Day 6 - National Women's Day and Kruger

Day 6 - National Women's Day and Kruger

Today is National Women’s Day in South Africa this means that it classes as a bank holiday. Hands at Work therefore shut down for the day and nearly all care points do not serve food for the children meaning that we couldn’t get out into community today. Due to the business at the Hands’ Hub when booking our stay we decided that we would stay in Kruger National Park over the weekend and as we weren’t into community today we chose to come into Kruger at 1pm and to explore some of the Park before heading to our lovely lodge. 

After about a minute in the park we were lucky to spot some young giraffes grazing which was an amazing sight so early on. We then spotted warthogs and some Guinea Fowl. After following a loop we were astonished to be greeted by a Leopard as we turned a corner (the first to be watching) and it prowled across the  road, clearly stalking something in the bush. We decided to stop and managed to slow down the other vehicles approaching and the Leopard just stopped in the middle of the road and lie down. We then waited for a good hour with the Leopard moving closer and closer to the side of the road where we saw an Impala (a very common type of antelope in South Africa). There was a loud crowd building around us but being the first on the scene we had a prime position. After waiting for an hour and a half watching the Leopard move closer to the many Impala sat in the bush and the suddenly it pounced and chased away the Impala.

We then preceded our route towards and 100 meters down the road we saw a small family of Zebra who crossed the road in road in front of us, literally a Zebra Crossing. 

On our final route to our lodge we saw multiple herds of Elephants, multiple rhinos in different spots, more giraffes, buffalos and many more Impala. Upon reaching our stunning lodge we decided that a 18:30 swim in the cold but lovely swimming pool (in pitch black) was a great idea! We are all very excited for another full day in the park tomorrow, having already seen 4 of the ‘Big 5’ within one afternoon!