highway to the danger zone

despite the tire debacle, we eventually made it to kruger. after an initial morning set back that involved jeff misplacing my luggage lock i let him borrow (not super big deal), and then his passport (whoa, nelly), both items were located and we were on the road again. tzaneen is actually quite beautiful during the day. it's called "the fruit basket" and it's easy to see why - it's surrounded by all sorts of farms growing tropical fruits. yum. though i still wished we could have experienced the night astronomy safari, my year-of-thinking-positively experiment makes me see this silver lining: it's a part of the country we wouldn't have experienced had our tire not blown. satisfied, karma?

anyway, we drove the remaining kilometers and entered kruger through phalaborwa gate. stopped at reception to check in and use the toilets, and also the gift shop, where i managed to find my kruger keychain.

we entered the park and began our drive towards oliphants rest camp. even though we weren't going to stay there, we wanted to at least check it out since it was supposed to be beautiful. o.m.g. we saw the most massive poops in the road. seriously thought i was in jurassic park for a minute. there must be some crazy big animals around here! and no joke - "highway to the danger zone" by kenny loggins seriously came on the radio. okay, i know what you're thinking. yes we listened to american pop in africa. but it was only because the other stations were mainly talk radio in afrikaans or zulu or xhosa, which (if you didn't know) i am not fluent in. plus, it's not every day that you can rock out to miley cyrus's "party in the u.s.a" every hour, on the hour, during your african safari.

since we arrived around 11:30, i thought the animals would be resting and not too active. i was wrong. we were not even 20k into the park when this elephant came running across the road in front of us, followed by several others, including calves. they seemed somewhat frightened - which frightened me. i know moms can get aggressive if their young are around and they feel threatened. but i soon learned why - an bull soon came running after them. it looked like a house on legs. i never saw anything so huge before, and it reminded me of the time i saw my first moose. we crept along, all the while wondering how close really IS too close and really really wishing i had a dslr. soon came across another herd, just chilling and eating on the side of the road. i couldn't believe our luck; we weren't even in the park 30 mins and we saw elephants, my favorite land animal! those moments are seriously some of the top in my life.

drove along and took an (unpaved) road towards oliphants rest camp. around the first bend saw our first zebra! and a little while later, a lone impala. took like 1000 photos of it, only to come across an entire herd just down the road haha. there were so many! and they just stared at us, wondering what our next move would be. it was hilarious.

drove onto oliphants. it had a great entrance, and as described, a great overlook of oliphants river. stopped at the gift shop, then had some food (fish burger). saw a bunch of monkeys playing around as well as some really cool birds. could have sat there all day listening to the sounds of the animals and the river. so peaceful. but alas, it was almost 16:00 and we needed to get going so we didn't miss the gate closing at our next camp, satara.

along the way saw a bunch more impalas, and some really funny birds that ran all zig-zaggy down the road. i was afraid i'd run them over, but then this big truck went flying by me and they scattered everywhere. saw some amazing sunset views, and more zebra. then out of nowhere, another elephant. this was a lone bull and we were so close to him! it was starting to get dark and just then - a buffalo! we took some hurried pics b/c was really worried we'd miss the gate closing, and sure enough, pulled in at 15:29 - 1 min to spare. but wow - we saw 2 of the "big 5" on our very first day. pretty successful, i'd say.

checked in at reception and, after a couple wrong turns, made our way to bungalow e135. it's amazing how dark it gets so quickly without city light pollution. early to bed, since very early day tomorrow. we have to be at reception at 4:45 for our sunrise game drive, and that means jeff wants to get up at 3:45. really, jeff? you need an hour to get ready, even though you showered tonight? you more of a girl than me ;o)