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- Dec 12, 2011
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Having decided to take the opportunity for a great deal on an elephant hunt that came about because of the ivory import ban... The first challenge was to convince my wife to go.. In hind sight I probably should have gone alone but she did appreciate gaining the experience and the first hand knowledge of how this part of the World is. Although she was ready to go home on the 3rd day in camp.... It was an adventure, I would not recommend this as a relaxing vacation. I do think Ann would admit that it was worth being there on certain days, like day 6 when we got into a large herd of elephants (more later).
She has laid out a few rules for any future safaris she accompanies me on... The biggest one being that the safari truck be the 4 door version with a comfortable seat for her to ride in. We went to some areas that required up to a 3 1/2 hour drive and it was pretty cramped in that little Toyota 60/40 seat.
We started out by flying through Paris and as we had a full day layover, Ann had booked a private tour guide to pick us up at the airport and take us on a tour of Versailles. That went very smooth and it was easy as we had our main luggage checked all the way through to Polokwane RSA and brought our carry on's with and just left them in the van.
Then a second long night on a plane and arrived in Joberg where the Rifle Permit folks were waiting for us. Connected on to Polokwane and had a little snafu with the rental car as Hertz was on full out Africa time and even though their sign said open until 5, they had closed at 1 so we ended up getting a car from the very helpful young lady at Avis (which was the only one open)... We had forgot to pack a GPS and they did not have one to rent but the directions were very good and we drove right to the hotel way out o nthe other side of town without incident. Had a nice late dinner and some much needed sleep followed by a great breakfast and then back to the airport to get the right car, a little SUV with an automatic which was well worth it in Kruger. Stayed in Lataba camp the first night then Satara and then back to the same Protea Hotel in Polokwane.
Saw lots of critters including elephants, hippos, blue wildebeest, way too many impala, and I don't remember what else that first afternoon drive in... A little frustration is the need to be into the camp by 6:30 when the critters really come out just an hour or two before that.... I had made reservation for the camps on line but could not get the game drives figured out... So we signed up for the 8PM game drive and Ann decided we may as well do the 4AM drive as well so got on the list for both. A tip for this time of year, sign in, go directly to your room and turn on the AC to the max, then go eat and look around and come back when it is cooled down a bit!
The game drives did not disappoint from what we had experienced in the past. Drivers who had varying levels of knowledge. Fellow tourists who could not STFU! (be quite) to save their hides. And idiots running the spot lights at night. We took a good flashlight and got in line first to claim a spot light on our 3rd drive. We did get some interesting views and experiences with elephant the first night, mainly watching them eat trees. The highlight for me of the morning drive was a hyena coming right around the truck.
That second day we took all day driving on our own with a packed lunch and took every side road to get to Satara camp. Saw a couple Kudu that I'm still dreaming of! And got right up into a pride of lions right before lockup time at camp.
This above kudu looked to me like he had the body size of an eland!
She has laid out a few rules for any future safaris she accompanies me on... The biggest one being that the safari truck be the 4 door version with a comfortable seat for her to ride in. We went to some areas that required up to a 3 1/2 hour drive and it was pretty cramped in that little Toyota 60/40 seat.
We started out by flying through Paris and as we had a full day layover, Ann had booked a private tour guide to pick us up at the airport and take us on a tour of Versailles. That went very smooth and it was easy as we had our main luggage checked all the way through to Polokwane RSA and brought our carry on's with and just left them in the van.
Then a second long night on a plane and arrived in Joberg where the Rifle Permit folks were waiting for us. Connected on to Polokwane and had a little snafu with the rental car as Hertz was on full out Africa time and even though their sign said open until 5, they had closed at 1 so we ended up getting a car from the very helpful young lady at Avis (which was the only one open)... We had forgot to pack a GPS and they did not have one to rent but the directions were very good and we drove right to the hotel way out o nthe other side of town without incident. Had a nice late dinner and some much needed sleep followed by a great breakfast and then back to the airport to get the right car, a little SUV with an automatic which was well worth it in Kruger. Stayed in Lataba camp the first night then Satara and then back to the same Protea Hotel in Polokwane.
Saw lots of critters including elephants, hippos, blue wildebeest, way too many impala, and I don't remember what else that first afternoon drive in... A little frustration is the need to be into the camp by 6:30 when the critters really come out just an hour or two before that.... I had made reservation for the camps on line but could not get the game drives figured out... So we signed up for the 8PM game drive and Ann decided we may as well do the 4AM drive as well so got on the list for both. A tip for this time of year, sign in, go directly to your room and turn on the AC to the max, then go eat and look around and come back when it is cooled down a bit!
The game drives did not disappoint from what we had experienced in the past. Drivers who had varying levels of knowledge. Fellow tourists who could not STFU! (be quite) to save their hides. And idiots running the spot lights at night. We took a good flashlight and got in line first to claim a spot light on our 3rd drive. We did get some interesting views and experiences with elephant the first night, mainly watching them eat trees. The highlight for me of the morning drive was a hyena coming right around the truck.
That second day we took all day driving on our own with a packed lunch and took every side road to get to Satara camp. Saw a couple Kudu that I'm still dreaming of! And got right up into a pride of lions right before lockup time at camp.
This above kudu looked to me like he had the body size of an eland!