4TH Time’s a Charm

We arrived at our gate entrance to Kruger National Park around 3pm. We passed the small road to turn off towards our restcamp so we reversed and stopped. I mean STOPPED! Oh my gosh, don’t move, elephant! Big elephant about 5 feet from my passenger side window! Big elephant with big tusks hanging by the tree…..we just sat there in awe and a bit of shock. Gasp. My heart started pounding a bit – what was he going to do? Stay put? Step closer? We had to remind ourselves we were not at a zoo and even though the elephant may perhaps be used to seeing passing cars, he was still a wild elephant. Wow, this is cool. We took pictures and got out of his way – just in case. On the way to our restcamp we decided to take a turnoff on a side trail since we didn’t have to be there until 5:30 at the very latest. Our friend Carson, who spent a few months living here in South Africa, told us that all you have to do is drive around to see things – you don’t have to take a guided safari. Well, Carson was right. On our one-hour drive to our restcamp we saw some pretty neat stuff. We stopped at a small watering hole and saw a few hippos just laying in the water and a small crocodile sitting on the embankment with his mouth open the whole time. We also saw a herd of buffalo who all came to the shaded water’s edge to drink. It was really cool. About fifty buffalo came down to the water lined up and started drinking. Then, after about 4 minutes something spooked them and they all stampeded away in a hurry. It was something you might see on the Discovery Channel - it was so cool.
The buffalo are one of the “Big 5” to see on an African safari. The other four are Lions, Leopards, Elephants, and Rhinos. Not too bad for our first hour at the park! We understood that it might take a few days to see these animals, so Jason and I thought that if we don’t see much, we will stay longer, no rush.
We arrived at our restcamp at 4pm and were offered a Sunset Driving Tour. Since public cars aren’t allowed in the park after 5:30 we thought it was a great idea. We arrived and checked-in around 4:10 and the Sunset Drive was leaving in10 minutes so we hurried to the meeting spot leaving all but our cameras in the car and hopped on for the 3-hour drive around the park.
About 30 seconds on our drive there were giraffes! About 5 minutes later, there it was, a leopard. You have to be kidding me. We sat there in the distance watching this leopard wake up from a nap and scratch his back in the grass. As we sat there for a few minutes waiting to see where he was going to go, and then it happened. The leopard wanted to cross the road, and cross the road it did. About 10 feet away from where we were, the leopard crossed the road in between the cars who were stopped to watch. I was in awe. What a beautiful creature. I mentioned to Jason how I couldn’t believe how we had been in the park for 2 hours and already seen so much. The guy behind me said he had been here for 3 days and hadn’t seen much at all. Apparently we didn’t know just how lucky we were. We drove around for the next few hours and saw some cool birds and some hippos, but truly, after seeing the leopard, nothing quite compared. The hippos are really camera shy too, so once you see them, you end up getting a picture of their backside. When we got back to our camp it was cold and dark and it had been a long day of driving. We were tired and had also signed up for the morning hike which met at 5:15am, so we grabbed a bite to eat and called it a night. That is, we called it a night after checking our room for snakes, as instructed.
Now when I say “Fourth times a charm” I am referring to the things I have had on a very short list that I wanted to see while on this trip that haven’t worked out so far. The first and second were in Barcelona: the closed cathedral and symphony hall. The third: the missing tulips in Lisse. Since my luck hasn’t been so great and we had seen so much already I didn’t want to get my hopes up about seeing the rest of the Big 5. I was happy with what we had seen so far so when we met up with the guides to head out to our hiking spot we were content if we didn’t see anything at all. Well, as luck would have it, about 30 seconds on our drive out to our morning hike, there he was. Laying in the middle of the road with a bloated belly, most likely full of last night’s dinner, was a gorgeous lion. He just laid there and slowly got up as we slowly approached him. He started strutting down the street and so we just followed him to see what he would do. He crossed the street a few times, zig zagging, and then stopped and turned around. There was a distinct noise in the distance, but all we could make out were crickets, we didn’t make it out until we heard it again. It was a second lion calling the first and right there about 3 feet away you could see and hear the lion calling back, and then a second lion appeared. Wow. The second lion was also male and about 100 feet behind us. He started walking towards the first one and we started thinking “what is about to happen?? Are they going to fight? Whose territory are we in?” Since you aren’t allowed to talk when encountering an animal we couldn’t ask the guide these questions. We just had to sit and wake in the morning’s darkness to see what transpired. He walked closer and closer to the first lion who was standing tall and still and who could care less about our presence. What in the world are we about to see? Affection. When the lions met they nudged each with their heads affectionately, the way a kitten nudges you while purring. The lions continued on the walk together and finally walked away from the road. The guide had told us that it was not uncommon to see two male lions friendly together since they could be related or raised together since cubs. They did, however, cause quite a traffic jam. Since our drive out to our hiking spot started earlier than when public cars are allowed on the road we got first dibs on viewing the lion; but all described above took long enough that once the lions were meeting up there was a line of cars behind us wanting to see these two amazing cats as well. It was quite the scene.


Days Traveled: 39
Distance Traveled: 29,733km/18,583mi
Countries Visited: 14
Days in Krugar Park: .5
Number of lions and leopards in all of Krugar: 1,500 and 1000 respectively as of 2003.