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Kruger National Park 2011 - Kruger National Park

We spent a couple of nights at Malelane camp on the southern border of the Kruger National Park before going to Balule Game Reserve and then spent another 8 nights in the park after our photography course.

I'd only tried to book campsite a few weeks ago so, at this time of the year, the camps in the southern part of the Park were fully booked. August to October is the most popular time because the animals tend to congregate around the available water and many of the people that we spoke to at the camps had booked a year in advance - and often would stay for 4 weeks in the park. As a result the campsites were indeed full and it was difficult to find anywhere with a bit of shade. We liked Tsendze Camp the best as there are marked out pitches in the bush (rather than a free for all as at all the other camps) but as there was no electric it wasn't very popular with most South African campers who tend to set up camp for a week or so with a big caravan, awnings,satellite TV, microwave, ice making machine etc etc.

A baby baboon.

 




A little later we saw a large male lion cross the road in front of us and then these 2 females appeared walking down the road towards us. They simply walked past the bakkie and continued on down the track.

After the photography course we had a couple of nights at Punda Maria camp which is the northernmost camp in the Park. The campsite overlooked a waterhole (well more of a mud-hole at this time of the year) which was well used by a lot of animals. There was a hide overlooking the waterhole which gave excellent views of the animals coming down to drink.

Buffalo.

Nervous zebra and a warthog.

Travelling southwards we saw lots of elephants. Many of the rivers were completely dry but the Shingwedze has a large dam near the camp. After a good drink this herd of elephants crossed the river which wasn't very deep at this point.

A dwarf mongoose that briefly stopped to pose.

This impala had loads of oxpeckers on it.

This male nyala was browsing next to the bakkie for some time.

On our last day in the Park we were lucky enough to see a leopard. There were few cars that had stopped and we were told that there was a leopard in the tree. We'd just spotted it when it started to move down the tree. It lay down briefly and then made its way down to the ground, crossed the road just behind the bakkie and then disappeared into the bush. I didn't get many decent shot because, in the excitement of seeing the leopard, I forgot to check that the camera setting were correct.....

African jakanas have huge feet for walking on water plants.

 

Balule Game Reserve

Kruger National Park

diary (Word 97 document)

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