South Africa 2025: Sept 23 Karongwe Park

We slept in this morning till 8 am, then had a nice breakfast, loaded the bus and headed for the Karongwe Park for our next adventure. We arrived at the park around 1:30 PM and checked into our rooms. Sooo for the next 2 nights we are staying in canvas tents off the ground complete with my own bathroom and shower. No AC but we do have power. I do have a real door that locks but canvas walls and just screen windows all around. There are monkeys, running all around the resort through the restaurant and on the sidewalks near our rooms. the staff use slingshots to keep them away. There are also Nyalas and warthogs roaming free around us. After checking in, we headed over to the restaurant where we had a great lunch and then watched a presentation about the conservation of cheetahs and how everything works in the park. It was very interesting. At 4:00 PM, we loaded in our new open air jeeps for a Safari on dirt roads through the thick trees, up and down hills, across rivers, etc. Today, the first animal we spotted was again the majestic Giraffe. After a short period of time, we saw a huge leopard only feet from us up in a tree sleeping. We were lucky enough for him to wake up and raise his head to look at us for some great pictures. From there, We ventured on and came across A group of White rhinos called a crash of Rhinos. They have to dehorn the rhinos to protect them from being poached. THEN!!!! we carried on and stopped at a lioness and a lion sleeping along the edges of a pond. Our Jeep driver backed right up next to them. We weren’t more than 30 feet away. As luck would have it both the female and the male at least raise their heads so we could get a look at them. It was the most unbelievable thing that I have experienced. It’s a little unnerving to be 30 feet away with no fences from a huge male Lion. Once we were finished watching the Lions, we carried on our way past the little pond and looked over where a huge hippo lifted his head out of the water and opened his mouth just as I was to take a pic! So cool. By now The sun was starting to set and our guides pulled the jeeps over and set up a small bar where we had cocktails in the middle of the Park complete with snacks as we watched the sun set and the stars come out. The Safari was extremely successful again today. Once back to the resort, we went straight for dinner as it’s dark outside and we aren’t allowed to walk around after dark by ourselves. At 8:15 tonight we were escorted to our tents by a guide who shone his light under my tent to make sure there were no leopards prior to me settling in for the night. All good so far, all I can hear is a light wind blowing the sides of my tent. I’m not sure what I’ll do if I hear of roar of a lion or the laugh of a hyena next to my tent.