We spent the night in Sandton, just north of Johannesburg, after our return from Namibia. On the morning of the 10th we were picked up along with the rest of the tour, boarded a bus and began our drive to the town of White River, near an entrance to Kruger National Park. As a quick aside, if you decide to tour on your own to Johannesburg, we recommend Sandton. There is an easy transfer by high speed train from the airport to town, and there are plenty of great hotels to choose from (we chose the Sandton Sun).
The bus trip was arduous for us and our companions (and our driver!), for the bus had a breakdown that would only allow us to make about 6 miles per hour up hills. Our 5 hour bus ride ended up taking over 13 hours. I’ll save that story for later! We arrived late to the Nut Grove Manor, and our hosts had gone all out to make our arrival as easy as possible. They had ordered take out for us and placed it, along with a chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc, in our upgraded suite with microwave, and let us know that we would deal with the formalities of check in the next day after our safari. We were SO THANKFUL! We had dinner and wine, and collapsed into sleep.
We woke early and were picked up at 530 for a 20 minute drive to the entrance to the park. There were 9 of us in this tour, plus two late arrivals, and the tour operator split us into 2 safari trucks, leaving plenty of room for our bags and sack breakfasts.
After the sorting of people into trucks (Kelly and I had arrived 20 minutes prior to the others, and had staked out the front seat), we headed off into the park, very excited. We had both been looking forward to Africa since we were children.
We saw so many wild elephants at the start of this tour. It was incredible seeing them march through the grass, flapping their ears at us and stomping and trumpeting. Utterly delightful.
If I’m not careful I’ll post way too many pictures of elepants!
The roads in Kruger are excellent, either paved or smooth dirt, and the jouncing you might expect from a safari was non-existent. The topography was enjoyable when you weren’t looking directly at magnificent animals.
We were exhausted by 4pm. After being driven back to our hotel, we relaxed for a bit and then headed out to dinner at Magnolia. Listen, it may be hard to believe, but ORDER THE SUSHI if you’re ever here. Both the salmon and the tuna were really good, as were the assorted curries on the menu. The hotel had arranged our ride and paid for our dinner, since their restaurant was closed. We used WhatsApp all the time in Africa, and called our driver after dinner was done. Once again exhausted after a full, busy day, we collapsed into sleep in anticipation of our second day of safari.
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