This trip we decided to start by going up towards the northern half and stayed the first two nights at Letaba rest camp. On our second day we ventured further north and on our third day we drove south to stay the night at Satara rest camp. this was the first trip with my family that I saw the big 5, but only just as our sighting of lion wasn't great as a couple of females slinked away into the long grass, whilst being watched through my binoculars.
On our first day we came across a herd of buffalo simply spending the day in a cool but muddy watering hole.
Carrying on along the banks of the water hole, we came across the main body of the dam. Here a herd of elephants were also enjoying the coolness of the water and trying to beat the afternoon heat by taking a swim. We settled in at a hide and watched two of the younger elephants flirt and play in the water as a third youngster struggled not to show his jealousy.
After a night a Letaba we drove north. Going north gives you the chance to avoid the more touristy part of the part, with simpler rest camps and tea camps. You also have more chance of spotting buck like the Tesebe and the Eland which we were lucky enough to spot.
We carried on and sat at a watering hole for a while which had buffalo and zebra. After about 5 minutes 3 secretary birds drifted over in only their manner to have a drink.
Towards the middle of the afternoon we were watching an elephant drink from a water storage cement container when a herd of buffalo crossed the road behind us. Right at the back was a noisy calf and mother. The calf can't have been much more than a day or two old and was very unsure of crossing the road, this wasn't help by the idiot behind us trying to get as close to the pair as possible to take a photo. Despite this mumma and bubba made it over the road after which bubba decided to go for a swim in a man made water hole and after struggling out rejoined the herd.
Just 200m from the herd of buffalo's was an elephant drinking from a reservoir.
On our third day we drove down to Satara via the old Voortrkker road. Whilst we did not see all that much on the old Voortrekker road it is a magnificant African drive. The first part of the drive took us down to Olifants for breakfast. about 8km from Olifants we drove up to 4 cheetahs relaxing on the side of the road.
On our last day in Kruger we drove from Satara and out at Orpen gate. It was a strange drive, During one part we heard an elephant trumpeting in great distress, we then found a herd of elephants but none were in distress. However, a short ways down the road we found a hyena who was moving with purpose towards the sound of the trumpeting elephant.
Just before exiting the park we can across two pedestrians, the first was green and scaly and the second was spotted and fluffy and true to character I didn't have the camera ready for the spotted and fluffy.
