As a little spoil, I booked Jake and I into a little private lodge, called Hoyo Hoyo, for 2 nights at the end of our holiday in Kruger this year. Hoyo Hoyo sits within a private concession in the Greater Kruger. Boy oh boy was it worth every penny!! What a spoil! I was super lucky that I'd managed to pick it up on special, or we'd never have had such a wonderful experience.
Arriving at Hoyo Hoyo, we were greeted by two massive elephants drinking at the lodge's private water hole...
The infinity pool was way too cold for us...
Jake wasted no time in grabbing the front row seats to just sit and be one with nature... it's amazing to have nothing except that little rope fence to separate you from these massive animals...
And we arrived just in time for lunch! Hoyo Hoyo did nothing but feed us from the moment we arrived. In the morning, there was rusks with coffee/tea/hot chocolate, then a morning game drive with more rusks and hot coffee mixed with hot chocolate and Amarula liqueur. After the morning drive, came a breakfast feast of both cold and hot foods. Lunch was salads and a meat or two, with freshly baked bread and a light dessert of some sort. Then came afternoon tea, followed by a sunset drive, with snacks and sun downers out in the bush. Back at camp there was a 3-course dinner, followed by chocolates in our room. Oh and bottomless cool drinks, G&Ts and wine. I rolled out of Hoyo Hoyo...
There were so many animals that visited the waterhole while we were there... In this pic you can see an ellie and a buff and my monkey's toes...
There's the rest of Jake... 
A beautiful little crested barbet...
Sun downer stop... it gets super cold on the back of an open game vehicle, especially once the sun goes down, or before it comes up in the morning. This was a weird scull mural that someone had put together at a picnic site. It's a kudu cross buffalo...
Jake put in a special request with Hoyo Hoyo's kitchen staff for mealie pap and I was invited into the kitchen to learn how to make it. What's mealie pap, or mealie meal? It's basically a flour made from corn, that can be made into a porridge. It can be eaten for breakfast or as a side, or a starch, like mashed potatoes. It's often served with a relish, with meat, or sausage. Jake had his with oxtail stew... it's super filling...
Ahhh... me and my giant-child with an ellie...
This is the main relaxing area at Hoyo Hoyo. We ate most of our meals outside here and in the evenings a fire was lit to keep us all warm...
This is what the dining set up looks like. Each couple or family is seated together, so it's really quite private... 
Back to our room. This is our private deck looking out into the bush. I must be honest, we didn't have loads of time to sit and enjoy the view, we were too busy eating!!
I had a massage in my room... Jake snapped a shot of me being spoilt, with an ellie walking past...
You can tell we never go anywhere too fancy... Jake loved that there were gowns and slippers for us...
View of the bed and dressing room area. I must be honest, the orange didn't worry me when I was there, but it's very orange looking at the photos...
The entrance to our hut with the wild outdoors just outside our door. We woke up to hyena tracks outside our room every morning and on our second night, I woke up at about 2am with the monkeys and baboons going mad. We'd been told that would happen if there was a leopard nearby, but I couldn't see him anywhere. From then on though, I heard a lion roaring from faaaaar away and by 5:00 when we woke up, it sounded like he was right on our stoep. We left early for our morning drive that morning, in the hopes of finding him, but weren't lucky...
The outdoor shower was AMAZING! Definitely not for using early in the morning or late at night (too cold), but just a stunning experience...
And there's our little housie from the deck...
At night, the mosquito net is pulled closed around the HUGE bed and the beds were turned down. We got beautiful bookmarks on our pillows each night too...
We were safe to walk between our room and the dining area during the day, but not at night. We had to be escorted back to our rooms at night...
On our first morning game drive, we were spoilt with a sighting of a young lion. The difference between self-driving in Kruger and staying at a private lodge is that the private lodges don't have to stick to the roads. We literally rode through the bush to follow the lion until we couldn't any more...
He was on a mission and looked very hungry...
Thirsty baboons take advantage of lunch time and sneak into the lodge to drink from the cool pool. They don't visit when there aren't guests around as the staff hit them with catties. Baboons in Kruger are so much more pleasant than those in Cape Town. Kruger baboons don't steal the food from out your mouth...
Sunset in Kruger is unlike any anywhere else in the world...
This is Jake's unedited (because it would get ruined) photo of sunset... told you - amazing...
Kruger was quieter for us this year and we didn't even see much at Hoyo Hoyo, but we still had some amazing sightings, like these 5 lions (the 5th one was just in the bushes to the right) just strolling up the road towards us...
Jake had prime position, which made me break out in a cold sweat...
So close, I was terrified. Our ranger didn't have a gun and the car is completely open, as you can see. You have no idea of how cold your blood runs, when you see a lion that close to your child...
Jake took some amazing shots of these lions. I was too terrified that he was going to get eaten!
One down, 4 to go...
I've never heard Jake so quiet!
So, that's what I saw. These are Jake's awesome photos of the lions walking past him...
This one gives me the chills... she was looking straight at him and she was so close that he probably could've touched her if he'd stuck his arm out the "window"...
The young male. He had a sore paw and was red with blood around his neck. We suspect that he was chased off a kill and maybe had something to do with all the roaring I'd heard earlier that morning. We think that the roarer was a bigger male, so this young guy would've stood no chance...
So close. I can't even tell you if he was smelly, I think I was holding my breath and just hoping that Jake was doing the same...
And then they were gone. The girls disappeared into the bushes quickly and the male walked along the road in the veld a little way before he disappeared too...
Hey, Jake...
I love you so much...
And you're super cute and the girls are going to be in trouble in no time at all...
After Hoyo Hoyo, we had one last night in Kruger. I had though it would be a good idea, but I was actually ready to come home straight from Hoyo Hoyo. I felt emotional and home sick, which I've never had before. We stayed at Skukuza, which is closer to the airport. Impala making their way down for a drink...
A lone giraffe bull checking out the view...
And a beautiful ellie too...
And oh, one last lion sighting... this time 4 young males...
Yawn... it's a tough life being king of the bush...
And another one...
Another one making eye contact... chills, I tell you...
Our last sunset over the Sabie River from Skukuza camp. We had burgers for dinner at the Cattle Baron in the camp...
Jake wanted to do one last activity in the bush before we headed home, so we decided to do a guided morning walk. It sounded like a good plan, but we nearly missed our flight because of it. This is one of the rangers standing in a rhino midden (toilet), explaining how they re-visit the same spots to do their business and how they distribute their scent from there...
A tree that started from a seed that fell into a crack in a rock. This tree will eventually crush the rock...
Jake at our little snack stop (provitas, cheese, biltong, dried fruit, nuts and juice)...
Sadly, our morning walk didn't end off on a high for us. We'd spotted a lot of vultures when we were having our snacks, so the guides had to go investigate. I was terrified that we'd walk into a pride of lions, but what we found was far, far worse - a rhino that had been killed in a poaching. Rhino conservation is something very close to Jake's heart, having helped to rescue one in Kruger when he was 11. Finding a poached animal really spoilt the last little bit of our trip for us. There's nothing that can describe the image of that beautiful, strong, massive animal reduced to his knees, with his horn butchered off his face. It makes you so angry with humanity and it makes you feel so helpless. What can we do to stop this cruelty? Anyway... these two hyenas and about a hundred trillion vultures were feeding off the 5-day old carcass when we went to investigate. Fortunately, in this photo, you can't see the rhino at all and we won't share the images that we have here either. I do believe that we need to get angry about this. On a side note, we are part of a whatsapp group for people to report their sightings in the park, rhino sightings are not shared on this group. You cannot actually believe how many animals are photographed with snares around their heads and legs and necks. It's brutal and our rangers are out there putting their lives at risk in the fight against poachers to protect our wild life. I wish there was something I could, this made me feel so helpless...
Besides this devastating sighting, Jake and I had a super holiday. We had a great time together and Hoyo Hoyo was really the cherry on top of it all. 15 days in the bush, away from everything was just what we needed and we were both ready to get back to hard work and term 3. We are contemplating going to Kruger next September and possibly going to Croatia or Greece next year June/July. We'll see though, the bush has us hooked...
Sending love,
Sue xxx
