Tonight we are spending the night in Mopani Camp, which is a camp in the Kruger National Park. It’s much further North than you can reach on a normal day trip if you enter through Crocodile Bridge Gate, because it’s basically in the middle of the Park. We started out at about 7, because we figured that after the wait he had at the gate the other morning it wouldn’t help to get there much earlier. The line was still kind of long, but we got to skip it because we had a reservation, so that was cool.
We drove through the Park only on the tar road – another “Douglas Green” type of day. But somehow we still managed to have the best sightings! We saw the Big 5 again. We saw a leopard on a river bank, and then we were fortunate enough to see a lion on the move. It ran parallel to the car for quite a while before crossing the road, running off to scare away a massive group of vultures and then going off in the distance with something in its mouth (we couldn’t see what it was). We were also lucky to see a herd of elephant with some young taking a stroll across an open plain after playing in the water.
Herd of Elephants – the young ones are so small in comparison.
We arrived at Mopani. The camp is nice, with a variety of accommodation types. We were in a chalet on the end. The bedrooms were big, and it had air-conditioning – something we welcomed as it must have been close to 40 degrees outside. The kitchen was outside on the patio which was something new for me. We went and had a drink at the bar and watched the sunset over the dam that it looks over. Later, we went back for dinner – really good standard food for a rest camp!
View from the deck of the bar/restaurant
It’s unfortunate we only had one night there, as it was very rushed. But that was all we had and so we were off early the next morning again. We stopped to look at the Baobab tree on our way out. I love Baobab trees – I saw them for the first time that I remember on my trip to Zimbabwe last December. They always remind me of the Lion King. It was cool to learn some more about the Baobab from the signs around the tree, and we also had a chance to see where the Barn Owls were making their nests. We would be going out a different gate to normal, because today we’re off to Nelspruit, instead of straight back to Marloth Park.
The Baobab Tree
We saw two Hyenas’s lying in the road as we were driving out. They looked very annoyed that we had come past and woken them up, but we were so excited to see them up close again, and when we were the only car there. That’s one of the advantages of staying in the Park, especially in a camp in the middle – there are long periods of time where you are the only car around.
Hyena in the road.
We drove past some forests, and then got to Harrie’s Pancakes. You can basically get anything you want on a pancake – it’s amazing. I had a strawberry compote pancake. Once we were done, we were off to Nelspruit. We went shopping at the mall there and had lunch at John Dory’s. And then on the way home we sat for hours at the Stop-and-Go’s. It was completely ridiculous.
My yummy pancake.
But eventually we were home, and off to bed we went.
Megan's Travel Adventure 