The Not So Fast & The Furious

So South Africa really is as amazing as people say and not a vuvuzela to be heard anywhere. I had visions of being kept awake by them, so I'm more than happy to report that this is not the case.

We cleared through the airport in very short time and before we could blink were heading to Hazy View in our hired Toyota Corrolla. Two quick things about the hire car, firstly the excess is £1000, (Right...didn't see that in the small print!) We were offered a daily charge that amounted to around £270 for the length of our hire and yes, you guessed it, we chose to gamble. The second thing is that our hire car seems unable to go up a hill and have the air-con on at the same time...yes, that much power! Fun times ahead - shot nerves more likely.

First destination was Jackleberrys in Hazy View, home of the Hippos. Seriously, the Hippos rule this place walking around at night; you are advised to be on the lookout for them!!! Only niggle so far is that the BBQ or Braii as it is known over here is around 10 metres from the cottage...with no lighting. It was a fine line between funny and fear as I watched John try to cook on it using the light from his Iphone as a torch. I think had a Hippo turned up at that point, Usain Bolt would have had some serious competition.

We had allowed ourselves two days to stock up on things needed for our 8 nights in Kruger National Park and in usual Lisa style I decided to purchase enough to cover every possible disaster situation and foolishly believed everything I was told I I might need. People lie! You panic buy all the things that it turns out you can purchase here in the park, if of course you ever needed it at all? Ok, yes you may pay a little more, but worth saving yourself the hassle of the big shop at home, as well as the over stocking. I now have enough food to feed everyone on camp for the next week!

At the start of the trip we were a little worried as Roman was a little under the weather, so we were happy to see him turn a corner today. He has had a bad cold and required frequent bathroom visits (not easy on safari when confined to vehicles!) I have to admit that at one point we did worry that it may be the Malarone medication for Malaria prevention and if it had been we would have been left with a few difficult choices with regards to our route. This would never have come into my mind before, (Malaria was something that other people far away got) but after spending time on the infectious disease ward in Leeds I have seen the reality of it and it's

one gamble I would not take now even if it threw our plans in to madness.

I am just going to give a quick account of our time in the park so far as the next blog will be a more detailed one; Kruger deserves a whole blog of it's own. We are out of internet range again after tonight and its £10 an hour where we currently are so it’s not something we are using too much of.

We have had an amazing time and been spoilt with the animals that we have seen in the first day and a half. We entered via Phabeni gate on our way to stay at Berg-en-Dal campsite, and had been driving for less than 15 km when we were greeted by a herd of elephants and their calves.

A very short distance further and we met a herd of Giraffes, again with their calves. We became so engrossed in watching them that we nearly missed a black Rhino walking within 3 feet of our car. Amazing! This is like a perfect dream but it's reality and we are loving every minute.

We have seen young elephants fight playfully and huge elephants fight to win (they really meant business).

We also had a very angry elephant head towards us, at which point we had to reverse up a road to escape. I must point out that we were not in the wrong, it just decided to cross the road at that point and was protecting its young. We have video footage of this, because obviously when you are being chased by an elephant you film it??? I was driving, so that was John's idea. We'll try to add the video later, but it's a little difficult to do out here.


Until next time we will keep taking those footsteps. We really hope you keep reading.



Lisa, John & Roman