Safari Trip blog post collection:
Hi everyone! Today, I am back with another blog post for you about our last day in South Africa and the beginning of our ten day safari with Aaron, our guide from when we went to Krueger Park. So first of all, we had to wake up at four thirty a.m.in the morning, which was absolutely horrible. Then, we met Anton downstairs and he drove us to the airport, where we had to say goodbye to him. He is a very nice guy and I hope we see him in the future. Once we flew to a place in South Africa near the boarders of Namibia and Botswana, we may Aaron and then we drove for three hours until reaching the place where we would be staying for ten days. We met other guides there who would help us if we needed and then they let us cuddle meerkats in a pen! They were so cute and they were trying to dig under us and wrestled each other for shade under our legs. They are now my new favorite animal here in Africa! Also, Aaron left his job at Krueger national park to start his own company called Dreadlion. The other guides also showed us a poisonous scorpion that could kill us in our sleep. It was cool looking and then we got to watch another group of meerkats with quadruple babies!!!! They were adorable and I wanted to pick one up and kiss it. We went on a small walk afterwards and then we meditated while overlooking a beautiful sunset. We then shared a wonderful dinner and concluded our first night on safari.
The next day, we woke up at 6:30 am and at 7, we began our long pursuit of finding cats and other cool animals. Once we entered the national park, we immediately saw our first animal, which was a black-backed Jackal. I always liked jackals and it was so cool to see one in person… even though they are all over the park. Later, I saw a nest with two eagles in them, which I thought was an absolute win! We also saw another cool eagle with a pink face and black feathers. We then unexpectedly saw a herd of about thirty ostriches, which was very rare! Ostriches are very funny-looking animals due to their long necks and confused faces, but they quickly became our most spotted animal today along with springbucks and other animals like it. We eventually stopped for a snack break and we saw a guy go beyond the fence to take a picture of himself, which was very disrespectful and dangerous. We saw a lot of the same stuff on the way back, but this time we saw a jackal and a honey badger interact with each other, which Aaron said was also rare because usually only birds interact with honey badgers. Later on, we stopped for another snack and a yellow mongoose was amazed at how we ate the food. We drove to dinner later that night and after eating an amazing schnitzel, we went back home disappointed that no one saw a cat but happy we saw so much more than we could’ve imagined.
The next day on the safari was about one hundred times more exciting and intense than our last trip. Once we woke up and got in the car, we drove back into the park and we saw a CHEETAH literally thirty minutes after seeing a bunch of other animals! We finally saw a cat and it was the fastest land animal on Earth! Once we saw it, it was stalking a bunch of springbuck, but they escaped and the cheetah didn’t eat. Then, one springbuck approached the cheetah and it was literally ten meters away from the cheetah when it took off. It was so disappointing, but it was still very cool to see a cheetah in action! We then drove around for a little bit longer until we stumbled upon one of the rarest cats in the area: A caracal! For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s an orange cat with large black ears and it is extraordinarily rare. So when we saw it in plain view in front of us, it was very cool and we got extremely lucky since we saw no cats yesterday. Later, we were driving through the dunes and we saw a second caracal, much to our surprise. We thought we were so lucky that we accidentally went a little too far and got stuck in a mound of sand! For about twenty minutes we tried to break free and the caracal even followed us, but eventually someone came over and got us out of their alive. It was very interesting though and by complete coincidence, a black-footed cat ran right by us just as we escaped, so I guess we were lucky after all. We stopped to have a snack afterwards and I the way back, we saw the usual ostriches and jackals doing their business. We arrived back at the house and our other guides made us a nice dinner of steak and potatoes. It was very good and we hoped to spot the remaining three types of cats that we had yet to see: the lions, leopards, and African Wild Cats(which look EXACTLY like my little cat Bruno).
The next day wasn’t as exciting as yesterday was, but there were some very epic moments that were the highlights of this entire fourteen month trip. We drove into the park and after about one hour, we saw a jackal and three grasshawks following a honey badger! It was hilarious because it was like paparazzi and the badger went from bush to bush looking for food. At one point, we even saw him climb up a tree and then go back down while the jackal and hawks literally sat there and let the honey badger do all the work! As we were watching them, another group said they saw lions five minutes away from us but when we drove, they weren’t there. We drove around for hours and the only interesting things we saw were some cool birds and ostriches flapping their feathers(ALSO, the cat that ran by us yesterday was an African Wild Cat and not a black-footed cat). It was still great fun to watch, but nothing very exciting happened. That is, until, we were at the final part of our trip and just as we were saying what a shame it was that we didn’t see anything else cool when we saw six lionesses eating the carcass of an Onyx! It was awesome and the lions reminded me exactly of Bruno, which is no surprise because he is also an almighty kitty cat. It was very interesting to see them not bothered by us at all and their eyes were heavy and golden. We had chicken for dinner and celebrated or epic day.
The next day was also very fun. We immediately drove back to the kill site from yesterday and there was barely anything left on the carcass. We drove around to see if we could spot any hyenas and sure enough, we saw a brown hyena lurking around. After that, we drove a little while longer and we spotted another lion kill!!! It was epic and we debated for thirty minutes over what the kill was until we all clearly saw that it was an Onyx. The lioness also had a collar, which we thought was weird and there were about twenty jackals surrounding it waiting for leftovers. We drove around for the rest of the time to spot another cool animal, but we kept winding back at the kill site where the lioness ate away and the jackals watched. However, we did see a type of animal called a red hardebeest. It was like a wildebeest, but red and very rare here. It’s also the third fastest land animal in Africa! When we were about to leave, we also saw the cheetah from a few days ago watching a herd of springbok, but they all ran away when they saw it. The cheetah was very cool looking and when we drove back to the kill site, we saw another lioness eating the carcass as well. At night, we had a delicious pizza and we went to bed happy and excited.
Our next day here in the safari was the absolute BEST and the most memorable one by far. We went into the park and after about thirty minutes of driving without seeing a single animal, we saw a fully grown LEOPARD walk right in front of us and go drink from a water hole! It was awesome and the leopard looked so cool. It had a donut design on its fur and it was really big, so it was like a cool beast. However, that was just the beginning. As the leopard was walking away from the hole, the same lioness from yesterday walked over and chased the leopard up a tree! It was so weird seeing a mighty predator like the leopard become the prey in an instant. The lioness waited at the bottom of the tree for a while, but then it eventually slept and the leopard crawled down the tree cautiously. Suddenly, another lion appeared and attempted to find the leopard. Knowing this could go on for hours, we left to go eat and we discovered later that the lioness didn’t catch the leopard, so it lived to fight another day. After we ate, we drove to see more stuff when suddenly we saw a slender mongoose run by us, which was very rare. It was like a regular mongoose but with red fur. We wanted to take a picture of it, but it was too fast and ran before we could take a photo. A few hours later, we drove by some dead bushes when we saw another wild cat crouching near a tree! It looked EXACTLY like Bruno and was even near the same size! I just wanted to pick it up and kiss it, but it was moving away and Ronit made a very convincing cat noise to bring it back. It eventually left and we saw a bunch of the normal jackals fighting over the dead onyx that the lions killed days ago. Also, we drove to the first place where we saw lions and all the remains of THAT kill was the skull of the onyx, so you can see how many animals rely on one dead animal in this place. We eventually drove back home to eat and we concluded our epic day here in the safari.
Hi! On our second to last day here in the safari, we also got amazing animal sittings that were just as good as the last. After we entered the park and drove around for thirty minutes, we instantly saw a fully grown LEOPARD right in the road!!!!! It was RIGHT IN FRONT OF US and it looked exactly like Bruno! They are such a cute animal and so majestic looking that I wonder why they aren’t the kings of the jungle instead of lions. After we saw him, we drove around a little while longer and saw cut ground squirrels chewing nuts and sniffing the ground. They are just like squirrels at home, but Bruno would catch them a lot easier because they aren’t as good as climbing as their counterparts are. We then drove up the Mata -Mata road and we finally saw our first giraffe group in the Kalahari desert! They looked so cute and they were so anxious all the time. They were really majestic looking animals and after we drove away from them, we saw a cut baby Cape Fox! It was so tiny and its eyes were bigger than its ears! I just wanted to pick it up and snuggle it, but we had to drive away and we ate again later. A desert crow also landed on the hood of the car at some point and it looked really cute! We also saw a cheetah sitting a long way away from us, but we got a few good photos of it. For dinner, I had an amazing chicken burger and we prepared for our final day in the Kalahari safari!
Our final day in the safari was filled with excitement and compared to our previous great day(when the lions hunted the leopard). We started off our day by instantly seeing FOUR FULLY GROWN SPOTTED HYENAS!! They were massive and had blood all over their faces, and apparently they are rare to find in the park! They walked right past us and we wouldn’t witness another awesome thing until a few hours later, which was what we’ve been waiting for this whole trip. We drove by a nearby hill and we saw a cheetah sitting on top of it, waiting for food. We naturally took pictures of it, but then it suddenly ran at us and I thought it was going to eat Troy because he was leaning out the window. However, it ran right by us and tackled a three month old ostrich right behind us, which we didn’t even know was there! Then, it strangled the poor baby for seventeen seconds before the baby died RIGHT IN FRONT OF US. It was kind of traumatic to watch even as the cheetah proceeded to eat it right in front of us, but on the other hand, we finally saw our first and final kill in the Kalahari Desert. Even if it was a little bit extreme. We also passed by herds of wildebeest and other animals and by the time we reached the same spot an hour later, there was barely anything of the ostrich left. We also saw a giant bird swoop over us, but we couldn’t take a photo of it because it was so fast. For dinner, Aaron made us homemade burgers and they were a fabulous treat for our last day in safari. *Also, please pay respects to the family of the baby ostrich, even though it died for a noble cause.
On our last last day, we packed up everything and before we left to go to another game reserve, we said goodbye to the meerkats one last time. They were just as friendly as before and it was very sad to leave them. As we were about to leave, we also met the professor who runs the place and she was a very sweet elderly woman who has been to Israel many times. We left the place and after stopping for a break at the mall to eat a delicious brownie, we finally reached the reserve where I got my own little hut while everyone else had to share! We then had a delicious dinner of burgers and we went to sleep prepared for all the fun stuff we would do the very next day and our last in Africa.
On the FINAL FINAL safari day, we did a lot of cool stuff that sealed the deal on our experience in Africa. We ate breakfast and then we drove to where we would see all the animals. We first saw a bunch of baboons walking around and they were so cute to look at! They walk on all fours and have weird butts, which makes them kind of goofy. We also passed by a bunch of elderly giraffes, who were all very obedient when we took their photos. We also passed by a single zebra that was eating all by itself, which I thought was weird because they are usually in packs. We stopped to take pictures at a lake and the scenery reminded me exactly of Boulder except for the scurrying Marvins that were running wild all over the place. We drove back to eat lunch and we passed by a dead Marvin, which was prettu brutal to see. We walked down to the waterfall and we saw even more baboons and Marvins chilling out. It was very impressive to see and when we went back to the main restaurant, the dead Marvin was gone, so a cat must have been watching us from behind the scenes and took it when we weren’t looking. Later, after eating dinner, we went on a night safari and we saw a lot of Oryxs and Rock rabbits waking around. We also saw the beautiful night sky filled with stars and a forming black hole, which was awesome! We didn’t see much else and when it ended, we concluded our Africa trip and we were very impressed by everything we saw on this trip.
