Now we begin our final leg of our African adventure. We stared by driving our selves through Kruger National Park and viewing whatever game we could see from the paved road on our way to the private game reserve where we would stay for our safari. We spent about 1.5 hrs driving through the park. We planned on spending 4 hrs driving in one gate, heading north and exiting another gate next to our safari location. Well, without road names and road signs, we discovered that we had made a huge circle and ended back up at the same gate an hour and a half later! So, we exited the park and drove to the safari outside of Kruger National Park. We were there for a short time but saw many animals. Here are a few:
We came around the corner from the park entrance and immediately spotted a herd of female impala. They were feeding in the shade of a group of trees.
Not too far away we spotted this male impala with his impressive curved horns.
Within the first 3 minutes of driving, after seeing the impala, we spotted this amazing elephant. Remember, we are driving on a paved road in a National Park that is over 7,300 square miles (about 19,000 square kilometers). It is bordered by large private game reserves that also provide photo safaris. There are no fences between the national park and the private game reserves, so the animals move freely over this entire area.
Did you know that both male and female African elephants have tusks? They are used for digging and for protection. Tusks are an elephants eye teeth...
We weren't the only ones to spot these 2 female elephants with a VERY young baby elephant protected between them. This baby can't be more than a week or two old, based on it's size, but it already has learned to grasp the tail of the adult in front with it's trunk. I wish our kids learned how to hold Mommy's hand so easily!
More warthogs resting under some trees. It was around noon when we drove through, so many of the animals were just hanging out in the shade. It was about 85 degrees out.
Male baboon that we initially spotted coming towards us through the grass, so we stopped to take pictures. He just walked out onto the road and continued up the road, totally ignoring us.
As we were driving across a bridge over a river, we noticed some zebra feeding on the grass near the water's edge. Eagle-eyed Gabriel spotted this crocodile doing his best imitation of a log just a little ways away, waiting for an unsuspecting zebra to come his way! None of us could believe that Gabriel figured out that this was a crocodile!! From a moving car, no less!
Now it is on to our safari....
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