So I can now say I've experienced real African wildlife on safari in Kruger National Park. This safari is one of the most exciting things I have done to date. Slipping away from my friends to journal, I found myself in total awe of my surroundings: miles upon miles (the size of Israel) of bush with wild animals, the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets with no need of a water for a backdrop, countless stars visible as we camped miles away from any city. We woke up at 4:00 AM to get begin the game drives each day, splitting up into small groups with safari guides. My group lucked out with Helmo as our guide, only the coolest and most knowledgeable of all the guides. My poor writing skills cannot begin to do justice to this experience. We saw lions, cheetahs and leopards, herds of elephants playing in the water, hippos and rhinos, all sorts of birds...we saw a leopard jump in a tree, kill a monkey and drag it across the road to devour. We spotted crocodiles and crazy-looking bugs. Hundreds of impalas roamed freely, before becoming dinner for a number of carnivorous creatures. Giraffes are cute, but rather boring to watch. I am leaving so much detail out of this post as I hope to not bore you, but I really just wish to convey to you how incredible it is to observe thousands of wild animals in their natural habitats. 
Hearing via walkie talkie that GURNEYS (lions) were spotted laying in the road, Helmo pushed down his windshield, grabbed his emergency whip and instructed us to hold onto our hats. Speeding toward the site, the sun shining and the wind blowing my hair all about, all I could think was "This is so ***** cool!!!" (for a lack of more intelligent wording, it's th
e truth) I remind myself daily how lucky I am to be here, but it is exciting moments like these when I can't believe what I'm doing and how I got here. We spend nine hours each day observing animals and enjoying each other's company, having lunch and drinks as a large group...this is when each group would brag to another of the day's sightings (we always won).
Among the top things I saw:
-the leopard kill and devour that poor little monkey
-lions, lions, and lions after they killed something (too bloody and smeared to identify)
-warthogs at our outdoor luncheon
-baby animals of any kind, especially giraffes, zebras and elephants
-elephant herds traveling, stopping to play in water and mud
-CHEETAHS (an endangered species, our guide was shocked to see them)
-a butterfly drinking out of my champagne glass for a solid three-four minutes
-monkeys doing all sorts of funny things
In the evenings we ate dinner together and swam in the cold springs.
I couldn't stay up late drinking with the rest of the group because I was simply in shock of everything I had seen during the days. I walked around the camp, one night spotting three elephants that had come right up to our camp. I wrote in my journal and sorted through the
constellations I remembered learning in my high school astronomy course. I wanted to soak in as much of this as I could, as I thought surely I'd never have this opportunity again.
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