Did you know there was a Mugg & Bean inside Kruger National Park? I didn’t! But it was a welcome surprise when Mr John and I visited last June…and the best part? LOCAL PRICES! ERMERGHERD! I was so worried that we’d have to pay R200 for a toastie (which is only 10 quid and not a far fetched priced when on safari holidays!).
I’m been super keen to explore more of South Africa & Africa and was thrilled when I won tickets through TravelStart and chose to come to Kruger. Read more about it here. (And if you want to discover Africa, take TravelStart’s Which African country do you secretly want to explore? for some help! Apparently I need to go to Botswana next, LOL!)
Breakfast at the Best Mugg & Bean in South Africa!
Mr John and I got up before sun rise which is a HUGE deal for us. Keep us up all night? No problem. Get us up? Highly unlikely! But we did it, juming into our AVIS hire car and leaving our Marloth Park bnb for the Crocodile Bridge gate at first light.
We took a good 2 hours to get there, which is normal. It’s not super far, but you have to drive nicely on the way in due to all the animals and other traffic. Crossing the bridges into Kruger National Park, we were greeted by lots of sleepy hippos.
Animals for Africa
I was quite surprised to see so many cars in the area! But we also saw quite a few animals, which was awesome! our sightings included hyenas, cranes, hippos, impala, elephants, giraffes, to name a few.
Breakfast at Mugg & Bean
CLEARLY, by the look of our faces, it was still pretty early! But we were so happy to be there because – what a location! The perfect place to see elephants bathing in the river, crocodiles resting on the banks and even the odd antelope grazing in the grass.
But the Mugg & Bean staff were really friendly, really nice and there were quite a few South Africans having breakfast in the restaurant. The prices were TOTALLY affordable and we had a good ol’ brekkie while viewing the game.
We’re Off to See the Birds, the Wonderful Birds of Krug!
I really didn’t expect the bird life to be interesting at Kruger at all. I literally didn’t even THINK about seeing birds! But every now and again we’d see a group of cars all pulled over in random shapes and tried to spot the great animal they were viewing. No animals. Just birds. At first we were like, “LAAAME!” But then we saw vultures and the Jungle Book came to mind and we actually started to rather enjoy it!
Mugg & Bean Round Two
We enjoyed Mugg & Bean so much that we stopped again on the way out! It was warm and muggy and I’d been driving the whole time. A milkshake was required to keep me happy and focussed 😉
And it’s a good thing we did, because on the way out we saw two beautiful black rhinos. We hadn’t seen any rhinos or lions all day so I was feeling a bit bleak about that. So I was thrilled to see these two in the dusk.
After a LONG but awesome day out in the wilderness, we headed for “home” for a great evening at Turaco Lodge in Marloth Park. I’d really love to go back to Kruger again in the near future.
Have you visited? If so, what cool animals did you see? Please inspire me in the comment section below 🙂
