African Travels of the Queen and Bakery Bob: The Big Five

Sun rise on the lower veld.

When visiting an African animal preserve everyone talks about seeing the BIG FIVE. This title is a holdover from hunting days when the prized animals to bag were the big five…lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos and cape buffalo. Now we much more humanely just want to sight them.

Today we arrived in Kruger National Park at 6:30 am for our day long game drive through this beautiful and luscious environment. No more of the bumpy roads in safari jeeps. The safari jeeps were still a challenge for wind and cold but the mostly paved roads made it more tolerable.

What the well dressed safari goer
wears at 7am.

We were greeted shortly after entering by elephants and rhino. And continued our luck all day. We did see the big five and all before 11am interspersed with many other sightings, Nile crocodile, impala, giraffes, zebras, waterbuck, kudo, warthogs, vervet monkeys and numerous birds. Strangely, the wildebeest that was around every corner at Entebeni was nowhere to be found here. But here the impala were like vermin… around every corner.

Our fruitful day of sightings was highlighted once again by seeing a recent kill. Leopards are by far the most elusive of the big 5 and although there are about 1800 in the park they are seldom seen. Our sighting found a lone female perched high on a rock basking in the sun with a very full belly. Since our guides were familiar with the behavior of leopards, we all searched the trees for her kill. And sure enough her impala was high in the tree above us. We were told that she was likely to feed on this carcass for several days. It would have been fascinating to see her carry it up there.

The day was broken up by a boxed breakfast and lunch that tided us over until dinner back at the hotel. We returned to the hotel by 4:30pm for a rest. Did a little laundry, viewed our pix from the day, had dinner and of to bed as soon as I finish this.

Tomorrow is another full day of viewing but as it is from bus that can’t leave the paved roads, Bob and I are going to sleep in and take it easy. My knee is starting to act up and I hope to put off any more serious injury or pain with some TLC. Well that and the surefire O’Connor cure…ice and ice.