KRUGER NATIONAL PARK 16/01

#GVIfans

We started the day super early at 4:15AM to go to Kruger. We had a driver and were riding in a roofed safari vehicle. The trip to the Kruger gate took about 1.5hours and then didn't get into the park until after 8am. We started by seeing a spotted hyena suckling her young on the roadside. She was relaxed and observed her surrounds. A specific pup was curious and came exploring our vehicle. In total we saw 4 mischievous pups. As time went on another hyena family member appeared mum got up and greeted mum and the pups followed.

 attached is a giraffe video

https://youtu.be/hU7wQ5eG_5A

We then went ahead and came across elephants grazing, It was a large herd with mixed ages. Some females had calves that were shorter than the tall grass, this made it extremely hard to get a clear photo. A young male tried to stare our vehicle down as we had propped just before he decided to cross the road, so he thought we were in his way. It was staying a clear warn day with hardly any cloud in sight.

 

We went off track and saw some wildebeest and zebra, there were many wildebeest calves. Part of the herd was grazing while others were taking advantage of the shade and laying down. The calves are a dusty shade of brown with no horns just yet. The zebras also had a few foals that were cautiously grazing nearby.

 

 

Once back on the road we went past a dam where to bull elephants were frolicking in the mud. They were giving themselves a dust bath; I caught a great number of shots of them flinging the dirt onto the hide. One image is pretty much a perfect spiral of mud flicking onto their back it will be attached below. They two males sit and pretty much roll in the mud and then get up again and then push each other over and help one another up. It’s a great bonding session for themselves and entertaining to watch.

 

We then headed onto Suntura for lunch it was advertised as a steak house. The food wasn't great in my opinion. I ordered a buffalo pie, sadly, the pastry was heavy, and the filling was not saucy like I was expecting and the chips were not hot and crunchy. I have had better everywhere else so far so it was disappointing Kruger national park couldn't deliver. We then pretty much headed back to base at Karongwe after lunch.