Lions, Giraffes, and Leopards… Oh My!

by Robyn and Kaili

We returned to Jo’burg Wednesday night after an exhausting 3 day trip up to Kruger National Park to see some more of South Africa’s beautiful terrain and wildlife.

Early Monday morning we hopped on a bus with a bunch of other backpackers and made our way North East to Kruger through an INCREDIBLE scenic route. We left home at 5:45 to be at our pickup place at 6:30. We arrived at our lodge at 6 pm. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted!

Tuesday was a full day drive! We were supposed to meet at the bus at 5:30, so we set our alarm for 4:30. At 5:45 our pleasantly gruff Afrikaner driver hammered on our door with the shout of ” LADIES. BUS. NOW.” We had no idea why somebody was hammering on our door before our alarm! We were dressed and in the bus no more than two minutes later. Thankfully, our newfound friends remained friendly.
The day drive was marvelous. We were out in the park for 14 hours in total! It was tons of fun. We were lucky enough to see four of the big five. We saw elephants, buffaloes, lions and a leopard! The only one we missed was the rhino. We also saw myriad giraffes, impalas, zebras, wildebeast and vervet monkeys.
Wednesday we drove home. It was a long day! When we arrived home we were both too tired to speak of the awesome trip we had!

We’re still pretty exhausted, but we’re pumped for our last ten days here at Sparrow. We decided to extend our time here by a week. So instead of leaving this Monday we leave on the 15th of June. We’re sad to be leaving so soon, but we have learned so much about service and ourselves. And, we know we will be back in South Africa as soon as possible.