DAY TEN - 23 MAY 2006
Today we crossed the border for our triumphant return to South Africa after our short stay in Swaziland. You just can't go to Africa without doing a safari! The safari was the highlight of our trip, and it took place at Kruger Park. Kruger is in a low veld (pronounced "felt"). A veld is similar to a prairie. Kruger National Park is in the northeast corner of South Africa, bordering on Mozambique. The first day in the park, we spent the whole day on the bus driving around Kruger looking for animals. I wasn't sure I liked this idea, but it turned out to be fun. The bus was so tall that we were able to spot many animals.
All things considered, we did very well that first day. We saw a ton of animals. We saw Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe, Zebra, Vervet Monkeys, Warthogs, a Spotted Hyena and her cubs, Steenbok, a Vulture, a Brown Snake Eagle, a Black Snake Eagle, Crocodiles, Kudu, Waterbuck, and tons of Impala. We saw Blue Wildebeest, Bushbuck, Common Duiker, Cape Glossy Starling (bird), Helmeted Guineafowl (bird - AKA Suicide bird), Hamerkop (bird), and a Bateleur (bird). We saw some male Impalas fighting, which was interesting.
Our lodge was just outside the Paul Kruger Gate by the Crocodile River. The lodge was pretty cool.
On the entire trip, the food was really good. We didn't eat too many strange things. We did try a little game while we were at Kruger. At the dinner buffet, we tried Kudu sausage and Impala sausage. I am not a sausage fan, but it was ok. In Zambia, we tried curry Crocodile. This was good. Lisa and I tried Crocodile or Alligator once in Florida. It was so full of gristle that it was hard to eat. This meat in Zambia was actually nice.
Several people have asked me about our favorite part of the trip. That is always a hard question to answer. I guess we would pick the safaris as the highlight, if for no other reason than that they are uniquely African. In close second, I would probably pick our night in the Zulu village, because it was so different.
Technical note - We only brought our pocket digital camera. All things considered, we got pretty good photos. However, Lisa's Dad and a few other people had real powerful telephoto cameras. In an attempt to minimize the animal photos (we have a million of them), I will try to post the best ones (i.e. if we have a better photo of a particular animal in Botswana than Kruger, then I won't post the Kruger photo and will wait for Botswana, if that makes sense). Sorry for all the photos on this page, but I tried to get all the animals in one place. There are just too many.
We don't have very good photos of the lions or leopards. If anyone on our group that had a telephoto lens sends us a good picture of the cats, I will post it.
When we first arrived at the bridge to Kruger Park, they let us get out of the bus and walk across to stretch our legs. Within seconds, we spotted Crocodiles.
Brad and Marlene at the entrance to Kruger National Park
Vervet Monkey sitting in a tree. We will have more contact with these cute buggers in Zambia. I caught one on video stealing food from a couple's table.
This is our only picture of a male Impala.
He's got his seven women with him. Must be a rough life!
Waterbuck
I'm forgetting the animals already. I think this little antelope is a full grown Steenbok, but I'm not 100% sure.
This was a great sight. We came across a Spotted Hyena as she was nursing her cubs.
We saw a bunch of bugs. This is a Praying Mantis. We saw few of these both in South Africa and Zambia. We also saw "bees that fly (more on that later)," spiders, lizards, roaches, and other critters.
DAY ELEVEN - 24 MAY 2006
We went out two more times on safari. We went out in the morning and afternoon of May 24th in open safari vehicles. This was fun. Everyone looked real hard and everyone got really excited when we spotted something. The nice part about the safari vehicles is they talk to each other by CB radio. That means if something cool is spotted like a cat, they can relay the message and give everyone an opportunity to see it. Our morning was fairly uneventful, especially after our unexpectedly good luck from the bus the previous day. However, the afternoon improved greatly and we saw a bunch more animals.
The "Big Five"
Everyone doing a safari wants to see "The Big Five." This is the Elephant, Rhinoceros, Lion, Leopard, and the Buffalo. I hoped to see a lion, but I truly did not expect to see a Leopard. I hear they are really hard to spot. We saw both a pride of Lions and a Leopard. Unfortunately, we did not have great views of any of the cats. We saw the Lions from a fair distance. You pretty much needed binoculars to see them. We were closer to the Leopard, but she was in the bush eating some animal. We could only see her as she repositioned herself with her meal. The cool part was she had a cub with her. I'm not sure we have any good photos of the cats, but I will look.
We saw all the rest of the animals really close. It was amazing! On this day, we saw Impalas mating, more Elephants, more Eagles, a Hippopotamus, Lions, a Leopard and her cub feeding, more varieties of small antelope, Rhinoceros, Kudu, etc.
Family of Warthogs
Kudu
Baboon
Unfortunately the photo is a little blurry. Sometimes this is because of a
bad photo, but some of the blurry photos are from digitally zooming pictures.
Since we didn't have a telephoto lens, we often had to digitally enhance photos
to get close-ups of the animals.
These guys are cute, but they are pests.
You have to watch your food, or they will steal it.
Some monkeys got food off someone from our group in Zambia.
You have to leave your hotel room door and windows shut,
or these guys will come in and tear up your place.
I hear some got in the room of the people on our tour.
In the photo above, they were checking out the balcony doors
for all the rooms next to ours.
How can you not love Elephants (big five)?
Elephant
We saw lot of Zebras which are basically donkeys in pajamas
Leopard cub (big five)
Thanks to Beckie for the photo!
We were disappointed as it was getting late and we hadn't seen any
Rhinos.
However, we eventually found this family of Rhinos that posed for us for about
20 minutes.
Check out how big these Rhinos (big five) are
Dick, Lisa, and Marlene posing by our safari vehicle
Lisa standing on a large rock hill
A nice sunset to end our time at Kruger Park
Continue out of Kruger Park
This page was updated on Sunday, June 4, 2006.