Saturday, September 17, 2016

Johannesburg, South Africa

I've made it back to Johannesburg safely.

Friday, September 16, 2016

Biyamiti Bush Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

It's my last day in the African 'bush'. We all went down to a camp with a restaurant and had breakfast, on the way we saw 2 lions, elephant, buffalo, and 14 (!) rhinos, including a very rare black rhino. We only saw it for a few seconds before it ran off into the bushes.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Biyamiti Bush Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Today was sit in camp and do nothing. I read and watched the wildlife on the river below.

Athele, Josh's friend, whose house we stayed at when we first got here, came up and will stay with us for the rest of the trip. Then, on Saturday, we all drive back to her house in Johannesburg. I leave for home on Sunday.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Biyamiti Bush Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

I've decided that I'm done driving around looking for wildlife to photograph. I'm a bit tired of the whole routine. So I'm going to explore and if wildlife photo opportunities show up, I'll take them.

Today, though, I had an idea. I wanted a very good 'portrait' of a lion. We had seen a buffalo kill on the game drive yesterday, so I went back this morning and got this picture:

The rest of the day was spent in camp reading, working on pictures and watching the wildlife pass by on the river. We've had antelope, hippos and elephants. The leopard has been seen by others, but each time they call me out to look, it seems to go into hiding.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Biyamiti Bush Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Map

We moved to our last camp in Kruger. It is the most primitive, but the accomodations are the most luxurious. There is no store or restaruant. No swimming pool, no laundry. There are only 'lodges' here, no camping or cottages. Each one is essentially a house. Mine is 2 bedrooms with a bath and a separate shower, a kitchen and a sitting area outside that can be totally enclosed in bad weather.

It is right on a river. Being the dry season, the river is just a small isolated  waterhole along the opposite bank.  I'm told that the whole riverbed is full at the end of the rainy season.

But there is still plenty of wildlife. A leopard has been seen the last few days on the opposite side. This evening there was a rhino with her new baby:

I had a bit of adventure getting here. About ½ mile from the camp, the road was blocked by a fallen tree. Apparently, an elephant had knocked it over – they do that around here. A crew was working to get ot cleared, but they didn't have the right tools. They tried pulling it with their truck, but it was 2 wheel drive and fairly light. All it did was spin it's tires. So, they asked if I could help We hooked my truck to it and in 4 wheel drive low, it was pulling the tree fine until the rope broke. So we hooked the winch up and used that. It was doing well until a park worker came from the other side with a 4x4 with a winch. He then took over and finished the job.

They gave me a free evening game drive to say thanks.

Monday, September 12, 2016

Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

The morning started off with lions.

Just a mile or so from camp was a lion laying on a rock down by the river. Then, another mile brought this ( I took this by holding my camera out the window and pushing the shutter):

It was 3 lions walking down the road with a parade of cars following. The front cars woudn't pass, so we were stuck for about 45 minutes moving at a walking pace and no opportunity for a good photograph.

Then, they moved into the trees and were lost to view.

Later in the morning, I went to an artifical waterhole to see what woud appear. Back in the 1960's the park made many of these where they drill a well, put in a pump run by a windmill (some have been converted to solar power) and a large concrete tank to hold the water. Then they add a trough for the animals to drink from. Lately, they have decided that maybe that wasn't a good idea as they are experiencing environmental problems around many of them, so they are slowly removing them. This one, however, was still operating.

When I got there, there were hyenas:

When they left, zebras, wildebeast, warthogs and buffalo came in:

Later, I found a nice scene with an elephant at a natural waterhole:

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Well, that didn't work. I drove four hours north to get the internet I had the last time I updated the blog, but the internet wasn't good enough, today. In an hour, I managed to do only 1 post.

The rest will have to wait until Saturday in Johannesburg.