June 8th, 2016 First Full Day in Kruger NP

We got a late start in the morning, probably after 10, and headed out on a game drive with grand plans to cover some 60km on dirt to get to some Hippo pools then loop back through town to do some grocery shopping. Well, it did not go as planned and we ended up making a much smaller loop on dirt of about 33km which still took over 3 hours then headed into town. Meaning it is a good idea to plan on averaging about 10km per hour including your stops to view and photograph the animals.

Even with the late start we saw loads of animals. Impala, which you really can’t avoid seeing as they are the most populous animal in the park, elephants, warthogs, baboons, buffalo herd, zebras, and african fish eagle and a redbilled hornbill. We also several rhinos again. 

African Fish Eagle

Buffalo Herd

 Redbilled Hornbill

 Elephant and Rhinos

 Rhino Family on the Move

Zebra Traffic Jam

It is amazing how your definition of what constitutes a good photo opportunity changes. We had up-close encounters with elephants, impala, buffalo, warthogs and zebras with the smaller guys feeling a bit skittish wether that was the animal or yourself.

Buffalo Close-Up

Elephant Close-Up

We also saw what was supposedly the flipping ear of a lion as it rested in the shade of a bush, though I’m not counting it. So we are still at 3 of the Big 5, being Elephant, Rhinoceros, Buffalo, Lion and Leopard.