Tuesday and Wednesday Adam, Danny, and I went to the Kruger National Park. It's humongous, something like 200,000 hectares or something, with roads only accessing 10% of the land. Just imagine all the cool stuff that is probably happening all the time in that other 90% of bush that no one knows about!! We left CARE at 4:15am and set off to the Orpen gate entrance. For two days we went on game drives for hours. The landscape was amaaaaaazing. It was low flatlands with some bushes and trees for miles, very classic Africa, exactly what you would picture. Most of our time was spent looking for cats (lions, leopards, or cheetahs) but to no avail. It was sorely disappointing, but I guess I'll just have to go back! Danny knows an incredible amount of information on everything in the park, all about the animals and birds, plants, soil, tracks and scat, etc. He's a true bushman.
We didn't see any cats, but we saw tons of impala, zebra, buffalo, giraffe, elephants (huge herds of them), wildebeest, kory busters (birds), eagles and hawks galore, vultures, and a whole bunch of other birds. My favorite I think were the hyenas. We spent the night at a campsite and at night the hyenas came right up to the fence when they smelled the cooking food. Adam and I got right up in their faces to take some pictures. I got a pretty good one with it's mo
uth open so it looks like it's cackling (it was yawning). Fun fact about hyenas- they are actually a part of the cat family. That night we cooked up a braai (barbecue) and had some great meat. Adam and I wanted to try something exotic so we, don't judge me too much, had some giraffe steaks. The meat was actually pretty good, a little tough and it had a sort of fishy aftertaste. I did feel a little bad eating it though, especially when there were a bunch of giraffes outside our campsite in the morning.
The second morning was also awesome as we came to this open grassland and saw another hyena (rare in the daytime, we thought there must be a kill nearby, but couldn't see it) just walking around near two kory busters (huge rare birds). A little ways away there were buffalo and zebra and wildebeest and elephant herds. It was again just like you think Africa looks like. It was super neat to see all the animals in one space. We spent most of the second day looking for those damn cats and wild dogs, but were unlucky. Next time.
I was sad to leave the bush actually. I could do that every day. Danny agrees and says not to tempt him by talking about it too much. I'm definitely going to plan another two day trip in a month or two. Today is St. Patricks Day, so naturally we are throwing a little party. Everyone is wearing green and we got some supplies to play classic American drinking games that we all miss so much. it should be a good time. It's nice to have little things like parties or nights out or games to break up the monotony of the days here with the baboons (who are still doing well). I can't believe I've been here over 2 weeks already. Time is flying, even though I feel like I've been here forever. That's about it for now! I've gotta get to my next baby shift...
We didn't see any cats, but we saw tons of impala, zebra, buffalo, giraffe, elephants (huge herds of them), wildebeest, kory busters (birds), eagles and hawks galore, vultures, and a whole bunch of other birds. My favorite I think were the hyenas. We spent the night at a campsite and at night the hyenas came right up to the fence when they smelled the cooking food. Adam and I got right up in their faces to take some pictures. I got a pretty good one with it's mo
uth open so it looks like it's cackling (it was yawning). Fun fact about hyenas- they are actually a part of the cat family. That night we cooked up a braai (barbecue) and had some great meat. Adam and I wanted to try something exotic so we, don't judge me too much, had some giraffe steaks. The meat was actually pretty good, a little tough and it had a sort of fishy aftertaste. I did feel a little bad eating it though, especially when there were a bunch of giraffes outside our campsite in the morning.The second morning was also awesome as we came to this open grassland and saw another hyena (rare in the daytime, we thought there must be a kill nearby, but couldn't see it) just walking around near two kory busters (huge rare birds). A little ways away there were buffalo and zebra and wildebeest and elephant herds. It was again just like you think Africa looks like. It was super neat to see all the animals in one space. We spent most of the second day looking for those damn cats and wild dogs, but were unlucky. Next time.
I was sad to leave the bush actually. I could do that every day. Danny agrees and says not to tempt him by talking about it too much. I'm definitely going to plan another two day trip in a month or two. Today is St. Patricks Day, so naturally we are throwing a little party. Everyone is wearing green and we got some supplies to play classic American drinking games that we all miss so much. it should be a good time. It's nice to have little things like parties or nights out or games to break up the monotony of the days here with the baboons (who are still doing well). I can't believe I've been here over 2 weeks already. Time is flying, even though I feel like I've been here forever. That's about it for now! I've gotta get to my next baby shift...
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