On Safari With Karen 10-11 October 2015

10 October 2015

Upon arrival in Nelspruit we transferred into the safari vehicle drove along a windy highway to Buhala Lodge, which is close to Malelane. After check-in we enjoyed the view over the Crocodile River and the Kruger Park on the other side, before it was time to go on the Sunset safari. 

Their sunset safari was a unique experience with a lovely sunset. Also they saw their first animals in the park (we had already seen vervet monkeys around the plantations of the lodge) and were very lucky to come across a cheetah mum with her babies, elephants, white rhinos, crocodiles, buffalos and some but not all saw a leopard. 

11 October 2015

The next morning we enjoyed a relaxed breakfast at Buhala Lodge. The Egyptian geese were making rather a racket, but we enjoyed nature nonetheless. We also saw a fish eagle flying by, a pied wagtail, an elephant walking through the bush in the background, an african hoopoe, Cape turtle dove, a grey heron and whistling ducks. 

Then we set off into the park, where the first animals we encountered was of course an impala. We had a short morning drive and our highlight was a sighting of a giraffe, an elephant and some zebras around a dried up riverbed which only had a little puddle left. The zebras were just snoozing in the shade, but the giraffe was keen on having a drink. However the elephant was a being a bully and chased off the giraffe from the water. Not to drink it himself or anything, he really was just being a bully. Having chased the giraffe he walked on to a tree and stood in the shade. The smart giraffe however had crossed the dried riverbed to get away from the elephant and now looped around back to the water and drank his fill. 

Other animals seen: klipspringers, baboons, kudus, steenboks, more bull elephants and warthogs. Birds included a black-headed oriole, lilac-breasted roller, Cape glossy starling and the endangered ground hornbills. 

The afternoon was spend relaxing at Buhala, where a large herd of elephants had come across the river to munch on the bushes in front of the lodge. Two elephants across the river were practicing a 1-elephant scrum as the kept on pushing each other head to head.