6 November Kruger Park Day 2

black backed Jackal and cubs

warthog

A very early start this morning to join the guided morning drive. We were asked to be at the meeting point at 3.45am ready for a 4.00am start which is half an hour before the camp gates open for guests to drive out. Unfortunately two people booked on the drive were running late so we drove out for half and hour and returned to pick them up. As it happened this was serendipitous – on the way out we saw a hyena and on the return to collect the late arrivals I saw a lioness and two cubs coming out from the bush to cross the road. We were able to follow them for ten minutes – watched them passing a herd of impalas. Mama was moving her cubs, not hunting, so passed without disturbing the deer. It was still too dark to get a worthwhile photograph.

water buffalo

white rhino

For the rest of the drive we were taken along tracks closed to the general public and with our guides trained eyes saw more and learned much. There was another lioness sighting and this time she was running, hunting, white rhinos and far away with the aid of our marine binoculars we saw three adult cheetahs and a couple of cubs. This was our only sighting of cheetahs in all the time we were in the park. Spring is the time they give birth and the cheetahs had moved deeper into the grassland for safety.

The south part of the park is grassland which attracts the deer, zebras, wildebeest (aka gnu), ie big cat food, and therefore the most likely place to see the cats.

David and I have done a SA safari before, we got married in a private game lodge on the edge of the Kruger Park near Makalali, and enjoyed many guided drives then. Coming back to the Kruger we thought we'd do a morning and a dusk guided drive – the guides know where to look to find the animals, take you to areas inaccessible to the public and have far greater knowledge to share.

Finishing our morning drive we had breakfast and then packed the car and headed back out. We went along the roads we'd been before and saw more white rhino very close, two male elephants fighting (they passed behind our car), two impala bucks fighting, Spring is the time for showing how strong you are. It's also the best time to see new borns in the park.

Our evening camp was the very popular Sabie Rest Camp. Our lodge was beautiful. I wished we were staying more than one night. We looked across the lawn to the river where elephants were bathing and it would have been lovely to sit and watch, but we had an evening guided drive booked.

Ethiopian kite with fish

hungry young fish eagle

Secretary bird

ostrich and chicks

Southern Ground Hornbill

Our young Afrikaans guide was the most enthusiastic, most knowledgeable man you could wish for. An evening drive begins at 4pm, a couple of hours before sunset and finishes at 7pm when it is completely dark. While it was still light we went to a lake to see the hippos and crocodiles and while there he pointed out a rare visiting Ethiopian Kite sitting in the top of a dead tree eating a fish it had probably stolen from a young fish eagle sitting in the top of a tree 100m away. Off down the tracks surrounded by bush David spotted another rare bird, the Southern Ground Hornbill. There was what I thought might be a Secretary bird, the usual antelopes, zebras and giraffes. How quickly we become blasé. Warthogs snuffling in mud pools, more wildebeest, more kudus and waterbucks, more water buffalo. Then in the dark, despite having 2 lamps trained on each side of the van we saw nothing of particular note. Still it was a great drive. We learned the impala is the most common animal in the park, about 400,000, they are important to the food chain and that they all lamb at the same time to increase the chance of survival.

We had a late dinner in the restaurant and went to bed early ready for our next early start.