Kruger National Park

During the second week of my trip, Canna and I drove up to Sabie to her family's mountain home and used it as our base to visit Kruger Park. We were up before dawn on our quest to see the animals in their natural habitat, and though it seemed that they were not awake as early as we were, we still enjoyed driving the reserve, with eyes peeled for the next group of wildlife waiting to have their photo taken.

First up, a bit of scenery from the park:





The clan of elephants was one of my favorite sightings of the day. The group we saw had over a dozen elephants, of all ages. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous when one stood in the middle of the road, facing our car head on, making a sound that only a giant African elephant could make.







I couldn't help but laugh at this little guy. First, he stole that apple he is eating right from the picnic lunch of other visitors. Then, he looked soo guilty about it!





It was well after lunch when we finally sighted our first giraffe and I was so excited.....so excited in fact that I managed to drag a 2.5 foot wooden giraffe carving all the way home with me.

I know that a zebra's stripes are supposed to help disguise them, but I don't think it's working very well. Especially when one decided to come so close to the road, that I could have petted him out of the window if I didn't fear him confusing my hand for dinner.

I was glad that the buffalo didn't get as close as the zebra.

Insert your own caption here :) Love the facial expression!

This guy was the ugliest thing I saw during my entire trip! But since he was so kind to stand still for a portrait, I thought he should be included.