Kruger Park, the second day

The second day we had a different guide, Beno, who was a cool guy, great guide too; but he was a bit worried that he was going to have a hard time if he was willing to impress us. I told him that if he got us to see some hippos fighting or a leopard chilling up in a tree under the sunset light he would come pretty close to the previous day awesomeness. Hah, I’m a horrible person, I know ;P

But our day already didn’t start well. We had different companions for the day. 4 friends, which two were handsome and quite nice italian men, and two girls. One was italian and the other was russian. The two girls arrived at the jeep HALF AN HOUR late!!! We were all really angered by that, but no one said a thing. All through out the day the russian nightmare was extremely rude, bossy, bitchy, all in all, a pain to be around, extremely irritating. One of the italians was her boyfriend, and I seriously can’t imagine how he could put up with her. I even secretly half-wished we saw only impalas, so SHE didn’t get to see anything amazing… But if I remember well, she had a kit lens 18-55mm so she didn’t get to shoot much anyway.

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No segundo dia tivemos um guia diferente, Beno, que era um cara legal também e ótimo guia, mas ele estava um pouco preocupado que não conseguiria nos impressionar. Eu disse a ele que se ele encontrasse uns hipopótamos lutando ou um leopardo descansando nos galhos de uma árvore sob a luz do pôr do sol ele chegaria bem perto da emoção que foi o dia anterior. É eu sou uma pessoa horrível, eu sei 😛

Mas o nosso dia já não começou bem. Tínhamos companias diferentes das do dia anterior. 4 amigos, dois homens italianos muito bonitos e até que simpáticos e duas garotas, uma italiana e uma russa. As duas chegaram MEIA HORA ATRASADA DO HORÁRIO COMBINADO!!! Todos nós ficamos furiosos com o atraso mas não dissemos nada. Durante o dia todo, o pesadelo russo foi extremamente rude, mandona, bitchy, um pé no saco mesmo, extremamente irritante. 

Along our road, we saw two lionesses. The stress with the russian nightmare started then. There were three binoculars given to us, one for each row in the car. Tatiana had one in her hands and the the russian just simply took it from her, took a look at the lions and said out loud: “This is so boring! They are just laying down! Let’s move!”… Seriously… When I look back, I still can’t believe what a rude unpleasant companion we had for our safari. All the time telling the guide: “Ok, enough with the rhinos, let’s move on!”,”We’ve stayed long enough looking at this elephant, let’s go!” And she was the only one like that, everyone else was cool, nice, well behaving…

The peek of our stress happened when we saw a steembok, which was close to us and it was on the right side of the car (I was sitting on the right side). The russian nightmare complained (in italian) to her friends that she didn’t get a good shot of the animal because “the bitch’s profile ruined it”. Tsc… a tip people: if you know there are brazilians around, be careful with what you say, we can understand italian and spanish almost perfectly, even if we never took lessons. My friend Tatiana got so furious that she snapped right back: “You know, you can ask her (me) to excuse you so you can take a photo, you don’t need to be so rude!” The problem was that… remember that I said I was suffering? Well, I really was, I got really sick. I couldn’t talk because it hurt so much, I had a bad fever, dry cough, and my entire body hurt like hell. Tati had even asked if I didn’t want to stay at the hotel and/or go to the hospital, to which I replied: “I’ll die at this safari if I must, but I didn’t get here to stay at the hotel!” (Yes, drama is me). Also, not only I was half Death itself, I never bothered anyone with anything, and if I wanted to take photos of something that was on the left, or on the front or the back, I would just work my way around it. All the bad attitude, plus nobody could stand her bossing the guide around in a most unusual rude manner, my friend couldn’t hold back anymore. After the snap, the russian nightmare did try to tone down her attitude. Which didn’t do for much, she was the only one talking non-stop about sh*t like comparissons between people of different nationalities when they are going out and dating, drinking, dancing. Not to mention she was a “captain obvious narrator”. ALL the time stating what everyone could plainly see: “Ahh, the baboon is eating something”; “aaah, the elephant is crossing the road”; “aaah the lions are going away”…

  

This big one wouldn’t take its eyes from us. Buffalos are quite umpredictable, it could charge against the jeep if it felt like it.

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Esse grandão não tirava o olho de nós. Bufalos são imprevisíveis, ele poderia atacar o jeep se lhe desse ganas de fazê-lo.

A quick stop at the birding spot and the guide said he would take us to the lions (remember the ones from the previous day? 🙂 They were still there feeding, but with the cubs now).

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Fizemos uma parada rápida na área de fotografia de pássaros e o guia disse q nos levaria aos leões (lembram deles do dia anterior? 🙂 Eles ainda estavam lá se alimentando, mas com os filhotes agora).

And yes… the lions were still there at the same spot. And again, there were very few cars. I thought that to be most strange, since it was always so crowded whenever a cat was spotted.

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E sim… os leões ainda estavam no mesmo lugar. E novamente, haviam poucos carros por perto. Eu achei isso bem estranho, considerando que sempre muvucava toda vez que os grandes gatos eram avistados. 

Actually, the kudu was all gone already, and in seconds the lions were passing by us, crossing the road!!!

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Na verdade, o kudu já havia sido todo comigo, e em segundos os leões estavam ao nosso lado, atravessando a estrada!!!

So confident 🙂

The last one was so afraid to cross, poor thing! ^.^

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O último estava com tanto medo de atravessar, judiação! ^.^

After they crossed, Beno, our guide, got to a dirt road to follow them a little more…

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Depois que eles atravessaram, Beno, o nosso guia, pegou uma estrada de terra para segui-los um pouco mais… 

See the impalas in the back? Not even scared of the full bellied lions…

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Conseguem ver as impalas ao fundo? Nem mesmo estão com medo dos leões do pandu cheio…

 The cubs longing goodbye… ^.^ I’m so glad I got this photo! I love it! So adorable! He stood there for a second and walked away long with the others…

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O olhar de adeus do filhote… ^.^ Eu fiquei tão feliz com essa foto! Amo muito! Tão super fofo! Ele ficou ali por um segundo apenas e foi embora junto com os outros… 

(E essa bundinha empinada? Não aguento! ^.^)

After the lions left us, we headed to Pretoriuskop Camp, to have a different view of the park.

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Depois q os leões nos abandonaram, nos dirigimos ao acampamento de Pretoriuskop, para ter uma visão diferente do parque.

Lilac Breasted Roller, the most photographed bird at Kruger Park 😛

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Rolieiro de peito lilás, o pássaro mais fotografado do Kruger 😛

This was the only time we saw blue wilderbeests, and still… they were far and under the shadow of a tree. We didn’t see any wild dogs, unfortunately =/

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Essa foi a única vez que vimos gnus e ainda assim ao longe e debaixo de sombra. Nós não vimos mabecos, infelizmente =/

Guess what this one was doing?! Yep, “unloading” and spreading it using (rotating) the tail to get it everywhere…

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Adivinha o que esse estava fazendo?! Sim, “descarregando” e espalhando para todo lado com ajuda do rabo (fazendo helicópterozinho com o rabo, era quase engraçadinho)… 

And finally, some zebras… we hadn’t seen them the day before… 🙂

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E finalmente, algumas zebras… nós não as havíamos visto no dia anterior… 🙂

And thus ended  our second and last day at the Kruger Park, with the nightmare being a pain during the whole thing, so much so that no one wanted to take a group picture…  but still, it was a fantastic experience 🙂

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E assim terminou nosso segundo e último dia no parque Kruger, uma experiência maravilhosa que faria novamente, mas agora, de preferência em um lugar de savana e migração de manadas hehehe 😉

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So again, If anyone is interested in a safari, make sure to take a look at the Regent Safaris’ website and consider booking with them. They are awesome at what they do 🙂