South Africa: Second day at Kruger; south of the Voortrekker Road

When we reached the end of the Voortrekker Road, we immediately happened upon some elephants, cheerfully molesting the local flora.


I got video of him.


A bit further up the road was another one. Hereafter, I shall refer to them as "ellies", the South African colloquial term for them.


I got video of this one too.


We then stopped for lunch at Afsaal picnic site, where you can buy pretty decent meals for a very reasonable price. This site has lots of birds, who swoop down to eat the food that tourists leave behind. The bravest one is probably this type of starling.


They will literally gang up, like a bunch of cute lil' featherball thugs.


In addition, there are several small vervet monkeys there, who have specialized in stealing food out of garbage cans. I also witnessed first hand how they would steal food from the tables as soon as the people turned their backs for a split second.


Lids are of little help against these very clever rascals.


After lunch, we drove further south and immediately saw this little group of elephants.


Then I spotted, on the other side of the road, a solitary rhino walking towards us.


We were hoping that he'd eventually cross the road right in front of us, because that was the course he was on. Sadly he decided to lie down and take a nap halfway.


But not before I got video footage of him.


We took a couple of detours into loop roads as it was now early afternoon and very hot, and we were desperately trying to find lions and/or leopards. We didn't see any, but we did come across a herd of ellies.


They were pretty damn close, and these two were on a direct collision course with us, but veered off into the bush with the rest of the herd when a big ol' truck came roaring down the road in the other direction. We drove a few meters on to turn around and get some pics from the other side, but by then the ellies were gone. It's almost eerie how a big flock of the largest mammals on earth can disappear into the bush without a trace.


We then went the last couple of miles down to Malelane Gate, where there is a bridge across the Crocodile River. Here, we first saw a bunch of hippos chilling in the sun.


Then, on the other side, we saw about half a dozen crocodiles doing the same thing.


This solitary hippo was submerged very close to the crocs, but the species kept a respectful distance from one another.


We then went back in the park and saw some more giraffes.


Closer to the Berg-en-Dal camp we came across a huge herd of giraffes. I got video.


Then a huge flock of baboons ran across the road...


It was just one of those days (aka any ol' day in Kruger).


An impala has his doubts about me.


Some more little piggys.


Then we came across a whole family of rhinos across the valley from us. I counted five animals in all.


I got these on tape too.


Oh, yeah.


On our way out of the park we were detained for five minutes, because this massive herd of cape buffalo wanted to cross the road. Whatever a buffalo wants, you will give him. This includes the right of way, your rolex and your car keys.


In the evening, we went to Tank's Pub, outside Hazyview. It was recommended on Tripadvisor and did not let us down. Huge portions of the best grub imaginable, at what, to a Norwegian, was a pittance. Plus for very nice staff, who we spoke to at length about everything South African. Our waitress was walking around with a metal cast on one leg, where a crocodile had bit her a couple of months before. We were also warned to watch out for hippos on the road back to town. Yeah, it was that kind of place.