Before coming to South Africa, I was most looking forward to visiting Kruger National Park. My love for photography has been growing, one of my favorite hobbies being playing with my DSLR. I somehow convinced myself to buy a new camera body and 70-300mm lens. My rationale was who knows the next time I’ll be on a safari? I wanted to make sure I captured the highest quality pictures possible so I could leave the trip with no regrets. We left our hostel at 4am to drive to Kruger, the safari beginning around 5am. Kruger is about the size of Mississippi , 2.2 million hectares. I feel fortunate that I had arguably the best tour guide and best safari group. This group made the time spent in between spotting animals enjoyable. We created new names for animals, harassed each other, and blissfully took in the scenery. The lifelong learner in me enjoyed the pedagogic nature of the tour guide, teaching us about the flora and fauna as we drove through the park. We spent two days at Kruger, spending the night at one of their many on-site residences.
The goal when going on an African Safari is to spot the Big Five: elephant, the rhino (black rhino preferred), Cape buffalo, lion, and leopard. The term was coined by hunters to describe the five most difficult animals to hunt on foot. Safaris picked up on this term as a marketing strategy, encouraging visitors to try to spot all members of the Big Five. I saw four.
My tour group was extremely fortunate to see a lot of rare animals. When we told people from South Africa about the animals we saw, they were credulous. For example, one person in the safari group had been on eleven safaris before, but our safari was the first time she ever saw a cheetah. And we saw three.
Some notable findings were a lion, three cheetahs, two sleeping hyenas on the side of the road, a fish eagle (similar to America’s bald eagle), a baby white rhino, and a nursery herd of elephants. Enjoy the pictures!
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