Full Day in Kruger NP

A hyaena...

a hyaena cub coming out of the culvert den.

Spot the red crested korhaans (birds).

Three jackals, probably following lions.

A Cape buffalo. 

Two klipspringers.

The impala were running around and spooked the wildebeest.

Kudos

A cheetah way in the distance.

April 22^nd.

We were up and off by 6. We drove south for about 80 kms. We had much more successful game viewing today, starting early with a couple of hyaena by their den in a culvert. After that we saw many species of mammals including elephants, impala, giraffe, hippos, Cape buffalo, water buck and other antelopes. We also saw many species of birds including the rare giant land hornbills and a couple of eagles. The highlights for all of us was that we saw lions by the river, a leopard up a tree and a cheetah relaxing on a mound. Unfortunately, all three were lousy photo ops, even for the guys with really long lenses like Bruce and Timo. We had to be satisfied with seeing them from a distance. We saw four of the big five, lion, leopard, Cape buffalo and elephant, the only one we didn’t see was the rhino. So, there are numerous reasons to return in the next week or two. We did see a small antelope called a klipspringer with her rambunctious kids prancing over the rocks and posing for us. They were having a great time. We stopped at Satara Camp for lunch and then taking a tarred road returned to Letaba Camp for a pit stop before driving back to the town nearest us, Phalaborwa, where we stopped so the young ones could stock up on beer for the night. I found an ATM to get some Rand so I could pay back Bruce for the money he had been lending me. We got back to the camp where we had time for dinner before the lights went out again because of loadshedding. Bruce and I went to the Kambuku bar next door and had a beer while we waited for Matt and Koert to return from their drive to the Panorama Route through the Drakensburg Mountains. They had a good day, but they were picked up at 9 when they were expecting a 6 am pickup. They were frustrated by that. We had a chat and then since we were all tired from the long day of driving we were off to bed by 10.