Kruger National Park All Day Safari 18 April 2017

Our guide picked us up at Needles Lodge early in the morning after we had a quick snack of rusks dipped in hot chocolate. We stopped at another lodge to pick up 3 more people and meet up with another safari vehicle before driving half an hour to Crocodile Gate of Kruger Park. We entered about 6 am before the park was open to other visitors.

Our safari vehicle 

Sunrise in Kruger Park

We had a marvelous long day seeing all of the Big 5 - I will put their photos in first. We had never seen the Cape Buffalo and the leopard was a better view than in Kenya even though it blended in with the surroundings.

Elephant 

Lions

Leopard

Cape Buffalo

Rhino on the road - look at his long horn!

We saw lots of birds which I'll  put in next. These photos are from our vehicle. We wish we could have been on a hike just looking for birds!

 Red-Billed Hornbill

 Starling

 Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

 Lilac-breasted Roller

 Pearl-spotted Owlet

Vulture

African Fish Eagle

African Fish Eagle

We saw lots of other animals during our nearly 12 hour drive in Kruger. While there may some time between animal sighting (although we nearly always would see impala or other antelope in the distance) it was exciting to watch for the next animal we might see!

 Giraffe

Zebra

Elephant Crossing!

Warthog with zebra

 Babboons

Vervet Monkey

 Dung Beetle who came into our vehicle

 Hippos

 Impala

Impala in the savanna

We want to include  two more photos from this day. One is of Cherrie with our safari vehicle at the Crocodile rest area and the other is a Kruger traffic jam! Everyone was trying to see the elusive leopard (see photo above and I'll put another in that shows how difficult it was to see!) so cars were backed up. 

Without Dave's good camera or binoculars the leopard is almost invisible. He was down in a ravine and there was only about 20 feet on the road where he could be seen. How did anyone spot him in the first place?