The adventure started long before we reached the Kruger gates.
Thirteen weeks before our trip, my daughter started a family WhatsApp wildlife quiz. What began as a bit of fun soon became surprisingly competitive. There were questions, photographs, a leaderboard and, of course, plenty of debate over the answers.
Without really planning it, she had created Team Kruger.
By the time we finally packed the cars and headed for the bush, everyone was already watching, learning and looking forward to putting all that newfound knowledge to the test.
And that was when the real competition began.
The Bird Car
Once we arrived in Kruger, the WhatsApp quiz took on a life of its own.
We somehow ended up with what became known as The Bird Car — where every sighting required evidence, every photograph was examined, and identifying the species correctly could mean valuable points on the leaderboard.
A simple drive through the park could suddenly become a serious investigation.
“Stop!”
“Back up!”
“I saw something in that tree!”
And then came the inevitable debate about exactly what we had seen. 😄
The competition made us look more carefully. Instead of simply driving from one animal sighting to the next, we began noticing the smaller things — a flash of colour in the trees, movement in the grass, a silhouette on a distant branch.
Somewhere along the way, the quiz stopped being just a game.
It had taught us to slow down and really see what was around us
The Roads We Wouldn’t Have Taken
A possible sighting would send us down a road we might otherwise have ignored. Sometimes we found the bird. Sometimes we didn’t. But almost invariably, we found something else.
A quiet waterhole. An elephant appearing from between the trees. A herd crossing the road. Or simply a stretch of Kruger that we might never have seen had we stayed with the original plan.
An Unexpected Encounter
We took the time to watch a solitary lioness crossing the road, unaware of the drama unfolding just across the way. A group of waterbuck stood nearby, growing increasingly nervous and gradually moving closer together.
Suddenly, two lionesses — one approaching from each side — charged towards the waterbuck. For a moment, the tension was electric as the herd scattered in an attempt to escape. Fortunately for the waterbuck, the lionesses were unsuccessful in securing a meal, and the herd lived to see another day.
It became one of the unexpected pleasures of the trip — the search was often just as rewarding as the find.
Perhaps that was the real lesson of the Bird Car.
We started out chasing points on a leaderboard, but ended up discovering that sometimes the best experiences are found when you are prepared to take the road you hadn’t planned to travel.
And somehow, that feels very Grow Beyond. 🌿
More Than a Competition
Looking back, the leaderboard really didn’t matter.
What mattered was what happened around it.
The quiz gave us something to share before the trip, something to laugh and argue about while we were there, and countless moments that have become part of our family’s Kruger story.
There was always someone scanning the trees, someone reaching for a camera, someone insisting they had definitely seen it first — and inevitably someone questioning the identification. 😄
We were competing, certainly. But we were also learning together, looking together and experiencing the bush together.
And perhaps that is what I remember most.
Not a particular bird.
Not the final score.
Not even who won.
But a family sharing an experience, completely caught up in the moment.
The photographs remind us of what we saw and shared.
