Here we are driving down the wrong side of the road in a van with the steering wheel in a crazy place.
A few pictures of the beautiful South African countryside:
Seeing all the beauty of nature made us start singing, "Oh What a Beautiful Morning"...and just as we got to the line..."the corn is as high as a elephant's eye...." we passed this field of corn...We thought it was serendipity! It really is that high... in Africa.
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| Always little make shift lean to's along the side of the road. People selling crafts or fruits and veggies. Banana trees in the background. |
If there is ever road work where traffic has to slow down there will be people sitting by the side of the road selling stuff. Never miss an opportunity.
We arrived in Hazy View and stayed in the Marriott Protea Lodge. We thought that because it was a Marriott it would be a good place.... I'm not sure it's the same Marriott family. The grounds were beautiful. The rooms looked and felt like they were built around the 1950's. Kind of musty. Barnetts had to switch rooms because a 4 inch long centipede had taken up residence. Just before bed, I moved my suitcase and a giant cockroach ran across the room. It's Africa.
Next morning...off to Kruger Park!
The first wild animal we saw!
As you can tell...it had just rained and many animals were coming to the "pools" on the road for a drink. We saw another tortoise on the road later who wasn't so lucky.
These are impala.
And some friendly zebra.
The following pictures give you an idea of what we see when we spot an animal. ELEPHANT!, someone in the car will shout. The driver stops (and positions the car for optimum viewing).
He got distracted and made a turn.....
Ahhh....a favorite back scratching tree.
A little lower. Perfect.
Now where was I off to????
About every 10 minutes we'd see someone new. We were jazzed to see Mr. Baboon because we had not seen one in the wild before.
Then a mama and baby elephant came walking by.
We turned a corner onto a bridge and had to stop.
The bridge was littered with baboons!
This is the typical "African" view you get from warthogs! Running away with tails held high!
These next pictures are so cool. We went over a bridge that spanned a dry river bed and a herd of elephants was down there.
They were burrowing with their trunks into the sand to get down to the water table. This is my favorite picture! I love that baby on his tummy!
Those kudu horns!
This is a Blue Wildebeest. From far away I sometimes get them mixed up with a Cape Buffalo. Mostly because we haven't seen a Cape Buffalo yet and I'm hoping! One of the Big 5 in Africa: Rhino, Elephant, Lion, Buffalo and Leopard
And then...just around the bend and very far away....is it a wildebeest or buffalo?????
Yep! A small grouping of buffalo! Woo Hoo!
Hyena
Giraffe
More elephants
Another buffalo
Then we saw some vultures overhead and decided to go see what they were up to....
Some fellow game drivers said there were lions in the bush just off the road....they gave us pretty good directions but we passed these "ladies" up 2 times before we actually found them. They hide well. They were about a stones throw away from the road.
We went around to the back side and found our flock of friendly vultures..."We're your friend, we're your friend, we're your friend!" 🎵🎶 (from Disney's The Jungle Book)
Those amazing kudu horns...
Giraffe...ho hum
wildebeest...seen that one
It's really sad to say....but you do sort of start to feel like...oh. there's another giraffe. Or, yes...there's some more elephants. But at the end of the day when you realize where you've been and what you've seen you just have to shake your head in wonder. Some days are like this one...you see something every few minutes...some days are very slow...literally an hour or more will go by and you'll see nothing. Sister Pead...a very well educated and proper lady put it this way: "It's a crap shoot!"
Beside vultures giving clues that there is something close by...human animals let you know too. Whenever you see cars pulled over to the side of the road that's a good indicator! We came upon some cars and pulled in behind them. There were 2 male lions laying down under some brush. We watched for a while and jockeyed for better position as cars pulled away. All of a sudden the lions got restless. They were up and pacing back and forth. We started scanning the horizon and at the top of a little ridge we saw a herd of Cape Buffalo LIKE A WALL coming down toward the lions. David started snapping his fingers like the introduction in West Side Story where the Sharks and the Jets are going to rumble. They really were like a gang! And on they came. They were sniffing the air and it was obvious that they knew there were lions. I wondered why they kept coming toward the lions and didn't head off in a different direction. We found out a herd of buffalo are cooler than a couple of lions.
Beside vultures giving clues that there is something close by...human animals let you know too. Whenever you see cars pulled over to the side of the road that's a good indicator! We came upon some cars and pulled in behind them. There were 2 male lions laying down under some brush. We watched for a while and jockeyed for better position as cars pulled away. All of a sudden the lions got restless. They were up and pacing back and forth. We started scanning the horizon and at the top of a little ridge we saw a herd of Cape Buffalo LIKE A WALL coming down toward the lions. David started snapping his fingers like the introduction in West Side Story where the Sharks and the Jets are going to rumble. They really were like a gang! And on they came. They were sniffing the air and it was obvious that they knew there were lions. I wondered why they kept coming toward the lions and didn't head off in a different direction. We found out a herd of buffalo are cooler than a couple of lions.
The lions came out onto the road. That's the Gerloff's and Okeson's van ahead of us.
And then they decided it was time to find someone else's turf to invade.
Thank you buffalo for letting us get some up close pictures of the lions!
Not great shots of a rhinoceros...he was quite far away.
We came to a pool and hippos and friends were sharing the spot.
As the sun was starting to set we came across these hyenas.
At first we thought how cute...but then noticed that the mother was at the side of the road and was injured. The babies just lay down on the road (I'm guessing it was nice and warm). It was getting dark and we were worried that they would get hit. It makes me sad every time I see these pictures. We reported them to a ranger and he said...Hyenas? We don't bother about them. They have to fend for themselves. Sad.
So ended day one at Kruger Park. What a great day we had. We saw 4 of the Big 5!
