Our South Africa adventure. Royal Kruger Lodge and National Park

Friday the 3rd of May 2019,  saw us jetting of to South Africa, to experience the big five on safari. Also to tick of our bucket list to see Victoria Falls and do the Rovos rail.
Firstly we had a five hour flight to Perth and a 7 hour layover, so we took the opportunity to catch up with a close friend, have dinner, chat and reminisce about our time together in Europe in 2006.
Johannesburg is a 10 hour overnight flight, then we had a 4 hour wait before we boarded for Nelspruit and 1 1/2hour drive to Kruger Royal Lodge.
Lunch, then a well deserved rest.
Dinner that night was around a boma (campfire) and four courses.
The next day was an early rise to do a tour of the Panorama.
After a 2 hour drive to get to the Panorama, our first stop was the Lisbon Falls, then the Grand Canyon and Blyde River Canyon Reserve.
This is the third largest  Grand Canyon of its kind in the world.

 Next stop was Lisbon Falls.

Lisbon Falls

Panorama view of the Grand Canyon.

A spectacular view and such beautiful country. We ventured into Sabine, had a look at the market stalls and then onto lunch at our bush kitchen.

Cultural painting 

Blyde River Canyon and the famous Potholes.

Cultural dancing

Market stalls.

The famous canyons and Potholes.

After this tour, we went into the bush to a bush kitchen setup and had the most amazing meal.

After lunch we ventured onto Gods Window.

Looked at the shops in Grasskop.

God’s Window..

A very packed 12 hour day, I slept well that night, as the next morning we were to arise at 4am for our first safari.

This is our abode for the next four nights.

Our first sunrise on safari, our mission is to see the big five, Rhino, Elephant, water buffalo, Lion and leopard. Apparently the leopard is the hardest to spot, our first day was fruitful with the first three, phots as published, we have one more chance tomorrow to try and spot some cats as none were sighted today, 

What an awesome experience, the early morning rise was well worth it.

Sunrise

Elephants, we saw many of them in herds and baby ones as well.

Rhinos, we saw four in total

Water buffalo

Elephant crossing.

The next day on safari was all about spotting some cats, Robert our guide was on a mission, and bingo, lions, .baby lions, leopards and cheetahs, how lucky were we.

A wonderful experience was had by all, a farewell dinner around the Boma, for the next day we fly back to Johannesburg, drive to Pretoria and onto the Rovos rail for three days.