Dan Will Travel
I'm Dan and I WILL Travel
After the great Friday morning drive, we rested to get ready to go out again that evening. This is one amazing area for wildlife! Within the first 30 minutes the guides found a very recent leopard kill. An aardvark! Very rare to see one, as they are only out late at night. Melvin, our guide had not seen one in 15 years!
The dead aardvark. I also have a different shot of the rear end and tail.
She is resting on the ground right below the tree. On a termite mound, which provides an elevated viewpoint for her.
I love this shot. I did have to pay her a hefty tip for this great pose.
We left the area only to see hyenas prowling around about a mile away. Knowing their great sense of smell, we thought that they might smell an aardvark dinner awaiting them, so we went back to the kill site and sure enough they arrived shortly thereafter. So, the leopard just climbed the tree and watched as the hyenas got frustrated with their inability to get up there as well. They were quite excited, she was rather bored with it all and mad about the sleep interruption.
Ok, off to find lions. But, first the daily sunset tree.
The king of the jungle has arrived.
They are majestic for sure
OK, the hunt begins. The females actually do the hunting. The one male waits around until they have made the kill and then he takes over to eat it. Not a good gig for the ladies for sure.
Typically you do two game drives per day. The morning starts around 5:30, the evening one late afternoon. What I put together here is an amazing array of sightings all from one drive. I hope that you enjoy as I sure did.
The day’s first sighting, from my room! A genet (mongoose) using my little plunge pool for a morning drink.
Great close up of a hippo, by far the biggest killer of humans of all of the big game. Do not be walking between a hippo and the water they crave. And forget about outrunning it. they can get close to 20 miles per hour, believe or or not.
Don’t want to depart this life via a hippo attack? How about a crocodile? As I shot the hippo, I just turned 90 degrees and here were these guys. Sort of like being surrounded.
At least you do not have to worry about the hyena attaching you. They do not bother with that hard work. They will wait for the hippo or crocodile to do the kill, and then they come in to take over the eating of the kill. Trying to get done before the vultures arrive.
A hyena starting to go looking around for breakfast.
African road block. Quite effective wouldn’t you say? The birds are there to see what his shuffling along churns up in the dirt.
A steenbok, one of the smallest of the antelopes, maybe 3′ tall at the most. And super hard to photograph as they never stand still. They travel in pairs at the most, unlike the giant Impala herds you see all the time.
The social animal aspect of elephants on display here. This went on for about 10 minutes back and forth. Always gently, unaggressive.
Dramatic bird, about 3′ tall. Name unknown to me, sorry!
Young lions, doing what all cats do. Sleep
Another tired cat, a nice leopard shot. Resting in a tree as the day gets hotter.
And, finally, a baboon. Quite a 3 hour experience!
I may look nice, but trust me, I am not nice.
In my previous Africa trip, the seeing of a pack of wild dogs on my very last game drive was a highlight of the entire trip. They are very rare, even in Krueger. (Less than 10 packs in an area the size of New Jersey.) The highlight aspect is the rarity, not the “prettiness” of them. They are trained killers with the highest success rate of all the predators here. More than lions, leopards, you name it. And they kill in not so nice ways. Essentially ripping the prey apart alive. When they hunt, they spread out across a wide area, similar to what a human search party would do. Maybe 50′ apart, they move across the area covering a huge slice of it. When they see a potential victim, they all work together to achieve the result.
This group was spotted during my first Londolozi reserve drive. They did not look as fearful as what I remember, but that may be due to the presence of babies. Also, unlike the previous sighting these guys were not radio collared. The tracking program is to try to understand them better and to help bring back their numbers as they are quite endangered outside of places like Krueger.
A quick rest stop before the evening hunt.
A few young dogs horsing around before the hunt.
The hunt begins!
Another glorious African sunset.