Nov 23 -27, 2013 - More photos of Game Drives in Kruger National Park

Starting Friday evening, November 22nd, we were on two game drives a day through Tuesday Nov 27th. We started the day with a game drive at 5:30 AM. And finished with a game drive at 5:00 PM. These are the some of the animals we saw during these game drives. Another post will follow with more photos.

We started off the day with this guy and his buddies who I could swear was giving us the evil eye. He is quite large and weighs close to a ton. Once again these males travel together and the females go on ahead. The females have horns as well, but they do not go all the way across like the male in this photos.

The guide told us the Cape Buffalo is one of the most dangerous animals in the park, because you cannot keep him from charging by making a loud noise, like with the lion and the elephant. He looks like a giant cow, but acts like he owns the entire area. He stared at me the whole time.


We then were off to another game park across the road. The Big Five (most dangerous) animals in these parks are the Cape Buffalo, Lion, Elephant, Rhino and Leopard. Up to this point, we had seen all but the leopard, so we told David we expected to see one. He explained that they were hard to see, because they were skittish and did not like to be seen, but since we were going to be there for several days, we would see one. We were hoping this was true. In the meantime, we saw some giraffes, our first real spotting of them on this trip. Their heads were poking through the trees.








We left them and then came across some zebras grazing in a herd. They are such beautiful animals. The South African zebras have a shadow stripe like this zebra. Zebras in other parts of the country do not have that extra stripe. Although they didn't act like they felt threatened. They often looked back at us. This zebra is a female because of the black stripe that goes down below her tail. Males do not have this.

We asked if they were ever used for riding, like horses and we were told they have weaker back muscles than a horse, so cannot be ridden.

Wildebeest

We also saw these odd looking animals called wildebeest. I've never seen them before on TV or otherwise and found them to be very interesting animals. They are grazers as well and seemed to be a favorite prey of the lions. They were grazing right next to the zebras and seemed quite content to be side by side. They also paid us no mind. It was quite civilized, but like the photo to the right, they looked a bit scary at times.

Finally, a leopard in the tree. Can you spot him?

We then saw the leopard we had been looking for on the limb of  a large tree. David pointed to him and we were all saying, "Where, where. Finally we spotted him and David tried to get closer, but the leopard knew he was being watched and got up and started down the tree. He was going fast enough that he made a good picture hard to take, but then he went into the bush to hide and eventually, even though we drove around looking for him, disappeared. David was true to his word and those in our vehicle were the only ones to see a leopard on this trip.


They are such beautiful animals. As we were driving closer to the tree, I began to imagine the leopard jumping down right into our vehicle, which was open and no top on it, but that cat wanted no part of us and took off rather quickly after he spotted us. We could see him peaking through the bushes and grass at us, but David said they actually crouch down in tall grass so you cannot see them and virtually disappear.

It must be true because we never saw him again.

We were very excited one day to get the call on the guides radio that hippos were spotted at the watering hole. We sped down there to take a look, but since they were in the water, we basically only got to look at the top of their bodies. We waited quite a while, but they never got out of the water. I guess we were lucky to see them at all. It was a nice one to add to our list. Hippos can stay under water for long periods of time. Their bodies adjust to the temperature of the water and allow them to hold their breath quite a while...like ten minutes or more.

Hippo 

This hippo also seemed to be looking at me, but did not oblige us and come out to play. I hear they can be very dangerous animals and though quite large can run very fast. This one did not come out of the water, so we could not test this theory, but we enjoyed keeping our eyes on him...wait, maybe he was keeping his eyes on us. What big eyes you have Mr or Miss Hippo.

Looking for Leopards

Often times we would go off the road in search of a spotted animal and sometimes all three vehicles would just sit there and wait with their engines turned off. Who knew that going on safaris daily could be such fun. I clearly remember saying before we came to Africa that it was the last thing I wanted to do, but after this trip, I am ready to go again.

Warthog

 


We saw many animals several times and a few just once. Here is a warthog that I spotted. I saw two others, but they were at a distance and this was the best shot. They don't like us much and run for the hills when they spot us.

We also saw several rhinos. This one walked right down the center of the road towards us. He was really big, but got off the road and tried to hide from us, impossible really because of his size, but he recognized that our vehicle was bigger and wanted no part of us. What magnificent animals! White rhinos are not actually white, but the name for 'wide' is very similar to 'white' in the Africans language, so some mistakened 'wide' for 'white' and thus they have been called that ever since. They have wide mouths which are good for grazing. Black rhinos have a pointed mouth which is good for plucking leaves from bushes...nothing to do with color at all.

We ran across this huge bull elephant and followed him around in our vehicle. He stopped suddenly, wrapped his trunk around a tree and ripped it out of the ground, then hurled it to his left. It was almost as if he were saying, 'Don't mess with me, see how strong I am." However our driver kept following him, even though he obviously was trying to get away from us.

Finally, as we followed him in the bush, he came out onto the road where we were waiting for him. Elder Kyle and I were in the back in direct line with his huge tusks and we suggested that he seemed mad and perhaps we should start the engine in case he charged us, but we were ignored. Sure enough, the elephant came out of the bush and gave us the evil eye...what is it with this evil eye I've been getting from all the animals?"  The driver still stayed where he was with the engine off. 

The elephant was approaching the rear of our vehicle where we were sitting, higher than anyone else. At that moment, the elephant made a noise, put his ears back and jumped forward. Our guide started the car fast and moved forward. The elephant stopped and looked at us as if to say, "Now you know how tough I am, get lost." Then he ambled off in the other direction. I'm telling you that these animals have definite personalities...not so different from humans.

Us with our friends, the Bybees, and Sean

I loved riding in the open vehicles once I got over being nervous that we were going to be jumped by wild animals. After that, I enjoyed the ride and visiting with the rest of the gang. One day we were out and it started a torrential downpour...it was lightening and raining so hard that I couldn't see a thing. Sister Jensen passed out garbage bags to cover ourselves. I tore a hole in the bottom and put it over my head, but all that did was cause water to run down the bag and between my legs...whew. I could not wait to get back to the lodge and out of this cold and rain. I was wearing my bush hat, but it had ventilation holes in the top, which might have helped in the heat, but not in a cool rainstorm. A flash of lightening almost hit the vehicle...came right over the hood and scared us all. Elder Kyle pulled out the umbrella he brought, but it had a long metal handle and all I could think of was lightening striking that handle, so I didn't get mine out and endured the downpour. All of a sudden the lady beside me started laughing and I joined in and before long we were both hysterical with laughter. Here we were in the middle of the bush with wild animals all around, getting drenched by rain with lightening close to our vehicle and it became funny. I will never forget that moment. The Lord provides us with memorable moments in ways we could never imagine. We were seeing so many parts of nature all at the same time...what an experience. Unfortunately, we could not get many photos because it was raining so hard.

During this downpour, we were trying to get to the main dirt road leading to the main highway and it seemed to take forever. Finally we spotted one of the main dirt roads that would take us out of the bush and we turned onto it. The roads were getting increasingly wet and puddles were gathering. We had not gone far, before the rain started to let up a bit and right in front of us on the road were two lions, one of which was getting a drink from the puddle in the road. 

He drank and drank and drank until I didn't think we would every get out of there. Our guide just turned off the engine and waited.  Eventually the lion stopped drinking and another one joined the two. Our guide said they were brothers and they all started down the road in front of us three abreast. They were taking their time and stopped again for another one to have a drink. Then they smelled something and turned right into the bush. I am so bummed that I did not get a photo of the three of them walking in front of our vehicle down the road. They were so huge and it was so amazing.

We often stopped and took a little break, had some juice or grapetizers and some potato chips or nuts. We would all get out of the vehicle and no one seemed worried about a Lion or Cape Buffalo showing up. In all, we felt pretty safe with our guides. The breaks were a little unnecessary, but the guides just wanted us to be happy and have plenty to drink and snacks to hold us until breakfast or dinner. The people to the right were mostly from the vehicle I was riding in. Elder Kyle missed this particular game drive one morning when he was was sick.