The Big Ones - Just Lion Around

Tuesday, Wednesday, March 7-8, 2023

Today we visited the big park – Kruger National Park, the biggest national reserve in Africa which stretches 220 miles from north to south and 40 miles in breadth, translating to 2million hectares, or almost 5 million acres!  It was first established by the President of Transvaal, Paul Kruger, in 1898 and became South Africa’s first national park in 1926.  We loaded into the safari vehicles and were at the gate before it opened at 5:15 am!  Our guide Sipho, took us through the park, looking for animals, with a goal of spotting the Big Five! 

He explained the big five were named by hunters—those animals most difficult to hunt, and that if you didn’t kill them, they would kill you!  The Big Five are Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Cape Buffalo and Elephant.    Hooray—we saw all of them in just a few hours! 

Our first sighting was a group of lions, just “lion” around in the middle of the road.  Apparently the pavement is heated by the sun, and the lions enjoy the warm spot to rest after their nightly hunting.  The lions didn’t seem to be bothered by the traffic which had to go around them…nobody was interested in getting out and asking them to move!

This one lucky lady had a beer can, and they were passing it around.

There has been a lot of rain recently in the area, and it has washed out bridges and side roads, so most of the side roads were closed to traffic, but that didn’t matter, because we found plenty of wildlife along the main paved road.

We came across a couple of female lions who had just made a kill.  We could hear the crunch of bones (sounded like potato chips!) as she munched on her meal, and you could see the remnants on another lion close by, waiting for her turn.

 We were lucky to spot the leopard lounging lazily in a tree.  What a beautiful animal to look at.

Kruger is world renowned for its diversity of game, and is home to more different species of wildlife than any other natural sanctuary in Africa.  They post a daily sign with all of the sightings marked so people will know where all the action is.

We saw so many different animals, and most of them up close.  Doesn't this look like a scene from Lion King?

There are lots of birds…some pretty and some not so pretty!

I loved this bird with the long tail...when it flies, you wonder how it ever stays in the air with the long tail flying behind it.  It is called a widowbird.

This is a stork nest...must be where the babies come from?

We even saw these Crocodiles, being lazy on Crocodile River.  One guy was waiting at the dam for fish to be swept over and land in his mouth.

Back at our room, this elephants came to visit right outside our patio, enjoying the vegetation.

At dinner under the stars, an elephant came to say goodnight, and we all got stickers saying “I saw Africa’s Big 5”!

Our second day for a game drive started after a great breakfast, and we continued our drive through the park searching for animals. 

The group got pretty good at spotting things, but sometimes identified a Rhino rock or a Leopard limb.

One of the most interesting sights of the day was a gang of Cape Buffalo.  There were hundreds of them gathering at a watering hole.  They were restless, and on the move.  Some from our group in a separate safari vehicle spotted lions tracking the herd.  Our guide explained the lions will follow for about a week, searching out the slower or weaker animals, planning to attack their prey in the night.  It was fascinating to watch, but we couldn’t stay around to see what happened later.

We saw so many elephants…just hanging around.  They eat most of the day, but only retain about 40% of what they eat, and they sure do leave big deposits on the road!  .

We continue to be amazed at the beauty of nature and are thankful that we can enjoy seeing these animals in their natural environment.

It was another beautiful sunset, and another dinner under the stars.  We are getting quite spoiled in this little piece of paradise!

What a special few days of animals, and a very special day on Wednesday—grandaughter Cora’s 6^th birthday!  She got to have sprinkle waffles for breakfast and sprinkles on ice cream for dessert. Happy birthday sweet Cora...we'll celebrate when we get home.