Travelling Tuesday: Elephants at Kruger
Happy Tuesday! Hope your week is going great! Did you see the LOST finale? Wow. Anyway, this Tuesday I am very excited to share some special photos with you that have a special backstory!
You see, there are five animals (lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, and elephant) that are considered the “Big 5” that most folks hope to see when they view game in South Africa. It’s special to get to see all five. On my first visit to a game reserve, we stayed for a week (that was back when Hero Hubs asked me to marry him!) and we saw four of the big five, along with a ton of other animals. It was the adventure of a lifetime. Seriously amazing.
The only animal I hadn’t seen yet of the Big 5 was elephant. I had high hopes for seeing ellies on our day off when we drove through Kruger in Mr. Potato Head, and I prayed the Lord would bless us with some good ellie sightings!
We arrived at Kruger and because there had been so much rain the bush was really high, and seeing any game was going to be challenging… we were driving along with bush taller than Mr. Potato Head on both sides of the road! Hero Hubs stopped and spoke to some guides and they said they were struggling to find game that day, so things weren’t sounding good. But we kept driving, and we prayed the Lord would bless us with some good sightings. Within MINUTES of us praying that, BOOM, we spotted two elephants on the side of the road!
Whoo-hoo, was I excited! There was a Mommy and a baby! We watched them spray themselves with muddy water to cool off.
But the fun wasn’t finished there. We were driving along again after lunch and had an even more special sighting! We spotted something on the side of the road and HH backed up Mr. Potato Head quickquick to investigate! Something spotted us and came to investigate, too…
At this point I was letting the Bear ride along in my lap and we had the window down. He pointed at this big ellie and shouted “BAAA!” and she put her ears out big style. Hero Hubs said Roll up the window! And we decided to move forward a little bit just in case she decided she didn’t like us. It was hilarious, I was taking video and everything gets a little hectic for a second. By this time a truck full of more folks looking for game that had been in front of us had backed up behind us, and we looked back to see…
It was the beginning of a crossing!
Seriously, look how big that guy is compared to that vehicle!
This one came out flapping his ears as if to say “You better be scared! I’m a big guy!” And, yes, their field guide is taking photos with his mobile phone.
While those guys were crossing we realised these guys were coming down the road and Hero Hubs thought it might be a good idea to move the car again!
We moved out of the way, and a little further away, and the ellies just kept coming! Look at this little guy hurrying along to catch up!
I’m not sure I can draw arrows with numbers for you, but by the end of it we counted close to 30 elephants who crossed the road right by our car! It was awesome!
I think my favourite part was seeing this gal soooo close to the car. Putting her ears back is not such a good sign, so it’s probably a good thing we moved the car! 🙂
It was such an amazing moment to see these beautiful creatures in their natural environment. An answer to prayer when things didn’t seem so hopeful! Did you guess I’d be unwrapping such a ginormously big gift this Tuesday? 🙂
xCC
Keen to join in the Travelling Tuesday fun? Sweet potato! Just link up your Travelling Tuesday post below. Whether it’s a mini-adventure to the neighbourhood mini-mall or a trek in the Himalayas, we’d love to see your shots! Just be sure to link up to your Travelling Tuesday post (not your home page), and post a link back here so others can join in the fun!