Day 13.
After packing up the tents and having breakfast, we headed off in the truck again at 6:30am. Got to a city called Pietersberg, and went to a local mall for supplies. Very modern and clean and felt weird to be back in civilisation. After stocking up the truck with vege's, meat & bread etc. we drove on to Kruger Park at about 10:30am.

After having lunch on the way, we made to the park entrance at about 2pm. After checking in, we headed off for a game drive to our campsite. The roads in the park were pretty good, mostly sealed, and a big difference to the rutted gravel roads in the Serengeti. During our game drive we saw quite a few animals, including a couple of lionesses resting in the shade under a tree:

A couple of Cape Buffalo.


Two lionesses keeping a close eye on some Zebra's.


Grazing Impala.


Giraffe.


A trio of photogenic Zebra.


Munch, munch!


A male Waterbuck in the bushes.


Got to the campsite at 5pm, put up the tents, and went for a jog around the site. Again, a big difference with the Serengeti where the campsite was a flat piece of ground with a couple of loo's with no power. The Kruger campsite was almost like a resort in comparison. It was fenced with rangers guarding the main gate, had paved roads, had chalets as well as camp and caravan sites, even had its own restaurant, museum and petrol station! Apparently the govt had invested a lot into the national parks during the Apartheit era as it wasn't so easy to travel overseas.

Apart from the black rangers, all the people camping and staying at the lodges were white, and mostly South African. Apparently the black South Africans don't understand why the whites want to sleep in tents and cook over a fire for a holiday.

After a shower, checked out the museum, which had on display the seven biggest elephant tusks in the park from elephants who had died. Then had dinner of tasty lamb chops cooked over the BBQ at 8pm, before talking around the camp fire for the night.



Day 14.
Got up early (again), had some biscuits after packing up the tents, and then headed off for a game drove across the park. Saw plenty of animals including hippo's, crocodiles, impala's & giraffes. Stopped at a lookout spot, and viewed the valley below with the hippo's & elephants wading in the river.

Two Egyptian Geese going for a run.


Hippo in the early morning light.


A Vervet monkey up a tree above the Olifants river.


Cape Glossy Starling in the mid-morning sun.


Having a wade.


Squirrel in the sticks.


Then had cooked breakfast of eggs, beans & bacon to help fuel us for the days gamespotting. Headed back in truck got more gamespotting and soon found a pride of about 6 lions under a tree.

Pride of Lions sheltering from the afternoon sun.


Pair of Crocs.


A couple more well fed crocs.


I managed to spot a rhino in the bush, who soon had a bit of confrontation with a large make elephant before scurrying off.

White Rhino kicking up a dust for the approaching...


...Five-legged Elephant.


After a stop for salami and cheese sandwiches and more animal spotting, made it to the new camp site in the middle of the park at 3pm. After putting up the tents for the last time, we met up for a sunset game drive in an open 4WD. Got some good shots of Hyena's, zebra and kudos in the warm evening light.

Male Kudu in the late afternoon light.


Natal Spurfowl.


Male Spotted Hyena out for a stroll at dusk.


My favourite Zebra shot from the trip.


Spotted Hyena with her puppies.


Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill, a.k.a. the flying banana.


After sunset, we got out the spotlights and drove along looking for animal eyes in the dark. Saw some of the nocturnal animals.

A nocturnal Civet during our night game drive.


After about an hour into the night drive, we came across a pride of 10 lions on the road. They then walked along the road right next to the truck. Quite a surreal experience given the open air truck had no windows and the lions got as close a 1 metre from the truck!

Roadblock ahead...


...and ambush from behind when we stopped.


Luckily they let us pass.


Got back from the game drive at 8pm and had our final dinner, South African sausage & pork ribs.

Day 15.
Got up at early again, packed up the tents one last time, had breakfast, then hit the road at 6am for a game drive out if the park. Wore my trip t-shirt I bought in Zimbabwe for the last day, with 'Africa' and animals on the front, 'passport stamps' of Botswana, Zimbabwe & South Africa on the sleeves, and a big map of our route and stops for the 2 weeks on the back, great souvenir! On our game drive, saw some more Zebra's, giraffes, hippo's & some colourful birds.

Snacking on some fresh foliage at dawn.


Having a snooze on the riverbank.


Trying to warm up.


Hippo's on the river sand bank.


Southern Ground Hornbill trying to crack open a tasty snail.


Morning drink.


Got some shots of a couple of elephants walking close to the truck in the early morning light. One of them was quite old, with one tusk much shorter than the other. He would wander along slowly abit. Hug a tree with his trunk for a rest, and then walk to the next tree. Quite a character.

Tree hugger.


Old guy.


Morning stroll.


We then stopped off at a rest stop, and saw some game wardens armed with assault rifles to shoot rhino poachers. Had a dog too which understood commands by hand signals for stealth. We then drove out of the park and further south, stopped for some diesel then drove the truck up the top of a lookout over a big gorge. On the way to the top and went past a waterfall literally coming out of the middle of a cliff, looked pretty cool. We then went to Blyde River Canyon, very different to NZ scenery, lots of red rock and cliffs, as well as plenty of green stuff. Managed to get a great photo of the Canyon with me in it.



Unfortunately we discovered though that the truck had another flat tyre, the third one in 2 weeks. However when Alfred went to change it, 3 of the studs had a different size nut to the rest! With no way to take off the wheel, we drove at 50kph to the nearest town which was 50k's away (3 of the 4 rear tyres seemed to be ok). While Alfred went off in search of a workshop to help change the tyre we went to a cafe in town for lunch, and had a bacon & egg burger. After an hour Alfred came back with the tyre replaced with the spare. We then headed on the road to Joburg. The diversion and delay to fix the tyre added 4 hours, and there was a bit of stress since I had to catch my flight at 10:30 pm tonight.

Luckily Alfred managed to keep us on time despite the trucks maximum speed being only 100kph. With the big cab on the back, max speed reduced to only 90kph with a head wind. We gradually cruised down to Joburg. The scenery was a bit hilly and greener than up north, and actually reminded me of NZ, albeit a bit drier. Finally got to Joburg and arrived at the airport at 8pm. Said goodbye to everyone, and trudged into the airport for the flight back to Dubai. Was an awesome 2 weeks, seeing 4 new countries and driving 4,512 kilometres!