Today was a pretty usual day for me , we woke up for our 6am drive and i was picked to sit on the tracker seat!! thats always fun, I spotted a giraffe, impala and zebra , nothing out of the ordinary so we sat and watched them for a while and then pulled off the road for a outdoor class session.

Our outdoor classroom

 We were in this clearing which was a big circle surrounded by tall grass, perfect for any predator to hide in, it was very windy so windy thit completely ripped a page out of the book!! we talked about animal behaviour and what to do if we were approached by a dangerous animal on foot. it was quite entertaining to watch sean act like both elephant and lion. When someone asked ” now how exactly are we suppose to scare off a lion” ? he gave us the perfect example by taking off his hat throwing it like 30 feet in front of him , screaming and yelling f**k off!!!! it was one of the funniest things i have ever seen, but he said when you are in a situation like that your adrenaline will be pumping so bad that all you will do is just curse and swear ha ha. After a few more situations he put us in we decided to head back to the campus for lunch. 3 of the people in our group stayed home for the drive because they are really sick, nowone knows what is wrong with them, but i fear there is a bug going around. Even my roomie has it , which means im probably next!! Apart from that it was a pretty quiet day just took a nap and am getting ready for my lion presentation which is tomorrow. So goodnight!!

After a long night and a few casual drinks at n the boss which i paid for myself thank you!! I headed off to bed around 4am( lol) I was awoken at 6am by my roomie who asked me if I was going to Kruger. Without any hesitation I said no thanks have fun! As I laid in bed trying to go back to sleep I wandered “should I have gone” yes I probably should have. Luckily for me Owen came banging door to door to see if there were any stragglers left behind who wanted to go ? so I threw on some clothes and headed out for Kruger. When we got to the Orpen Gate I had to buy a wildcard which will allow access to any park in Kruger for a year!! and it was pretty cheap as well. When we went through the gate me , Owen and James in a little whoopie car we were very excited and opened the map to see if we could find the same waterhole that battle at kruger was filmed at, but there was literally 50 different waterholes to go through se we gave up on that idea quick. Kruger wasnt really what I was expecting sure it is the size of Israel it was huge and no matter what road you went down you could just drive endlessly. There was literally a line of cars you had to travel behind, which was good in a sense because you knew you were going to see something based on how many cars and 2ft lenses were at one area at a time, but in another sense it wasnt as private and natural this way either, it was like being at a zoo with a line of peole around an exhibit and you have to wait your turn to get a glimpse of a tiger or gorilla. We were at Kruger for about 9 hours and we saw plenty of giraffe, impala, gazelle, wildabeest, cape buffalo, kudu, many bird species, elephant, crocodile, baboon, vervet monkeys, zebra but no cats still !! sadly. We went to this little tourist shop a couple times and they have this chart where people mark where they had a sighting, there were about 5 lion sightings, no wild dog sighting because of how highly endangered they are, and a couple leopard sightings. By the time we got to the watering hole where a male and 2 females were spotted, they had left with no traces other than a fully eaten carcass. At the shop i bought some post cards and a really cool board game that teaches you all these fun facts about wildlife and such, so maybe that will help me learn more. I cant believe how close the animals allowed us to get to them, we were literally like within feet from them, they are just so used to cars it doesnt fade them. I would have to say the coolest sighting would be watching an elephant bathe in the watering hole. it literally got all the way in with just the top of his head and trunk out of the water!! that was really neat, i wanted to go swim with him so bad, but i would have been kicked out and arrested. When we got back to campus i was pleased to find out that the other group that went saw the BIG FIVE ( leopard, lion, buffalo, elephant, rhino) I was sooo jealous of all the awesome pictures and stories, i think everyone has seen a cat now except me , why am i being punished!! the way this is going im probably going to get more than i bargained for with a cat when one finally does show up!! anyways in all it was a good day,

Well i just got done with my first exam and it wasnt as bad as i thought it was be but deffinately hard. I deffinately couldnt answer those questions i just did before I came here thats for sure!! I probably missed around 10 answers out of a hundred. But lets hope thats enough to pass , we have to have a 75% pass mark on all tests, so fingers crossed. We now have the rest of the weekend off to do what our heart pleases. Tonight we rented two cars that will talk us to this bar called in de bos which translates to ” In the bush”so this should be an intersting experience, it is an hour away though which kinda stinks but obviously i am not going to be driving, because I cant ha ha . When we are done with this trip we are headed straight to Kruger hoping to arrive there at 5:30 am to have first dibbs of all the wildlife as the gat opens at 6am!! man i can already tell you this is going to be tiring, but we are all very excited to hopefully get a chance to finally see a cat!!! i dont even care if its a wild house cat i just wana see one. Thats about all for my agenda for the day , probably eat alot, work out and try to start a game of volleyball. I cant believe how fast this week went by!!

Well today started just like it did yesterday very early lol we headed out at 6am on our last drive for the weekend, Luckily i did not have to drive but i dont know how long i can sit in the very back quietly when nellie asks has everyone had a chance to drive yet? Someone beat me to the front seat ( darn) lol anyways just as we were pulling out i noticed bridgette driving the other car, she was having problems reversing the jeep and as she pulled out she was headed straight for the tree in front of them and the person in the tracker seat jumped off for dear life, it was quite entertaining but as i was laughing i was thinking ok i would have have ran the jeep straight into the tree, luckily she avoided it. As we headed out we first came across a large herd of cape buffalo or ” Nyari” as we quietly switched off the engine and just smoothly glided forward the herd formed one unite with the male leaders in the front and man were they big. They just sat there motionless trying to pick up our scent and warn us to stay away, the females and their calfs formed the middle of the huddle, just like you saw in battle at kruger. After about 5 minutes of sizing us up and realizing we were no longer a threat they started to walk away from us disinterested , but 3 male bulls made sure to keep a close eye on us as the others wandered off. We kept on driving and out of nowhere about 1km ahead we realized we were no more than 20 feet away from a large bull elephant luckily he was more interested in feeding then charging so we got to sit right next to him and watch him feed while taking some photos. As the other jeep pulled up right behind us for a close up we decided to continue on. It got pretty quiet after those 2 sighting, just impala, warthog and many many animal tracks. We decided to stop for a tea break shortly after and took some funny pictures orchestrated by no other but me of course, i was telling people to jump onto eachothers backs for a pic and they looked at me like i was crazy , but they ended up doing it and it turned out to be a cute pic. Nellie spotted a magic quarry tree and so we found it a great opportunity to brush our teeth with the branches so after about 30 minutes of brushing silently and looking around at eachother laughing we loaded up into the jeep and headed on , It was getting quite hot at this point and we werent seeing anyting too exciting except for about 100 spottings of the batleur eagle which moses was quite fed up with, he kept making jokes about OMG there it is again , hurry up get out your cameras ha ha just as we were headed in hungry and bored we ran across a huge herd of elephant that were running very quickly in one direction so we decided to follow behind the two stragglers who happend to be to male bulls following the herd of females for obvious reasons. One of the males didnt like us following right behind his rear so he decided to give us a little fright and walk right up to us and in front of our jeep, like saying ” hey just in case you forgot how big i was” so after we allowed him to pass and head on we followed right behind him again, at this point im thinking ok maybee we should push off a little but nope we kept on right ahead. As we were sitting watching the new males get welcomed by the females and their young for either a live birth or a funeral , Moses shouted out hey there is a large bull coming our way !!! and man was he right, we hadnt even heard this silent beast come right up behind us so we quickly moved back and allowed him passage or he would have just taken it from us. He started to do a mock charge and showed us signs that he was not happy, so nellie told us not to move or make any sounds and if he charges to throw our arms up in teh air to make ourselves appear larger. Luckily he did not see us as a threat and continued with the others. We headed back for the camp tummies rumbling and sat down to a nice lunch with potatoes and meat pie. Then i took a nap and studied a little bit, i have my first exam tomorrow so no time to waste gotta study, lata

Today we went on a drive at lovely 6am , it was very dark and cold and I could barely function yet alone open my eyes, but you have to get your senses going because you need them all for the bush. Before we got started I was getting comfortable in the back of the Jeep until I hear my name being called to give the pre-trail brief. For all of you who dont know what this is it consists of a list of things you have to say to your guests before you can get started on your game drive, it sounds like this:

Hello everyone my name is Danielle and I will be your tracker today, please make sure you have brought enough clothes to keep you warm, please switch off all electronic devices, let me know if you have any medical conditions i need to be aware of, please keep arms and legs inside vehicle, please do not stand up while driving or when viewing dangerous game and so on…..

Then we started our journey at first we didnt really see much just a giraffe who was pregnant which was pretty cool, and just when we got too comftorable with the bush we hear the sounds of a lion about 2km away. For all who havent heard this sound before it is quite unmistakable. We tried to follow the sounds of the lion but lost track of where it was coming from and ended up going a different direction, As we were driving along we came up to a large group of baboons who were sitting on the road in the sun soaking up the rays and grooming eachother, it was like being back at the beach in florida. There were many babies present and they were so tiny and cute. As we pushed our way on I spotted a large batleur eagle in a tree and when i told sean to stop the vehicle to help me identify it further he noticed a large white rhino right next to us!!! lucky stop huh, we didnt get a very clear look because it disappeared after a few minutes deeper and deeper into the bush. We then stopped for breakfast and enjoyed sandwhiches and juice right next to a big pile of rhino dung( yummy) afterwards we drove around some more and ended up at the water hole where we were greeted by zebra, hippo and a crocodile , after a quick photoshoot we headed back to camp where i ran full speed towards my bed where I took a short 3 hour nap, then the usual dinner and now i am studying for the big test on Saturday!! wish me luck!!