4 Day Safari in Kruger Nat'l Park and Private Reserve

"Who does your laundry Mr.Safari-man?" - redneck American asking as they are approaching the rare black rhinos on a previous tour that Karl guided

I went on a 4 day safari tour with Bundu Safaris. It was 2 nights camping in KNP and 1 night in a private game lodge. Although the KNP bit was not much different from Pilansburg safari (dry, brown terrain), we did see a leopard and lions this time. We even got to see the lions mating - for all of 2 seconds (I guess I can't complain about any 1 minute mans).

The best part of the tour for me was meeting the other backpackers on the tour:

• Joanie and Mark: From Dallas, TX, they are also on an RTW tour. SA is their first stop.
  
• Alison and Chris: From UK (near Wales), they are on a vacation in SA for about a month. Allison goes back to uni afterwards to finish studies in veterinary medicine.
  
• Gerry: From UK, he spent the last year travelling, mostly in Australia working as a semi-pro soccer player. He returns to UK after this trip to start uni. He is also the current "shithead".
  
• David: From US, he is on a 3 week vaca around SA. He will begin his doctoral degree in chiropractic when he returns to Cali.
  
• Carl: Swedish guy living in UK, he is also on a short vacation before returning to graduate school. He sports a posh English accent and cannot play 21 for shit.
  
• Kim and Rose: The anti-socials from SA and OZ respectively. They hid in their tents and lodges the whole time and didn't talk to anyone much.

On the third day of the tour, we arrived in a private game reserve. We had the afternoon free so we played frisbee around the pool. After tea at 1600, we headed out for an afternoon/night drive in an open vehicle with a stop for sundowners. The evening was spent in the bar where some of us played drinking games for most of the night. Gerry and I stayed up a bit later than others and spotted a giraffe (Gerry kept calling it a zebra tho - a little too much to drink, heh?) right inside the lodge complex probably about 15 feet in front of us.

On our last day we had a short bush walk in the morning to learn about the plants and such in the park. The morning started quite early (0515-0530), just like every other day of the tour. After last night's drinking tho, a few people were MIA for the walk. We headed home shortly after the walk and stopped at the Blyde River Canyon.

In the evening, Gerry, Carl, David, and I met up again for dinner and drinks in Melville. We ate at Spiro's on 7th St. and drank at Triple 6's also on 7th.