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.