Kruger National Park
After the close of our official GSE tour, the team and I all went on an adventure in Kruger National Park in South Africa.
Traffic jam in Kruger
It was fantastic. There is nothing like coming up close and personal with wild animals! We saw giraffe, elephants, African buffalo, zebra, impala, kudu, lots of boks including waterbok, ostrich, tons of different birds including at least 3 species of hornbill, a giant spotted owl, a crocodile, hippos, warthogs, duiker, an African wild cat, a LEOPARD (!), and more.
(Ok, FYI, I did not take this picture as we saw the cat in the dark.) The African wild cat looks nearly identical to a regular housecat with a little bit longer legs and more yellow on the back of their ears. It was just running around in the bush minding its own business when we come roaring through in the dead of night in a giant combie chasing it through the woods.
The park is huge and includes at least about 13,000 elephants. You can see areas that they have completely destroyed and torn up with all their tree-eating insanity.
We stayed a total of 3 nights in Kruger; one in Olifants camp and two in Mopani. Both camps were beautiful and lovely in different ways. Moonlight on the Olifants river anyone?
At Kruger you stay in a fenced in camp that is protected by two fences-- one that serves as a practical barrier and is pretty tall as well as an electric fence. We have heard, however, that leopards had gotten into Mopani park in the past. Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. you are not allowed to be anywhere outside of the designated and fenced-in camps unless you are on an approved and guided drive.
Our first morning three of us went on a early morning river walk. Accompanied by two armed guides (Johann and Jan), we stopped on the wayto the river to check out a baobob tree. (I'll add a picture of a baobob later so everybody can see what it looks like.) We parked near the river and set out on foot. After constantly being warned not to stick even a finger out of the window of a car, piling out into the bush near the Olifants river was a little disconcerting. We spent an hour or so tromping through the bush looking at different plants, birds, and leopard and other tracks in the mud. We were only a few feet from the edge of the river and several large grassy clumps when I heard, "UGHHHHHHHHH! UGHHHHHHHH! Huh, Huh, Huh. UGHHHHHHHH!" I practically jumped out of my skin and frantically looked to our guides and their guns for some reassurance. Johann and Jan, however, seemed to take no notice. More tromping through the bush and wading through the river brought us even closer to sounds that I can only describe as horrifying and our guides were still nonplussed. I figured if they weren't impressed or wowed, I wouldn't be either. Of course the moment I saw where that large sound was coming from, I changed my mind and my heart skipped a beat: several giant water sausages (hippos) bathing in the river only 10 or so meters away from us.
Carol, Paul, and I spent at least 30 or so minutes absolutely spellbound by these giant rolling beauties as they snorted and blew, yawned and honked. It seemed that they were all around me; their roars (?) were so lound it was disorienting-- I couldn't tell if there were some in the grasses in front of me, to the side, or where. It seemed we were surrounded by hippos. Unfortunately it was an incredible experierence that had to come to an end. We started walking back, wading back through the slippery rock-bottomed river (barefoot of course), and I felt completely at peace.
On our drive back to the camp we had another surprise. A leopard slunk across the road directly in front of our combie. I caught but a glimpse of it and was too spellbound to snap a photo. We hunted for it for a while as it snuck about the side of the vehicle but only caught fleeting glimpses of it through the tall grasses.
On our last night in Kruger three of us went on a night drive during which our guide told us an interesting story that took place a few years ago when they first started the night drives. On one of the very first night drives, the guide drove the big combie (a land-rover type open truck thingie) to a dam and let everybody out of the car. (Note: getting out of the car in the park is generally illegal and punishable by a large fine.) The group were standing around on the dam or on a bridge or something looking about while the guide was sitting on a short wall. One moment he was there and one moment, when the group turned to look for him, he was gone. A leopard had slunk up behind him, grabbed him off the wall, and dragged up away. His body (or what was left of it) was found a week later, having fallen out of the tree the leopard had taken him in.
What a trip.
Traffic jam in Kruger
It was fantastic. There is nothing like coming up close and personal with wild animals! We saw giraffe, elephants, African buffalo, zebra, impala, kudu, lots of boks including waterbok, ostrich, tons of different birds including at least 3 species of hornbill, a giant spotted owl, a crocodile, hippos, warthogs, duiker, an African wild cat, a LEOPARD (!), and more.
(Ok, FYI, I did not take this picture as we saw the cat in the dark.) The African wild cat looks nearly identical to a regular housecat with a little bit longer legs and more yellow on the back of their ears. It was just running around in the bush minding its own business when we come roaring through in the dead of night in a giant combie chasing it through the woods.The park is huge and includes at least about 13,000 elephants. You can see areas that they have completely destroyed and torn up with all their tree-eating insanity.
We stayed a total of 3 nights in Kruger; one in Olifants camp and two in Mopani. Both camps were beautiful and lovely in different ways. Moonlight on the Olifants river anyone?
At Kruger you stay in a fenced in camp that is protected by two fences-- one that serves as a practical barrier and is pretty tall as well as an electric fence. We have heard, however, that leopards had gotten into Mopani park in the past. Between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. you are not allowed to be anywhere outside of the designated and fenced-in camps unless you are on an approved and guided drive.
Our first morning three of us went on a early morning river walk. Accompanied by two armed guides (Johann and Jan), we stopped on the wayto the river to check out a baobob tree. (I'll add a picture of a baobob later so everybody can see what it looks like.) We parked near the river and set out on foot. After constantly being warned not to stick even a finger out of the window of a car, piling out into the bush near the Olifants river was a little disconcerting. We spent an hour or so tromping through the bush looking at different plants, birds, and leopard and other tracks in the mud. We were only a few feet from the edge of the river and several large grassy clumps when I heard, "UGHHHHHHHHH! UGHHHHHHHH! Huh, Huh, Huh. UGHHHHHHHH!" I practically jumped out of my skin and frantically looked to our guides and their guns for some reassurance. Johann and Jan, however, seemed to take no notice. More tromping through the bush and wading through the river brought us even closer to sounds that I can only describe as horrifying and our guides were still nonplussed. I figured if they weren't impressed or wowed, I wouldn't be either. Of course the moment I saw where that large sound was coming from, I changed my mind and my heart skipped a beat: several giant water sausages (hippos) bathing in the river only 10 or so meters away from us.
Carol, Paul, and I spent at least 30 or so minutes absolutely spellbound by these giant rolling beauties as they snorted and blew, yawned and honked. It seemed that they were all around me; their roars (?) were so lound it was disorienting-- I couldn't tell if there were some in the grasses in front of me, to the side, or where. It seemed we were surrounded by hippos. Unfortunately it was an incredible experierence that had to come to an end. We started walking back, wading back through the slippery rock-bottomed river (barefoot of course), and I felt completely at peace.
On our drive back to the camp we had another surprise. A leopard slunk across the road directly in front of our combie. I caught but a glimpse of it and was too spellbound to snap a photo. We hunted for it for a while as it snuck about the side of the vehicle but only caught fleeting glimpses of it through the tall grasses.
On our last night in Kruger three of us went on a night drive during which our guide told us an interesting story that took place a few years ago when they first started the night drives. On one of the very first night drives, the guide drove the big combie (a land-rover type open truck thingie) to a dam and let everybody out of the car. (Note: getting out of the car in the park is generally illegal and punishable by a large fine.) The group were standing around on the dam or on a bridge or something looking about while the guide was sitting on a short wall. One moment he was there and one moment, when the group turned to look for him, he was gone. A leopard had slunk up behind him, grabbed him off the wall, and dragged up away. His body (or what was left of it) was found a week later, having fallen out of the tree the leopard had taken him in.
What a trip.
posted by Julep | 5:25 AM
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