Kruger National Park Day 6

Follow the links to Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4 and Day 5

Day 6 started out at a frenetic pace, had a bit of a lull in the middle and then finished frenetically again.  I did not have internet connection on the evening of Day 5 to upload my blog post, woke up early on Day 6 and quickly uploaded the Day 5 post, before our 5:30 start.

Within minutes of being on the road, we came across our first sighting of the day, a lion couple mating. 

The rest of the morning, it was mainly birds, which included a Pearl-spotted owlet, Greater Striped Swallows and an Openbill stork, and also a skink. On our way back to camp we saw a very peculiar “rock” which turned out to be a hippopotamus in a jacuzzi.

I managed to download, cull and backup my photos from the morning, thinking that this would give me a head start on the afternoon, little knowing that I would end up taking almost 1700 photos in two and a half hours in the afternoon.

The afternoon ride started with promise of leopard and wild dog sightings which had been reported during the morning. On our way to the first reported leopard sighting, to our great surprise, coming around a corner, we saw a leopard strolling along the road towards us.  She crossed in front of us and casually disappeared in the bush.

Carrying on to the reported leopard sighting, we spotted the leopard’s prey in a tree and a large leopard resting on a branch.

After spending a while and deciding that he was unlikely to move soon, we carried on to the wild dog sighting. Arriving there, we were the only vehicle nearby and thus got a prime viewing spot.  They were lying in a dry riverbed, most of them fast asleep.  We sat watching them for a long time, but we decided to wait until the last possible minute before returning to camp.  Our patience was well rewarded as they eventually woke up, started moving and crossed the road right in front of us.

On our way back to camp, we encountered an elephant roadblock, causing us to worry that we would be late getting back.  Fortunately, they moved out of the way quite quickly and we made it back in time.

The evening was spent watching the rugby world cup semi-final between the Springboks and England.  This was an unexpectedly stressful affair.  With the frenetic pace of the day, this turned out to be the first day on which I didn’t even start working on my blog be the end of the day, but what a great day!