After a fabulous week in Cape Town with friends, we headed to Kruger, where we met our guide Shoes for a five-day adventure full of sun, wind-swept hair, and animals galore. Shoes was a fantastic guide, and we loved spending our days cruising with him in his open-air safari truck on the lookout for animals. He was interesting to talk with and shared his extensive knowledge with us about all that we were seeing. He cooked us delicious meals, and his hospitality helped us enjoy all the moments of our experience. He could spot animals that we never would have noticed- big animals at a distance, a snout poking out of the water, an owl hiding in the shadows, a chameleon crossing the road. He also knew EVERYONE and would stop to chat with other guides or check his Whatsapp groups to get tips. On our first day, we saw three of the big five- elephants, water buffalo, and a lazy lion.

I was wielding my dad’s camera and ginormous telephoto and reteaching myself how to use such a complex contraption. Shoes knew I was interested in birds, and answered my countless “What is that bird?” questions both as we drove and later back at camp, where we would zoom in on my photos from the day so he could help me ID them. Here are some of my favorite bird shots:

We spent our first night in Pretoriuskop camp, the oldest rest camp in the park located in the southwestern part of the park in an area where we had the best chance to see a rhino. Sure enough, shortly after leaving the camp, we had the luck to spot a rhino emerging from the bushes to cross the road. With this sighting, we found four of the Big 5 in 24 hours!

We observed some male impalas making weird noises, gesturing, and sparring with their horns. We watched a multitasking mother Vervet Monkey, grooming her baby while breastfeeding him. Eventually, Dad and a sibling joined them for a family meeting. We saw a pack of wild dogs, one of which was wearing a tracking device.Our binoculars and telephoto helped us check out a pair of klipspringers hanging out on a rocky hilltop.

Another big event on our second day was the Mystery of the Lost Tooth. Mila woke up with a loose tooth, and in typical Mila fashion, by afternoon, she had managed to wiggle it so much that it fell out. We asked Shoes what the local tradition is for lost teeth, and he told us that it is customary to put lost teeth in a shoe and to check the next morning for a small gift. Mila was excited to try this out and set her tooth in her pocket.

After another epic day of cruising the park with Shoes, we headed to our home for the next two nights- Skukuza camp, the biggest camp in the park, centrally located along the Sable River. As we started unpacking in our bungalows, we were surprised to notice an unfamiliar backpack and jacket on the bed in Alden and Simon’s bungalow. They had apparently mixed up and given us an already occupied room. Shoes quickly resolved the situation, and after unpacking, we headed down to the river for a drink at the riverside restaurant. A herd of elephants was chilling across the river on the far bank.

At some point, I asked Mila if she was excited about trying out the “tooth in the shoe” tradition, and she got a concerned look on her face. “I think I left my tooth in that other room on the counter by the bed!” We laughed, imagining the occupant’s reaction when he returns to his room and discovers a human tooth by his bed! Mila was a bit distraught, so we walked by the bungalow on our way back from dinner, where there happened to be a bunch of people hanging out on the porch. “Funny story….” we tried to explain. The occupant knew Shoes, so he was aware that we had been in the room earlier that day. We were not sure they understood fully what we were saying, but they welcomed Mila in to look, and she returned a moment later with a big grin, holding her tooth. Sure enough, the next morning, she found some South African rand in her shoe!

On our third day, animal highlights included watching a herd of elephants cross a river, our first crocodile sighting, a baboon fight, some close giraffe and monkey encounters, and Shoes’ rescue of a snail crossing the road.

On our third night, Shoes lit up the grill for a delicious South African braai (cookout). Throughout our time in the park, we had to be careful to store our food securely due to the opportunistic monkeys and baboons who frequent the camps and picnic areas and enjoy snatching whatever human food they can get their paws on. After our cookout, we stashed everything in the secure fridge or inside our room and put all the garbage in the “baboon-proof” trash bin. The next morning, Simon came by our girls’ bungalow to check in and borrow some toothpaste leaving Alden, still asleep, in the boys’ bungalow. When Simon was on his way back, he saw a bunch of baboons on their porch. They had managed to rip the lid off our “baboon-proof” trash bin and were digging through the contents. As he approached, most ran off, but the biggest one instead turned to the door of the bungalow and reached for the screen door handle, behind which Alden was still snoozing, unfazed by the commotion on the porch. Simon charged toward the baboon while making loud threatening sounds and scared him off, saving Alden from a rude awakening!

With only one day to go and the elusive leopard still on our Big Five To See list, we headed north towards Satara camp where we would spend our final night. We stopped to watch some wild dogs resting in the grass alongside the road, some of us hoping that the dogs would get motivated to chase the nearby impala and some of us hoping the impala would be spared. Fortunately for the impala, the dogs seemed perfectly content to chill in the shade. Later, a passerby tipped us off that there was a lion up the road on the riverbank. After searching some back roads, we finally spotted the lion who rested in the shade, camouflaged by the sand of the riverbank. On our way to camp we paused to watch and wait for a herd of elephants as they enjoyed a leisurely lunch of tasty roadside foliage. There were some adorable young juveniles with the herd like the baby you can see breastfeeding in the photo below.

In the late afternoon, Shoes, tipped off by fellow guides, helped us achieve our goal, pulling up to a tree where a leopard was licking his lips after having dined on an impala that he had dragged up into the tree. We watched as the leopard lounged in the tree for a few moments before climbing down the trunk and disappearing into the brush.

We feel so grateful to Shoes for spending these five days with us, helping us to see and learn so much. The vastness and diversity of Kruger are remarkable and there is so much more to discover. Although it certainly felt like a “once in a lifetime opportunity,” we would love to return during other seasons to explore the other nooks and crannies of the park!