Kruger Game Drive

Our last day in Kruger began at 5 AM with a knock on our tent flap. We rolled out of bed, grabbed a quick bite, and boarded the Safari vehicle. Our goal was to find sitings of rhino, lion and leopard to complete the Big Five. We get up in the dark so that we can maximize our chances since the animals are early risers.

We were quickly rewarded with a rhino crossing the road with her baby in tow.

Rhinos are the most endangered animal here. One horn is work more than $100,000 US dollars. Apparently, the Chinese and other nationalities value the horn for its Aphrodisiac qualities. The government is trying hard to catch the poachers, but it is a tough job since now they use sophisticated tracking complete with helicopters! They hope that this animal can be saved.

Can you find the lion?

Later in the morning we spotted a lion quite a ways off. Now, all we needed was a leopard! We combed the landscape until by a river, one of the members of our group, noticed something moving. Sure enough, the leopard was on the prowl trying to down a Impala (looks something like a deer). I thought about Bleu kitty's behavior, which is exactly like his cousin the leopard. He crawled and crouched through the bush.

Leopard Crossing River

 We didn't stick around for the outcome since all of a sudden other vehicles showed up. It reminded me of how it was when we toured Yellowstone National Park a few years ago. If an animal shows himself, all of us humans seem to know! The poor animal doesn't like all the viewing and suddenly makes himself scarce. 


 That's OK – we all celebrated our goal and enjoyed viewing some of the other species – rare birds, hyenas, kudus, etc.

We're off to our next adventure in the morning. We fly over to Zimbabwe. By the way, for this part of our trip, we have to take malaria medication. We began our first pill yesterday with no ill effects!

Saddle Billed Stork