Our EPIC Safari Experience at Kruger National Park
A safari to see Africa's Big 5 in Kruger National Park has been on our bucket list since we started first met! This adventure was definitely one we will never forget.
This is part 4/4 of our South Africa travel series, be sure to watch the entire series and thanks for subscribing!
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We're Meghan & Matt, two travelers from the United States on a journey to travel 1,000,000 miles! For 2 years, we lived in our self converted van and traveled all over North America! During this time, we caught the travel bug, HARD. So we set a goal to travel one million miles! Now, we’re hiking, biking, driving, flying and even training around the world to discover as much as possible! Recently, we sold our van and packed up our lives into bags and boarded a one way flight to Europe, leaving behind no house, no car and not even a house/car. From now on, we will be living our of suitcases and traveling full time. How long is this lifestyle going to last? I️ guess you’re going to have to subscribe and follow along to find out!
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#krugernationalpark #southafrica #travelvlog
00:00 Introduction
00:32 Big 5 Number 1 🐘
02:05 Big 5 Number 2 🐃
03:47 Our accommodation tour
06:15 Day 2 (Rude awakenings)
09:46 Meghan's dream 🦒
12:01 DISCLAIMER! LIONS AHEAD! 🦁
14:09 No more lions :)
16:07 Big 5 Number 4 🦏
17:17 A beautiful African sunrise
19:58 We never expected this!
21:25 Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose
This Keuger National Park is Sitiated in my province called 'Mpumalanga' wich translate to 'The place of the Rising Sun' because of how the sun rises in the morning. We are blessed with Nature there, thank you for visiting.
The sun rise in Kruger was absolutely unforgettable! Thank you for sharing that
Wow. Just wow. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful experience. Africa is definitely on our bucketlist. ;-)
Thanks for watching! It was such an awesome adventure hope you get to go someday!
It's like watching "National Geographic" , great footage you guys!
Thank you! It definitely felt like we were in NG!
The bird you saw that you thought was a bleu fly catcher is actually the lilac breasted roller, a beautiful bird
Wow this is amazing, beautiful experience. Thanks to you guys for publishing this beautiful an interesting video. This is Akani one of the Guides we try by all means to make dreams come true. So We really appreciate it thanks. Kruger adventure lodge is the best. 💯
HI Akani! Thanks for watching!! We had an AMAZING time on the safari. Thank you for doing what you do
You are more than welcome sir.. thanks to u too. This makes kruger adventure lodge the best place to visit.💯
🆒😎✌️! A lot of vloggers come to Africa to drink and party . Suppose that is also Africa, but you guys experience the real thing. Taking down a buffalo means that is a very strong pride of lion's. No easy feat.
I need a playlist of all the music from your south africa playlist. Great Selection. Great vibes.
Glad you liked the videos and our music selection! They’re all songs from our music subscription with epidemic sounds I don’t know if they’re available outside of there
@@Meghanandmatt Really a great video well done. And come back in Summer
Can't believe people fall asleep on safari 🤣😳 Just spent a week in Kruger with 5am starts, self drive (with Wife and 2 teenage girls 😋) till 6pm every day. Saw big 5 5/6 days. Just missing leopard on one of the days. On the last day we had 3 different leopard sightings. Need to learn to appreciate the smaller things. Interactions of birds, smaller things etc and you will never get bored. Enjoyed your views on south africa. Was fun watching you guys. Enjoy your travels
That sounds like you guys had an epic time! Glad you enjoyed your safari
Something about a lion sighting in person that just hits home and humbles oneself, and then you get them feasting as well. Just incredible! 🇿🇦
OMG and then both hyena species with pups, and Wild dog!! You just needed the Cheetah and and that would have literally been everything 😉What you guys have seen is just unheard of! absolutely insane!! Glad you guys had a great time. Try spending some more time in Mpumalanga, Jozi, Cape Town and KZN/Durban. They are stunningly beautiful and completely unique in their own ways, with the beautiful people bringing them all together 🇿🇦
Wow, you were lucky -0 I stay in SA and have been going to the park since a was a kid - I saw my first leopard on my 13th trip (and saw three in total that trip). I have since saw the big 5 in more adventures, but will always remember that first time. PS. You were extremely lucky to have seen the African Wild dog (now called the African Painted Dog) and the Ground Horn Bill (these are extremely rare.
Really? I’ve seen so many of all of those in Kruger on both private concessions like Singita and self-drives. I can’t say about the other parks in East Africa or even the southern regions. Safari luck is but that safari luck 🍀
You very blessed to have seen the big 5. There are South Africans that go to the park that only see 3 or 4 out of the big 5 on occasion. Well done. So glad you love our country❤
We are sooo grateful that we saw all the Big 5 on our first guided safari!
Those lions are incredible!
The best!
I live in South Africa and we were at the Kruger park is so fun
Kruger never disappoints
True that!
I loved the whole series….❤️❤️
Glad you loved it!! Thanks for watching!
Enjoyed your video. I always live seeing travelers' reactions to visting Kruger. We live in SA, but a bit far from the park, so can't visit it as often as we'd like. By the way, the rhino you saw were actually White Rhino. They are much easier to see than the Black Rhino, which are more nocturnal and a bit smaller. We've been privileged enough to see them twice, but even people in the industry get excited about spotting them. So even thou officially it is the Black Rhino that forms part of the Big5, it is generally accepted that one can count a White Rhino instead. Glad you enjoyed our beautiful country.
Ah gotcha! We were just going with what the guide told us. We loved seeing the big 5 and exploring beautiful South Africa 🇿🇦
I have loved your four part adventure in South Africa….you remind me so much of my eldest son and his girlfriend…so full of joy and zest for life…thank you guys
Ah thank you for the nice comment!
As a South African, I saw more in these 4 videos that I have seen in my entire life born and raised in South Africa, lived here my whole life! Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful adventure with us. You made me smile 😊❤️ I have to say I think we have the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets in the world here in South Africa! You should have come in October! It's officially beginning of Summer, but it's the most beautiful month of the year in nature. Everywhere is just extremely beautiful!
we loved South Africa! It is up there with our favorite places we've ever been. And I'd agree, the sunrises and sunsets really are 10/10!
As a South African and a wildlife lover, I really enjoyed your series. I particularly appreciated the accuracy and detail and that you provided (such as how/why it is important to drive around not through dung). Also the fact that you went back and corrected the buck species you had mis-identified when self driving. So glad you had such wonderful sightings, especially the wild dogs. I have been going to Kruger for years and have only seen them there once. Hope that you come back again one day and, if you do, strongly recommend staying at accommodation in the park itself and doing some self driving there. Being in the park means that you can do a morning drive, return to camp for a rest and then do a late afternoon drive. The camps also have guided morning and evening drives and some have walks, so you can have the best of everything. The all day drives you did must have been exhausting.
we would definitely like to come back and do a self drive and stay in the park! We're grateful for all the awesome wildlife we saw and it was definitely exhausting being out several days in a row but so rewarding and an experience we will remember forever!
This is really awesome, you guys! 🙂 So great you got to see the big 5 and more. This has been on my bucket list for ages but I know we won't do it any time soon so I really enjoyed seeing your experience. Seeing the giraffes in their natural habitat is pretty amazing. Love the colorful birds too. Nice footage. Glad you got to do this!
Great series guys. Really enjoyed. 😎
Thank you Mike! So glad you enjoyed it
Awesome series about your adventure in South Africa I am glad you enjoyed your visit to our beatiful country.
Thanks for watching!!
You guys were super lucky to see wild dog and leopards! Took years of going to the Kruger for us to see our first leopard!
we were so stoked to see the wild dog and all the big 5 on our first safari!
Thanks for the lions they were the ones I wanted to see. This vlog was frigginfantastic🎉!!!!
We made sure to get the lion shots just for you!!
Its so awesome to see my country through your eyes we can get complacent as residents in the wonderful rich country of ours loved the footage hope to see loads more people visit our beautiful world
Leopards are really hard to find bc they camouflage so well with nature and in trees,and bc they don't like being seen really.😊
We spent literal HOURS staring at trees and in the brush before finally spotting one. Their camouflage is really amazing
So lucky to have seen the wild dog and the leopard. Those were the only two we missed on our trip to SA last year. Love your videos!
We felt so lucky! It was a crazy trip. Thank you!
My happy place! Everyone's Happy Place ❤
I always recommend that folks who have never been to a park in Africa go to Kruger...and self-drive. If you are patient and spend a couple of days or more, you can see pretty much everything. It's very accessible and the facilities are excellent. After Kruger, I'd recommend Chobe (in Botswana) and Ruaha in Tanzania. Then there are the parks in Gabon, but difficult to visit these days. Having said all that, I'd gladly go back to Kruger some day.
We did a self-drive in Addo Elephant National Park a few days before we did the guided safari in Kruger. There are definitely pros and cons to self-driving vs. guided safaris
@@Meghanandmatt: Very true.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us 🫶
Thanks for watching!
the hyena pup was so cute! We haven't been to Kruger yet but would love to go. watching lions feed is just something else! so glad you guys got to experience that. Grea video guys!
Definitely do! That pup was sooooo cute!
Hi Megan and Matt I love your channel. It is great to see Megan's reaction to her first spotting of a new animal species small or large. You guys are a great couple. I grew up in Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) and live in Cape Town for the past 30 years. when I was a young boy in Port Elizabeth my Dad had an 8mm Eumig projector. I of the 1st films he showed my siblings and I was a 15min feature called "lion killings in the Kruger Park". It was in monochrome. Your channel showing footage of lions devouring a buck or wildebeest, took which me back 62 years to those wonderful times. a
That makes us happy to hear! Hope you have a great day 👍🏻
Just watched your complete trip to SA. Thank you for coming to my beautiful country. We get a bad rap for all the crime but bad news travels fast so thank you for showing the beauty side. Yes you did get a few animals wrong but that's neither here or there the fact that you were so excited to see all warmed the cockles of my heart. June is the wrong time to come as it is our winter but saying that its the wrong Cape weather but the right Kruger weather. it is better to get a guided tour as you stated but if you are more familiar with the animals it can be exciting to find them yourselves. Meghan you are my girl, i hate mornings as well. You looked exactly as I do whenever I go to the Kruger but the sacrifice of getting up so early is always the animals you get to see. Also a night tour is just as exhilarating. I noticed you did find a ground horn-bill stork, did you notice it's eyelashes. they are beautiful, long and black, the envy of all women around the globe. Unfortunately you didn't find a marabou stork but they are elusive and are very ugly. Now that you have found the Big 5 and I hope Africa has bitten you and you will come back and try to find other animals just as exciting and might have missed while trying to find the Big 5. Happy travels to you and Matt.
Thanks for this awesome comment! We had an amazing time in South Africa and it will forever be one of our favorite places we’ve visited. We’d love to come back some day and also explore other African countries too. Thanks for watching!!
Thank you great, video watching from Eritrea🇪🇷🍇horn of Africa.
This is so awesome, you guys! Glad you got to see the big 5 and more. Seeing the giraffes in their natural habitat is so neat and I love all the colorful birds. Nice footage! This has been on my bucket list for a long time but I don't think we'll get to do it anytime soon so it was neat to see your experience! So glad you got to do this!
Thanks guys! It truly was a bucket list experience for us! We hope you can get out there someday!
As a South African who had their first safari in the Kruger when I was 18. I would like to say welcome, this is the most amazing national park in the world. I have gone on safari corner to corner in our majestic motherland (Africa) but Krugers magic is unparalleled. I miss home so much and I am in the US but my heart is green & gold missing all this nature and our peoples Ubuntu 🇿🇦 ❤😍❤️ NB: It’s not a Water Buffalo those are in Asia and taste delicious. Ours are Cape Buffalos mean fellows we can’t domesticate. 😅
Thanks so much! Kruger truly was a dream come true 🇿🇦
@@Meghanandmatt I’m so glad you enjoyed! You have a new subbie. Keep the wholesome adventurous entertainment coming one video at a time. 💃🏽🌸🤗
@@leigh4326 thanks! We’ll definitely keep on making our videos 🤙🏼
I am South African and have not yet seen a leopard…in real life…you are fortunate. Still hope to see one before I die…
I can’t believe it was the last thing we saw! Definitely felt fortunate to see one. We hope you get to see one too!
Well done.
We've also got a little five: Buffalo Weaver, Antlion, Elephant Shrew, Leopard Tortoise and Rhinoceros Beetle.
We didn't hear about those! Guess we'll have to keep an eye out for next time
You guys deserve a lot more views. Great footage, editing and music. Glad you enjoyed SA. Next time when you come I'll take you on a walking safari in Kruger.
Been to the park a few times, and have only seen a leopard once. They are notorious for being the most elusive of the big 5. You guys were super lucky😅
We are so grateful that we got to see all of the big 5!
All of the big 5 on 1 trip. I've been to Kruger 20+ times, saw the big 5 numerous times, but never on the same trip. The dogs (also known as painted dogs) is very special. Saw them only 1 time on all those trips.
07:18 Really cool transition
Loved it! Thank you so much for it!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
I really enjoyed this video.thanks alot
Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
I appreciate the alligator joke.
Thank you for noticing I think you’re the first one haha
Quality on point
Kruger national park is huge. I saw it is almost as big as Belgium. So it is easy to drive around all day.
Yeah it’s massive! We only covered a small section of the park during our time there
I love Crocs 1st but lions are my 2nd favorite ❤ this was great!!!
Both are awesome!
Thank you , thank you for your great videos about my country. Please come again and invite all your friends and family. Next time do the wine farms and Robben island in Cape Town. Also add the Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape. Thank you again .
For your viewers there are leopards and other big cats at the cat sanctury in Plettenbergbay on the garden route. You can even walk with a cheetah. Leopards are lonely animals, quite dangerous, can climb and dont live in packs..
The Flycatcher is actually called a Lilac Breasted Roller. My Mom’s favourite bird!
They’re beautiful!
Awesome video. We are going to Kruger in October for 18 days.
Awesome! Hope you have a great time and see all the animals 🤙🏼
@@Meghanandmatt thanks we will.👍
Awesome video; Music was great too!! Would have been nice to tell us WHERE you were in Kruger; But overall awesome
Glad you liked it! We stayed at the Kruger Adventure Lodge in Hazyview. They took us to the Phabeni gate and the Paul Kruger gate when we did our drives.
You guys should've tried lion Park in Johannesburg
What time of year did you go? Great video and you guys were sooo lucky seeing all those animals😊
We went during the winter! Early July
African wild dog is actually a hyena. Either way glad you enjoyed your stay here. Visit again and do KZN. Take care😊
It's a pity you couldn't go to one of the smaller parks because a lot of the time they have resident giraffe or warthog etc which will walk around the cafe and you can pet them. They also sometimes have lions cubs and cheetah pups that you can play with and hold. They also have reptile enclosures that allow you to see all our slithery scaly creatures. It's a crazy experience
we looked into some of the private reserves and the sanctuaries but there were some mixed reviews on the ethical treatments of the animals there so we decided to skip those and go to Addo instead
aaah thats very unfortunate, I'm from the Eastern Cape side of SA so I just assumed there were nice small sanctuaries on the Western Cape side too... But nevertheless thank you for coming to our country and experiencing the wonder in such a joyful and energetic way. It's heartwarming to see foreigners enthralled at what we sometimes take granted considering we see it so often. Thank you for reigniting appreciation in my heart for what surrounds me. ☺ keep well and safe on your adventures! God bless.@@Meghanandmatt
Great stuff, definitely white Rhinos though. Black Rhinos are mostly solitary and you hardly see them together, but the dead giveaway here was the wide-mouths.
Hey thanks for sharing! - can you tell me what is the power/ load shedding situation in the camps? How long were the cuts and did the generators always work?
Hey thanks for watching! We actually didn’t have any load shedding issue at the place we stayed at: Kruger Adventure lodge. If there were any outages it was while we were sleeping and didn’t notice
@@Meghanandmatt Thanks - what about cell phone signals, were you getting those in the camps area?
@@RG....... yeah! Service was fine
We are planning a day can I know if you booked on your own or went through a travel agent?
We booked ours through Kruger Safari Co. We have a link in our description for them. Wayne is a nice guy and can help you with planning
I'm from South Africa and have never seen a leopard in the wild, seen everything else including cheetah but no leopards!
You saw the African wild dog. Much rarer sighting than the leopard, believe me!
Yeah we heard that!
They are White Rhino actually :-) Black Rhino not really found in the Kruger
We visited three times and never saw a leopard. I think it is best to have a guided tour drive for one day rather trying to spot a leopard yourselves. Great country lots of problems.
100% agree!
🇿🇦 💛 💚
@2:51 Lilac Breasted Roller
Water Buffalo? In Kruger? Some or other "flip-card" printer conned you there!!😢
Yeah the cards were from McDonald’s so I don’t trust their accuracy lol. We saw Cape buffalos in Kruger
Very cool video - the rhinos are white rhinos - no black rhinos. You can identify them clearly by the ears and back
Thanks for watching and the rhino facts!
And it's eating grass. White rhino has a square lip for grazing, black rhinos a pointed/beaked lip for browsing or eating leaves
You were really lucky with the Rhino spotting as you dont normally spot them anymore, nor are you allowed to tell one another where you spotted one, if you did. The reason is because of the unfortunate Rhino Poaching😢.
@3:52 No, not the Water Buffalo. But the Cape Buffalo. Different species. The Water Buffalo is native to Asia, not Africa
It’s a card from McDonald’s I wouldn’t necessarily trust it’s accuracy lol
Did the lioness have a snare wound, poor girl? 😢
She had something wrapped around her neck. Not sure what it was, but super sad
I always wondered how hippos aren’t part of the big 5
Hakuna matata
what a wonderful phrase!
Ugly 5 the hyena 😂😂
The Ki-Swahili word "safari" actually has nothing to do with wild animals....It literally translates to "travel".... So, in effect you have been "on safari", full-time, for years
Thank you for sharing this! We will now say safari non stop haha
@@Meghanandmatt I worked in Tanzania for 5 years.... One day I phoned the secretary of the Governor of Kagera region to make an appointment to see him. She informed me that the Governor was on Safari in New York....😅🤣👍
Thanks you for saying zebra instead of zeebra 😂😂
Hi guys great to follow you guys in our country. Great stuff and all the best going forward. I purposely thumped down because of the disrespectful comments on the supposed ugliness of some animals that were mentioned here. I'm sorry but that's not something I expect to hear from a supposed nature lover. . Calling nature's design ugly is ignorant (granted we all have preferences)are you/we not a part of nature. How would you feel if someone constantly called you ugly? You visit them and Thank them by insulting them? The ugly comments left a bad taste. Probably not just for me.
Seriously? Look up the “ugly 5 safari animals” and you’ll see the list we were talking about. It’s not something we made up. We put a ton of work into these videos so if you’re going to give us a thumbs down because of your own ignorance do so quietly and just move along.
@@Meghanandmatt greetings. There's no need to move on guys. I'm not aware of the ugly list. Granted you guys didn't make it, my bad in that regard. In any case I'd comment the same list or not it still left a bad taste on an otherwise awesome video. I won't repeat myself as, if what I said in earlier comment didn't make sense then it's alright. In any case I didn't mean to offend. Just a different viewpoint. I wish you guys well going forward in your journey.
@7:26 Where can we find another, Meghan, in the Safari and is she a 6th Big or Ugly...? 😂❤
You're a hater lol 5 is too early!😂