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.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

More driving and looking or wildlife. The weather, for the last 2 weeks or so has been hot. It got to 100 degrees yesterday, but last night, a cold front came through and today was nice and cool. It may have gotten to 70 degrees.

The plan was to drive over to Skukuza camp, about an hour away, and use the internet they supposedly have there to update the blog, taking pictures of any wildlife we see along the way. It sort of didn't happen that way. The internet there was terrible. It was free from the retaurant, and you got what you paid for. If you could get connected and if you could stay connected long enough to do anything, it was very very slow. Needless to say, I didn't do the update. I'll drive up to Mopane tomorrow and do it from there.

In the meantime, there was wildlife. We had a lion sleeping on some rocks near the river:

A rhino that slowly worked its way closer:

 and then crossed the road in the middle of a bunch of cars:

There was a male lion that looks like it tangled with a porcupine and lost. He had quills in his face and a very bad limp:

There were several leopards, but only one that was visible enough to photograph:

Along with all that, there was a wildebeast, an elephant drinking from a large water tank, and 2 giraffes fighting:

Friday, September 9, 2016

Lower Sabie Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Map

We moved further south today. We left camp at 6:00 am, when the gates opened and within a few minutes saw a group of lions.

Then there was a rhino, my first of the trip. It was right next to the road:

More driving and we came across the 2 male lions from yesterday:

A little more diving and we came across a whole bunch of females and cubs spread out on either side of the road. This one was 15 feet away:

This one was about 5 feet from the camper:

Cubs kept coming out of the brush and crossed the road:

We counted at least 8 and maybe 10 cubs.

After a while, several of the adults went down the road, stalked some impala and ghen got them running back towards where 2 more were waiting in ambush. There was a very fast, short chase, but the impala all go away:

It was a good morning.

I'm in a tent this time:

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Satara Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

More driving around today.  I went south early and found a single female lion a good distance away:

A little more driving and I found a pair of cheetahs even further away:

More driving and I found a couple of male lions:

Looking around, there was also a male and female pair:

We went back in the evening, but only saw the pair, a very long way away.

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Satara Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Map

We've moved around 30 miles south to another camp. It's bigger, but the campground is not nicer. It's all open and very little shade:

We're here for 2 nights.

The trip down had some wildlife. There were several cars stopped along the road and we determined that they were seeing cheetah – 4 of them together. After a bit of looking, we found them. They were moving sort of parallel to the road, but way far away. As they went along, though, they kept getting closer to the road, until they crossed:

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Letaba Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

This morning we went out looking for wildlife, again. Lots of stuff like zebra and giraffe, and the only lion was one drinking at a waterhole:

Josh found a dead buffalo near the road, so we went out in the evening to see if anything was feeding on it. I waited for an hour and nothing showed up, so I headed back towards camp. Just a few minutes after I started back, this appeared:

It looked like it came out of a drain culvert under the road. It was apparently sleeping there until it cooled off.  

Monday, September 5, 2016

Letaba Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

I went out for a drive this morning. There is a road that follows the, mostly dry, Letaba River. I didn't see any cats, but I did get a good picture of an impala:

This place isn't what you'd normally think of as a 'camp'. It's more like a small resort. Besides the campground, it has a swimming pool, laundramat, store, gas station, cottages:

A restaurant:

And it's all nicely manicured and maintained.

The view from the patio of the restaurant isn't too bad, either:

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Letaba Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Map

I moved south to Letaba, another camp area in the middle of the park.

Along the way, you cross the Tropic of Capriorn, the southern boundary of the tropics.

Also, along the way, the young male lion from 2 days ago was out:

Josh got back from Johannesburg with a car instead of the camper.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Punda Maria Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

My last day at this camp, I decided would be a rest day. Just hang around camp, doing computer stuff, charging batteries and reading. It sorta turned out that way.

On the edge of the camp is a platform that overlooks a waterhole. Yesterday, I waited for an hour and nothing showed. Today was a bit different:

Later, I noticed that the camper battery was getting a little low, so I went out for an hour drive to charge it back up. More wildlife was seen:

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Punda Maria Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

My last day at this camp, I decided would be a rest day. Just hang around camp, doing computer stuff, charging batteries and reading. It sorta turned out that way.

On the edge of the camp is a platform that overlooks a waterhole. Yesterday, I waited for an hour and nothing showed. Today was a bit different:

Later, I noticed that the camper battery was getting a little low, so I went out for an hour drive to charge it back up. More wildlife was seen:

Friday, September 2, 2016

Punda Maria Camp, Kruger National Park, South Africa

Today was spent exploring the northern part of the park. I drove down the main road to the next 2 camps to see what was there.

This area is supposed to have a lot less wildlife than the southern part, but on the trip, I saw

ostritch:

wildebeast:

buffalo:

zebra:

a pair of lions (far away and in bad light):

as well as elephants, impala, giraffe, and hippos. Not bad for ½ a day in a less populated area.