Safari and the royalty of the jungle!

Okay, now excuse me if I babble on this one, but this was an experience and a half!

After an early morning start, 5:30, and a small river ride, meeting 2 to 3 metre Croc and the pod of hippos, and being friendly enough to give my glasses to a croc as they slipped off my slightly sweaty nose, in to the river….I wasn’t gonna go swimming in the murcky waters with the crocs for them…..what do you think I am mad….well actually……your absolutly right I didn’t!!

We made our way to Krugar Park, third biggest park in south africa, okay it was a bit of a drive folded up once more in the Kia for about 4 to 5 hours, trying to find the best way to sprawl my legs out across the back seat, and being entertained as ever by the mad canadians, Coleen and Nat, we arrived at the huge wooden gates of krugar, home of the ‘Big 5’ the Hippo, Lion, Buffalo, Leopard and the Elephant. The gates peeled open, and onward we went….within two seconds of driving through the main entrance gates, a baboon scuffle….okay so this is going to be fun, we watched and proceeded to be introduced to the ‘Fast Food’ of the jungle, now I have been awake for over 24hours as I am writing this, in my backpackers place in sydney so I am a little spaced, so I can’t tell you the actual names…Coleen, Nat, Leslie Ann or Marienne if you can remember add a comment!

Anyway as I was saying, we drove around, got introduced to the vast array of birds, monkey types and even though we drove past it initially, the ever so small Giraffe and the small baby one…yeah I know we missed it first, chomping on a lovely salad of tree leaf and srubs, but hey it was well disguised! Then came the massive elephant or should i say several elephants, massive, dosile looking creatures, with massive 3 to 4 ft tusks, feasting on grass interestingly elephants always have one tusk longer then the other that actually dictates, for want of a better word, what hand they are…..now I can see you sat agast at my wealth of information, fear not, there is more to come….if I can only remember it…need coffee!

As the sun began its decent from the sky, we trundeled down the dry, sandy road, losing the faith that we would see royalty about 300yrds in the middle of the road was an old lion resting, we slowed down to drive past it, now about 1m from my window at the back of the kia, pictures clicking the lion decided to show its size and jumped up….new underwear was required as my arm was a little out of the window clicking, it walked a few more steps and decided to sit once more, we drove up to it again, I was face to face looking at the lion as it decided to make me a little more nervous and look me directly in the eye and cool like, licked its lips, giving me a glimpse of the sharp looking teeth, okay I thought I ain’t the master of this realm and looked away.

After loads of pictures we moved on, another elephant about half a km down the road was sighted, sunset light drenching its grey body…oh dam we were running late…if we didn’t get to our camp, yes in the middle of krugar, at 5:30 we would be sleeping out in the open in our Kia, as it turned out we got there at 6 after TJ blaming the fictional flat tyre and managing to blag us in. We pitched our tent, in a small compound surrounded by electrical fences and armed guards, lit the BBQ and well had a few scoops (beers, for those who haven’t got to grips with the english language, Nat and Coleen, ha ha) drinking and choclate over dosing continued till one, with TJ and I, fighting for the course once more till 2ish, emptying bottle after bottle of booze, I decided I was retiring to my tent for the evening.

The land of nod followed, until it was interupted by the noise of Baboons throwing a wobbler followed by The Regal Roar of a Ravishing Lion (come on thats good! Considered I came up with that at 3:40 in the morning with my head torch on) the hyenna joined the show with their rendition of the laughing policeman, only to be interrupted once more by a bone shaking, silence slicing roar of the lion, I am not joking you, it was loud and scary, bearing in mind that after the second roar, TJ said “I would like to introduce you to the lion” just over a river from us, with that second roar, the entire park went quiet, the crickets, the screeching bats the owls fell to a deathly silence… now i know why the lion is the king!

The next morning, we drove around the park, seeing rhino, baboons… well Quince, Biggus and Matty if I said badgers to you would you have a clue ;O) more elephants, buffalo and giraffe and proceeded to Mozambique our new home for two nights.

5 thoughts on “Safari and the royalty of the jungle!”

  1. Well, you have had the Africa experience then. It cannot be beaten can it!!!
    The place is soooooo beautifully REAL. The experience of seeing a pride of Lions sleeping under a group of trees lethargic after obviously feeding ( blood stains still round amazingly white teeth) is one that I will never forget. As is the plaintive cries from my better half pleading for me to stop hanging out the window cos he could smell it’s breath !!!!!!!
    Did you get to Duban ? Was Sylvan Grove OK ? Really enjoying your blogs.

  2. G’day Mr G, glad to hear you’ve landed safely in sunny Oz despite your encounters with the royal beasty en route. Must have been a fantastic experience, getting up close and ‘personal’ with so many critters. Closest I’ve ever got to a lion, roaring or otherwise was in a Safari Park, but at least I had the good sense to keep my arms in the vehicle ;o)

    Guess the airport adventures pale into insignificance by comparison.

    Look forward to seeing those piccies …. Keep on blogging, you sure know how to brighten up a dull day at a desk.

  3. Big Chief Mandoola

    The lion could probably smell your Hi Karate aftershave fella it didn’t want to eat ye, it just fancied a hug !! Get yourself some new smellys in duty free, lovin the blog.

  4. I bet a Bolton Badger could have a Lion, especially the Chav Badgers :o)
    Seems to be going well

    Matt

  5. As someone who used to have a South African passport, I should say: ” Paul, what’s the name of that famous park??” As a teacher I should ask: “Are you sure of the spelling of that park??”
    I’m enjoying your blog, however. It helps me to cope with the time-shift. Hey, it’s already 8.30 in Melbourne. Time to wake you up. It’s Monday after all.
    Big kisses to OZ from me.

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