Loko uhleketa mhelembe khandziya murhi.

The sign outside our lodge.

One of the first animals we saw on our safari trip

Mr. Chicken the Bateleur eagle
let us pet him at the rehabilitation center

The past weekend was spent at Kruger National Park on a safari experience, and it was an absolutely wonderful addition to the trip.  The flight up to Johannesburg was at 6:30am and took two hours so by 8:30 we were landed and the people who checked bags for the flight were picking them up.  We then met up with the new faculty advisor and his family who were joining us for the final two weeks of the trip.  Then we settled in for an incredibly long 6 and a half hour drive up to where our camp was.  The thirteen of us just fit into the bus chartered for the drive that I am still so grateful for, but boy was it a long drive.  When we finally arrived at the Viva Safari camp called Tremisana where we were booked to spend our first night it was already nearly 5:00pm.   

This older bull was born with a disease that
prevented one of his tusks from developing at all.

 

Two male elephants and older bull and his young protege.
Wes told us older bulls often adopt young males and teach them
"appropriate" behavior.

On our day-long safari Wes promised me a
dazzle of zebras and a journey of giraffes.

I think he pulled through beautifully.

The birds were stunningly beautiful throughout the region.

We dropped off our things and immediately went on a sunset drive through the surrounding area.  Though I didn’t expect to see too much we actually saw a lot!  We saw a giraffe, a whole herd of buffalo, two male elephants and a breeding herd of elephants.  There was a harrowing moment where our jeep almost wouldn’t start back up again, but our guide got the car running again and took us to a braai that the staff had planned out in the bush under the stars.  It was a truly amazing experience being out like that.  I live near the country but nowhere have I ever seen so many stars.  You could see the whole galaxy out there.  After the braai we went back to camp where we settled in for bed and finished the night. 

The Lilac-Breasted Roller. 
The most beautiful bird I have ever seen.

We were up early the next morning to have breakfast and pack our bags since we were moving out of the lodge area to their actual camp for our remaining nights.  We were then taken to an animal rehabilitation center, which was really quite interesting.  The organization aims to help animals trapped by snares or otherwise injured and those who cannot be released back into the wild for whatever reason (which was usually due to being bred in captivity and becoming too accustomed to humans).  Our guide at the center called these his “ambassador” animals since the center often does informational sessions with students and learners and having an animal representative along helps the students realize why helping these animals is so important.  After finishing our tour of the rehabilitation center we drove back to Tremisana where we all shed our hoodies (it was quite warm up at Kruger this weekend!) and then settled in for a guided afternoon drive. 
Our guide showed us around most of the bumpy roads in the camp and we were fortunate to see hippos and the same male elephants from the night before.  Our guide almost got us home too, but the jeep died on the side of the road due to a faulty fuel pump.  

This baby elephant was so intrigued by our car full of people.

 Soon enough though we were back at the lodge and they loaded us into a van to transport us to Marc’s Tree Camp where we spent the rest of our nights at Kruger.  At this camp we actually were sleeping in tents.  For some of us this was quite fun or at the very least not a big deal.  There were some other COE students for whom this was a real inconvenience and I feel very bad for them.  But we had dinner and then settled in for the night.

The Southern Ground Hornbill is currently very endangered due to habitat loss.
One issue that contributes to this is elephants destroying the trees they make their nests in.

The baboons are much less scary
when they're in their natural habitat.

The next morning we woke up early for our full day drive through Kruger National Park.  We saw the most animals this day and throughout the drive Wes, our guide, was incredibly knowledgeable and full of fun stories about his time as a guide.  It was a pretty wonderful day.  Back at the camp we had dinner together again and then went to bed.

The buffalo are so stolid. 
I find them very interesting.

Our hilarious guide Wes...
well he thought he was hilarious anyway.

We woke up the next morning before dawn to go on a one hour bush walk.  Our guide Louie spoke to us about walking softly and maybe being able to sneak up on some animals unnoticed, but with 14 of us on the walk I think his hopes were quickly dashed so we mostly saw some of the local fauna and some bones from animals that had died in the area.   

Our very knowledgeable guide Louie.

We saw some zebras and antelope from a distance, but they all moved quickly when it appeared we were coming closer.  After the walk we came back to camp for breakfast and then began our long drive back to the airport.  Along the way we were taken to the Blight Canyon, which is the third largest canyon in the world.  It was really lovely but I was so glad when we finally got back to our apartment late that night.  All in all this was a truly amazing experience.  

The Beautiful Blight Canyon