Day 17: We explore the southern Kruger NP

July 14, 2019

The husband and his cold benefited from the day off, but he still doesn't want to drive, so I will drive the jeep again in the morning over the incredibly narrow bridge at Crocodile Bridge into Kruger Park.

We actually manage to pass the (still) empty gate on Crocodile River before 7 am in the morning.

There are only 2-3 other cars on the road at this early hour - so no 'traffic jam' for us at the gate today.

Directly a few meters after entering the park, the first pachyderm is already waiting for us, nibbling on a tree next to the road.

Giraffes and zebras follow, crossing the road

As we drive along the main road towards Lower Sabie, we hope that the water hole is not yet crowded this morning - suddenly a type of 'cat' appears in front of us on the road!

I have a deja-vu! It happened the same way with the two jaguars in Pilanesberg NP. Since I'm driving, I naturally don't have a camera in my hand again, and the husband is also surprised and doesn't have the camcorder ready....

I quickly grab my phone and manage to take at least a blurry picture of the 'cat'.

It is actually a serval, which is apparently very rare to see here!!!

This cannot be true!!!

But at least we saw it - YES!

Arriving at the water hole, we can actually choose a 'parking space' as there are hardly any cars on the road.

We drive directly in front of the water hole with a view of the many hippos and the big tree inhabited by numerous birds.

We don't see any fish-catching crocodiles today, but the hippos are very aggressive. Especially a larger hippo seems to constantly be looking for trouble and keeps finding a new victim to annoy and measure strength.

Just as the colossus calms down, the next troublemaker starts a fight

The big one won't take it and shows the young one who's boss in the water hole.

Shortly after, the situation calms down in the narrow water hole

Optical illusion!?

A few meters further, we see a sleeping lion on the other side of the river.

We drive back to Crocodile Bridge via Gomondwane Road and turn right onto Randspruit Road towards Skukuza after about 15 km.

Here we soon take the turnoff onto S26 and later S102 towards Mpondo Dam.

In the dry riverbed, we see a female elephant digging for water in the sand with two young ones.

We watch them for a while and see that she successfully sucks up the fresh water from the ground with her trunk, then lets the baby elephant drink from the dug-out water hole.

From the hill, we have a great view of the valley where two giraffes are standing in the riverbed

A few kilometers further, we see a giraffe with a very dark coat pattern. At least it is much darker than the other giraffes.

Since the kids are hungry and also need a toilet, we bypass Mpondo Dam after not seeing any animals there and head straight to Afsaal Picnic Spot.

Here, there may not be any intrusive monkeys, but there are many shiny blue birds picking at the meat residue from the grill grates.

After a snack including coffee - the early wake-up is slowly taking its toll - we continue driving.

At a water hole, we see a whole bunch of turtles in addition to some ducks.

As we continue driving, it happens again:

right next to us on the road, there is a cheetah!!!!

Although the husband captures the scene with the camcorder this time, since I'm driving, I (once again) only have my phone ready.

I'm also on the wrong side, so again, only a blurry snapshot...

Once again, we are annoyed by other tourists who come speeding and recklessly racing towards us on the track.

They make almost a full stop right in front of the cheetah, lean out of the windows gesturing loudly, and scare away the big cat.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..................

We give the two angry looks as we pass by, but the young men are totally unimpressed and continue to speed. That should be really prohibited!

It seems that there are many tourists here in Kruger NP who mistake the park for an amusement park...

As we cross a larger bridge, we see a car on the other side of the road.

A couple is half hanging out of the window and looking into the dried-up riverbed.

We also stop at the end of the bridge and search the riverbed, but find nothing.

The man in the car in front of us waves at us and points to the slope above the riverbed. Now I recognize what it is, and thanks to the 600mm lens, I even get one of the two leopards in front of the lens! Yes!

The second one hides in the bushes and sneaks across the road in front of us.

Again, I only have a snapshot from my phone

What a cool sighting!

We drive around in the area for a while and then continue our journey south.

We drive over Steilberg Loop to Matjulu, then Matjulu Loop to Berg en Dal Camp, where we take a brief look around and take a toilet break.  

In addition to the beautiful scenery, we see elephants, zebras, and buffalos towards Berg-en-Dal.

We leave Kruger NP with the sunrise over Malelane Gate and drive back to Marloth Park, where our warthog family is already waiting for their dinner.