Day 4 South Africa Adventure

Friday, September 14th

We were up at 4:00 AM and then boarded our motor coach by 5:00 AM to travel to Kruger National Park.  The park opens at 6:00 AM. and we were in line to get to our jeeps to begin our tour.  By 6:15 we were exploring the park.  It was chilly in the morning riding around!IMG_2715

We took a 50 minute break at 9:00 AM for breakfast, then back in the jeep until almost 1:00 and then ate lunch and we had an hour.  After lunch we were back out looking for animals until 3:30ish!

We saw zebras throughout the day!IMG_2722

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A male lion with his kill, a kudo, and he had eaten most of it!

The lion’s kill.

“The King of the jungle”

You don’t want tangle with the Cape Buffalo. They are known as being very dangerous animals. They are one of the Big 5!

It was amazing to see elephants roaming around.  They were busy eating, drinking, and walking along the river bank.

Giraffes were spotted many times.  Some of them were alone and sometimes we saw several together.

Impalas are like the deer in Ohio, they are abundant and we saw quite a few!

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Notice the birds on the impala.  They are getting the ticks off of them.

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We really noticed how difficult it was to spot the animals.  Their camouflage really does help them to blend into their environment.  We saw several leopards.  The one was in action and we watched him go after an animal that we couldn’t see in the distance but we watched him pounce!

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Look closely or you won’t find the leopard!

Besides the male lion protecting his kill we saw another male resting and also two females.  Again you have to be looking closely to see them!

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There were crocodiles!  We spotted some in the water and some were sunning themselves on the shore.IMG_2845IMG_2838

Vervet Monkeys were in the trees and running around.  It was difficult to get a clear picture of them in Kruger.IMG_0617IMG_2850

Below are just a few of the birds that we saw in Kruger.

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Cape Glossy Starling
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Saddle-billed Stork
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A brown snake eagle

This mongoose ran in front of our jeep as we were traveling through the park.

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A mongoose

It looks like a target is on this Waterbuck‘s behind!

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A Waterbuck

We saw one of Timon and Simba’s friends from The Lion King, Pumbaa the warthog!

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Warthog

It was a day to remember in Kruger!  We saw more on our safari than we could capture.  Memories that we will treasure forever!See the source image

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