My Summer in Johannesburg: Kruger National Park Safari

(best meal of the summer)

This past weekend we (Daniel, Robin, Alex (another intern working with Robin), and I) went on a 4 day camping/safari trip to Kruger National Park. It was an absolutely amazing experience in every way! The guides were very knowledgeable and funny, we got to see plenty of animals up close, and we learned a lot of new things about the wildlife here in South Africa.

We had to wake up at around 4 am every morning and were on an open safari car by 5 am so we could arrive at the park gates just as they open. Our first day out on the safari we quickly found out we were not as prepared as we thought we were, because winter mornings here are quite cold and we were on an open car driving around with the wind blowing in our faces. Being from Canada, we should have been better prepared for such cold weather but none of us anticipated it being quite this bad. After driving around for about 5 hours we were all fairly hungry and in need of a cup of coffee.

Luckily by around 11:00 am it had warmed up quite a bit and we stopped at one of the picnic sites to prepare brunch. Since we were such a big group our breakfast consisted of 45 scrambled eggs, a lot of bacon, cereal, Ouma Rusks, yogurt, a couple of loaves bread, tea, coffee, milk, and a lot of fruit. We managed to prepare a great breakfast fairly quickly because we all pitched in and our plates were clean almost immediately because we were so hungry. Even though we had some issues with bees drowning in our coffee, and birds flying overhead trying to steal our bread and rusks (one actually managed to grab one of Alex’s rusks) we thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

Although I have tried some really great food (like pap, chakalaka, and spatch chicken), I’d have to say this was my best meal so far, not only because of how good it tasted, but mainly because of the surroundings and the great group of people we were with. It was really nice to have such great company and to be in a beautiful place among nature.

One of our guides, Andre, preparing scrambled eggs for everyone (not once did we see him wearing long pants or shoes, no matter how cold it got)