Kruger Safari days 2 + 3
Every day on the Safari we were woke up at 5:30 for a light breakfast and then off on either a walk or a drive. I picked a company that did walking, most just do drives. On day 2 we drove about half an hour from camp, watching the sun rise and then started walking.
You don’t usually encounter large animals on foot, they hear you coming, they move faster than you and leave the area. We did see a few buffalo though, and towards the end of the walk one elephant eating in the distance. The stuff you really see when you walk is more birds, insects, plants and lots of animal tracks. The guides were excellent and full of information about the whole bush, not just the big 5. Did you know that smoking elephant dung will get rid of your headaches?
After the walk, we drove back to camp and saw another elephant en-route, ate a large brunch and had several hours to relax in the camp before the 3:00 afternoon drive and following night drive. This was the basic schedule every day. On this day however, around 1:00 we were sitting in camp reading, talking, chilling out when a herd of elephants walked by. There were around 15 of them and they were only 100 meters away at most. This was amazing, I filmed part of their procession, eating as they went past. The camp was not fenced at all either, making encounters like this even more cool!
The evening drive was good, starting off with a giraffe, then we saw some kudu (large antelope), steenbock (small antelope) and I saw the back of a white rhino running into the bush, not long enough for a photo though.
After the sundowner drinks we headed back towards camp, saw a large Porcupine running into his hole and had to wait a good 20 minutes for an elephant to move off the road so we could continue. When we got back to camp, the guides found buffalo tracks all over the place, then we heard them and it became apparent that they were spending the night very near camp. After that discovery we had impala stew for dinner and went to bed. Some of the more nervous people in the group (ie the girls) had stories of hearing lions attacking buffalo outside their tent before dawn. It’s amazing what the mind can invent.
The guides did find lion tracks not far from camp the next morning, no dead buffalo though and we spent the morning driving instead of walking, following lion and buffalo tracks. We saw a few buffalo but never found the lions. Instead we saw a mother giraffe with a baby close by, an african wild cat and we startled 3 white rhinos on the road. Again they disappeared before any photos could be taken. On the way back to camp for brunch we drove up to the water hole and saw a large herd of elephants there, one taking a bath. Just as they were leaving a buffalo came right past them, and started drinking. The mainly submerged hippo in the pool didn’t seem to care at all.
That night we saw a couple large owls, then were charged by a rabbit who stopped a foot in front of the land rover and then ran off. The best was right at the end of the drive, a spotted hyena running alongside and then in front of us. Back at camp after dinner we were sitting around the campfire, everyone else departed for bed but I stayed up a little longer talking with the guides and listening to lions and hyenas calling in the distance. Getting the full bush experience!
Tags: South Africa, Travel
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