Chapter 5 - Headed to Kruger

Okay.  So we are headed from Mohlabetsi into Kruger National Park.  We would head straight west along the same path our previously viewed animals were free to walk to Kruger themselves.  It is about 130km to Kruger from Mohlabetsi and from what we were told, the animals would regularly travel back and forth.  Our plan was to see as much as we could in two game drives as we headed south towards Swaziland.   Along the way we would stop and catch lunch.   

Lunch as three cape buffalo drank at the edge of the river

Kruger was set aside in 1898 mostly through the efforts of Paul Kruger.  It is completely fenced in and accessible only by crossing through one of it's well guarded 12 gates.  It is very large in size at approximately 2 million hectares.  For all us westerners, that is slightly smaller in land mass than the state of New Jersey.  Once inside you travel on paved two lane roads that are the only infrastructure similar to normal biways.  The Game Driving rules I listed before (Ch 3) are once again enforced however in our case, there would be no armed ranger to bail us out were we to get in trouble.  We would travel by David's car and be on our own.

Paul Kruger, Piet Grohler, James Stevenson-Hamilton
the founders of KNP

 We would cross into Kruger in the early afternoon and have about an hour and a half before we would reach Skukuza where we would stay for the night.  It would be here that David would break the news us regarding the time of year we had chosen to visit South Africa.  Although we had arrived in the summer which we had done intentionally and thought would be ideal, it meant we were there during the rainy season.  Although that meant beautiful waterfall scenery, it would have consequences for game viewing:

1.) The foliage would be taller and thicker, making it harder to see far distances. 
2.)  The abundance of water would mean the animals would be more spread out instead of congergating near primary watering holes.

Kruger was very lush and the vegitiation seemed to be much thicker than what we experienced in Mohlabetsi.  However, given our previous game driving good fortune, we weren't too concerned. 

Male Kudu with Oxpecker

Once in Kruger, we would almost immediately cross paths with some animals we had already seen.  Impala, zebra, etc.  The first new animal we would run into would be some Kudu of the male variety as you will see here.  They would be in the company of some females as well.  You may also notice to Oxpecker on the neck of both the male and female pictured here.  This is a species of bird that feeds off the insects on and around animals.  We would see them on quite a variety of species. 

I have a feeling I'm starting to repeat myself.  Probably won't be the last time. 

Female Kudu with Oxpecker

We would occasionally cross paths with another vehicle that had slowed or stopped.  This usually meant they could see something or were interested in sharing/acquiring information.  Sometimes it was to see if we had seen anything in the area and other times it was to let us know something was nearby.  This particular afternoon, a couple would stop and let us know they had seen a leopard in a tree fifteen minutes away.  For those of you following our story, you know that means we were within reach of seeing the last animal needed to complete our Big 5.  For those not, see chapter 2.  As soon as that bit of information was shared, we headed in the direction where the big cat had been sighted.  By now some of the animals we were driving by were (sad to say) becoming repetitive so we sped to try and catch a view of the leopard.  We unfortunately would not have any luck that day. 

Once we decided the cat hat moved on, so did we.  Our increased rate of travel meant we were very close to camp for the night.  Once again, we would enter a fenced in area with a gate that would be closed at night to prevent animals from getting into the site. 

The night stayed in Skukuza will unfortunately remembered for the smell of our hut.  I think it was the preservative they used for the wood framing that supported the thatch roof of the hut, but it smelled awful.  We tried our best to stay out of there until it was time for bed.  Yeah, not real honeymoontastic.

Thursday, January 13th

We would wake at 4:30 in the morning.  We would be driving through and out of Kruger and the earlier the better for viewing game.  Our hut luckily had and OUTDOOR kitchen and I enjoyed a cup of coffee for the second time in my life.  Today would be very eventful for da animals...

Impala

We pulled out of camp and were immediately greeted by four of these guys.  Although by now they were all but routine, watching them run off down the road still provided a noteworthy experience.









Vervet Monkeys






We would cross paths with primates quite often in Kruger but some occasions were better than others for picture taking. 

The blur in the background was the result of one moving through the frame when I took this shot.






Yup.  More of these.

Impala

One of the larger groups we saw the whole trip.

Goliath Heron

South Africa is a bird watcher's dream as we would come to find.  Although they may not be as exciting as some of the othr animals, we had never seen such beautiful and exotic birds.


This guy to the left is about 5 feet tall!

Chacma Baboon

These would be the other group of primates we would see in large numbers and often.  This group stayed close to (and sometimes in) the road even as we pulled up right next to them. 







stop smiling
















This guy sat in the road and let us pull right up in front of him.  Although it looks like I'm sitting on the ground in front of him, I never got out of the car.  The teeth on these guys are razor sharp.















brought to you by KMK



Mother and Child Reunion

This would not be the last time a Paul Simon reference would be made on our trip.

Our next siting would be quite rare dude to the decline in population.  With a population that once exceeded 500k but has now dwindled to 3-5k, the African Wild Dog has landed on the endangered species list.  Not the prettiest of animals, the Wild Dog has been taken by a variety of enemies.  From farmers protecting their livestock, hyenas looking for food, and lions killing as many as possible with out ever eating them, the population has shrank dramatically over the years.  We would see this one all by itself although the species is known for the pack life they maintain.

African Wild Dog



African Fish-Eagle














It's not hard to imagine what made us stop and take a look at this guy.  Closely related to our national bird, the Fish-Eagle does more stealing of food from other animals than it does its own hunting.

The ability to spot this species from so far off would pay off in spades in the near future.









We pulled off onto a small drive that lead into a dead end near some water.  This beauty was all by himself.  When we first arrived he was laying down.  He got up and eventually did one long circle allowing us to get some great photos from all sides. 

White Rhino

Just a couple of dudes hanging out.

Next we would run into a group of warthogs.  

Warthog

Ugly?  Sure.
Scary looking?  A little.

I think they're awesome and even beautiful.

I've been saying that alot, I know.






Story time.  So we've been travelling along for more than four hours since leaving Skukuza.  We've seen quite a few things and are really enjoying this drive, even if it's from the back of a Nissan and not a Landrover.  For most of the morning, we've been headed south with the Sabie River on our left side at a distance of 400 yards or so.  Shortly after seeing the warthogs, our attention was once again drawn in the direction of the river toward a familiar sight.  We stopped again because we thought we would be able to get a better picture this time.

Africa Fish-Eagle

So this was our view of the Fish-Eagle from the road with our 270mm zoom.

Through the magic of computers and Microsoft, we have an even closer view of the Bald Eagle's African cousin.  My satisfaction over having caught a much better shot of this bird was soon interrupted by David, our guide...





"I SEE A LION DOWN THERE TO THE LEFT!"

Awesome.  We have only seen them at night and I am eager to catch them during the daylight hours.  Up goes the camera to my eye and I'm immediately scanning the area with the 270mm lens.

David was wrong.

Can

you



say

5

for 5!!!

  This my friends is a leopard and we have now completed our Big 5!!!  We were so excited.  Again, it is not the rarest of feats but getting to see them all in one trip is pretty lucky.  The more time went by, the more people we met who had made several trips and had still not seen one of the five. 

The most remarkable part of this moment was that we only saw the cat because we pulled over to photograph the Fish-Eagle.  It's quite fortunate because of the Big 5, we would see all of them multiple times except for one: the leopard.  We felt so lucky to get to see them all.  We have to recognize our guide David who at the spry age of 62 still has the eyesight to make such a spotting 400 yards off un-aided by binoculars.  I also feel the need to give a shout out to the Fish-Eagle.  We couldn't have done it without him/her.  Maybe the extra attention we paid to it gave us some good safari kharma.  Who knows.

My wife is going to love reading that last part...

Okay.  Now we're in bonus time.  Anything from here on out felt like it would be icing on the cake.  That being said, we were hoping to see lion and elephant again.  They're just so cool!  One is the king of the jungle and the other is the size of a Suburban. 

Our next stop would be a reservoir surrounded with different animals.

Giant Kingfisher with Hippopotamus

 
 


Here we would see our first Hippos and Giant Kingfisher.  We would have much closer encounters with each in the coming days.

Marabou Stork

This was the oppisate side of the reservoir and yes, those are Impala in the background.

Yellow-billed Stork

Wow.  Another bird.

Hungry, hungry...

It was pretty amazing to see all this different wildlife together around what amounted to a two acre lake. 



Two Hippo with Crocodile on shore


So after spending 15 minutes at the reservoir taking photos, we decided to get moving.  It wasn't long before we came upon three vehicles standing still in the road.  Stationary vehicles = animals in the area.  This is what we were able to see once we a couple cars had moved and we could get a look...

The yellow rock in the middle is a pride of lions.  Not sure if there were four or five but this is pretty much all we could see.  They had been moving around but it was getting to be late morning which usually means nap time for the bigger animals.  I could photoshop it and zoom in but I'm not going to waste my time or yours.  Especially considering what David would see in the rear view mirror just as we were about to leave the lions...

African Elephant

This would be one of our favorite encounters of the whole trip.  He came out from one side of the road and walked towards us for a couple hundred yards before descending down towards the river.  Kruger is home to over 14,000 elephants and they are oftern found in herds but it is not uncommon to find bulls roaming alone.  This would be our only encounter in Kruger with elephants, but we'll remember it forever.

Going...

Going...



Gone.



So at this point we were getting close to the gate that would mean the exit from Kruger for us.  Not before we would run into a few little guys...



Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbill with beetle in beak



Leopard Turtle (one of the "Little Big 5")



Elephant Skull with lizard.





So ended our time in Kruger.  We would cross through the Malelane gate and head towards Swaziland.  This skull was located near our exit from the park.  I hope we can go back some day.  I could spend two weeks in that place.