Day 5. Fly to Kruger National Park

After we had our breakfast buffet in the morning, Hank picked us up from the hotel and took us to the airport. We flew from Cape Town to Hoedspruit on an AirLink flight. During the short 2.5-hour flight, we were offered free wine and free lunch (a very good beef sandwich) - what a pleasant surprise!  

Hoedspruit airport is so small that instead of a conveyer belt, there were employees bringing baggage to the baggage claim area. I had arranged with Sausage Tree Safari Camp for the airport transfer. Our driver, Patrick, was holding a sign waiting for us when we arrived.  

On the way to Sausage Tree Safari Camp, Patrick told us that he used to be a wildlife ranger. We saw several groups of impalas and Patrick told us some fun facts about these animals. Male impalas have antlers while females do not. Females live together. Male impalas will fight each other. Only one winner will get to live with the group of female impalas. The other male impalas will live together as the "loser group". Below is a picture of that one successful male impala and his girlfriends. The success is always temporary, as other males will challenge this male and eventually replace him in about a week. 

Sausage Tree Safari Camp

This is my favorite place in South Africa! 

This lodge had a main patio for breakfast, lunch, and just hanging out. The patio had a great view of the safari. We saw a group of giraffes when we arrived. Some decorations in the common area were items that the staff found on the safari, and they were super cool, for example, an elephant skull! 

There was a swimming pool in the common area. Unfortunately we did not pack swim suits.

The lodge had five tents. Our tent was under a roof, had furniture and AC. The tent had a connected full bathroom. In addition to the normal toiletries, they even prepared bug spray for us in the tent. In addition to the bathtub, there was an outdoor shower outside of the bathroom. So the tent was more like a nice hotel room rather than a camping tent.  

The lodge had satellite wifi. My local SIM card also had good cell signal.

The staff were super nice as well. When we arrived, they greeted us at the gate, offered us refreshing juice, and took our luggage to our tents. Then they served us lunch. Even though I had lunch on the airplane and was not hungry, I ate all the food as they were really delicious.  

We then went to our tent, took a shower and took a nap.

Game Drive

After some rest in the afternoon, we were informed to go on a game drive at 5pm. We happened to be the only guests at the lodge. The staff prepared water bottles and blankets for us for the drive. The game drive vehicle was open-top, with one driver and one tracker. Our driver was Themba and our tracker was Jimmy. They were really amazing at finding animals. 

Elephant

Soon we saw one big elephant. Themba told us that it was a male elephant. Female elephants live together as a group, and will raise babies. When a male elephant reaches adulthood, he will be kicked out of the group to live by himself. Themba also told us that male elephants were very aggressive and dangerous when they were in heat. If a male elephant has a wet face, and has peed on himself, he is likely in heat and we should stay a good distance away. Luckily this one was not, he was just eating and totally ignored us.

Rhinos

We saw two male white rhinos near a pond. Jimmy and Themba told us that they were not brothers, but good buddies who liked to hung out together. Both white and black rhinos are grey in color. The names came from a miscommunication. White rhinos have a flat / wide upper lip, while black rhinos have a pointy / hooked upper lip. People mistook "wide" as "white", so they called them white rhinos. Then they thought, if one type was white, then the other type must be black. Therefore the names.

Rhinos were hunted to near extinction in South Africa by poachers. To protect them, rangers shave off their horns. In addition, we were asked not to post photos or videos of rhinos online, otherwise poachers may use the geo tag in the image files to locate those animals. 

Lions

We then saw a pride of lions. Jimmy and Themba told us that this pride had 6 females, 2 males, and 5 cubs. We were lucky that we saw all of them today because they normally hid the cubs. While often there would be only one male lion in a pride, this pride was led by two males who were brothers. These brothers took over this pride three years ago. When a male lion takes over a pride, he will either kill the previous male or send him to exile. He will then kill all the cubs fathered by the previous male. A male lion can lead a pride for about three years before a younger stronger male overpowers and replaces him. I hope these cubs can have a chance to grow up.  

Sunset, stars, more animals

Jimmy and Themba drove to an open area, and set up a picnic table. We got snacks and drinks and watched a beautiful sunset. I was not hungry, but the snacks were so delicious that I kept eating. I especially liked biltong, a beef-jerky-like South African snack. The flavor was way more richer than beef jerky. To make biltong, beef was marinated in spices, and then air dried. While this may sound similar to beef jerky, biltong was way richer in flavor.

After sunset, we saw so many stars, with the milky way across the sky. Since I could only recognize the big dipper back home, I could not recognize any constellation in the southern hemisphere sky. Themba used a laser pointer to explain the constellations. After that, I thought that I could recognize one cross that points to the South, but as soon as I turned around, I could not find it.  

We drove more with Jimmy using a flashlight scanning for animals. Jimmy and Themba have super-human eye sights and spotted little animals like owls from far apart in the darkness. They often had use both the flashlight and the laser pointer to point at the animal so that we could barely see it too. We saw a hyena that was well known by the neighbors here because it had a limping hind leg due to a birth defect. 

Wrap up the day

We went back to the lodge at 9pm. The staff were already waiting for us with hot towels. Dinner table was set near a campfire with candle lights. The three-course dinner prepared by the chef was so great that both Claire and I ate everything. After dinner, we went back to our tent, and went to sleep. What an amazing day!