South Africa: Kruger National Park

In June Mark and I joined his parents on a trip to South Africa to spend two weeks in Kruger National Park. Two weeks might sound like a long time to spend in one park, but this national park is enormous, around the size of the state of Connecticut. And it is also full of wild animals, so there is no shortage of interesting things to see. Within the park there are lots of camps, which are pretty large fenced areas with bungalows, huts, and camping areas for people to stay. These camps have restaurants and stores, so there is no need to leave the park during your stay. 

Every morning we would wake up early so that we could leave the camp around 6:00 am, just before the sun rose, and then drive around the park until the evening. When I say drive around, I mean, we were literally just driving around on a mixture of dirt and tar roads in a rental car, searching for animals. Some nights we went on sunset or night drives in a safari vehicle with a guide because you can't just drive around in the park on your own after 5:30 pm. As we drove around we would search for animals and then stop to look at them and take their pictures. Mark, his dad, and I each had telephoto lenses that we used to photograph the animals that we saw. I took around 2,000 pictures of South African animals during the trip, and I'm pretty sure I had the smallest number of photos out of the three of us. I have only included a small number of highlights below, ordered chronologically.

A giraffe mid-chew: 

A zebra by morning light:

A rhino we saw on our first sunset drive:

Hippos by evening light on our first sunset drive:

A black backed jackal from our first sunset drive. This guy was right next to the truck:

An elephant family in the morning:

A male lion guarding a buffalo carcass. We watched this guy for quite a while to see if he would move. He did not. He was about 20 feet away from the car:

A baby zebra with its parent or buddy:

Two southern ground hornbills. The red one is an adult and the white one is a juvenile.

A sleeping lion:

A crocodile in motion. I think this is the only time in my life I have seen a crocodile move:

This hippo was pretty close to the car, but we were on a bridge above it. He kept staring right at me while I took pictures. He must have been uncomfortable because he then turned and very quickly ran out of the water. Then he kept staring from a safer distance.

An adult and baby giraffe:

A herd of elephants:

A photogenic zebra:

Two impala about to fight:

A kudu:

A baby giraffe (with the cutest little face):

A leopard mid-yawn:

The same leopard. We watched him walk through the grass and then up to the top of a small mountain to hid among the rocks:

A hippo and her baby:

The baby got tired:

Two elephants with their trunks raised. The elephants were the animals who responded most to cars driving past. They would flap their ears or trumpet to signal that you should move along quickly:

Two elephants fighting:

 Baby elephants:

A giraffe drinking from a watering hole:

A hyena. I was ready to tame one and take it home with me:

A baby warthog running after his family:

A pride of lions crossing the road:

A giraffe with his tongue out:

An alert pride of lions:

A baboon with her baby:

A baby nyala:

We were sitting in a bird hide when we noticed two hippos following a crocodile in the water.

One hippo got close to the crocodile as they neared the shore.

The hippo followed the crocodile out of the water and the crocodile turned to face the hippo with his teeth out:

The hippo stared down the crocodile for several minutes before lowering himself back into the water.

The hippos swam away and the crocodile remained on shore. I asked a ranger about this encounter later and he said that a crocodile would never attack a hippo because the hippo would win.

A cheetah I spotted in the grass that turned out to be with a group with 4 other cheetahs. This spotting was particularly exciting because cheetahs are rare to see alone, but especially unique to see in a group.

At first the cheetahs looked like they were going to run away to the right of the car, but they changed their mind and crossed the street right in front of us.

South Africa was an amazing place to visit. It was so exciting to see these animals in their natural habitat.