Today is Thursday and we were supposed to go to school again, but instead, we went to Kruger National Park! We had to wake up at 5:00 am and get in a safari vehicle with doors and a canvas roof to drive the hour to Kruger. Before we got to the ticket station we saw three elephants and one rhino! At 8:30 am, we had breakfast at a lookout point. Charlene had made us muffins that were so good! After breakfast, we drove more and saw a hyena and a lion!
Lioness in the Grass
The first lion in Kruger that we saw was a female in the shade of trees. We were driving down the road and there were a lot of cars idling in the road and on the side of the road. We were told that there was a lion somewhere in the field and we looked for about ten minutes without seeing anything. As we were driving away I saw the lion’s tail flick up through the tall grass and I told everyone. The lion was behind a giant root and under a tree and through all the time we were looking for it everyone kept saying there is nothing under the tree. The lion proceeded to sit up and look around for thirty seconds, then she laid back down again to sleep. A little while after the lion, we saw a herd of buffalo! They were mostly laying down in the tall grass so we could not see their full mass.
Pride of Lions
You might be wondering if we only saw the big five. No, we did see a lot of giraffes, antelopes, and wildebeest. After the buffalos, we drove around for a long while, and then we came upon a pride of lions! First, we just saw one mom with three cubs then we saw other lionesses. I also saw what looked like a male lion laying in the shade of a tree. It was a male, and in the end, there were eight females and four cubs, and one male! While watching the lions, we saw a herd of elephants visit the water hole very close to the lions! After the Lions, we went to see if the elephants were in an ideal place to see them and as we turned the corner on the road and the whole herd of elephants! There were a couple of bulls and some smaller elephants and one tiny baby. The small one mostly hid behind the older ones but we got to see it briefly. We stayed next to the elephants for 20 minutes then we moved on. The air was literally as hot as the breath of an oven so we were all ready to go home. Luckily, our driver said it would take us about 15-20 minutes to get out of the park. It took us 45.
Behind the Elephants
On our way down the dirt road we saw some giraffes and a wildebeest but we had seen so many and it was so hot that nobody went “Look a giraffe what an exotic animal! we all just said “oh, there are four giraffes on the side of the road, what a surprise.” After about 7 minutes of driving we got stuck behind a herd of big, slow elephants walking in the road. We had no idea where they were going. I was thinking, “they’re just trying to slow us down so they can be first to wherever they are going.” All of the elephants except one went off the road. This one elephant was going so slowly. He was probably tired and hot like the rest of us but couldn’t he just get off the road? No, he had to walk on the road, and poop on it. Fresh elephant dung is very smelly especially when the elephant is ahead of you and the wind is blowing toward you.
Lunch Behind the Elephants
As we were driving slowly we got lunch out. Lunch was under my seat so I had to get down on the floor and get out all the food and drinks. Lunch was the best lunch wrap ever! I bet the elephants were jealous:) By the time we were eating lunch the elephants were all off the road. We finally saw what they all were heading for. A water hole! Or a mud hole. The elephants were playing in the mud and splashing themselves! Three elephants had strayed from the group to drink from the fresh water spring, man-made! After the elephants got out of the way, we drove off. The ride home was so hot and long! At one point I pulled out my hair tie and my hair flew around and stood on end. When we finally got home my face felt like it had been burnt by the wind
