Day 12: Singita Sweni (Kruger National Park)

Day 12:  Singita Sweni (Kruger National Park)

We woke up at 5:30 AM, got dressed and they escorted us over to the main area at 6 AM.  For breakfast, I had some juice and a muffin.  We loaded up into the jeep at 6:30 AM and began a daily adventure.  Our goal was to find a Cape Buffalo (the last remaining animal of the "Big 5").  The morning was very overcast and there was a little mist in the air.  We ventured out of the Singita Concession into the Public part of the Kruger National Park.  Since we were on the public roads we had to put the top and sides up on the jeep.  While looking for the Buffalo, we did find three Ostriches and a Porcupine in the mist.  No Buffalo's, but we saw Elephants, Giraffes, Zebras, Kudos, Water Boks and lots of Impalas.  We stopped for our morning snack and I had hot chocolate with Amarula, biltong, dried fruit and biscotti.  No luck finding the Buffalo in the morning so we headed back to the Lodge around 11 AM.  We put our orders in for lunch and watched our South Pacific animal show on Netflix.  When lunch was ready we sat down at our outside table and I had a Seafood dish that was very good.  Around 12 PM, we headed back to the room, took our malaria pills and then napped for a solid hour.  I woke up at 2 PM, splashed some water on my face and we headed to the main area at 2:15 PM.  We loaded up the jeep with a mission to find the Buffalo.  Again, we saw many Elephants, Giraffes, Impalas, Monkeys, Kudos and Zebras.  We continued our search for the Buffalo's for almost 2 hours with no luck.  We were about to call it quits and Exon (our tracker) saw some Buffalo tracks.

Day 11: Singita Sweni (Kruger National Park)

Day 11:  Singita Sweni (Kruger National Park)

I woke up at 2:30 AM and went to the bathroom but had a tough time going back to bed.  At 5:30 AM, we received our wake up call and we got dressed in our safari gear and then were escorted to the main area at 6 AM.  I wasn't very hungry so I only had some juice for breakfast.  We loaded up and started our jeep ride at 6:30 AM.  Our goal was to find the elusive Cape Buffalo which was the last of the big five that we had not seen yet  (Big Five: Lion, Rhinoceros, Elephant, Leopard and Cape Buffalo).  We came across some Giraffes, Elephants, Kudos and Impalas but we couldn't find any Buffalo.  Exon (our tracker) actually went out and starting looking for the Buffalo's on foot, but no luck.  Around 10 AM we stopped to have our morning snack.  I had a hot chocolate with Amarula, dried fruit, biscotti and biltong.  We had arranged to do some archery and pellet gun shooting out in the bush.  Zack was into the pellet gun and did a good job hitting the can we setup as a target.  We then headed back to camp and along the way we saw a Hyena, Leopard Turtle, Wildebeest and a bunch of other animals.  We got back to the Lodge around 11:30AM and they met us with a nice wet towel and cold drink.  We ordered lunch and watched an animal show on Netflix while they cooked the food.  For lunch, I had BBQ ribs, Peri/Peri wings and coleslaw.  Everything was very tasty.  We then headed back to the room around 1:15 PM and I took a 45 minute nap.  At 2 PM, we headed back to the main area and I had a coke to wake up before we loaded up again for our 2:15 PM trek.  The afternoon safari was our best so far.  We saw a ton of Elephants, Giraffes, Impalas, Kudos, Zebras, Wildebeest, Hyena, Lions, Rhinos and a bunch of birds.  While we were driving around we noticed a bunch of Vultures circling around an area ahead of us so we drove over to investigate.  It ended up being a dead Impala lying in the grass.  Although we still couldn't find a Buffalo, it was pretty much non-stop action all day.  Even when we were heading home in the dark (sunset is 5 PM), we saw a couple of Hyena's hanging out and we were lucky enough to find a Leopard on the road that was stalking some Impalas. We followed the Leopard for awhile thru the grass but it was getting too dark so we headed back to the Lodge around 6:15 PM.  We ordered dinner right away because we knew it would take awhile for them to cook it.  In the meantime, we hung out in the TV room and I enjoyed a couple of new beers and watched another episode of the South Pacific animal show we had previously watched on Netflix the day before.  Dinner was ready so we shifted to our table outside.  I had a similar meal as the previous night with a slight change.  It was Prawns, Calamari, Mussels and Soft Shell crabs but with a nice and spicy tomato broth.  For dessert, I had my 3 scoops of Sorbet (Pineapple, Coconut and Berry).  Excellent meal.  Zack tried Kudo Meat for dinner.  We were all tired and we went back to the room at 8 PM.  We showered up and got into bed around 9:30 PM.