After hanging around Cape Town for a few weeks it was time to see some of the wildlife Africa is famous for. We hopped a flight to Johannesburg and headed toward Kruger National Park.
The lodge we stayed at was located just outside of the actual National Park in a Private Game Reserve called Balule. The camp is run by Viva Safari and they do a fantastic job. Once you get here you realize that Kruger National Park is nearly entirely surrounded by private reserves. It is nice to see such a massive area dedicated to protecting these incredible creatures.The lodge itself is surrounded by fences and the only things you really have to be concerned about are the monkeys and the mosquitoes. As long as you kept your doors and windows closed, for the monkeys, and used bug spray as well as wearing long pants and socks in the evening none of these are a real problem.We did three bush drives in vehicles and one bush walk on the private reserve. On our first morning there, our introduction to the animals were these wild dogs. They were unconcerned with us and lay on the road relaxing. It was nice to see that the vehicles were driven through the bush to avoid disturbing the dogs. It is their home after all.On the evening that we arrived the guides took us into the bush for a barbecue dinner, or as it is called here, a braai. As we were finishing up this hyena started wandering around the area. The guides seemed unfazed, but it caused us newbies to get a little nervous. Let me just say that they are rather large and look very powerful.As I was trying to line up a nice shot of this zebra I was photobombed by this impala. It was quite normal to see zebras, impalas, and giraffes grazing together. The theory being safety in numbers.It becomes an ongoing joke that the poor impalas are referred to as “MacDonalds” or fast food whenever you see them. And you see them a lot, hundreds of them around the reserve. Sadly for them they are a popular food source for the predators.Speaking of predators, we were very fortunate to spot a leopard on two separate occasions. They are rather shy animals so we count ourselves lucky. This one was on a drive during our second day there.This one was a going away present. We spotted her during our morning drive on the last day of the safari. We were able to follow her for a short distance as she walked through the grass. Such a thrill.During our bush walk we learned a lot about poop. Luke, our guide was fantastic and took great pleasure digging into the subject. Turns out elephant poop does not stink. There was a lot to check out.The lion poop was interesting as well. Not quite as fresh, but the colour has to do with the high amount of calcium in its diet. Who would have thought.We cannot forget the dung beetle. This little fellow has its work cut out for him given the amount of dung we came across during our walk.Of course everyone loves hippos. These ones were keeping an eye on us as we walked past. As much as people seem to love hippos, they are the second largest killer of humans in Africa. Number one being the mosquito. Apparently they usually aren’t hostile when they are in the water.The amount of animals we saw when we were out was incredible. As we relaxed by the river we had a crocodile on the near side, with a hippo in the middle and a couple of Egyptian Geese on the far bank.We saw some crocs out of the water as well.One of the traditions on safari is to do a sun downer. We drove down by the river and enjoyed a tipple as the sun went down and the hippos called to one another along the river.They ended up waiting a bit for me as I didn’t want to leave. The colours were starting to get good. However, it is a good idea to do what the guides tell you to do.There were little things that were neat to see as well.
Loved seeing the giraffes. Wonderful to see them stroll around freely.The horns on this male impala were impressive. I am going to finish off with a series of shots of some elephants we encountered on our last morning. It was a humbling experience. So cool to watch how the baby mimicked what the mother was doing.Even as she got agitated the baby copied her.We started getting a bit nervous at this point. We were informed this is her way of indicating she is not happy.Papa came over and had a look at us then started eating which seemed to calm everyone down.Mind you, who is messing with this family.As they walked across the path and away this big fellow stopped and gave us the eye. I would be lying if I didn’t admit there was a certain pucker factor to this encounter. We loved every second of it.
I hoped you enjoyed this glimpse at our visit to this reserve. I’ll be covering our day in Kruger National Park in my next post.
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