Anamazing

To Skukuza Camp, Kruger Park, South Africa

Hi, it's Dex. Today we saw dogs and cats... African style.  The morning wasn’t that exciting.  We saw giraffes, zebra, and impala, but not much more.  

Later, though, we saw a couple Southern Ground Hornbills, an endangered species that the park is trying to tag to make sure their numbers are growing.  Not long after that, we saw a line of cars, so we pulled up to see what it was.  After asking another family, they told us it was a cheetah and instructed us how to spot it.  It was a long ways off, but I was so excited.  The cheetah was one of the animals I wanted to see most.  

Cheetah hiding in the grass

We had a simple lunch at a nice little picnic spot along the road -- the same place as yesterday.  It was really nice except for the monkeys.  They took every chance they got to steal unguarded food. They even took part of Kylie’s sandwich right from under her nose.  So, we picked up some sticks and started toying with them.  One got angry and growled.  With a couple shakes of my stick, though, he backed down.  But then two of them started running at me and I got a little scared.  When I threw my stick and accidentally hit one, another came tearing after me.  I just managed to make it to Mom, but lesson learned: do not run and do not tease.

Not long after we left lunch, we ran into a traffic jam.  As we got closer, we saw a Spotted Hyena walking by some cars.  He even reared up on the door of one.  Eventually we got close enough to see it was a hyena family with a den in the culvert under the road.  Every now and then, a pup would just stick it’s head out.

A lone Boabab tree

Daddy Hyena

Next, we came to an even bigger group of cars.  We could hardly see anything, but then saw that it was a Wild Dog.  That got me really excited, since I also wanted to see them.  It's the most endangered predator in South Africa and in danger of going extinct. We also noticed an impala carcass lying nearby.  It was really cool.

Wild Dog dinner

An hour or so later, we came to yet another line of cars, almost impossible to pass.  We asked a man what it was and he said a lion.  It took a few minutes, but with the help of the binoculars, we just made out her form. Her golden color blended in almost perfectly with the sand and rocks.  Right as we were pulling away, she got to her feet making her way toward some buffalo.  For a while, we thought maybe she was trying to hunt them.  But then, by the looks of it, she was going to come to the road and cross right in front of us.  And she did!  She couldn’t have been more than fifteen feet away.  It was SPEC-TAC-U-LAR! (Dad’s note: we did roll up the windows when she got within a few feet of the car).

Yawning cat 

Here Kitty, Kitty

Just down the road, we stopped to watch hippos eating and swimming.  Soon, though, we came across another group of cars.  A woman said it was a leopard, and we could just see it lying in the sand way off.  Just like the lion, it blended in really well.  

Far away leopard

Luckily, I looked just in time to see it disappear into the brush.  We slowly moved forward trying to spot it again.  After a few minutes, I found it and kept pointing until Kylie, Mom and Dad saw it too. When it got up again up we quickly moved forward tying to keep sight of her. The next time I saw her, not ten yards away, I yelled so loud I accidentally scared her.  None of the other people in the cars saw her, they were already too far ahead. We just kept moving from spot to spot along the road before eventually losing her for good. It was fantastic, and we got some amazing views.  Today was once in a lifetime.

Gulp!