Satara Camp, Kruger National Park
It was a
couple of days of lions, lions and more lions!! How fantastic! A little
affection goes a long way.
First
we came across two adult females with four cubs of about 2 years old which the
adults were teaching to hunt.
When in
that area, the S100 is a gravel road one has to take. To me this is the best
road in the Park. We came across this elephant and stopped ahead of him as I
could see he wanted to get across. Instead, he decided that he wanted to follow
us. The more I moved ahead, the more he came behind us. No in any aggressive
way though, just a slow amble down the road. J I took the picture in the side
mirror of the car and you can see how close he was. Please NEVER allow
elephants to come so close to you unless you know them as well as I do.
A little
way down the road, these two majestic Kudu were standing like statues. Of all
our buck species, this is my second favourite with the Sable antelope being top
of the list even if one hardly ever sees them.
The RainbowSkink male is one of our most beautiful lizards when fully mature. It reaches a
length of about 30cm (12”). This is a juvenile which is changing to adult
colours and almost as lovely.
There were
thousands of White Storks feeding in the grasslands.
Although I try,
I cannot capture birds in flight as my camera is never set for faster speeds. I
will keep on trying though. LOL!!
Next we
came across a pair of lions, probably a mating pair and I could not believe our
luck at seeing a second lot of these beautiful carnivores all in one day.
A very
unusual millipede – usually they have stripes running around the body and this
was diagonally. A real beauty too.
A breeding
herd of elephants were in a small river bed digging for water. Please see video
by clicking on this link. One baby of about 4 years old was trying to stand up
from where he was and I had to capture the sequence.
An even
smaller elephant of about 2 years old decided to go and dig his own hole for
water and all you could see was this small butt sticking up. LOL!!
In birds,
it is normally the male (left hand side picture) which is more beautiful and has a coloured eye.
Saddlebilled Storks are different in that the female has a yellow eye and the
male a brown one. The male also has two yellow wattles below his chin to
distinguish him from the female.
I cannot
help but stop when I find a Chameleon. They are just so cute! I have eventually
got Gaelyn as far as to hold one like this baby. Many Chameleons get killed on
the roads as people do not see them so I take them and out them in a bush and
out of harms way.
The
stunning Bateleur hunts for insects.
A
Klipspring on a rock in the typical environment and stance you see them in.
They are one of our smaller species of buck standing less than 1m (3’) in
height.
On the way
back to camp, another lot of lions!! My goodness what a day this has been for
seeing these magnificent animals!! This time it is a female with four cubs of
about 2 years old which she is also teaching to hunt. The rain is starting to
fall and it is getting to the time we need to be heading back to camp so we
cannot wait around and see if the female captures anything. I hate it when I
see something interesting like this and cannot stay around longer.
I had so
many excellent pictures to show for these couple of days at Satara that I made
many collages in order to show many of them else the post would have been too
long. Never a day goes by that visiting Kruger National Park disappoints me.
There is always SO much to see and photograph. Many sighting are just a glimpse
of something disappearing into the bush/grass and I have to be satisfied with
just seeing the animal and not being able to take photographs.
1 comment:
This really was an amazing days for lions. And that elephant definitely followed close.
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