SA-Botswana – day 2

We had to get up early. Meeting at 5:15. Getting our breakfast-box from reception and all paperwork for entering the Kruger National Park had to be done. Went to the gate and waited for 6 AM when the park is opening. All safari cars enter then. We only drove a short time when we had a group of spottet hyenas next to the road. They were very active so we stayed for a while to take pics. Then zebra. I had noticed the day before that they are three-colored in southern Africa. I know them only as black and white while there they had some brown in the pattern. Our game drive in the morning was about 6 hours so we drove a lot around Kruger NP. For breakfast we went to a camp. Nice to have a toilet for cows. 😉 After breakfast we had more animals. I don’t really remember what as in the morning and what was in the afternoon. To be honest: that day overwhelmed me. During the long game drives we saw so many animals and I took way too many pics that day. I restrained myself after that day. We had a pied kingfisher eating a fish next to our car. A crocodile. At one point we saw a (rare) leopard in the grass but he didn’t move. We had 4 white rhinos that were not bothered by the cars. It was interesting to see them being pestered by birds. But on my pics I can see how many parasites they have on their body. The birds are literally everywhere: in the ears, in the butt, on the back, legs… the horns had been cut off to make them less as a prey for poachers.

At lunch time we went for a 2 hour break back to the hotel and then drove out again for another 4 hours. The park closes at 6 PM and by then the game drive cars have to have left the park. In the afternoon we had another rare sighting: wild dogs. There are only 150 of them left in Kruger and we had 8 of them running on the street in front of our car. After the two game drives I was done. So many impressions on day 1. It had really overwhelmed me.

Dinner was great again. This time I left some space for dessert as I was told that dessert was really good… I leave it up to you to judge… 😉 Pics are not entirely in the correct order.