An African Safari

A must on your bucket list is an African Safari to view the Big Five of South Africa - Lions, Leopards, Rhinoceros, Elephants, and Cape Buffaloes.

- Aruna Rathod

"The lions are majestic, they watch us disinterestedly, either eating or just sitting and shifting position. We are all silent. It is a moment of glory. Lions in the wild, raw nature in display!"

Kruger National Park is a short flight away from Johannesburg, the commercial capital of South Africa. The African wild life is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and the Kruger National Park is this place for spectacular sightings. I took a 50-minute flight from Johannesburg to Hoedspruit airport. This sector operates small aircrafts and the excitement on board was contagious while landing we all craned our necks to watch out maybe for a giraffe or zebra, perhaps a lion if we were lucky.

Hoedspruit was a quaint airport with very typical African village-like feel. Excited, I wondered what ‘wild encounters’ awaited me. As we started off, I noticed the flat landscape with no sign of buildings or even people except for the airport staff and vehicle drivers. Each vehicle entering the Kruger National park area has to undergo two security check points. For miles and miles, one can see just the bush, the landscape is green, brown and yellow with the blue sky in the backdrop. Going past a couple of villages, it is about a 45 minute drive till one enters the National park area and after which it depends on which property you are booked into.