When I woke up the next morning I felt a MILLION times better. I could breathe clearly, not sore throat or major congestion. I can still tell it’s there, like in my ears, but I felt like a million bucks. This is good as I have only a day and a half before the first dive- and I cannot be taking meds or majorly congested or else I am taking a risk. I blew out my eardrum in Australia and you cannot take Sudafed or meds while diving because if it wears off while you’re under, you’ll be seriously screwed and it’s not worth it…Bryan won’t let me go if I am at all struggling to breathe, so I am hopeful.

We were going to do the safari in the truck today which makes it a little harder to see the animals if you’re not on the right side- or if people don’t share (but they are usually pretty good about it). The real struggle was going to be communicating with Hondo on when to stop after seeing something- and the truck and it’s hydraulics make the hissing noise when it stops, which can scare the animals. We’ve done it before plenty of times, but it’s always way easier in the open vehicles.

The gate was literally like a couple blocks away, which was surprising and as soon as we pulled in, I spotted 2 elephants pretty close to where the truck had to stop for our paperwork and search.This was a bit unexpected but a total great surprise as we watched them tearing branches from a tall tree and picking them up off the group to chew on. 

It’s amazing how destructive elephants are- but in the scheme of things, this is their role. They tear things down so that new growth is encouraged for the other animals- so everyone has a role in the ecosystem. It was fun to watch them and the quick spotting seemed to be good luck for what was to come. 

They had a Belgian Shepherd that is trained to sniff out (primarily) firearms/ gunpowder and she was walking around the truck. The guard came on the truck and asked if we had any alcohol in our cooler- which we certainly did (not that we were going to drink it until we were back after dinner), but it’s apparently a new rule it’s not allowed into the park. We told them to take it- but they didn’t want to be responsible for it, and they suggested a coffee shop outside the gate where we could leave it to be looked after. I thought this might take too much time, but it was literally JUST outside the gate- we could have walked the cooler there…but after dropping it off we were finally on our way…

Well, to the bathroom. You’re not allowed to get out of the truck in the park- and there are certain stops at lodges and park ranger stations but you need to be able to hold it until then, and I know I can’t! There was one drive we did in Namibia in 2017 and Mat told us that we couldn’t go to a facility for about 3 hours. I intentionally did not drink a thing- not a lick or water and certainly not any coffee….but sure enough about 1.5 hours in all I could think about was having to pee. It became so overwhelming I knew I just couldn’t wait and I told Mat it was an emergency and I really had to go. He was worried about it- as the drivers can get fined for allowing people out and so could Mat but I said if I could hold it I’d have never asked…I said I am really fast (which a few others piped up and agreed) and Bryan jokingly said he won’t sue anyone if I get eaten by a lion. I got out and probably less than 30 seconds later, I was back on the truck. Mat looked surprised and he was like, “That was fast!” and I just thanked him and felt so much better. I wasn’t even enjoying seeing the animals because it was so bad- and now I could go back to being in the moment and enjoying it. Needless to say, I always go every time we have an opportunity!

It takes a while for 18 people to go to the bathroom, but we were going to spend the whole day in the park so that wasn’t too bad. Of course the first thing we saw were impalas, but shortly into it a few giraffes as well. Getting the truck to stop involved a significant delay- where someone would yell STOP, then Amber (sitting just behind the cab) would yell out the window to Hondo to stop and or Mat would do the stop sign with his hand out the window…but almost every time the stop was pretty delayed and involved a lot of backing up, which means you often lose the really great photo op of coming up on the animals before they notice you and get startled…so there were a few stops that involved the impala and zebras running off, but what can you do? We went a while without seeing zebras at first, which surprised Bryan and I because they are usually about as plentiful as impala. But we did get to see them a few times and I never tire of seeing them as I do impala.

When it’s someone’s first time they want to stop for the impala a few times and then everyone else is ready to keep going- but quickly even the new people start to be like “Oh, more impalas”. I mean it’s amazingly exciting for someone whose fav animal was impalas, but it’s kind of like seeing deer or squirrels at some point and no one says anything about passing them after a while.

I think I spotted the Kudu next and a pumba too (wart hog), but by the time we backed up the warthog had taken off further into the bush so most people didn’t get to see it. You end up not getting very excited about seeing them often too, but I don’t really have a great picture of them either and we think they are funny, so I don’t mind stopping.

We spotted some wildebeest and zebra groups which were startled by us and then confused because they kind of ran towards each other and then had to figure out to go a different way. It wasn’t a stampede or anything, but running into the other group was not expected for them in their exit plan so they had to rethink it. The wildebeest were bobbing their heads while walking which is a collective signal to each other to “go go” as they all turned away from the road to find a safer/ quieter place to graze. I really think wildebeest are so unfortunate looking. They are pretty ugly…Bryan disagrees but almost every time I see them I think that. Those poor things are just ugly, walking food.

We saw a few more giraffes, closer to the truck this time so we got some good vids- and a group if 5 even wanted to cross the road just behind us, so that was cool when you get to see them come out of the bush. We also saw two teen males who were play fighting and the bigger one would twist his neck down and around the other (smaller) one trying to entice a game, but the little one wasn’t super interested in playing- probably because he knew he’d lose even in a play fight.

There are a few people on the truck who really love birds, and when they shout stop you can be pretty sure it’s not a lion- and we end up stopping quite a bit for birds. I don’t not appreciate the birds and I certainly enjoy seeing them, but it’s not as exciting as the bigger animals I want to see- but everyone gets to see what they want to stop for. I should probably care more about birds, especially as I have the Merlin app at home and use it a lot- and I love when a new species comes to our porch, but for some reason I don’t usually care about most of the birds unless they are super impressive like eagles or something big…because otherwise you can hardly see them and certainly can’t get a good pic…although somehow Alma does. She gets amazing pics- so if I ever want to refer to the birds we’ve seen on our trips I can always ask her. 

But we did see a striated heron which made me miss ours at home that was brutally attacked and killed by the bald eagle- and a hammercock duck which was cool enough looking and easy to find/ see. We also saw a fish eagle, which is kind of like seeing a bald eagle at home- and a tawny and snake eagle (which I liked the best)- and a juvenile harrier hawk as well (which was at first thought to be the melanated version of a tawny)…so I guess eagles and hawks impress me, maybe because of their size. Mast said the fish eagle was the first he’d seen at Kruger- so it’s cool to hear when Mat’s also seeing something for the first time, even after all his trips.

We saw a dueker, which we did see on our night walk which is the next biggest size of antelope from the dik dik. So we joked that the dik dik was the Satori sized antelope and the dueker is the Roo (Jon and Kristin’s dog they adopted from Motley Zoo) sized one. Off in the distance I thought I saw a rhino- it was a large animal laying down and it passed fast but I decided I had to call it out. So we backed up a ways and finally it came into view and turned out to be a female waterbuck laying down. I was a little disappointed but most people were just surprised I could even spot that and someone joked I should get an award for that.

We stopped for lunch at one of the lodge areas, which is a resort situated in the park. You can stay there but I am guessing the price was beyond our budget trip- but either way it’s probably not as exciting as the experiences we’ve already had camping out in the open at Chobe, Okavango delta and Etosha where the animals can literally come right up to your tent. We’ve heard lots of hyenas, which sounds a bit like a whoop whoop, lions mating and even zebras, but right now I cannot remember what they sound like- but it’s not like a horse which you might think.

There was a very large gift shop for this resort which we went in- and the power was out. It’s hard to shop in the dark but this is just how it works here. I was immediately excited about a slush puppy but Bryan reminded me they probably use the water here, which we shouldn’t drink. I was pretty bummed as I just wanted something cold, but not necessarily like ice cream (or I’d be too full for lunch)- but Bryan found some prepacked ones in foil pouches that would have been made in a facility, probably in a big city and would be safe. I was so excited and got a blue raspberry one- which was hard to finish all of because it was a bit more of a serving than I’d have selected for myself, but it was refreshingly cold and delicious and I forced myself to drink it all, deciding I’d just not have a ton of water at lunch or I’d have to pee too soon.

Lunch was veggie lunch meat, which is kind of like bologna-but I skipped the lettuce and tomatoes because I remember too fondly that I think it was the tomato on my grilled cheese at Hotel Rwanda. Although this is Martin’s cooking and should not be a problem I was still a tad wary.

After lunch we continued on through the park and saw a mom and baby elephant- which of course I thought I was filming but had the camera off. I was pretty annoyed with myself, especially I was the one who spotted them- but surely someone else will have pics.

We also saw hippos, zebras, more elephants and giraffes- and of course more antelope, especially impala. Again I had to stop the truck because I thought I saw a rhino- and this time I was closer: it was a cape buffalo, which are about ⅔ the size of a rhino. Still no rhino though…

On the way out, we were super excited because the same 2 teen elephants we’d seen on the way in, were wreaking havoc on the ranger station on the way out! They were tearing up all the landscaping and breaking the trees and the rangers just stood there watching them. I am not sure if they’d gone that far before- as it seemed they’d gone through one of the exit gates (but not the exterior one)- so I’d imagine they could prevent this if they really wanted to…but here they were just having fun- and they were close! Somehow we were still allowed to get out and go to the bathroom too- and even if I hadn’t had to go, I would have gotten out just to be that close to an elephant (not too close).

We headed back to Sleepover again just before dark and were glad to have been able to stay 2 nights in one place- especially a nice place like that. I sat on the porch and typed a bit while Bryan sat with me and drank a beer, then we headed over to get Jon and Kristin before dinner (but we were 30 minutes early by accident). So we hung out there for a bit and then strolled over to dinner. 

This dinner was when more people started opening up and talking to each other more and there were a lot of stories being told and pics being shared. I talked quite a bit with Marta- so long I saw that Jon and Kristin had already left. It was going to be an early morning so Bryan and I decided to head back too and make sure everything was packed up and ready to leave in the morning. We’d be heading out of South Africa and to Mozambique which would be a bit of a haul…