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Our last day on safari at Kruger National Park, part one

This was, sadly, our last day on safari. We’ve had five days, and they were all magical, wondrous, lucky, inspiring, peaceful, adventuresome, thrilling, relaxing, educational, and different. I took 197 photos today, and I thought I was selecting carefully in the editing process, but I still managed to publish 35 of them. So I’ve broke this up into two posts. But before I launch into the photos, here’s a quick plug for Wild Wings Safaris. The Yankee did the booking, but she says they were great via phone and email. We had the same guide for five days in Kruger National Park. He was fun, funny, willing to share and take a joke, knowledgeable, and great at spotting all the things you would never see. He was also our driver and cook. He lugged a bit of luggage, and he was full of good cheer. Or, if I may put it another way, the other couple on our safari (there were six people) had made arrangements to do three consecutive safaris with this company. That couple, a pair of English retirees, have been doing safaris in various places around the world for almost 30 years, they were repeat, and repeated customers. This is a good outfit. And we’ve been charmed and thrilled at every turn. Wild Wings Safaris.

Part of what we saw today:

Wild African cat (not pictured)
Lions
Secretary bird (not pictured)
Zebras
Hyena
Bachelor eagle
Ostrich (not pictured)
Elephants
Impala
Mongoose (not pictured)
Impala
Baboons

Wild Wings Safaris.

adventures / Monday / photo / safari / South Africa — Comments Off
1
Jun 26

Other animals at Kruger National Park, part three of day four

After this morning’s cheetah experience, I could have called it a day. Could have called it a safari. But we were hardly done. Indeed, that was just the start of day four. (And there’s our final ride tomorrow.)

We saw a lot more, including:

Vultures (not pictured)
Jackal (not pictured) (So there was a kill nearby.)
Ostriches
Wildebeest
Rhino (not pictured)
Red crested corran (not pictured)
Kudu
Elephants
Guinea fowl
Mongoose (not pictured)
Hornbill (not pictured)
Roller
Zebra
Giant bony plated lizard (not pictured)

Pretty much all of the ones not pictured are for practical reasons. They were on the wrong side of the vehicle, the photos just weren’t good or, like the rhinoceros, they were too far away. Had the rhino been closer that would have been an equally exciting moment. At a distance, and through binoculars, we had a few nice contemplative moments considering the plight of that species, and the poachers and smugglers that are threatening them. Simon, who has been doing this sort of work for 20-plus years, says he is now charting the number of times a year he sees the rhinos. This was just his 14th encounter of the year.

This evening, we had a pleasant and peaceful ride, but it was more of a hayride than safari. The spotlights were spotty, and the conditions were not especially conducive to conventional photography. Nevertheless, we saw:

Verreaux’s Eagle Owl (backlit against the red sky) (not pictured)
Side-striped jackal (Very rare) (not pictured)
Black banned jackal (not pictured)
Common African cat (not pictured)
Large spotted genet (in the spotlight, below)
Hippos (not pictured)

Our last safari ride is tomorrow. Let’s make it a good one.

adventures / Monday / safari / South Africa / video — Comments Off
1
Jun 26

This is now a cheetah blog

In addition to the dozens of photos of the cheetah that I took and edited and shared, I also got the last 80 or so seconds of our visit on video. Here’s the last minute of that, as this beautiful creature walked up to me, made eye contact and trotted away. It was an incredible experience.

Still more than 250 photographs from today to go through. Watch this space.

adventures / Monday / photo / safari — Comments Off
1
Jun 26

Fourteen minutes with a cheetah

At some point earlier in the trip our guide, Simon, asked everyone what they wanted to see. Of the six people on the safari two are longtime safari goers and they had some specific thoughts. This is the first safari for the rest of us, and I think we all settled on the logical, “this will all be new and exciting for me.” And it will! It was! It is! But somewhere in there I blurted out, without thinking, “Cheetah!”

Without thinking because I didn’t even know if they lived in this region. And, of course, this is not like zoo. You can’t just stroll over to a certain place to see what strikes your fancy today. Sometimes you do well, sometimes it’s slow. And we had a slow start to our morning. Finally, Simon said “That’s the way it goes sometimes; you can’t be lucky all of the time.” He was starting to soften the blow of a slow morning. About that time we ran across another group and our guide’s counterpart told him what was up ahead, and over on the next road. The safari guides are all in constant communication with one another, all sharing information and sightings, all trying to give their guests the best possible experience.

That’s how we got to spend 14 minutes with a cheetah. Here are all the photos.

adventures / photo / safari / South Africa / weekend — Comments Off
31
May 26

Kruger National Park safari, part two of day three

This is day three of five of this serving as a photo blog. We’ve moved, this afternoon, from one base camp in the park (which is almost the size of New Jersey) to another camp this afternoon. In each we’ve had a little hut that had showers, AC and a kitchenette. We’ve not used those because our guide, Simon, has been making our meals for us. Our job is simply show up on time for a meal or a safari. Then we ride around and see all of these incredible animals and the beautiful scenery they live in. It’s peaceful — perhaps not contemplative, but certainly unhurried — but also exciting. And they say every safari is different. That’s the draw. This morning’s (incredible experience with a leopard continued with even more great sightings, and another visit with that leopard, and his recent meal.

Some of what we saw on our third day in Kruger National Park included:

Baboons
Waterbuck
Nyala
Guinea fowl (not pictured)
Impala
Giraffes
Hippos
Egyptian fowl (not pictured)
Leopard
Buffalo
Elephant
Burchell’s Starling
Zebra
Wildebeest