Today was a travel day.

We left the hotel b Kruger National Park this morning and flew from Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport to Capetown. One of the most interesting part of the day was visiting with my seatmate. She said she had not been to Cape own for 10 years but was going for business. I asked her how often she went to Kruger or other game parks and she said that she lives in a game park. She asked me if I had heard of Sir Richard Branson and I said of course. She proceeded to tell me that she and her husband are the managers of the Ulusaba Private Game Reserve that is adjacent to Kruger. She was going to Cape Town to meet with colleagues who manage Branson's private wine property that is near Stellenbosch.  The views from the airplane were good. Cape Town is surrounded by rugged peaks. 

Table mountain does have a flat top.

Our guide explained that Cape Town is a very racially divided city. There were shanty town slums for miles along the highway as we drove from the airport toward the wine country near Stellenbosch. 

 

 

 

 

 

We will stay in Stellenbosch for 3 nights at the Stellenbosch Hotel  My room is called a petite room and it is definitely close quarters. The bathroom is made for grade school size kids. 

Last day of game drives

Up at 4:30 am, game drive at 5 am, driving rain at 7:30 am made for an interesting start of the day.  We had a nice viewing of a group of lions. In the second picture you and see the backs of two young cubs. 

Because of the rains many of the animals were staying in close groups like the wildebeest and the impala.

 We also saw some hawks and other birds. 

We returned to our lodge for brunch, got warmed up, and I took a two hour nap. At 2:30 we went on my final game drive. We were close to two male lions and they crossed the road right in front of our land rover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The vultures were on the hunt across the road from where the lions were seen.

Next we saw two cheetahs but they were at quite a distance. I am hoping that someone with a better camera shares pictures with me. If you squint you might see 2 cheetahs in this picture that I took.

Guinea fowl are seen in the middle of the roads. Our guide said that they feel safer in the road because it protects them from snakes.

We ended the day with a lecture about the issue of poaching rhino horns and the greatly reduced rhino population in Kruger Park. It seems to be an issue of corruption and cooperation with foreign governments that want to trade in rhino horns. Then a local song and dance troupe performed songs and dances from 3 different tribes in South Africa.

I ended a good day of game viewing but I kept my record intact and did not see a leopard in the wild. Even so it has been a wonderful privilege to go on games drives once again. 

Birds on the Game Drive

There are two birders in our group. So for those who like birds here a a few pictures from today. Birds are much harder to get in a photograph. These are the ones I took. I am hoping that the birders with their telescopic lenses with share some of their pictures with the group.

Game Drive Day

This morning I got up at 4:30 am and we left for our day long game drive at 5 am. We stopped for a picnic breakfast at 9:30 am and again for a quick lunch at a restaurant in the park. The rest of the day was riding in a large land rover and seeing and looking for animals in the park. We didn't return to our safari lodge until 5:30 pm. It was a very long day! Spoiler alert - no sighting of a leopard so my streak of seeing one in the wild continues. 

Sunrise and the welcome sign to Kruger National Park. I will post pictures of animals we saw. By far we saw the most elephants. Elephants with babies, old males, babies who were nursing, elephants in the road (they have the right of way!), in the river and in the bushes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw many other animals. I hope you can identify them!

 

Arrival in South Africa

After we arrived all of our gear was loaded into a mini trailer that was pulled behind our van. There is major road construction on the main road to Kruger National Park. After sitting at a stand still for at least 30 minutes our driver took ua on a very windy and bumpy road. There was a bar that was down with a large sign that said, "This road is not a good choice as a alternative route." It was about an hour on this road and it was indeed a jarring ride plus the aircon in the van did not work well and it was way too warm. But we safely arrived at our lodging at Buckler's African Lodge. All rooms are spacious, have patios that look our over the Crocodile River and Kruger Park on the other side. We had lunch on the patio and enjoyed seeing elephants crossing the river in the distance. I get to stay here 3 nights!

 

This is the main part of my room and my patio. I has a large bathroom with a walk-in rain shower, a kitchenette area and a sofa.