The 23rd was eventless. We
had a 7 hour drive getting into South Africa and our next camp site. As usual
the long drives on the trip were eventless and even crossing the border this
time wasn’t a big hassle. Or we are just getting used to it. In any case,
nothing to report.
The 24th we had our first
full day in Kruger. The day was spent in the truck, going from a northern
entrance into the park and getting quite a bit south into the park to get to
the site where we would be spending the night. While the drive was interesting
enough in the sense that there was wildlife to look at and look for, the drive
itself was just, well… driving.
The sightings today were quite a big mix
of various animals. We saw plenty of elephants – many more than I would have
expected. While in some areas the elephants are threatened, they are apparently
have so many in Kruger that there are discussions on whether or not they should
be culling some of the families. They are reaching a point where the number of
elephants is reaching an amount where the areas will not be able to sustain the
large number of herds walking around. It is quite interesting, especially
considering what you usually hear about elephants in Africa.
We saw two small hyena cubs lying in
small hole. Despite not being very pretty when grown up, the two cubs still
managed to get some awww’s from the truck.
And we saw a cat today, more precisely a
leopard. Not very visible, but it was definitely there! The 5 five was thereby
crossed off for the trip (even though I would have preferred seeing lions in
the wild and not just in the sanctuary).
Getting to the camp site – big fenced in
area with supermarket and good toilet facilities – we had an early dinner as we
would be leaving again at 1930 to go on a night drive trying to find animals
that tend to be more active during the night than day. We were given two
projectors which would then be used to light up surrounding areas in an attempt
to spot anything that wasn’t a rock. Yes, we saw plenty of impalas. And a bunch
of elephants. No cats, but a group of hyenas playing around. Generally the
drive could be considered a success.
Zebras.
Saddle-billed stork.
Yellow-billed hornbill.
Buffalo.
Two hyena cubs.
You might not be able to see the leopard, but the leopard has definately seen you!
The leopard got tired of the attention and got up to walk away.
Elephant under the moon.
Hyena.
No comments:
Post a Comment