South Africa Adventure

Saturday, May 6, 2017

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

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?

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Needles Safari Lodge

Front of Needles
with our van on the left.

We stayed 3 nights at Needles Safari Lodge in Marloth Park, south and across the Crocodile River from Kruger National Park (April 17-20th, 2017). From it we were able to have adventures in Kruger plus seeing the beautiful animals in the area including the huge male Kudu who visited during 2 of our gourmet dinners. Sorry the photo is so bad, but it was dark out. Zebra came one afternoon while Dave and I were relaxing near the pool or on the deck, Their were bushbabies (small primates who can jump 20 feet) who came out each night to grab a piece of banana from the deck railing, but were too shy and quick for the camera. We loved being at Needles and hope to return before the end of our mission.

Our room was the 2nd from the end.

Visiting zebra

Our evening visitor - a Kudu antelope

See his huge horns!

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Sunset Drive on the Crocodile River

Shortly after arriving at Needles Lodge in Marloth Park, we were picked up for a sunset drive along the Crocodile River. The river is the southern boundary of Kruger National Park so when we would look across the river we are seeing animals in the park. We saw lots of animals as we drove around. Marloth Park had zebra, giraffe and antelope on or by the roads, but looking below or beyond the river we saw spectacular hippos and elephants! We'd never seen such beautiful specimens. It was a lovely, peaceful drive as we enjoyed the end of our day.

Zebra beside road

Elephants in Kruger - across the Crocodile River

Robert drove us in this vehicle

Hippopotamus

Hippo

Crocodile on the Crocodile River - of course!

Giraffe along the road

Monday, May 1, 2017

Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary

April 15 to 17th we stayed at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Swaziland. Since there are few predators (we did see a ranger with a gun in the evening since there are some leopards in the area), the animals are free to roam near our lodging. We stayed in the typical Swazi beehive huts. We had to walk to a restaurant for meals where we always saw warthogs roaming about, and frequently impala and monkeys would be around. There were other antelope at times.

Beehive huts for tourists

The morning of the 16th we went for an early walk to the hippo pool before breakfast. We didn't see any hippos, but did see some crocodiles. We drove by the area later in the day for some photos. We also saw lots of zebra, impala, blesbok, wildebeest and even some monkeys in the area. The animals would let you walk fairly close and would just amble off if they felt you were too close. We enjoyed the scenery, the animals and the restaurant which served impala and other antelope as part of the choices at the buffet dinner.