On our first day in the park we entered at Crocodile bridge gate (after a pleasant drive from Swaziland – very easy border crossing and decent enough roads), we had stopped to pick up some shopping in Komoortipoort so didn’t want to spend too long on the road on the way to our first camp – Lower Sabie. We arrived at the gate, sorted out paperwork and soon we were on our way! We been waiting for this moment for so long and finally we were here, in some ways it was sad –the beginning of the end of our holiday. The grand finale of our South African road trip.
The first animal we saw was a hot looking impala ram standing in the shade of a bush. He watched with a bored expression on his face as we stopped to take his portrait, I wonder how many people have his photo on their computer or tucked away in a photo album? Quite a few I would guess if he’s in the habit of hanging around near the gate.
We continued on our way and as we approached the turn off for the S28 debated whether we should just carry on up the tar or should we take the dirt road, we decided on the dirt (I had read it was meant to be one of the best roads in Kruger, so we figured it would be a pity to miss it!)
Soon we spotted another handsome man resting in the shade, this one had chosen a bigger tree that cast a better patch of shade than our impala friend had chosen.
More impala were nearby, this time a herd of females with their young, this youngster had a hitchhiker, looking for parasites but it didn’t seem too annoyed by its guest. It did look a little ‘ribby’ though, not quite worryingly thin yet but certainly not as well fed and fit as I’d expect. Unfortunately this was just the first of many animas we saw that looked on the thin side.
Another handsome gentleman was going for a stroll but he wasn’t in the mood to stop and pose.
Away in the distance, we though this beauty was just going to give us a back view....
... but as we sat and watched we were graced with a front view as well.
Not far away a striped one was wondering through the bush, but, like the handsome gentleman earlier, was in no mood for posing for photos.
Up ahead we saw a car parked at the roadside so we slowed incase they were watching something – the last thing we wanted was to scare whatever it was away. As we approached the car did a U turn so it was now facing the same way as us and parked on the roadside, watching something to the left of the road. We slowed even more, certain now that they were watching something, as we got closer we looked, in the grass, in the trees, but we couldn’t see anything. We paused behind, but still couldn’t see what they were looking at.
We were about to learn two important lessons 1) don’t drive past a parked car without asking what they are looking at, 2) people in Kruger can be awesome when it comes to sharing their sightings!
Not seeing anything we decided to keep going, slowly in case they were watching a bird or something. As we drew parallel with the drivers window, a man put his arm out and in a thick Afrikaans accent said ‘ STOP, STOP, there is a cheetah there!’. We stopped. And thanked him profusely!
The man explained where it was, and then continued on his way leaving us to pull into the space he had been parked in. It wasn’t an amazing sight, barely more than a cat head shape through the long grass, but none of us had ever seen wild cheetah and it was the animal The Husband had said he most wanted to see. Not bad, not in the part for more than an hour or so an already one ticked off the ‘would like to see’ list.
See what I mean about proof I saw it photos, the grass confused the camera so much that I couldn’t even get the AF to work, I had to use manual focus just to get this.
We stayed for a while, but the spotted one was seemingly happily snoozing and in no mood to get up and offer us a better view, and by now we were getting worried about the food we had bought and decided to leave him in peace.
Getting closer to Lower Sabie, this young man decided to pose nicely for his portrait.
Our last sight before getting to camp was quite sad though, this buffalo was standing in the shade. He looked very thin, worryingly thin, and generally miserable. He didn’t move at all in the time we watched him, not even to look at us as we pulled up or when we moved away. It was heartbreaking.
Sammy!
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