For our last safari in South Africa we left the kiddo's with the grandparents and did it up right in Kruger National Park! We stayed at Jock Safari Lodge in the southern part of Kruger. It is a private concession within the park and it did not disappoint. The Fitzpatrick lodge is a private three room lodge overlooking a river bed that frequently had a number of animals roaming about. We had our own private game vehicle and game ranger for the four of us. It was fantastic!
Upon arrival our ranger informed us he spotted a leopard as he was driving to the lodge. We lived over 4 years in South Africa and have been on numerous game drives and have never seen the elusive leopard.
We finally got one!!!
What a beautiful cat!
Male Kudu
Baboon Troop
So many elephants!
The amazing white rhino
Another member of the feline family!
Spotted Hyena
On one drive we spotted two rhino resting on the dirt road, we drove up to them and were observing their behavior when we heard a growl. Driving about 10 feet forward past a large bush we came across a whole pride of lions, complete with two males, numerous females, and many young, with a kill. They were trying to eat their lunch but the two rhino's kept charging them. It was fascinating to watch!
What were the rhino's doing? We had many theories - my favorite was that the wildebeest was a friend of the rhino and he was now pissed that the lions were eating him. After about 15 minutes of this interaction between the rhinos and lions the rhino's left. Then all the lions came out from the bush to get some lunch.
Kruger is not all lions and elephants! There are some little things to see too!
Lazy hyena
Enjoying lunch after a swim in between game drives, what a life!
Impala
Puff Adder
Dinner in the boma
Another leopard! Beautiful!
This little guy was putting on quite the show to let us know he was in charge!
Don't go swimming
One of the (many) awesome things about Jock Safari Lodge is that they have rights to drive on the river beds. That was really cool! You had to hold on tight, as it was a bit like being on a roller coaster driving through all the sand, but what a unique and interesting way to see Kruger.
1,054 rhino's were killed in South Africa during 2016, this is approximately three rhino's killed each day. https://www.savetherhino.org/
We came across this pride at night. Based on the size of the cubs, the ranger guessed that they had only come out of their den in the past week or so.
We found this guy during the sun rise. We pulled up right next to him (we were in a completely open safari vehicle, no doors, no windows) and he just looked at us and laid down.
He did give us this nice smile. I won't lie, my pulse definitely increased.
He definitely knew we were there and paid attention to us. We calculated he could have been up and in our vehicle in probably one second. We were glad none of us looked like a snack! He did give us an amazing roar, which my brother got on the go-pro. You could feel the roar inside your bones.
For our last safari in South Africa (well for the foreseeable future) this was an amazing one! So glad Scott and Rachael got to experience this with us. Thanks to Gramma and Papa for babysitting Piper and Owen while we had the trip of a lifetime!
Follow along the other posts - The Greensides Take On South Africa:
2 comments:
Amazing. Awesome. I could only wish we'd go on a safari once.
I found the snail the most fearsome and most feracious of all the animal you posted. :)
These are amazing pictures, Dawn. Thanks for posting them. It will be interesting to see what you find in Myanmar!!
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