Kruger National Park – 5AM Safari Tour (June 19, 2010)

Kruger National Park is a HUGE park. We were trying to go to an area where we could see lions, but it all the major excursion spots were booked up. So we found one spot that the Polokwane visitor center recommended near Hazyview, which is in the Mpumalanga Province which was 4 hours south west of Polokwane and about 3.5 hours east of Johannesburg.

We left Polokwane and started driving to Hazyview, which led us through the South African mountains, and you don’t realize the true beauty of this Country until you venture out to the mountains of South Africa. The Mpumalanga province is definitely one of the hidden gems of the country and driving through, we listened to the USA vs. Slovenia match, so it was not only a beautiful ride, but also entertaining. So we arrived in Hazyview around 8PM, and we found this cool pub called Perry’s Brewery & Pub. We got some good food and tried the home brew there and watched the England vs. Algeria game. By the time we got done with dinner and drove to the Paul Kruger gate it was around midnight. So, we decided to nap in the car for about 4 hours or so before we had to be up for our Safari ride.

At 4:30AM we woke up and drove 200 yards to the gate and a driver picked us up in a huge open air truck and we began our Safari Tour…let me just say, it was cold as shit that morning. Lucky for us, they provide blankets. As for the Safari “Tour” in the truck, we thought we would be among a group of people but really it was only four of us – Me, my cousin, and two Frenchmen, using Spotlights to spot animals in the safari, while the “Tour Guide” was just a driver, who drove us around and didn’t really share any information about the park or the animals...but I guess what is there to share? The tour was three hours and it wasn’t guaranteed that we were going to see anything but we definitely lucked out.

We spotted Impalas, which apparently are everywhere in that area. Then the Frenchmen spotted two Zebras, which was very cool to see. Then we spotted a family of elephants eating some breakfast…speaking of Elephants, a random side story - so we literally started our tour and may have gone 200/300 yards and we see a huge pile of Elephant shit. The driver points it out, and we misunderstood him and thought he was point us to the elephants…one of the Frenchmen got really excited and came to the other side of the truck, but when we realized the Driver was pointing out the fresh Elephant crap, the Frenchmen took a picture. It was funny for us at 5 in the morning that this guy got really excited to see a pile of shit and took a picture…

So after we spotted the Elephants, we were driving back and we saw three lion cubs chilling on the road. We got as close as we could without disturbing them and took a few pictures before other trucks started to make their way toward us; that commotion drove the lions away. As they were being driven away, we spotted a giraffe. So, we saw all the cool animals we hoped to have seen. However, it is recommend that you go to Kruger and stay for about a week or so, to really get the feel for the park…for us, the three hours we spent was just fine!