Monday 12th April 2004

The next day we visited the Kruger National Park. After leaving Pezulu, after an early breakfast we entered Kruger at the Orpen Gate. We stopped at the shops whilst the teachers bought the entrance tickets. We then travelled to the Satara Rest Camp where we had half an hour at the shops to buy food and drinks for the rest of the day. We then took the wrong road out of Satara and had to turn back after about 10kms. We did however see our first elephant. Eventually we found the road to the Nwanetsi viewpoint and picnic site. At the site there was a very small shop and toilet. At that point we were about 1km away from the Mozambique border. On our way back it was a dirt road and the heavens opened. Our minibus started to leak since we had two large holes where the air conditioning unit was. We saw loads of different animals including, Giraffes, Zebras, Impalas, Elephants and Buffalo. Mr Birnie had the joy of driving Laurie, Laura and Kathleen, (Complete with animal impressions) round Kruger. Our drive took longer than expected (it does not look far on the map) and we thought that the park closed at 5.30 (actually it was a 6.00 close). A nice Afrikaans Policeman had set up his speed radar up and found that Mr. O’Neil was going faster than the 40Km speed limit. A ticket was issued. After leaving the nice man we then encountered a rather angry bull elephant grazing the trees from the road. After a six vehicle very fast backtrack as he charged us and a fifteen minute wait as he clamed down we managed to pass him and arrived at the Orpen Gate with minutes to spare. After Mr. O’Neil paid his fine and we got out the gate it was dark. The drive home was not pleasant, especially for the lady drivers.