I Love Elephants!

Turning away, hiding their eyes, or walking away are all strategies the elephants use to avoid contact with you.  Capturing a full face photo is by chance, by luck.  No matter, I could just watch the elephants hour upon hour.

Nearly always the elephants are in herds of females.  Older males are off by themselves.

It appears that it is generally playtime anytime an elephant is close to water.

Ahh!

After his mud bath, it's time for some dirt.

This was probably the largest elephant we saw.  We were driving along the same empty road he was walking on.   Slowing to allow him to go at his own rate and staying a generous distance away, we followed him.  I don't think he liked us following him.  He turned around and purposefully started towards us.  Steve immediately stopped and began backing up.  As in the Galapagos, animals always have the right of way, and elephants must have the greatest right of way.  Suddenly he veered off to his right.  There are scary videos on the internet showing what upset elephants will do when you do not show great respect.  Granted, we were not a tiny white car, but...things could have turned out differently.

Often we saw large groups of elephants off in the distance.

Once we discovered a large group of female elephants spread out along a dry river bed below our parking area.  Some were digging into the sand to reach water lower down.

After a while, a matron and her friend noticed us parked up on the bank.  They kept maneuvering themselves around so as to seem to shelter the two younger elephants from our view, especially the little one, as they dug for water.

But the little one kept moving around, laying down, getting up, flopping down again, and rolling in the damp sand.  It must have felt delightfully cool.

The mothers appeared to enlist the older sibling to try to help shield the little one while they dug for water- to no avail.

They finally had their fill of water and moved away into the bush.

This guy knew there was water in the tank.

Another mother elephant tried to keep her offspring close and away from our car.  Not realizing how close we were to her and her baby, she trumpeted once to let us and her baby know that she did not like us all being so close.  We moved away very quickly to calm her.

Elephants are my favorite animals.

A Full Day in Kruger

After our first night camping in Kruger National Park at Skukuza Camp, we began our first full day by getting on the road by 7:45 am.  It's fall in Kruger in April, and the sun comes up later, but the gates DO open at 6 am.  I do not think we ever accomplished starting by that time.  If we had, we probably would have seen many more animals.  As it was, we saw A  LOT of animals.  A Red-billed Hornbill perched up in a tree was the first animal we saw this morning.

For the next five hours we kept our eyes peeled for any animal in trees, in open spaces, on a rock, in or under a bush, or up in the sky.  Your eyes get buggy after a while....  And when I saw an animal, I would take a zillion photos.  Really, I took over 2500 photos during the whole trip.  Do you see anything in this photo?

These cute little birds are Natal Spurfowl.

Warthogs appeared next in a small group.  If you look closely, you will see an African Grey Hornbill in the middle of the dead tree.  At the top of the tree there is the lower part of a Lilac-breasted Roller.  And on the left side of the tree is a beautiful iridescent Cape Glossy Starling.

The warthog's tusks are formidable looking.

Chacma Baboons were almost as numerous as the impala.

What do you see here?  They stay up in the trees at night for safety.

This young baboon is just waking up.

Impala were often nearby.

There was rocky landscape south of Skukuza Camp.

We hoped to see lounging lions, leopards, or cheetahs.  It did not happen for us.

We rounded a corner and came upon these two Klipspringers that like to hang out in a group of two.

In six weeks of travel we only saw one rhinoceros.  I never saw its mouth, but I think this was a Black Rhinoceros.  It was very intent upon eating and keeping most of its face covered.

A Red-billed Oxpecker sits on the rhino's back.

These Vervet Monkeys are quick.  I know because they stole food from us several times.  They are the top in-n-out thieves.  His blue nether region gives him away.

This large antelope is known as a Kudu. 

The impala like to hang out with the kudu.

These are young White-backed Vultures.

Now what is that?  Is it a rock covered with turtles?  Wait....

It is so important to maintain patience when watching animals.  This is one of my favorite photos of our trip.

We finally saw elephants.  I could watch them for hours.

It is a group of females with their young.

Oh!  Look!  There is a Burchell's Zebra.

We headed back to Skukuza Camp for lunch.  When in Kruger National Park, you may not get out of your vehicle anywhere except in clearly designated areas that are few and far between.  Our to-go lunch consisted of a burger and fries for Jim and Pap with tomato and onion sauce and a Greek salad for me which we ate while looking up and down the Sabie River.

No elephants or crocodiles were visible today.

After a short rest we headed out on a different road towards our next camp.  This afternoon we saw our first giraffes.  What amazing creatures they are, moving so stately with grace and dignity.

They are shy and do not stick around long.

It is grooming time for these Chacma Baboons.

There is another giraffe!

These elephants are munching grass.

An impala is near a Blue Wildebeest and a group of warthogs.

An elephant is way, way back there.

These two seem to be having a great time in the water.

We are camping at Satara Camp tonight.  A big fence keeps out a Spotted Hyena that is looking for quick handouts as it paces back and forth.  One of our neighbors had been throwing scraps to it, a big no-no!

The sun sets about 5:30 pm, early here in April during our cocktail hour.