In the fall of 2024, travels took me to South Africa where we spent the majority of our time in Krueger National Park. From Mt Sheba we drove to the Satara camp and from the onset the bushland gifted many wonderful sites!
Day One blew me away! The magic of the bush transpires when wildlife magically appear. We entered the camp and was greeted by herds of elephants including the newest baby members. Giraffes, wildebeest, buffalo, bison, judo, impala, zebras (I’m not exaggerating!).
Each camp provide more opportunity to see the wildlife with sunset or evening tours. On the sunset tour we found the lioness relaxing in a meadow and soon became quite curious and came up to our safari vehicles. On the way home we saw hippos emerging from their pond and a crocodile venturing out for the night.
The next day we were up early to see the birds and all the early morning action
Our trip kept getting better and better. We set out early for birding and I spotted a leuceric African Hoopoe sitting on top of a tree. Our guide was enthralled as he had never seen one in his 20+ years of birding. A special find.
We spotted a family of beautiful iridescent little bee eaters flying in and out of their nest on the side of a river bank. Suddenly a wake of vultures flew by to the ravine to a found carcass. Thank goodness we didn’t see the carcass but we did see circle of life in action with 12-15 vultures.
The morning started to heat up and admired the kudu’s stripes to camouflaged within the trees.
Soon the trees turned to tall brush and then the site of sites! A Lion and Lioness who were casually enjoying the cool morning until the mating ritual started. The lioness stood up and walked in front of the lion who followed her and mated. If I wasn’t there and didn’t have the pictures to tell it, I wouldn’t believe it myself.
One more surprise was in store for us that morning. A beautiful cheetah stood on a rock looking at her surroundings and suddenly her little cub joined on the rock. The cub nursed and followed her as she headed down the bush to continue her search for prey. Our guide Mike spoke how well these animals preserve their energy including not catching prey that wouldn’t give enough energy back than it took to hunt.
That night we went out for a nighttime safari in the Satara and at one point found ourselves in a massive herd of buffaloes. Buffalos as far as the eye can see. It was pretty intense!
On the way back to camp, Sheila spotted two yellow eyes in the field. We reversed back and found those eyes belonging to our first leopard. She was beautiful, lying within the weeds, hiding out for the night or I’m looking for her pray.
The travel from Satara to Skukuza is approximately 70 miles and takes at least 7 hours as there are frequent stops to see or let wilidlife pass through. As the tripped progress so did the heat and found the weather to go from the 80’s to high 90’s.
On our way to Skukuza, the we encountered herds of buffalo and elephants. Elephants with their babies elephants, snapping branches bring trees down for their young ones to eat, and refreshing themselves in momentary water holes.
Fortune graced us with an amazing views including giraffes grazing in the horizon, hyena on the hunt, wildebeest, buffalos, lions…. it was a wonderful trip!
Along with the large animals we had the fortune for sighting lots of birds including the famous lilac breasted roller.
The next morning we continued our safari in Skukuza. The there was a lion on the riverbank with the lioness who was calling for her cubs as she was walking. Sure enough, the cubs come out of hiding and start playing with the mom and then among themselves. We were so lucky, yet, then again our guide Mike was an experienced tracker and probably anticipated these fascinating experiences.
Up to this point we were completely wow-and-amazed with the large animals. Probably because they were are to miss. The spring season provided lots of opportunities to see the young new offspring, and have to say the Pumbaa warthog and her piglets were the cutest of them all!
We stopped in the Skukuza golf club for lunch and lounged with the hippos in the neighboring pond. There was even a bird perched on a submerged hippos.
A rare sight was this pack of wild dogs resting together in a heap under the tree for shade.
Crocodile River lived up to its name with large and very large crocodiles lining the shallow waters.
Sheila and Martha were my partners in crime as we often got in trouble for being to loud. For professional pictures and more shots Tony is the expert. For better pictures checkout https://tonydoty.myportfolio.com/
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