(NOTE: this is not one of our own tours: I’m exploring Kruger NP before attending two conferences in South Africa)
Diary continued…
I drove cautiously past a big herd of Buffalo on my way south from Satara, Kruger NP
… and a few minutes later two lions crossed the road!
This is an animal I’d missed out on on both previous visits. The little Klipspringer, a tiny antelope that lives in much the same habitat as our rock wallabies and apparently just as good at dashing up steep cliffs
White rhino near Lower Sabie. The name is a misnomer, the British misunderstanding the Boer word for ‘wide.’ It is a grazer, with a wide mouth. The ;black’ rhino has a narrow mouth and browses on leaves of shrubs and trees.
Lower Sabie is in an excellent position for hippo watching!
My tent in Lower Sabie
Baboons really do make their presence felt, as I found out the next day
Sunrise on the Sabie River
I was thrilled to see two lionesses just after dawn
On the way back towards Sjukiza (which I passed through on route to Pretoriaskop) this baboon (in the tree, watching the shop at the picnic area) opened the door and dashed around inside until hunted out with a broomstick. Another, bigger one was already inside not allowing shopkeepers access to the cash box
This monkey looks all innocence, but after this photo he leapt to another table and stole a cake.
Animals at picnic areas are a problem, not just for the humans, but for the animals themselves. If they get too demanding, as they can do after learning how profitable picnics can be, the rangers may have to remove them, even putting them down if they are dangerous (as large baboons certainly can be, and hyenas even more so: the strength of their jaws is second only to crocodiles).