Kruger Park Safari

The “safari” portion of our trip began at 7am Friday morning as we drove through the entrance gate of Kruger National Park. Recognized as having the densest population of big game animals in the world, visitors to Kruger not only have the chance to view the “big 5:” Lions, Elephants, Leopards, rhinos and buffalos in their natural habitat, but will also routinely find wild giraffe, hippo, baboons, zebra, crocodiles, hyena, wildebeest, warthogs, impala and other antelope. The park is an expansive piece of protected wilderness, roughly the size of Massachusetts with numerous camps interconnected by mostly paved and a few unpaved roads. Visitors are allowed to take their own unguided tours via car on designated roads, but are expressly forbidden to step out of their vehicles anywhere on the roads outside of the electric fence-protected camps.

We had the privilege of a personalized, guided tour by locals, my mom’s Afrikaans host family; Louis, Elise and their son Stefan. Their navigational expertise throughout the park and miraculous ability to spot wildlife proved indispensable. We hit the animal jackpot:

Elephants:
Elephants are everywhere in Kruger. Since they have no natural predators (other than humans) their population has exploded inside the secure confines of the park. It’s quite startling to roll around the corner and find a massive African elephants chewing on grass alongside the road.






Giraffes:
We saw a few of them during our stay, though it was mostly of their backsides as they walked away when we approached. Of all the animals we saw, they seemed the most skittish around cars.






Hippos:
There were tons of hippos in all the ponds and rivers, though none as close as the one doing the hippo ballet in the video. She was a mere 25 yards from our car.






Lion:
We probably would have missed this guy if it weren’t for the 6 other cars parked on the road watching him. He was too far to photograph, but the 10x zoom on my video camera brought him into view.



Warthogs:
All the warthogs we saw were a farther away than preferred . This family was digging around for food near a larger herd of impala and zebra. A favorite snack of the many predators in Kruger, they’re apparently also tasty according to human standards as per my uncle Steve who sampled warthog ribs during his stay in Cape Town.






Buffalo:
I have some video of the ones we saw, which were grazing way off in the distance, but I think this classic YouTube video also filmed right here in Kruger Park is much more compelling…






Impala:
We started referring to Impala sightings as “JAI” (just another Impala) as they were everywhere… the most reliable viewing of any animal. Stefan also noted their other nickname: “McDonalds Drive Thru” due to the M shaped coloring on their rear coupled with their abundant availability for the park’s predator population.




Fruit Bats:
These guys were chillin' under one of the restaurant huts at the Skukuza camp in Kruger. I’m not sure if I could enjoy my lunch like the others in the video. It smelled similar to the bat colony that lives under the Congress Bridge in Austin.






Zebra:
We had quite a few Zebra sightings. They often grazed with herds of Impala.






Baboons:
Chacma Baboons were often seen chilling in trees, but we saw a few, including this monster in the video by the road.



Leopard:
It’s rare to see a leopard, but one in a tree…next to a road is even more unlikely! We were a ways away, so the best picture I could muster was by holding the camera lens up to one of my binocular lenses. It didn’t think it would work, but apparently it does… sort of.






Ground Hornbill:
We found these rare birds doing their dance (mating?) amongst a larger group of Zebra, Impala & Buffalo.

SLIDESHOW OF ALL MY KRUGER PARK PICS