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BLOODY HELL!!
Elephants!! A mother and 2 calves are grazing and they are about 3 metres away from us. It's amazing. I can see their eyelashes or count the wrinkles on their butt if I wanted to. The don't seem to care that we're watching them, maybe they know the electric fence will keep US out.
We started our day with breakfast in Pretoria at the backpackers, and then the hire car was delivered just before 9am. Fortunately they drive on the same side of the road as us, so aside from some wipers going when we should have been indicating, there was no trouble with the drive. The National Highway is alot like our Hume Highway. Not a lot to see and pretty flat and straight for the most part. The only people sticking to the speed limit (a very generous 120 km/hour) are us and vehicles that can't actually go that fast. I swear we were passed by cars doing around 200 clicks. It's not suprising that 10-15 thousand South African's are killed on the roads each year.
We stopped in Nelspruitt and picked up some food for lunches etc. We should have waited, about 5kms up the road were a heap of stalls run by the locals. Their prices were much better. We saw some carved giraffes for about 30 aussie dollars, they stood nearly as tall as me. The same thing in the park costs triple that price.
We entered the park via Melalane Gate. It was then about 9km to get to Bergendal Camp. They've got a 50km speed limit in the park. Apparently they have a big problem with animals being killed by speeding cars. We saw some impala and elephants in the distance, we were amazed at how quickly we'd seen animals.
Berg-en-dal Camp is quite flash. They have a shop, restaurant, cafe and bar. There's a huge camping area and around 100 thatched roof brick cottages, which is what we're staying in. They're fully self contained and have a great outdoor area for eating. We think we've got the best unit. We're about 10 metres from the fence and we sat on the verandah and watched the elephants walk past today.
We tried to book in on an evening drive with a guide but it was booked out. So Ewan's done some research and we're going to leave the camp when the gates open at 6am and head to a waterhole not far from here. We hope to see lions, we're told they need a drink after hunting all night.
We've got a bit of a hike tomorrow to get to Satara Camp. You have to allow time for the slow speed limit and the fact that you might actually see animals and want to stop,.
We've got 2 nights in Satara which will give us a chance to do a morning and evening walk with the guides.
Our first afternoon in Kruger was incredible. We ended our day with a glass of wine on the verandah as the sun went down. I thought I could hear hyena, but no, it was just our pissed neighbour laughing. Ah the serenity.....
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