I’m in a picture for a change! The group of friends and I who went to Kruger Park.

As a little kid we used to go to Kruger Park quite regularly. My dad loves the place and is quite convinced that in some previous life he was a vervet monkey in the one part of the park. After we bought the flat in Scottburgh (while we still lived in Johannesburg) we tended to go to Durban for every holiday – we had a flat there after all, it would be a big waste to let it just stand empty. And then once we moved to Scottburgh we didn’t really go on too many holidays. I hadn’t been to Kruger Park in years when I was invited to go along with some friends. I was super excited, but I had to work. I somehow eventually managed to convince my boss to allow me a few days off – well not really off. I was allowed to go for some of the days, as long as the work still got done. The group left a few days before me because I had to stay and do the expo. The expo was a huge amount of fun! And very fattening. If you go up to a cake stand and enquire about their cake, they tend to automatically presume you are a bride-to-be (which would make sense at a bridal expo) but they then proceed to give you a cupcake to test… I had loads of fun going to all the stands and getting free cupcakes 😀 😀

The one guy in our group is super into wildlife and he pretty much knows the park backwards. For the next few days we woke up at the crack of dawn and drove around the park for the entire day until it was closing time for the gates.

Because I had come through in my own car, on the last day I drove on my own. I decided to go through the park and then leave out a higher gate that was a tiny bit closer to home. It was crazy scary! I love missioning on my own and thoroughly enjoy going on holidays on my own. But this day I got completely freaked out. I was driving on this sand road in the picture below, and I had stopped to take some pictures of a bird. I was busy concentrating on the bird and was quite oblivious to anything other than what was happening on that particular branch. As I was finishing up and as I lowered my camera I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. And elephant was standing right next to my car. It was just standing there eating and not at all bothered by me. But this huge thing had literally stuck up on me. It wasn’t there when I stopped, or at least not so close, and yet when I finished taking photos it was right next to my car. And now I drive a tiny little car. When I glanced out the window its as like his toe nails were eye level with me – ok not quite, nut maybe like his knees. I got the fright of my life. I’ve never felt so small in my life.

rk