South Africa – 2 – Mlondozi

On the second day in Kruger, we had to go from Skuzuka to Lower Sabie – these are two of the major camps in the South of the National Park.  The road between the two is one of the ‘best’ in the park according to all the guides we have.  We had already done parts of it the previous day, and indeed had seen a lot of animals.  The advantage is that the road runs along a major river, the Sabie River and therefore a lot of animals are attracted to the waterholes along the way.

The distance between the two camps is only 43 km.  The guide book indicates that it should take 1h45 minutes to drive that distance.  This gives you an idea of the ‘expected’ average speed.  Looking at the map, we decided to make a detour as a little more than half way there was a place where we could actually get out of the car – something that we missed doing on the first day.  We therefore headed on gravel roads towards Mlondozi Dam.

We approached there around 10:30 and figured it would be a good chance to break before heading into Lower Sabie for lunch.  As we were driving up towards the view point, we knew we would be in for quite a sight, and this is what we discovered

In this view (and we found them) there are elephants, hippopotami (or is it hippopotamusses? – Webster confirms the former), a fish eagle, at least one crocodile, a rino in the distance, and several groups of impalas.  We were thrilled at the prospect of what else could happen.

First to entertain us were the hippos when one group decided to dance around

while another played “follow-the-leader”

Than I heard the word “Rino” – we had already seen two of the “Big Fives”: elephants and buffalos so here was a chance to see number three on only the second day in the park.  The rino had obviously already finished his bath and was heading home

Elephants came next, and created quite a spectacle as they were taking their mud bath

The group on the left side of the river decided to go across and visit with the group of the right side.  The is consider good behaviour between elephant groups.  I had often seen elephants marching in circus parades, one leading and all the others following, with the trunks holding the tail of the animal in front.  I always thougth that was  ‘trained’ behaviour.  However, we discovered that this is probably natural behaviour for them as can bee seen in this picture

In the distance we had been watching this black ‘dot’, believing it was a lone hippopotamus until we saw it coming out of the water. Another rino…

There was so much to see that we decided to stay for lunch and we continued to be entertained by what was happening.  We met others, also watching the animals – including one pair of locals who were only interested in birds.  They spotted these pelicans flying in in formation

They had landed not far from where a crocodile was still having its morning sun bath

The more we looked, the more we saw.  It was unbelievable.

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