In this part we cover our time on safari and the animals we saw. We have some videos but I can’t get the bandwidth to download some. I’ll complete when we get home and send out links. I only have our mad elephant encounter on this entry.
We traveled in the Land Rovers setup for nine people. We had three vehicles for the group. Our vehicle usually had seven people on board. This is our driver Zane, our tracker Stranger, and our group.
On the move. Noreen and I are in the back, I’m taking a picture of the guy taking this picture.
On the “hunt.”
Noreen Comment: “Gals, don’t you think we have the best looking Ranger!?”
It wasn’t always sunshine.
In fact it rained so hard one night the covering over our porch collapsed.
The Big Five are Leopards, Water Buffaloes, Elephants, Rhinos, and Lions. I personally added Hippos (I can’t spell hippopotamus) for the Big Six. We saw one Leopard the whole time. Ours was the only group to see one long enough to take a picture. He was about 30 feet away and gave us a very steely eyed look.
We knew it was a male as he was making his territory with urine and
rubbing scent glands on the bush. Also our Ranger told us.
Just wandering along, hard to see.
Game Drives lasted three hours, maybe more if you were in contact with animals. After about two hours we stopped for a break. In the morning it was called Sunrise Celebration with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, and snacks. Morning drives started at 6:00 AM.
Evening drives had the Sunset Celebration with a full bar, soda and snacks. Evening drives began at 4:00 PM.
Here Noreen identifies with Tarzan's Jane in surviving in the wilds of Africa.
At the end of the evening drive in the dark we move along with the tracker shinning a light into the trees looking for eye reflections or actual sightings. Here we found some water buffalo. These were the only buffalo we saw.
What they look like during the day (Picture by fellow traveler).
We saw a lot of rhinos.
We found a group of six rhinos blocking the road. This guy spent some time thinking about what he wanted to do about our jeep.
We came across Mom and one month old baby sleeping in the road. We approached slowly and each time we got a reaction we stopped until they relaxed again. While mom appears to be sleeping you can see her ear is pointed directly at us. It took over 20 minutes for them to wakeup and clear the road. You don’t just drive around the animals in the road. You can see a video at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Elephants were plentiful and generally ignored us. All except one bull who decided to challenge us. You can see that video at http://youtu.be/ifybEOyhRNs If the link doesn’t work, copy & paste in URL box.
They also used our bridges.
This is what happens when you don’t have time for the camera to focus before you have to move quickly.
Noreen really liked the giraffes. You can see a video at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
We saw a lot of birds landing on all the large animals.
Male lions were on their own and the females were in prides. They all wandered right alongside the jeep and paid us no attention at all.
These two males are brothers.
There are five lions in this picture.
Hippos were hard to find as they don’t usually come out of the water during the day. We would never have seen this guy if it wasn’t for the bird.
Another in the water and one grazing on land during the day.
Some other critters we saw. This crocodile decide he wanted to use our bridge for fishing. He just lies there waiting for fish to wash onto the bridge and then scoops them up.
Some of his buddies waiting further down the river.
There were herds of Impalas everywhere. They were a very nervous group and spooked whenever we got near.
According to our Ranger the Impala below was probably attacked by a lion and escaped. He said she looked good and strong and should heal.
This was a nursery that we disturbed when we drove by. Everybody headed for the hills.
Of course no safari would be complete without zebras.
Some pictures just look weird.
Of course there were monkeys.
and other deer types.
We had a great time. After four days in Kruger National Park we packed up, drove back to the airport and flew to Cape Town, South Africa. Back on the Amsterdam and off to see the rest of the world.
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