Over the long weekend in June (Youth Day), we were invited to join our friends Fi, Ross, Andrew, Liz, Greg, Hazel, and Al at Fi's family farm on the border of Kruger. The farm is about a five hour drive from our house, northeast towards Mozambique. Of course, you know what this means...ROAD TRIP!
And no road trip in South Africa would be complete without a litany of trailers such as this one all over the highway. People really take vacation seriously, and will bring along everything including the kitchen sink (seriously).
Along the way, we stopped at what must be the best rest station in the entire world. This is the view...FROM THE MEN'S URINAL BLOCK! Clerestory windows over the pee pots substantially improve the relief factor by enabling you to ogle big game while you drain the main vein - no stage fright here! See if you can spot the white rhino, cape buffalo, rhea, ostrich, and zebra.
Because the farm sits within Sabi Sands (a mega-reserve composed of several family properties that have dropped their fences bordering Kruger National Park to allow game to roam freely), we had to pass the Kruger Gates. Security is tight to discourage poaching. You should notice that the sun is starting to set - we were seriously pushing it in our little car by arriving at night.
As we drove in at the cusp of the evening, we were treated to the sight of a family of elephants feeding. Jonah was so excited as he tried to take a photo with his Ipad that he repeatedly hit the car horn, eliciting a chorus of trumpeting and threatening gestures that made us beat a hasty retreat. Using advanced photo-filtering of those Ipad photos, we are able to give you this incredible, once-in-a-lifetime shot. The black rectangular thing in the middle is an elephant, we swear.
Our hut in the morning. The farm sits in the lowveld, a subtropical savannah biome consisting of interspersed grassland, shrubby thickets, and tall trees (including the Marula tree, whose fruit makes the famous Amarula liqueur). This is thatch roof country, and you can see how the traditional architecture blends right in.
The farm is no longer a hunting lodge, but impressive mounts from the bygone days grace the walls in the main lounge and dining room.
Most mornings, we piled into the Land Cruiser and did a bit of game viewing and bird watching. Prescription sunglasses have changed Kelsey's life.
Fi was our intrepid pilot.
These Waterbuck are furry fellows. Their Latin species name - Kobus ellipsiprymnus - refers to the prominent white ring on their butt, visible on the specimen on the left.
Kelsey caught this beautiful giraffe being pestered by a small flock of Red-Billed Oxpeckers. Although these nice little birds eat copious amounts of ticks (~100 per day per bird), they can be pretty irritating when they're nipping at your ears.
Later in the day we caught this family of elephants by the waterhole. No car horn honking this time...
...but we still got a little threat display when we parked too closely.
We also found this lioness and her three cubs lounging. They had clearly finished off a solid meal - their bellies were huge and they barely opened their eyes as we drove past.
The bird watching was also superb (although the bird photography was not). We saw about 65 new species for our South African list, and even learned the difference between a pipit and a lark. Thanks, Andrew!
In the afternoons, we honed our backgammon skills before going out on a sundowner game drive.
This sunset over the escarpment of the Blyde River Canyon shows just how close the edge of the Drakensberg are.
As we watched the sunset, an enormous hippo erupted from a small waterhole just in front of us, cavorted for a while, and then snuck off into the scrub.
Kelsey and Hazel bravely remained on the Land Cruiser.
This triptych shows just how close you can get to an elephant and not even know it. As we passed the thicket on the left, Fi said "look for elephant," and we didn't even see the grey shape at center until it grabbed a whole mouthful of leaves as we passed about 6 feet away. 
The banks of the Sand River are just teeming with game. Here we saw crocodiles, Cape Buffalo, Elephant and a host of other awesome critters.
Our last evening found us in the "boma", or stockade enclosure. This one is complete with a period Oxwagon, as well as a number 8 potjie, in which we cooked a marvelous dinner.
A fitting ending for a trip of a lifetime.
If you guys keep going on road trips like this I just may have to come back there for a few months! Looks like it may have been a little warmer then you were used to the last few days! LOL!!!
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