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The last time we
were at Kruger National Park we had some fantastic sightings of Lions,
Rhinos and Elephants so we were very excited about spending a few days
here.
Within a few
kilometres we had already seen Elephants, White Rhinos and a gorgeous
little Steenbok. We spent one night at Berg-en-Dal Camp and three nights
at Skukuza as the camps we had stayed at previously, Lower Sabie and
Satara, were full. For us Berg-en-Dal, although it was a great camp, was
a little too close to one of the entrance gates which meant you couldn't
get a jump start on the day visitors, but Skukuza was excellent for both
the camp and the distance within the park from the entrances gates.
Three of the four
days we were in Kruger we were privileged enough to see the "Big 5!” The
day we drove from Berg-en-Dal to Skukuza we actually saw two and a quarter
Leopards! The quarter was from the tail of a Leopard that we spotted
laying in the grass, but that was all we could see! The first Leopard we
saw that day we actually found ourselves. What we mean by that is
normally in Kruger when you see several vehicles all parked in one spot,
it normally means that they have found one of the Big 5, so you pull up
alongside and look at what they have found. This particular Leopard we
spotted was partly hidden, laying under a tree in the shade and was not
easy to see as you drove past.
The feeling you
get when you realise that what you think you have spotted is just that and
not a rock, or tree stump, is awesome. Several people drove past us,
slowing down briefly, but could not see what we were looking at. One
vehicle pulled up alongside us to try and see what we were looking at and
when we showed them they were amazed that we had managed to see her.
Eventually more and more cars started to stop and she obviously got
disturbed by the noise so she slipped quietly down a bank out of sight.
We drove off with the most enormous grins on our faces, chuffed to bits
that we were the ones that had initially spotted her.
Later that day we
also saw more than fifteen Lions, including two beautiful males, several
females and plenty of cubs. We then came across a breeding herd of
Elephants who we had to move out of the way of fairly quickly as they
playfully asked that we give them a bit more space to get the youngsters
across the track! Shortly after we then spent some time with a big herd
of Buffalo as they grazed.
At the camp we
decided to go on one of the night drives that they offer, which gets you
into the park for a couple of hours after dark. We were extremely lucky
and saw a Civet, a Lesser Spotted Genet, a Honey Badger, a Porcupine, some
more Lions and a few Hippos.
One afternoon we
were minding our own business driving along a track when a stick that was
laying in the road moved, rapidly! It turned out to be a Black Mamba!
Was I excited or what! As we drove past it reared its head at the car and
so I couldn't stop next to it and by the time I had reversed back it had
slipped away into the bush!
We drove to a
waterhole near Lower Sabie camp to see the Hippos and Crocodiles and
whilst we were there a male Hippo decided he wanted to mate, but
unfortunately for him the female he chose didn't and let him know in no
uncertain terms! It was a great spectacle to see as this female defended
her youngster and fought off the unwanted attention from this big bull!
We were so lucky
to see big herds of both Buffalos and Elephants on a couple of occasions
as well as quite a few White Rhinos. We were also amazed at how many
times we managed to see Leopards and Lions.
One of the
evenings and the following morning we found a family of Hyenas who had
some of the tiniest cubs we had ever seen! They were so young they were
still completely black and struggled to walk properly. We spent a couple
of hours watching this family interacting with each other, as the mum
suckled her youngsters, before regurgitating food for her older cubs. The
older pups played with their younger brothers and sisters whilst all the
time they were under the watchful eye of mum and dad.
We did see a
Hyena one time, when we were heading back to camp, standing in the road in
front of us. As we got closer we noticed that he had a snare embedded
deeply around his neck! Poaching is something that is far too frequent in
Africa and most of the time it is done for pointless reasons as the myth
that exists behind the Rhino Tusk, etc, is total nonsense!
One of the
funnier sightings we had was a Chameleon crossing the tar road. Angela
insisted that we stay on crossing duty until he had safely got to the
other side, which took in excess of twenty minutes! Luckily only two
other cars appeared during that time, but both thought we were completely
mad waiting to make sure he was safe! Other mentionable sightings were a
Klipspringer and two beautiful Reedbucks. |