20-Jun-2005
We awoke bright and early (6am) and headed out for our trip to Kruger Park. The directions were perfect (thanks Alan & Lou!) and we arrived at Malelane Gate shortly before noon.
For those who have been to Kruger Park before, can you guess which animal we saw first? If you guessed impala, you're right!
Here is a list of our sightings for the day (the number indicates the number of times we saw the animal, not the number of animals we saw).
Elephant (2), White Rhino (1), Warthog (1), Baboon (2), Vervet Monkey (1), Giraffe (2), Wildebeest (1), Zebra (2), Duiker (1), Impala (10), Kudu (3), Eagle (unknown) (1), Vulture (various) (1), Ground Hornbill (1)
Tonight we are staying at Berg-en-Dal, one of the newer rest camps in the park. We arrived around 5pm, about 30 minutes before the gates closed, and checked in to the camp.
Well, it's time to go to bed as we're getting up at 5am so we can be ready to leave when they let us out of the camp at 6am!
21-Jun-2005
Our day began at 5am, before the sun rose, as we wanted to leave the camp when the gates opened at 6am. Our first sighting was ... lion (which walked within 5 feet of our car!) ... no pictures as it was too dark but it was exciting!
This was also the day that we moved from Berg-en-Dal to Lower Sabie camp so we had a bit of ground to cover.
Like the summary from yesterday, here are our sightings and some highlight pictures.
Lion (2), Impala (47), Yellow-Billed Hornbill (7), Elephant (3), Tree Squirrel (1), Wildebeest (1), Eagle (various) (7), Kudu (3), Giraffe (4), Long-Tailed Shrike (1), Dwarf Mongoose (2), Guinea Fowl (3), Francolin (2), Grouse (4), Saddle-Billed Stork (1), Hippo (1), Zebra (1), Baboon (4), Crocodile (1), Vervet Monkey (3), Waterbuck (1), Steenbok (1), Pied Kingfisher (1)
22-Jun-2005
We left a little later this morning as Kathy was feeling a bit under-the-weather. We headed north towards Tshokwane for the first part of our drive. Like yesterday, the weather was warm and mostly sunny ... there were clouds in the sky but little sign of rain. As we were spending a second night in Lower Sabie, we didn't have to pack everything into the car but did need to secure the refrigerator from baboons!
Our mix of wildlife varied a bit from the past two days but was still quite exciting as we saw several uncommon animals (wild cat and klipspringer). Here is our list of sightings for the day and the highlights ... do you sense a pattern here ... oops ... this makes three days in a row so it must be a tradition!
Impala (21), Fish Eagle (1), Guinea Fowl (2), Steenbok (3), Zebra (12), Wildebeest (11), Vervet Monkey (1), Warthog (5), Wild Cat (1), Giraffe (5), Hippo (4), Crocodile (3), Elephant (2), Longtailed Shrike (2), Yellow Beak Hornbill (3), Korhaan (1), Grouse (3), Maribou Stork (4), Yellow-Billed Stork (1), Klipspringer (1), Kudu (3), Waterbuck (2), White Rhino (2), Hooded Vulture (1), Kori Bustard (1), Baboon (2)
23-Jun-2005
Our final day at Kruger Park was short as we headed off to the exit at Crocodile Bridge. Despite the short trip, we we still fairly lucky in our sightings.
Impala (22), Ibis (unknown) (1), Hippo (2), Hooded Vulture (1), White Rhino (1), African Jacaral Vulture (1), Warthog (1), White Backed Vulture (1), Water Buffalo (1), Saddle Billed Stork (1), Baboon (1), Guinea Fowl (1), Vervet Monkey (2), Spring Hare (1), Tortoise (1), Zebra (1), Waterbuck (1)
The drive back to Pretoria was nice ... a bit smoky in places as they were burning fire breaks. More later.
Editor's Note: We continued the Smith tradition of flat tires in South Africa ... it was a slow leak but Robert had to change the tire. Luckily it was in Lower Sabie camp.
