Kruger--final installment!

A final post on the Glenn women trip! And you thought it would never come...

We rose early on the morning of the 6th to head to Kruger National Park, about a five hour drive from Jo'burg. About five minutes after entering the park gate, we were greeted by about ten giraffe grazing on bushes right beside the road. Kruger, like many SA game reserves, doesn't require that you be in a game-viewing vehicle to be in the park. You can hang out with lions, etc. within the comforts of your own vehicle!! This is truly the life. After having our moments with the giraffe, we continued on, only to find a huge white rhino a few km up the road. Wow. What a good start to the day. We got out of our car at the camp lodge and saw three vervet monkeys climbing on the telephone wires. We were in the right place, for sure.

We then headed to our cabin. The "bungalows" at Kruger are quite nice with several beds in a common area, a kitchen area, and a bathroom. They even had soap with the SA National Parks logo, a male kudu, with which Mommy was thoroughly impressed! We settled in for the night and began to watch Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil...and then we paused it to make sure that noise was really what we thought it was...yep! A lion roaring in the distance! Definitely in the right place. We went to bed at a whopping 9pm in order to be up in the morning for our morning walk.

The morning began at 5:15 for a walk at 5:45. We greeted our two ranger friends, Surprise and Lourens, for a walk through the bush. Katie was a bit concerned about the rifles the two men had, though to be honest, I think we were all glad they had them! We were the only three on the hike, so we got lots of personal attention. This is good since we're an inquisitive bunch. We learned about every kind of dung you can imagine (for a good story, ask Katie about white rhino dung), dung beetles, elephant tracks, and flowers. We were in nature nerd paradise. We only saw a few impala, but we learned how to know when predators were around from Grey Lourie calls and how to locate honey from the Honeyguide's song. We then returned to our bungalow to shower and get in the car for a bit of a drive on our own.

After the drive, we had lunch/dinner, and had our evening game drive. Sadly, it was a bit cold and rainy for that one, but we still saw some great sights. In addition, we had a sunrise drive in the morning where we saw some more game before departing. Here are some pictures of our time at Kruger:

Do you see this lion? I was really five feet from him. We got that close, the driver stops the OPEN AIR VEHICLE in which I am in the front and LOWEST seat, and stops the engine. I didn't like it one bit. And then I accidently took this picture with a FLASH! I thought I was a goner, for sure.

Vervet monkeys outside our bungalow!
Pictured above is a scrub hare--an African bunny!

Cute baboon family to the left, hey? See the baby on the mom's lap?

These elephants crossing the road nearly trampled a car! It was fabulous!

On the night we returned from Kruger, we had a delightful dinner with my friend Katy Ginanni who took us to a wonderful Thai restaurant near her house. Katie Glenn found out that evening that she really enjoys duck!

The next day, we headed to McAuley House School to see the primaries do their assembly and to show the fam where I work. We then went out to lunch with Lynne and Peter. Here's a nice photo of almost my entire family!

And so, the Glenn women returned to Murfreesboro (minus Lisa, of course) with only a partially hair-raising experience in NYC with US customs. All in all, a trip well-spent! Anyone else want to come visit now??