Safari!!!!

Our bus and the crew.

It was still pitch black out when the alarms started to sound and Jenna was really impressed getting woken up at the “ungodly hour”!  Breakfast, packing of the truck, and we were off, heading toward Kruger National Park.  The rig we’re in is bigger than the cab of a semi as we look down upon them when we pass.  There are windows in the front and a big seating area around a table in the front then the rest is normal bus seating.  Storage is below the riding compartment and it’s a pretty solid unit.  Sure gives for nice views.

Our rig at Kruger Park.

The crew on the bus is pretty funny.  The Tasmania clan are great and I get along really well with both Duncan and Andrea.  He’s got a great Aussi accent and has the sense of humour to go with it.  Fabricio and Kiara, the Italian family are super friendly and Fabricio is super keen to hear what we do and absolutely loves Canada.  He has been two times now and has a ton of Canadian clothing that they sport all the time.  Michael is the French guy with an older girl and boy and totally reminds me of Ken Bibby.  Every time he talks I think of Ken and his hilarious French accent. 

Our tent/home for the next 22 days!

He’s a complete character and between him and Duncan, they provide the entertainment along the way.  There are a number of couples to.  There’s a bit of separation between the two groups but I’m sure everyone will come around over time.  We’ve got one American, six Aussis, two Brits and two Canadians.  There are a couple quite flamboyant guys on the trip from Australia who are pretty comical to listen to.  Two recently married couples are also here so it’ll be interesting if 23 days with our kids provides a good birth control measure!

We eventually stopped for groceries on the way out and grabbed a few last things and then then drove out to the park.  The landscape sure changes as we left the city and progressed through the high savannah into timberlands and eventually moved into that classic African scrub with the heavily branched trees that you can look out and see dotting the countryside.  We made Kruger by 3 pm as there was an option to go out on a night game drive.  We opted out of it as they’re pretty expensive and we thought we’d see what we see from our game drive tomorrow.  We did get treated to seeing some Impala and Kudu as soon as we entered the park and our compound/campground has a water hole by the bar that has a number of hippo in it so the wildlife is pretty abundant!

The resident hippo family meters from the pool.

Everyone came back from the night safari pretty excited as they saw giraffe, elephant, as well as a cheetah that was hunting and both black and white Rhinoceros.  It sounded pretty cool so we might have to try that on our way back through Kruger.  We all got assigned our tents so Shan and Jenna are in one and Alyssa and I have the other.  Sitting around over a few beers we discovered we’re a pretty diverse group but everyone is pretty likeminded and I think it’s going to be a pretty incredible trip together.  We shut it down early as we all have to be up for breakfast at 5:30am.  Sure that’s going to go over well!