Canyons, Caves, and Rhinos!

After a restful sleep following the busy tree planting, Bryan and I loaded up our rental car to officially start our road trip in South Africa. We headed to the Mpumalanga province in the East to explore the Blyde River Canyon- the third largest canyon in the world! Bryan and I were surprised to have never heard of it before, but it turned out to be a gem of a place! Sweeping views, tall waterfalls, and pine forests characterized the area (although the pine forests are man-made, the largest man-made forests in the world). We took in the sights- a geologist's dream, and went on a caving expedition in the evening. We hadn't been caving since Jamaica; it was pretty rustic caving, using candles to light the way (although using headlamps would have been more environmentally-friendly). :-/ Blyde River Canyon is right next to Kruger National Park, so we headed there next, driving down the steep escarpment into the Lowveld.

The last couple days we spent exploring Kruger have been awesome! On the other game drives in Africa, Bryan and I had to go with guides in their vehicles. Here we could go where we wanted to, and spend time observing an animal for however long we liked! The one animal Bryan and I didn't get to see anywhere thus far in Africa was a rhino... but in Kruger we've seen more than 10 in two days! One was a mother white rhino with her baby! Some of our other favorite wildlife encounters were watching secretary birds, an elephant herd interacting with a white rhino, huge herds of impala, elephants walking in the road (causing a traffic jam and a scare), and observing the beautiful lilac-breasted roller (a type of Kingfisher). We are having such a great time here in South Africa, we've extended our tickets home for an additional 10 days, so we'll be able to spend almost a month here. We head to the country of Swaziland in the morning...