I am Lion, Hear me Roar!

Ach the lion wasn't roaring, just having a yawn!

We woke in the hotel at Jo'Burg airport and had quite a lazy morning having decided to get breakfast in the airport.  

We were incredibly excited about heading to Skukuza airport where we were headed to Kirkman's Kamp for the final leg of our honeymoon.  Ralph, our first guide met us at Skukuza and took us to the lodge where we were warmly received and headed off to our room to get freshened up and ready for our first game drive.

Ralph and the tracker, David, were really awesome at finding animals and also pointing out some birds native to the area and generally being full of amazing facts about the landscape, the fauna and the flora in the area.  As we drove around the diversity in the immediate landscape was so noticeable - there were areas that were dry and trees looked stark and bare, then other areas that were wet and lush with green grass and clear leaves/ budding trees.

We came across 2 make lions stalking a female lion.  The two lions were amazing to see and watch.  The animals on the whole are used to seeing vehicles from the safari lodges and they walked straight up to the vehicle such that if you (were silly enough!) put your hand out you could have touched them.  The vehicles are also incredibly open so if the lion had a mind to they could easily have had some fast food!  Ralph explained that they were relaxed about us but did say to not stand up in the car, or make any sudden movements!

We followed the lions for a while as they stalked the lioness hoping she was going to take down some impala for them - luckily there was not chomping action as I wasn't sure I was ready for that on our first drive.

The lions are beautiful animals but when they yawned like this it was easy to remember to enjoy them from a reasonable distance!

Other animals we spotted:
Impala (loads - such gorgeous animals and they always look so immaculate!)
Wart hog
Monkeys
Buffalo (from a distance.....)
Elephants

We also then stopped for the bush bar to open.  A little bar was then set up and we all got out of the vehicle in the middle of the bush and had a G&T - lovely!

We then had dinner before heading to bed for a reasonably early night as the wake up call was 5:30am with a 6-6:30am start.