Today we went to Nhoveni, a private game reserve that is part of greater Kruger. Greater Kruger is an extension of Kruger national park made possible through people who own land bordering Kruger national park remove their boundaries and allow the animals from the national park to access their land. This is good because it gives the animals more space to roam in, and reduces the damage to plants caused by elephants. We had to leave at 5.30am. And we travelled on the mahindra, an open safari vehicle, and it was a very very cold journey! When we got there at 7am we straight away went on a bushwalk with Brian, the manager of moholoholo rehab centre. We didn't see many animals properly, but it was interesting to learn about some of the tracks.
The little house we had to stay in was very sweet.
We went on lots of game drives throughout the day and saw 4 of the big 5: buffalo, rhino, elephants and a leopard. Just missed out on the lions. The leopard was amazing! So close and chilled out. I got some amazing photos. We got so close to the elephants. It was pretty scary! We made them get a bit moody so they flapped their ears which made for a very good photo! Aside from those, we saw giraffe, zebra, warthog, impala, kudu and wilderbeest.
We had to take turns to cook the meals, and me and one other girl cooked dinner - a BBQ. The meat took forever to cook but I think we did a good job. It was a bit creepy walking through the camp in the dark as there were electric fences to stop elephants, giraffe and other large animals but not a lot else!
In the evening we slept in the hide. This is a shack up on stilts with small windows that looked out over an artificial waterhole. We had to take it in turns throughout the night to watch if anything came to the waterhole. I had the first hour, and I saw absolutely nothing! So I went back to sleep and half an hour later was woken up to see an elephant that had come to the waterhole.