We, a group of 14 IBM professionals, embarked on Project Kruger over a weekend to experience real time the wonder it had to offer. We reached the park on a Saturday mid day, and right at the entrance we were delighted to see the group of impalas. It seemed the Impala’s were appointed by Lion king to welcome and check our status time to time! Impala’s are referred as “McDonalds” in Kruger, probably because they are the most easily available food item for wild animals. And also, they carry the hoarding of “M”, the first letter of McDonalds.
Not sure if Giraffes were keen to meet us but they couldn’t hide themselves, and we did see them during our two days visit on several occasions. Baboons are small but they were jumping on trees to let us feel their presence.
Within a couple of hours, we could see several animals like Buffalo, Wild beast, Baboon, Giraffe, Impala’s and now we were desperate to see any of the big fives, and to set the expectation bar higher a leopard came out from the bush for 4-5 seconds. He was not keen to pose for paparazzos but some of the cameras won this hide and seek battle. Glimpse of one of the big fives, created more curiosity around whereabouts of other 4 members and then we heard our tour guide Sandy
I forgot to mention the Bar Coded Zebras, they were plenty and I also learnt that the print on their body is as unique as our fingerprints. And they were not camera shy, we could manage to get several great solo and group pictures.
Not only the animals but we also witnessed some unique Travel Partnerships like Tortoise and Croc below or the bird on the impala.
We also saw couple of socializing events where Giraffe, Zebra, Buffalo
Wild life is something where everything is fair in war of survival, and I was thinking loyalty and relationship has no meaning in their dictionary, but then the nicest little petite antelope called Steenbok came across and I was surprised to hear that they are monogamous and in case of partner’s death the other lives the remaining life as single.
Back to our camp in Oliphant resort we could not wait for the night safari which started at 8 PM with lot of expectation that we will reveal several secrets of wildlife but it didn’t turn out as expected. It seemed Hippo’s could sense our frustration and came to meet us. The Tour Guide was making a fun of Hippos by saying they are part of UGLY 5 and so appeared only in dark night. But it seems the Hippo’s didn’t like the comment and may be the reason why we saw so many Hippos the next morning.
Had a great sleep with imaginations running of one of the big five standing outside the hut door, and as if we did not have enough, discounting it was a lazy Sunday morning; we started on an early morning safari. From dawn to mid day we re-explored, with 15 pair of eyes scanning the surrounding to find the Lion king but he decided to not to show up; probably he wanted us to make another visit to Kruger. Kruger is massive at 2 million hectares and perhaps 2 days are not enough to visit the entire park. It is best to pick a section of the park and explore. We left the park around 1:00 PM on Sunday and the animals came to see us off probably in the same order as they came for welcome, even though the Impala’s were not getting our attention they gave company till the gate of the park, and so we felt they were appointed to check on us .And made us feel we were welcomed in their territory.
It was a great trip, with loads of learning and fun with a desire to come back again.
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