2-18 thru 2-20

We entered Kruger National Park on Sunday at the Phalaborwa gate (North gate) and immediately saw giraffes and elephants up close and personal! You cannot get out of your car in the park since there also are lions, cheetahs, leopards and any other number of animals that might want to eat you for lunch, but you can get fabulous pictures of the animals from inside your car. We drove to Letaba rest camp and spent the night in a traditional African hut, except it had a full bath and air conditioning. Lodging cost R540 or about $80 for the night. We went on a "night safari" with the park ranger and about 15 other people. We immediately saw a lioness cross in front of our vehicle and a leopard. Also, saw an owl and hippos, which graze at night only.

We toured mid-Kruger and exited via the Paul Kruger gate. Richard Branson, the Brit who owns Virgin Airlines has a private entrance to Kruger from his estate near this gate. We visited Nellspruit, a nice modern town of 200,000 people. We spent the night at Malelane at River Cottages. We had a two bedroom, two bath cottage for R600 on the Crocodile River, breakfast included-it was extremely nice and next to some big, fancy game lodges and reserves. Our visit to Kruger involved 3-six hour early morning (5:00 a.m.) self-drive safaris and the evening catered drive. We think that is more than enough. We saw the "big five" animals two or more times, plus copulating giraffes!

On Tuesday, we drove the southern Kruger Park area and ventured into Swaziland. It cost R50 to take the car into Swaziland-more complicated than entering Mexico, but it didn't take as long. We had lunch at the Pigs Peak Casino, established for South Afrikaans during the period of apartheid. The government would not allow gambling in South Africa, but it was allowed in Swaziland. Not many people seem to gamble and we were one of only 3 tables having lunch there. They like an egg on their steak and we had a steak sandwich and rump steak, beer, coffee and dessert for only R127 or about $16. Swaziland is extremely mountainous, lots of pine forests and neat as a pin!