino are extraordinarily rare to spot so that one was amazing as well. And finally the African wild dog - you almost never get a chance to see them and not only did we spot them, but we saw them start a hunt and take off after some impala! Unfortunately they ended up heading into the distance but it was very exciting. 

I've taken too many photos to upload onto my iPad while I'm here so I just have a small selection. I didn't do as well as I hoped to, but I still got some nice ones and some to give a good idea of how close the animals get, and how they just wander on the road in front of you! I'll sort through them all when I get home and post more then :)

Finally, after Kruger we stopped at Moholoholo rehabilitation centre where they care for a lot of different animals. There I had the unique experience of having a vulture land on my arm! And back, and head, and anywhere they could put their claws actually. Apparently they're not usually that lively, but you can tell from the photo they were going a bit nuts - it was supposed to be a nice posed shot of one on my arm! Certainly something not everyone gets to do though!