Day 13 - Sunday 17 October 2010 - Dougs 70th Birthday

Our morning departure for second day in Kruger began with a "Happy Birthday" to Doug from his traveling companions as this was his ACTUAL Birthday.

We passed through the entrance gate quite quickly as there were fewer cars in the queue this day. Our first greeters were, of course, a herd of Impala but they are now old news and getting somewhat boring (although always cute Lil Fellas). Some Wildebeest, Giraffe and Zebra and then something new - a Brown Snake Eagle very close to the road. We then encountered a large herd of Elephants with a Matriarch as large as any bull we had seen. One of the group had a malformed tusk that jutted to the side but a good photo was difficult as the rest of the herd stood too close - uncooperative as they were. There were also a few that were missing a tusk or had one very short tusk. One Mama had three generations of young'uns with one very small calf. We thoroughly enjoyed watching them cavorting with each other. We sat there in the van for close to an hour with some coming so close that we could hear them chewing. They finally moved off enough so we could slowly drive away.

We passed through a changing landscape on this particular road. The scrub brush gave way to multi-trunked trees that were about 15 feet tall and the only critters were the occasional Impala. We stopped for brunch at 9:25 with instructions to be back in the van and ready to go at 10:30AM. Hugo was such a slave driver!  To his credit he did know that we had lots to see and had to be out the gate by 6PM. On leaving the restaurant there was a small (about 2 feet long) Monitor Lizard by the pathway which caused a few of us to be late to the van - taking pictures, of course.

On our way back into the bush we spotted 4 large, actually very large Bull Elephants grazing along the road. Sure would not like to piss them off! THEN! Hugo's eagle eyes spotted our first (and only) Leopard. Finally the BIG 5 spotting is complete. I am nit sure just how Hugo spotted the cat as it was laying out on a tree limb quite far from the road. Camera telephoto abilities were not sufficient to draw in anything resembling a good photograph but Anel has a much better camera and got a great shot. Just after this exciting observation we had our first and again, only spotting of Wild Dogs although they were also too far off to get a clear photo. While watching the Wild Dogs a beautiful bird flew to a tree very near us - it had a white head, lavender chest, white belly and a blue/green on the top of it's wings. Possibly a European Bee-eater


We again had lunch with our Bat friends but this time sat away from the gazebo where they roosted. After lunch we were treated to the sight of a Marabou Stork, Sharpe's Grysbok (small Deer) and a pair of large Southern Ground Hornbill's then - our first Black Rhino. The black Rhino is a bit shy and not as easily spotted as the White Rhino.



The highlight of this day was a pride of Lions expertly spotted by Larry in the brush just off the roadway. We stopped and backed up to get a better look just as the entire pride strode out of the brush totally unconcerned with the van and sauntered along the side of the van. This happened as Hugo was backing up and Ben still had his window down and his arm resting on the sill. He was very quick to close the window when he noticed the head of the Lion just inches from his elbow. The pride then walked one by one, and just "Flopped" down across the roadway forming a barrier to any car that would wish to pass. The entire pride was nonchalant and totally unconcerned with the vehicles that were congregating from both directions and cameras that were clicking. They stayed there totally relaxed for quite some time until one very stupid person got out of his car to take photos. How quickly the pride went on the alert and how lucky Mr Idiot was as a few of the Lions moved back into the brush. An even greater idiot gunned his motor and caused the rest of the pride to retreat into the brush. The last Lion, a male, remained for a few minutes seemingly perturbed that his nap had been so rudely disturbed and he finally followed the pride and they disappeared from our view.

This was a very exciting sight but unfortunately ate up a lot of our remaining time so it was a race against time to get back to the gate before the park closed. Our expert drivers Hugo and Naude both made it with time to spare. Back to the lodge for a few drinks, dinner of leftovers from the previous night, reviewing everyone's photos from the day then off to bed. It had been a long but very special day.