We booked and sadly had to adjust our plans a lot. Some places seemed great but were fully booked, so we had to make lots of adjustments. At the end this was our itinerary:
- 1 night Skukuza
- 2 nights Satara
- 2 nights Balule
- 2 nights Letaba
We would want to enter at the Malelane gate the first day and leave at the phalaborwa gate. We would make our whole trip in a single Toyota Avanza, packed with six Dutchies. A family of five and a friend of one of the teenagers. Leaving Düsseldorf two days before we drove slowly to Malelane gate and enjoyed Africa. Our second time Africa, although the time before it was Morocco, which was totally different.
We had some problems with the car, lost some of our luggage with the aircraft carrier (including our tent, urgh..
) and had some traffic jams because of roadwork. So after one long day and having cooked for the first time we got up at 7am. We entered Malelane gate only at 10.30am and just had a stretch before entering the park. We looked over the river and saw crocodiles, some nice birds and just enjoyed the sun.Already here we learned our first lesson: always have your camera ready! We had to get it out and well.. We weren't able to capture our first crocodiles ever.
Of course we saw many more, but the first time seeing them was absolutely the most impressive time.
Photos will come the next episode, for now just a little story:
Entering the Malelane gate we were all extremely excited. What would we see first, what would we see this coming week?
We decided to head straight for Afsaal, at least, with some stops on the way enjoying the scenery and animals. We were discussing what we would see after all. The excitement in the car rose and we said: we are lucky if we see anything. The first kilometers were boring, we were going 45km/h and weren't used to spotting. Then we remembered what friends told us: drive slowly so you can see the most. The slower the better?
So we went at 25 km/h when we could, but due to the hills sometimes we needed to go a little faster.
To be honest, I really didn't know what to do at that moment. Everywhere there was something to be seen. We knew that, I knew that, but well.. Spotting animals here is different in comparison to what I am used to. Having been in a lot of countries around the world, Africa proved to me spotting animals is hard. Not knowing much about the bush was hard, really hard. We talked and talked and talked, while reading everything we could to get to know the bush better. We read about animal behaviour, where they lived and what they eat. (Note: we already did this, but well... It is hard to remember everything
)We got to our first sighting, an impala (no nice photos made) and short after that our first elephant. A lonely bull far off in the riverbed. And soon after that we saw some cars parked off in the distance, so we went over there...
This was our first sighting of something truly magnificent! Something we might just have wished for, but never expected to see....
...wonderful, can't wait for the photos and the rest of the TR 
mattie
all for following! I can't promise the best photos, but hope you'll all like it! 
