A (special) day in the Kruger
Having arrived on the Friday, and given ourselves the Saturday to (mostly) recover form the 10 hours of driving to get there, we were up bright an early on the Sunday (2nd August) for our day in the Park.
We got started early, hitting Elephants River gate at 6:15, only to be greeted by a pretty long queue. That said, and here's a tip for anyone interested, being prepared with entry documents can save you upwards of 15-20 minutes in the queue!
We did eventually start our drive at 7:00, and had our first sighting at around 7:02... A cheetah, of all things, and her cub! This was one of my best-scenario sightings for the day (the others being Leopard and Wild Dog), and seeing one, albeit in the distance, lifted spirits no end in the car!
At this point we weren't sure if it could possibly get better, but it did!
Our next sighting of note, outside of Birds of prey, were elephants. Elephants galore! A lot of females with juveniles, all of which were very skittish, and a few younger bulls in the mix.
Also so, so many Impala... around every corner there seemed to be another herd) or possibly they were just one massive swarm covering the Southern park??). By the end they were actually annoying.
Moving on then, our next highlight was probably the real highlight of the day; 5 lions lying ON THE ROAD! Not a care in the world, absolute dominion over their surroundings, including the queue of cars stacked up to to try get as many pictures as possible.
Needless to say, we were happy to be part of that experience, and we definitely took our own share of pictures!
Slightly further on up the road, we came across a lone male Hyena, that did seem pretty lost and lonely. Another first for me, never having seen Hyena in the wild.
And then. Then! It all started with an accident. The car in front of us, driving along slowly, when suddenly an Impala bolted out from the bushes and got hit by the car. Happily enough, it got up immediately and dashed into the bushes across the road.
In the confusion though, we had a Leopard walk out across the road behind us. It was clearly what had spooked the Impala, but unfortunately it didn't hang around long enough for a photo. It is still the first Leopard we've seen in the wild. What a treat!
Soon after our Leopard sighting, and with growling tummy's, we stopped at Skukuza for an early lunch, and to empty our bank account in the curio shop.
Following lunch, and now with our tummy's growling in satisfaction, we hit the road again heading towards the Malelane gate. Possibly we'd lucked out by then, but it had also gotten pretty hot, and it seemed all the animals had unanimously decided to go on strike. We saw almost nothing! A few Kudu in the thick scrub, a couple of lonely Zebra, and one, final, big Male Lion resting in the shade just before we got to the gate.
We had planned a second outing to the Kruger, but in fairness, with the cost for foreigners and the amount of game we saw on the day, what was the point? Ngwenya had game aplenty on the river over the course of the week, and on our last week of holiday we were more than happy to take the excuse to sit back and enjoy a few beers on the viewing deck instead of being behind the wheel.
Kruger Park, we thank you!