Days 7-8: Kruger revisited

​We spent our second weekend inside Kruger. Long, leisurely days cruising around the sunny bush, spotting an impossible number of animals! I’m just going to share a sampling of what we saw.

I’m not sure this is what they usually mean by a “zebra crossing”!

Massive Cape buffalo 

So many elephants! While this is great for us, it is not so great for the Park. Elephants destroy trees and bushes, stripping the landscape and disrupting habitat for other species. Currently, Kruger has about 3 times it’s carrying capacity of elephants.

Impala lillies bloom in winter

Crocodile

We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in the Park. This out is roughly as far south as Traverse City is north of the equator.

In case you wondered why spotted hyenas have spots!

Impala.

Lions!

We watched this group for nearly an hour as they lounges beside the road. Notice that they appear pretty relaxed!

Aloe in bloom at the entrance to our overnight camp

A giraffe tree by first light

Sunrise giraffe

Black-backed jackal (at the base of the bush). A rare sighting.

And for comparison, Nature next supplied us with a red jackal!

No photoshop, I swear! They were just standing there in the road!

A lone vervet monkey contemplates the world from atop a log overlooking a waterhole. The rest of his troop soon appeared, and they went off in search of monkey business.

An oxpecker removing ticks from a giraffe

Cape Buffalo finding relief from afternoon heat

The internal structure of an elephant’s foot, courtesy of the elephant museum inside Kruger

Apparently, African squirrels are just as sassy as American ones!

On our way out of the Park, we encountered a heavily pregnant spotted hyena. She looked thoroughly uncomfortable! If you want to be amazed, look up information about the sexual characteristics of spotted hyenas!

Another rare Southern ground hornbill