Kruger National Park - Day 1, South Africa

The first week in South Africa the kids and I spent a lot of time resting, playing and just hanging out with my parents. It was a good time for Josiah and Naomi to bond with them and enjoy their company. We weren't going to do a whole lot before Greg arrived, but my Dad offered to take us to the Kruger National Park and so I jumped on that right away. The Kruger National Park is a wildlife park (preserve). You drive in your car and when you see an animal you stop and observe it. All the animals are in the wild in their natural habitat. It was a wonderful learning experience especially for Josiah. We got to the park around 10:30am in the morning which is usually quite late to go into the park, but circumstances had it that that is when we got there.
On the whole we did not see a large number of animals, but it was by far one of the most exciting trips to the Park that I have ever had. Shortly into our drive I saw a Waterbuck and her baby very close to the road. We stopped to look and take pictures. The children were hanging out the back window and I was taking pictures out the front window when all of a sudden we heard and felt a large bump on the back bumper of my Dad's truck. Next thing a female lion shoot past us chasing the baby Waterbuck. Man, my heart was racing. We lost both the Waterbucks and the lion. A few minutes later we saw the mama Waterbuck on the opposite side of the road looking over to where she had just come from. We could not see the baby or the lion. My heart sank, thinking that the lion may have gotten the baby. We sat watching for a while and then we saw the lion again. She was sitting in the grass very close to us. Wow! That was way cool. The rest of the day we saw several different kinds of deer, warthog, elephant and baboons. We got home much later than we anticipated and were really tired. It was a fun day though.