track our trek

we spent a couple days in nelspruit and around. funky monkey was a charming little place w/ a resident french chef who created delicious desserts to go with our south african braai. (a glorified term for bbq.) we had fruit salad w/ port wine and brandy & bananas flambe w/ our grilled crocodile, boerewors and impala! yum...we drove one day to blyde river canyon and to see bourke's luck potholes...both really beautiful canyons and gorges. and we woke up before sunrise for our one day self-drive safari through kruger national park. the park is the size of israel! following advice from folks at the hostel, we arrived at the park before 7, as they assured us the animals are most active in the morning, and we'd have the best chance of seeing some of the big 5. by 9am it was sweltering in the car...did i mention we unwittingly rented a car w/ no a/c in africa in the middle of summer? whose bright idea was that?? then imagine driving around for hours w/ the windows cracked a few inches, in a park where you're not allowed to exit the car except in designated locations! phew! but we had a really lucky day! we saw hundreds of impala (a type of anteloupe we'd eaten the night before), lots of elephants crossing the road, including a mother nursing a baby, water buffalo, water bucks, zebras, lions sleeping in the afternoon, and even a leopard in a tree! the only one of the big 5 we didn't manage to spot was the black rhino! not bad for a one day safari! so we didn't feel bad that we opted not to stay overnight in the park.