Kruger National Park one day trip

A few weeks ago we decided to take a trip to the Kruger National Park and Game Reserve.

I must say that there really is no experience quite like it.

The abundance of wildlife is absolutely astonishing!

We got to the gates at 5:30am and waited for the park to open. (It is a good idea to do this because there are only a few cars allowed per gate each day)

When we eventually got into the park this is what we saw


This sunrise was the best kind of opening to a wonderful day.

As is usual for the kruger park, the impala (staple food of the carnivores) where abundant.





Our first sighting of the big 5 was two hippo's on the bank of the sabie river.



We never got a good look at these two though.

About 200 meters onward we came across this fellow sitting in a tree, and warming his blue "you know whats" in the mild winder sun. In Afrikaans this ape is called a blue ape, and I'm sure you can understand why.



Another few hundred meters and wee meet up with a family of wart hogs. We took a few pictures of them while the mother glared at us warily.





For the next 15 minutes we saw no animals larger than the bird below



And then the real bigboys came to play

Our first big sighting of the day where these two zebra's





The general rule of thumb is that when you start seeing Zebra's other big wildt is bound to follow.

And so it was...

We rounded another corner and we saw 6 Kudu females and one male right next to the road.







We stopped at a smaling watering hole and found a hippo lolling around in the water.





We left the hippo to its swimming and proceded on our trip.

What we saw next was truly spectacular and is a real find in any nature reserve.
Never in my life have I seen so many elephants together!











No trip to the kruger would be complete without seeing one of these fellows.
A word of warning: Close you windows when baboons are close, they will try and steal food from the car.



And then it was time to start heading for the park exit.

But wait!!! What is that!!

A Cheeta! No seven Cheetas! What a find!







The Cheeta's eventually moved on, and so did we, but not 300m furhter we spotted another of the big 5 a Rhinoceros!!!





Wee took our pictures of the rhino, and left quietly time was growing short and we had to be out of the park by 6 PM.

But not before we saw the most amazing and rare sight that Kruger can offer.

A female spotted Hyena with her litter. They where only about 2 meters from the road!

A very rare find indeed.





With a last farewell picture we said goodbye to the Kruger, and headed for the gate.

This trip will not be forgotten.

Links

Easy Tiger Tourism - South Africa Travel - Online Specialists

Easy Tiger Tourism is a South Africa based company which offers a variety of South Africa Travel services through its range of travel websites. Easy Tiger Tourism is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Cultural Tours South Africa Culture - Vuya Africa

Vuya Africa offers cultural tours to South Africa. Experience South Africa's diverse culture for yourself.

Jeffreys Bay Self Catering Accommodation, Bed and Breakfast and Guesthouse - Pinnaquin.
Visit Jeffreys Bay in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.

Cape Town and Garden Route Coach Tours

Hylton Ross is a well established inbound tour operator offering quality coach and mini-coach tours of Cape Town and South Africa's Garden Route.

The Antbear Guesthouse (Stay in this delightful guesthouse in the foothills of the Drakensberg in Kwazulu-Natal South Africa)

Tours South Africa - Day Tours In South Africa - Pre-Book Online

Tours South Africa provide pre-booked day tours in South Africa. A variety of day trips including shark diving, wine tasting, township tours and day safari's are available from Tours South Africa.

uShaka Marine world aquarium

The fourth day was also plauged by rain, so we decided to go to uShaka Marine world.

Ushaka marine world is situated in Durban on the coast line next to the harbour

This was really a trip to remember.
The whole acuarium is built inside an old ship, and around the ship they build a water park.

When you first get down into the ship, you are welcomed by a sign that sets the prefect mood for the rest of the experience.





Looking out of one of the portholes you feel like you are a ghost walking through a sunken ship wreck.



As we went through the rest of the aquarium, we saw many strange looking fish.











One tank contained several large lobsters.





And then it was feeding time for all the bottom feeding and deep water fish.

Some fish would be fed by dumping pulverised sardines into the tank, while others (Especially the sand sharks and stingray's) get fed by hand by two divers.





Here are some pictures of the sand sharks and stingrays in the tank









There was also a large stingray called marilyn monroe (She likes showing people what below her "skirt")






The stingray had parasites griwing on it that the diver had to remove.



Afterwards marilyn glided away very gracefully.



The artificial reef tank was one of my personal favorites





We saw many other sea creatures including:

Some crabs



Some Eels



A few clown fish



A starfish



And an octapus



The open water tank was absolutely mesmerizing to look at!!





All in all, this was an exellent experience that I will most definately repeat next time I'm in durban.

Crocodile Creek crocodile breeding farm pictures

The third day of our holiday it started raining, so we decided to see the sights.

We visited crocodile creek first.

At crocodile creek there are 5 different species if crocodiles / alligators, unfortunately we didnt get pictures of all of these, but I will post the pictures that we have.

Our guide was very friendly and quite knowlegable on all the 9000 crocodiles on the farm.

We started out with a 20 minute talk on the crocks, and their behavior, food, etc...

After that we toured the farm, and saw many of the crocodiles kept there.

Most of the crocodiles on the farm are earmarket to be culled for their meat, scull and skin. to be made into leather products.

Below are some pictures of the crocodiles.

Below I am holding a two year old nile crocodile.

An intertsting fact of the crocodile is that it's jaw muscles are only built for biting, and as you can see below, its jaw can be held closed with an elastic rubber.







This is the scull of a 6 meter long male crocodile that died about a year ago.

Another male got into its enclosure, and attacked it.

In the scuffle the 6m crock lost part of its lower jaw.





We where also lucky enough to see some one day old crocodiles.

Although they are only one day old, they can already give you a nasty nip, if you are not careful.







And then it was on to the big boys!!





This was quite an experience, and well worth the visit.

Umdloti holiday

We went to Umdloti for a two week getaway and had some great fun, and relaxed on the beach.

Umdloti is a great get-away location if you want a nice quiet holiday, the views are exellent and the weather was accomodating most of the time.

When we got there we could'nt believe the awesome views from our balcony.

Click on the pictures to enlarge.







The sea at Umdloti is not the best place to swim, but that is not a problem because balito is on 20Km away from Umdloti, and has a Very nice swimming beach.

Holiday destinations in South Africa. Welcome to our blog

Hi, and welcome to our blog.

We often go on holiday in South Africa, and wanted to share some of the pictures, stories and nice places to stay with you.

In the next few weeks well be posting pictures of some of the places that me and my fiance have visited, and give you an overview of how we found it.