Our alarms went off at 5:30 this morning ready for a buffet breakfast and early game drive. Many of the animals can be seen more easily early in the morning before they rest during the hottest part of the day.
Our first big sighting was a large group of zebra walking along the road, including a couple of foals. We also found a warthog and one of the older elephants who is estimated to be around 50 years old. However we then drove for a long time without seeing any animals other than the occasional impala, kudu and guinea fowl. One of the advantages of being on an organised game drive is that all of the guides carry radios and can therefore share information about any findings. A message came through that some female lions had been spotted near one of the roads 20-30km away, so we rushed over to find them. Although they were still there when we arrived, we could only just see the tops of their ears through the grass.
By the time we stopped for lunch at Skukuza camp we had still hardly seen any animals. The grass at this time of year is quite tall and thick making it more difficult to see anything unless it is very close to the road. There was however a watering hole near the camp where a hippo and her calf were standing just below the surface of the water, and a tree agama climbing the trees.
We had a slightly more successful afternoon, starting with some buffalo on the far side cheap viagra without rx of a watering hole – our third animal of the “big five”. The highlight though was the two giraffes that we found grazing very close to the side of the road. Giraffes have such a strong kick that they can sometimes kill a lion that is attacking them. An American couple who had recently arrived from Johannesburg joined us for the last part of the day, and their first sighting was one of the most dramatic! One of the elephants grazing on the trees decided to take a much greater interest in us than the others had and started charging towards our vehicle. Dean didn’t accelerate away until it was about one metre from us! We were assured that it was more of a playful charge than anything else, but there was definitely a moment of panic. He continued to follow us down the road for a while but we kept a safe distance – less than a month ago an elephant overturned a car in Kruger!
Towards the end of our game drive we spotted a black mamba (one of the most dangerous snakes in the world) crossing the road in front of us, and a group of baboons in the distance. Other smaller sightings today included a kudu, waterbuck, blue wildebeest, guinea fowl, paradise whydah, red crested korhaan and a hammerhead bird.
As we started heading back towards camp a big storm came in and we all got drenched – perhaps the open-sided vehicle wasn’t such a good idea after all! By the end of the day we were all very tired so after some drinks and dinner it was off to bed ready for another early start.
