Tour and travelogue to KNP Game Reserve S Africa - Part 2

We rise early in time to have our coffee and cookies while watching the sun come up over the low hills. The colors of dawn are always beautiful there especially in winter when it reflects on the mist and the sprayer in the foreground.
Before long, things start taking shape and become visible.

On the sandbank in front of our cottage a mother hippo urges her tiny baby to move into the water for protection. The calf weighs about 30kg (15 lbs) when born and is capable of swimming minutes after birth.
There are some beautiful trees in the camp like this Cluster Fig which has a huge stem……..
…and the Coral Tree which is always the first to bloom at the beginning of warmer weather.
We head out and see the Vultures still sitting on the ground waiting for the warm thermal which enable them to fly up.
In the centre of a small watering hole, two lazy hippo do not stir as the cars go by.

And on the other side of it, Impala have a drink before it gets hotter and the sun forces them to spend more time in the shade.
A young Saddlebill Stork begs food from it’s parent by going on it’s knees and following it around.
Young Elephants stay close to mother’s side in case of danger.
Buffalo stir themselves to come down to the water to drink too. When it is very hot, they spend hours laying in the water in order to keep themselves cool.
A Ground Hornbill is looking for food. It is about the size of a turkey and the largest of the 5 species found in the park. They love eating snakes and rodents and I have even seen them tackle a tortoise with that long beak.

Some young waterbuck lay in the shade. They have extremely thick haired and are always found close to water. They are easily distinguished by the white ring around their rumps. A large buck, almost the size of a 3 year old horse.
Back at camp for lunch, I take some photographs of the wild flowers in the garden….
…and a dove sitting on a high Aloe.
This is another type of wild fig and is also edible to humans and birds. These trees only grow near water so many mammals dig near the roots to find it.

Tour and travelogue to KNP Game Reserve S Africa - Part 1

I am writing this as a tour and travelogue for anyone who might be interested in visiting here sometime. I am including pictures of the various types of accommodation to be found as well as some pictures of what a typical day’s game viewing would be. If anyone has any questions or wants to know more, please feel free to ask. The photographs submitted are of a lower quality so they cannot be used.

Kruger National Park lies in the north east of South Africa and is about the size of Israel or Holland. The President of the country in 1898, Mr. Paul Kruger thought it important to set aside a tract of land to be preserved as a National Game reserve but it took many years before it was finally proclaimed in 1926. The first camp was Pretoriuskop and all it had was a small circular road going around it. Later, land adjoining the Sabi Park as it was called then, belonging to Mr. and Mrs. Orpen was donated to the park and so it continued to grow to its present size.

The Park sits on the Tropic of Capricorn and this means that it is warm to hot the whole year round, needing only a light jacket or sweater on winter nights.

It is about 4-5 hours travel from Johannesburg and my home so I do not get there too often, but I took a Thursday and Friday off recently to make it a long weekend and went up there to spend some time relaxing.

Going over the first bridge, this Giant Kingfisher was sitting on the bank looking for lunch in the water below. He is the largest of several kingfishers we have here and is about the same size as a dove.
His cousin, the Pied Kingfisher was on the otherside doing the same thing. The streams running through the park host several species of fish which are eaten by many different bird species.
Our first animal sighting was of course the Impala, with an estimated 128,000 in the park, there is no corner you can go around without seeing them. They are of medium size and at this time of the year, the females are on heat for 6 weeks, so the poor males spend most of their time guarding that other males do not steal them.It is extremely dry there now with no rain having fallen for many months. Because of this, the animals are to be found around the streams and watering holes, and with no leaves on most of the trees, game is very easily seen. During the four days we were there, we saw a lot of Elephant as they are one species which depend on water and are never found far away. This large bull crossed the road in front of us and went merrily on his way.
A female Kudu was browsing on dry leaves at the side of the road. During the winter season they eat whatever is still on the bushes although there are some which have leaves the whole year through. If you watch Kudu eat, you will see that they brows for a long while on a bush and then suddenly will jerk their heads away. This is an indication that the bush has put out a lot off tannin to protect itself and make it inedible. A survival tactic.
At certain times of the year, the Zebra and Blue Wildebeest migrate around the park as the first summer rain always comes to the southern part of the park first.
They are found in great numbers and will often stand in the middle of the road, soaking up the early sunshine.

These two White Rhino were also enjoying the sun and not planning to move until mealtime.
A lot of our birds migrate for the winter and are now starting to come back as it warms up towards summer. This is a Black-eyed Bulbul and is one which is found here the whole year through.
A male Kudu has very long spiral horns which he uses to bring down branch otherwise to high to browse on. But if all else fails, will enjoy the tiny bit of green grass he finds at the roads edge. These are very large buck and stand about 5 feet at shoulder height.
A Lilac-breasted Roller sits trying to find a meal, but insects are scarce now.
What would a trip be without at least one bug and this unusual moth flew into a tree above my head. He unfortunately flew off to fast for me to get a proper look at him for identification purposes.

Another huge Elephant which was part of four males grazing away. They eat both grass and leaves and so are never short of food and add bark to their diets too as a change.
What a lovely way to end off our first day there, a Honey Badger!! It is not often we see them but once again, scarcity of food drives them out into the open.
They are vicious little creatures and will attack anything which gets in their way. Sorry they are not the best of pictures, but there was no time to set anything on the camera and I had to take what pics I could get.
And so the moon comes out on our first day. It has been a lot of driving having come up all the way from home, but now we can look forward to shorter distances and we sit outside having a barbeque and listening to the sounds of the night coming alive with owls, crickets and other nocturnal game while sipping on a sherry.

Birds of Pilansberg - Part 7 Final

There are always a lot of zebra about and they have the habt of giving you this icy stare.
This rude giraffe kept on sticking tongue out at me. :)

In a small pool from the recent rain, these two white rhino were wallowing and having a lovely mud bath.

The Eland is out largest antelope and there are not many of them around so I was lucky to manage this photograph of one.

In one of the bird hides this bird was trying to make friends with the one in the reflection but for some reason it was not getting much response. :)

This is one of or beautiful birds, the Brownhooded kingfisher. They are common and are found in most areas.

Birds of Pilansberg - Part 5

Dotted all about the park are these small hilly outcrops which are the perfect places to look for Hyrax.
In the early morning light, these weeds made a pretty picture.

The Rock Pigeon is one of the biggest of out doves/pigeons. They sometimes are found in flocks of hundreds of birds together in city parks and was intoduced to SA from the Netherlands.

In flight the red can clearly be seen in Redwinged Starlings. A very vocal birds, larger than the Glossy Starling. Included in their diet are fruit, insects millipedes and lizards.

Gloosy Starlings are found all over SA and come very easily to feeders. They usually sit in the higest branch of a tree and sings it little heart out. Their eggs are light greenish blue speckled with rusty red.

Crimsonbreasted Shriks are common only in certain areas of SA and has a very distinctive call. They only eat insects and will also search the bark of trees for them.

The tiny Dabckick babies are so small they could almost fit into your pocket and can be found in any pool of permanent water. Mostly they are seen as a family group and when startled, flap their wings and seem to run on water.

Kruger National Park - The other side - Part 13 Final

A pretty wild flower.
Flower and leaves of the Sicklebush - a very popular wood when making a barbeque.

This is one of the blue bottle flies and if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you will see how the eyes are made up of hundreds of segments.

Summer would not be summer without hundreds of flies and mosquitoes around, some of them being quite colorful.

The Hairy Darkling Beetle.

Lush vegetation at this time of year which is enjoyed by all the animals.

I have included these two pictures of the elephant in which you can clearly see the "tears" which indicate it is in musth (described in Part 10).

Bones of an old elephant.

We come to the final sunset on 4 wonderful days of being back in the bush, lousy weather or not.

Looking back on this series, I am amazed by how much else there is to see besides animals. If you look hard enough, there is always something there to grab your attention.

Thanks for taking this journey with me - I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did presenting it.