Today was our first full day at Kruger. The safari schedule here goes roughly like this:

5:30: wake up call

6:00: be at lodge for juice, tea, fruit

6:15: leave on morning safari

9:00-ish: return to lodge for breakfast

recover from your early morning

1:00: lunch

3:00: be at lodge for afternoon safari

3:30: leave on afternoon safari (earlier if everyone is ready)

6:15-7:00: return from afternoon safari

7:00: dinner

This morning we went in search of big kitties. We were met, instead, by spotted hyenas. A pair literally showed up within 2 feet right by my side along the safari truck. We ended up following them back in the bush to a den, but didn’t see any little ones. These are the most common carnivores in Africa and have the ability to eat and digest even bone.

In the early morning some vervet monkeys were still sleeping in the trees. They huddle together for warmth. They are social animals and live in small groups, called troops.

Around sunrise, we came upon a pond with a lone male hippopotamus. Male hippos have harem groups, so if a male has not been able to establish dominance, he lives alone until he can do so. We watched the sunrise over his pond. It was beautiful.

We encounter frequent wildebeest, but nothing like what we saw in the Serengeti, where we saw huge herds of them migrating. This guy did not want us to pass in front of him. Apparently he has to be the leader of the pack. These guys are the size of cattle.

We continued to drive around in search of a leopard when we encountered an African wild dog. These are endangered, so finding him was great! He had just had a large meal and was likely heading back to feed pups, as there is a known den on a neighboring property. Wild dogs regurgitate food to feed their young. This guy came towards us at a full run and we followed him (at a nice distance) for our guide to see if he could determine where the den is. The wild dog ran for a good 5 minutes that we were following him and the whole time he was going 23 km/hr as we were pacing him.

These pigeon-sized birds run in the road in front of the truck constantly, eventually running off into the underbrush. They are crested francolins and, while they don’t appear to be too bright, they are growing on me.

We did find our leopard! He was eating an impala up in a tree. Not the best for pictures, but we have now seen an African leopard in the wild (and heard him eat his breakfast). Male leopards, like this one, weigh about 120-200 lbs.

A few Burchell’s Starling graced us with their company. They are a gorgeous iridescent blue with completely black eyes. 

A family of chacma baboons was foraging, but didn’t come out for a visit. 

I managed to get pictures of a gorgeous crested barbet. This is a little, very colorful guy who eats insects, other bird eggs, and occasional mice.

Steenbok

Hyenas napping. Hyenas are nocturnal, so they nap in the shade or in their dens during the daytime. 

Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill

In the afternoon we were taken to a group of wild dog pups. A pack in the area has a total of 10 pups that are 2-3 months old and they are adorable. It was their sleepy time of the afternoon, so they were pretty calm, but I can only imagine what it can get like. We could see 4 adults sleeping nearby. They were very well camouflaged, only visible if they moved.

We happened upon a family of giraffes grazing. There were some young ones along with an adult female and male. Officially there is only one species of giraffe with 9 subspecies. The South African giraffe, or cape giraffe, has dark, somewhat rounded patches with star-like projections on a tawny background color with spots, progressively getting smaller, extending down the legs.

Around a corner brought us another elephant, but we didn’t stay long, because we were on a mission.

We were on our way to lion cubs and we had to get there before dark, as we weren’t permitted to use lights on the cubs. There are 6 healthy lion cubs in this pride and 1 currently injured cub, which was not out. We spent at least 30 minutes with them. They were adorable. Since it was dusk, the lighting for pictures wasn’t ideal, but the time spent was wonderful.