South Africa 2023

Wednesday25October

Wake up at Maroela Campsite. The hyenas do not seem to have watched all night...  

As yesterday, the wildebeest is the first to greet us for this start of the day.  

The Impala likes to play the star in front of the lens...

These must be much older given the size of their horns.

HAAAAAA !!!   His Serene Highness is there!!! Having his royal nap!;

We will wait wisely for him to deign to get up to see his feline swaying gait unfold...  

That's it!!! Let's go!!!  

Ha.   It didn't last long. Just two meters...  

All we have to do is get a little closer to zoom in on the king of the savannah turned big kitty...  

Another place where you can get out of the car, with a view of the almost dry Timbavati river.

"The unique structure of the elephant's skin, which cracks into deep crevices, allows it to retain a large amount of water. This water infiltrates then is stored in these crevices and evaporates slowly, which allows the elephant to cool down for a long period".
© Wikipedia

An elephant-Selfie via interposed rearview mirror...  

Small snack on this ultra-protected area... or not...  

A buffalo skull and an African grey hornbill (Lophoceros nasutus).

Short approach of the big giraffe eating along the track.

Her favorite dish is acacia. She can eat 70 kilos of it per day...  

She may get up on her little paws, she won't compete with the largest land mammal on the planet. It is a leopard tortoise (Stigmchelys pardalis), obviously named not for its speed but for the patterns of its shell.  

Picnic on the Nhlanguleni site with first the aperitif: dried fruits and "biltong" of dried beef meat.

Ha. No, it's not the same as earlier. Not fast enough.

Two waterbucks (Kobus ellipsiprymnus).

Here is a vervet monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus).

And elephants, always so accessible, but at a distance because the charge is always possible...  

Wow! My God, it's a surprise! Emerging from nowhere, two cheetahs wander looking for prey...

They are superb and impressive, opposite to the king of animals we crossed earlier.  

They are completely indifferent to our presence

Completely indifferent? Not that much, a quick look towards us makes us understand that he has spotted us well...

After the giraffe, the largest land animal, here is the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) the fastest land animal. It is capable of reaching speeds of 110 km/h.  

Female cheetahs are often solitary or with their cubs. Males, on the other hand, sometimes hunt in groups, generally brothers from the same litter.

They finally seem to find nothing interesting in the area... They will try their luck in a more distant area... We will be able to resume our road with the great satisfaction of having crossed them!  

And while our two felines turn their backs on us, others do the same with as much sway...  

A little zebra foal who will grow up. He keeps the same stripes all his life, like humans and their fingerprints.

Kruger Park is crisscrossed by more than 1000 kilometers of wild tracks!  

The recognizable warthog with its small tusks which are in fact its canines...

A beautiful demonstration of camouflage... You have to have an eye not to miss it. It is the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus).  

"Its dentition fits perfectly. When it consumes prey that it has previously hunted, its teeth can break, but they have the ability to grow back up to fifty times. Some of its teeth, especially the fourth mandibular on the lower jaw which is particularly long, are visible from the side even when its mouth is closed." © Wikipedia
Obviously, the fourth mandibular of this one is being replaced!  

The Sabie river.

We arrive at the large Lower Sabie Campsite which runs along the river of the same name and where a family of hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius) paddles quietly at the end of the day!

The now traditional evening barbecue.

Sausage, peppers, mushrooms for the evening meal.

Thursday26October

Let's go for our third day in Kruger Park. Yesterday's hippos are still there.

And we are entitled to a tutorial on yawning...  

And by mimicry, we inevitably all yawned...  

The "discreet" Nile crocodile...

Small bridge over the Sabie river.

A grey go-away-bird (Crinifer concolor).

A sickle bush (Dichrostachys cinerea) with its pink and yellow flowers.

Birds of a feather flock together...  

A lycaon pictus or African wild dog. It is an endangered species.

A greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros).

Men and women in yellow in full spraying session.  

A small observation hut at Ntandanyathi Game Viewing Hide.

Not much to observe with binoculars except a papaya tree...  

Back in the car and on the tracks. Elephants are taking advantage of the green branches to eat.

The impala (Aepyceros melampus) is capable of detecting predators at a great distance thanks to its large eyes and large ears which capture the slightest sounds.

No blue wildebeest to sink your teeth into... phew.

Waterbuck. Portrait.  

A tawny eagle (Aquila rapax).

It is 1 p.m. Lunch time...  

An impala in a tree??? Yes, it is undoubtedly the work of a leopard which to secure its pantry is capable of climbing all the way up there with its heavy prey in its mouth...  

Ah, here are the charming little insects of the park! Despite their small size, they are impossible to miss. On the trails, the small black beasts stand out easily on the light sand, especially when they roll their famous dung ball which can weigh 50 times their weight!

The dung ball is rolled while transporting its roller... Hence the advantage of working in pairs!  

And there you go, here we are at the very south of Kruger Park at the Malelane Satellite Camp.

Burger for tonight!

And a little bit of Milky Way before going into the tent! Tomorrow, we are going to change location and landscape! We are joining another natural park, that of the Drakensberg! Superb hikes await us!