Saturday Evening: August 25th 2007. The plane is almost ready for boarding. The flight is about 11 hours, and I was impressed by South African Airlines. A lot for leg space for Ecomony Class, good food and everybody has his or her own entertainment system - i.e. if you care, I was reading Harry Potter :).
Next morning in Johannisburg, I had a look around in the area where my hotel was located (Sandton). That place - unlike downtown - is safe to walk around. The sign, I figure, ask not to sell oranges under under an umbrella ;).
Just be careful when taking a turn...
Sandton City. A hige mall - you can easily get lost in there.
The actual purpose of my visit. Taken from my hotel room. From a technical point of view, a very intriguing picture - about 200mm zoom (not including 1,6x crop factor), taken without a tripod in complete darkness as you can see, and it is not blurred - amazing technology.
Even though I had loads of converters, I needed to buy another one for South Africa. Even then, it needed double conversion :).
Work is over, now the fun starts. The night from Thrusday to Friday, I stayed in Outlook Lodge: http://www.outlook-lodge.com/.
They do have nice rooms, a family atmosphere, and pricing is very reasonable.
Next morning, my flight to Skukuza was at 9:30am. The plan actually was a litle bigger than the one on the picture. It was, however, interesting to see that Federal Air is considered a Non-Scheuled Airline. As it turned out it was no direct flight from Johannesburg to Skukuza, but Skukuza was only the third stop. Before we landed at two other airstrips.
Everybody had a windos seat :)
Everythng is very dry in this season. Nature is waitng for the rainy season. It did not come during my stay, but it will come soon. The picture was taken on the last hop to Sukuza - maybe we even used the roads on the picture on out game drives.
On the way to the lodge, the first part was on paved roads, later on it turned into a well-maintained dirt road - like many roads in the park.
Rhino Post Safari Lodge. My first two night in the bush. http://www.ecoafrica.com/african/safaris/RhinoWalkingSafaris/5dayKrugerParkWalkingSafari.html http://www.isibindiafrica.co.za/kruger/rhino-post.htm http://www.sunsafaris.com/rhinopost.html
The bar, a nice place to hang out and relax. Meeting at 6am for the morning drive and at 3:30pm for High Tea before the evening / night drive.
My room - more than everything you need.
On the "balcony" I had a direct view to the water hole, which from time to time was visited by thirsty animals...
... elefants, for example, ...
..., and water it not just for drinking, but for taking a shower as well - or just having fun :).
Crocodile in the sun.
Hiding?
I can no longer remember what this bird is called, but our ranger Vincent told us, is the master to scare away animals. So if you ever find a leopard and this bird is around, good luck...
Nesting Vultures. They have been up there for 9 weeks, but so far no baby vultures were sighted.
Turkey of the bush (Ground Hornbills / Rotschnabeltoko).
On the game drives, there are two ways to find animals. One the one hand you can look left and right (sometimes it feels like watching a tennis match), or you simply look where other cars are stopping. In this case everybody is trying to see the leopard.
So where is it? By the way, I already zoomed in quite a bit :).
Here we go, the animal most difficult to find.
A group of baboons (Paviane). This picture was taken briefly before sunset when we had our sun-downer (see next picture). Some of them tried to nick some food.
The sun-downer.
Daylight is fading quickly, soo the night drive will begin.
A herd of buffalos crossing the street - hard to tell how many, the estimate would be around 100 animals. They seemed frightened by the lights and the flashes. They got into a bit of a panic and formed a barrier on the road. Only when we switched of all lights, they moved on.
A beautiful owl, sitting just one meter next to the car.
Male Kudus.
As our ranger Vincent put it: "South African Cabinet Ministers - writing speeches..."
A vulture far away in the tree.
In German: Scharlachspint. In English: ???
A warthog - ein Warzenschwein. Believe me it tastes very good: http://www.rali.co.za/idx_carnivore.htm http://www.dining-out.co.za/member_details-MemberID-1956.html
Another nameless bird.
Mlondozi Picnic Spot
A crocodile - with binos I would never have spotted it (at Mlondozi Picnic Spot)
A herd of zebras (at Mlondozi Picnic Spot)
A Fish Eagle (Fischadler)
A rhino crossing the road.
An elephant, about 200 meters from the road.
This time, only three zebras on one spot.
Vincent was telling us something about impalas ("They call it McDonalds of the bush, everybody eats it, and it is around every corner"), when he looked to the road where we just came from: "The is a f* lepard on the road"
African Sunset I
African Sunset II
Mama elephant with two calves
... still learning how to use the proboscis.
Hippo out of the water.
A hyena - just as we continued the drive after the sundowner, two hyenas were waitng at the bridge head.
There three giraffs became pretty excited when they spotted us.
Are they not cute then they are young? A baby hyena.
A very old giraffe. The older they become, the darker they get.
Baby zebra lying down.
A single impala, but there are about 130.000 in the park.
The equivalent to the sun-downer in the evening: The morning break for some tea or coffee ...
... well you don't really call it sun-upper ...
... and again we have a guest ...
... a banana bird - just look at the beak, and you know why it is called that way.
A croc in the pool.
After two nights at the Rhino Post Lodge, i spent the following two nights at Plains Camp. http://www.ecoafrica.com/african/safaris/RhinoWalkingSafaris/5dayKrugerParkWalkingSafari.html http://www.isibindiafrica.co.za/kruger/plains-camp.htm
The Camp is very well equipped - again, more than you really need. In the tent, you even have a fully functional toitel and shower.
Just when you leave your tent, zebras are walking by...
... sometimes accompanied by giraffs.
A little spider on my tent - just about 2cm in diameter.
Your ranger Bernard at the evening fire.
This young bull directly approached your car, but he got scared when Bernhard reved up the engine.
hmmmm
not yet a minister :)
not even an under-secretary :)
Two giraffs on the other side of the river bed.
African Sunset III
Even though leopards supposingly are hard to find, this is numer 3 on day 3 - and more are still to come.
Hippo during sunset.
Jackal (Schakal)
Impalas at night.
The next leopard - believe it or not, there where three of them on one spot: Mama Leopard and two smaller ones.
The lion does not sleep tonight. Finally he turned up. A female lion passed secends before, and both trotted into the bush without paying attention to us.
A Kuku bull.
Whatever these two are doing...
Elephant toothbrush.
Soth African Cabinat Ministers again
African Sunset IV
African Sunset V
African Sunset VI
African Sunset VII
Hippos in the pool (at Mlondozi Picnic Spot)
Another Jackal...
...and two minutes later we found this hyena.
... and briefly after that, we found this genet.
Elephant are the only animals in the park, you should not flash (i.e. if you do not what to end up in trouble).
The Milky Way...
... above my tent.
Part of the experience at Plains Camp was the walking safari. Here we go :).
Termites
Apparently very tasty - Bernhard says they taste similar to peanut butter.
The giraffe to our right.
At least 200 meters, before I took this picture (at full zoom), Bernard pointed our "Looks like rhino") - and indeed he was right.
This is as close as we got. Mama Rhino (hidden behind the bush) ...
... and two smaller rhinos.
The safari days are already over. On the way back to the airport, the road ministers showed up again.
A last look back. Just the night before, we took that road next to the river bed.
