South Africa – 1 – Kruger

I guess, after that ‘teazer’, I have to deliver something really good.
I have extracted 100 photos from the more than 400 I took in Kruger National Park.  And I cannot possibly bore you with all 100 of these, so again I will have to make a selection of only the better ones.
We saw so many Impalas, Elephants, Zebras and other animals that after a while, we would not stop anymore except if there were special circumstances.  Here are some examples:
In the first days, I would slam on the breaks if any one in the car yelled ‘buffalo’ and we saw many small groups of buffalos resting near the road such as these.

However, we were lucky enough to whitness the massive afternoon bath of a large group of buffalos.  We stayed for probably 20 minutes just mesmerised by the sight and the sound.

Our first sight of hippopotamus was like many more later – backs and more backs and than a few hears and noses

But patience can be rewarded with two hippos frollicking in the shallows

and one really, really, really big yawn!

I already showed you a photo of this hyena, caught late in the evening of the first day

Two days later, we were staying in a safari tent right along the outside fence of our camp.  Our neighbours were kind enough to tell us that there was a hyena sunning itself in front of their tent, so we went to see.  The animal clearly was not at ease, but we only found out later why …

Day three, and we fianlly see our first ‘cats’ – three juvenile cheetahs spending the afternoon under a tree.  There were 6-8 other cars parked near them and we stayed for at least 20 nimutes, just watching them doing nothing.

 Day four and we finally cought a glimpse of a lion.  We were fortunate that a local guide told us about it, because by ourselves we would never have found them looking like this

We stayed for a while and were rewarded by the male who decided to change position

As we returned to our camp for tea (yes, some civilisation after all!) we learned all about what happened the night before.

The privious day, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, we had heard an awful sound, impossible to describe.  It had to be several different anumals making it.  There was also an echo coming from nearer the tent.  As it was totally dark, we were not quite sure what happened.  During the whole night, there were regular calls coming from the trees right in front of us.

The next moring we noticed a large group of baboons in the tree. 

They must have been the ones making all that noise the night before.  One by one, very carefully, they decended and left.  In a nearby tree there was a lone vulture, just wating – we were not sure what for…

The next day, after tea, Julie and Georgia went for a walk and casually asked our neighbours if they had seen any lions.  We had already noticed that the vultures had multiplied and there were now four.  That is when we heard the story of what happened the night before.  The noise we had heard was a pride of 8-9 lions killing a water buffalo about 100 m to our right.  The lions spent the rest of the night feasting and there was some of the carcass still left.  Later that evening, we saw four lions approaching for a piece of the action – it was late, so not much light for a decent photo.

 We also had ‘theme day’ – it seems that on day three all animals decided to cross the street in front of us.  I apologise in advance for this one, but I just have to do it …

Zebra Crossing – Kruger Style!

We also saw a lot of other animals, less interesting just by themselves like this large iguana or monitor lizard – not sure what it was.

But when you see it devouring a dung beetle right off its ball of dung, that is a spectacle worth seeing.

We saw intimate scenes of baboons grooming each other

and mother with child

We saw many birds of all sorts

but the scene I will remember is this one, wondering just when the crocodile was going to attack the geese who did not seem to be concerned…

With all the animals, you can almost forget that the scenery is spectacular too.  I am sure that there are elephants, giraffes, lions, impalas, zebras and many other animals hidden in here – but I have not found them yet…

We had heard a lot about Olifants Camp on the Olifants river.  The view is specatcular

but we were told the animals were too.  Unfortunately, we saw absolutely nothing!  As this was the end of our stay in Kruger, and considering what we had already seen, I cannot be too disappointed.

Next – One lunch stop at Mlondozi Dam

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