Lions Galore

Friday, March 21

We drove from one campground in Kruger to another today. The drive up was a game drive since we stayed in the park. We saw rhinos on the way. We also saw more of the weavers' nests. These were larger. We have been told that these are rhinoceros weavers - I guess cause they're so big. We certainly didn't see any horns on them.We found our campsite, visited around and went out to eat with a large number of our group.

 

The next day we went out about 11:00 for another game drive. We saw zebras, a tortoise, a crocodile, impala and a water buffalo.

 

 

Then at 4:30 we went for our final game drive – a safari drive – and what a drive it was!!! Our guide was terrific. We started out seeing lions in the brush.

 

Someone said there were 7, including cubs, but you couldn't prove it by me. I saw a lioness and a male lion. And we saw lots of elephants. One of the elephants was female and had a baby with her. She took a stance, as if we were not going to get near her baby or she would charge us. Then she walked across the street, and when the baby realized she was gone, he ran very fast to get back to her. We also saw male elephants in musk,

as our driver said. When they were like that, they would weep from a spot between their eye and ear. We saw giraffes, and a male also in musk. He kept following this female around trying to see if she were interested. I didn't think she was. She seemed to be giving him the run-around.

 

We saw a number of zebra. Previously we had seen the Cape zebra, but these were Burchell's zebra. Every zebra has a different marking in its stripes.

With the zebra we also saw blue wildebeest. Then we saw a porcupine with all the quills out for protection, but he lowered his quills and skittered away quickly. We saw a couple rhinos, lots of impala, a spotted hyena, who also took off into the bush, and a chameleon. Then we saw a huge herd of water buffalo. They went on and on and on. Shortly after that we saw 3 lionesses walking down the road. It was dark by this time but we had a spotlight. Paces behind we saw a male walking by himself.

Paces after him came another male and then paces after that another male. We all figured they were walking to the herd of water buffalo to get a meal. I would think that would be easy pickings since there were so many. That was totally awesome. These lions look so majestic. I couldn't believe I was so close to them. The only animal I am disappointed I didn't see was a leopard. Part of our group had been in another safari wagon and did see a leopard, but they didn't see the fantastic group of lions. Kruger Park was a great experience. We are now leaving it forever. If I ever get back to South Africa – and believe me, I would like that – I'll definitely go back to Kruger.