I suspect some of our regular readers are wondering why we haven't yet posted photos of the gorgeous animals we've seen in Kruger Park. It's mainly because the internet is so poor here in Hazyview that we rarely have decent enough reception just to type a blog or check emails. Adding photos requires a good connection. I"m going to try to post some photos to this blog in stages, so if it seems incomplete, it probably is.
Molly has some beautiful photos she has tried to share too, but he it's been frustrating for her to post. And McKay, if you're reading this, the kids have both written answers to your questions, but the internet quit and both replies are lost in cyberspace. We'll try again later today.
Oh, and now that I've just written this, I see Barry also found a good internet connection in the lobby and has written a similar post at the same time. Sorry for being redundant.
Molly has some beautiful photos she has tried to share too, but he it's been frustrating for her to post. And McKay, if you're reading this, the kids have both written answers to your questions, but the internet quit and both replies are lost in cyberspace. We'll try again later today.
Oh, and now that I've just written this, I see Barry also found a good internet connection in the lobby and has written a similar post at the same time. Sorry for being redundant.
We have spent a total of about 15 hours driving around Kruger Park at a pace of about 30 km/hr. You have to drive slow if you're going to spot anything. Now if an elephant happens to be on the road, they're hard to miss!
The most impressive encounters we've had are with animals that we can see living their normal life, which usually means eating as that's what they do the most.
Our first half hour study of animals was with two black rhinos. They simply grazed along a roadside ditch, but it was amazing to see these prehistoric looking animals in the wild. I've always felt uncomfortable about the lifestyle of animals in regular zoos (that they are imprisoned in small spaces for human pleasure), so seeing animals free to roam in the place they were born, is truly beautiful and peaceful. In fact, it was rather emotional.
So I was feeling happy until I saw an interactive map indicating where people had seen some of the rare animals in the park that day, and I learned that they don't post rhino sightings so that the map doesn't assist potential poachers. Upon entry to the park our car was searched for weapons: upon exit of the park our car was searched for animal parts. That was also emotional to think about.
Later in the day we saw white rhinos lazing in the sun. There are two kinds, north and south white rhinos, we saw the southern ones, which are less endangered. Molly seemed very interested in learning the distinctions between the two colours. It was fun to see her becoming a little expert.
The most impressive encounters we've had are with animals that we can see living their normal life, which usually means eating as that's what they do the most.
Our first half hour study of animals was with two black rhinos. They simply grazed along a roadside ditch, but it was amazing to see these prehistoric looking animals in the wild. I've always felt uncomfortable about the lifestyle of animals in regular zoos (that they are imprisoned in small spaces for human pleasure), so seeing animals free to roam in the place they were born, is truly beautiful and peaceful. In fact, it was rather emotional.
So I was feeling happy until I saw an interactive map indicating where people had seen some of the rare animals in the park that day, and I learned that they don't post rhino sightings so that the map doesn't assist potential poachers. Upon entry to the park our car was searched for weapons: upon exit of the park our car was searched for animal parts. That was also emotional to think about.
Later in the day we saw white rhinos lazing in the sun. There are two kinds, north and south white rhinos, we saw the southern ones, which are less endangered. Molly seemed very interested in learning the distinctions between the two colours. It was fun to see her becoming a little expert.
Our other special encounters were with elephants. This one, I thought might stick his truck right in the car window, which we only kept open in situations we felt safe from invasions of monkeys or arm-eating cats or dogs. We enjoyed the elephant for half and hour or so, then moved on.
The giraffe sighting of the first day seemed very cool as we watched them eat in the trees about 75 meters off the road, but then we had a great sighting of several close to the road, including a mother and her suckling baby! Very precious. Molly wanted to know why I thought it was interesting to watch a momma giraffe feed her baby but not a human....hmmmmmm.
Giraffes glide through the bushes with such grace - kind of like their floating.
Giraffes glide through the bushes with such grace - kind of like their floating.
We also had a great zebra sighting, after only seeing them from a distance a few times. Molly will post a photo of a momma and baby.
The impalas are everywhere - almost as plentiful as the termite mounds and dung beetles. They're small dear-like creatures with doe eyes. I hate to sound cruel, but they taste pretty good too. While at the rest stop, we bought some impala sausage for dinner. Molly was disgusted with us, but was hungry enough to try. Last night we had Blue Wildebeest - a little tougher than the impala.
We also enjoyed the very gorgeous kudus.
Another cool encounter was with a group of about 6 hippos. We were under the impression that they laze in the water all day and roam at night, but when crossing a river, Barry spotted nostrils out of the water. We quickly stopped and then saw more hippos coming towards the river. The first two walked nimbly down into the river, while the large third hippo did the equivalent of a belly flop off the steep meter high bank. It was like watching a goofy guy cannonball his kids on purpose: the first two snorted their displeasure as teenage kids would do.
In short, it was very fun to see the animals interacting with one another. We had to leave them as we were blocking the one-lane bridge with our car. But before we could leave, we saw this croc enjoying the cool flow of the river.
In short, it was very fun to see the animals interacting with one another. We had to leave them as we were blocking the one-lane bridge with our car. But before we could leave, we saw this croc enjoying the cool flow of the river.
I'll stop the photos here for now, but the past few days have been very impressive. Kids love animals, and we have tried to use their interest to teach them about conservation here in South Africa, about gestation, life span, eat-or-be eaten, fight-or-flight, parental care, being wise around a 2000 kilo hippo (that stroll our hotel property often - but we haven't seen them yet), and a general sense of how fortunate they are to experience what is on many people's bucket-lists so early in their lives. They have both loved it here so far. Me too!
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