South Africa: Second day at Kruger; the Voortrekker Road

After our initial safari, it was time to venture into Kruger on our own. I had booked entry online several weeks in advance. The rules are quite simple; as of summer 2017 you need to pay ZAR304 (appx. $22) in a "conservation fee" per person in your vehicle. You will need to indicate your arrival within a 2-hour slot, plus the gate you'll be driving in through. You can book this several months in advance and it ensures you will get in IF you arrive at the correct place, within your allotted time period. If not, you may find yourself turned away if you arrive in peak season. We made sure to be at the respective entrance gates before anything opened, but we still had to wait a few minutes every time, not least because, this being Africa, everything takes an inordinate amount of time and bureaucracy to happen.

Sunrise over a misty South African landscape. As with most wildlife, the hours around the rising and the setting of the sun are when you're most likely to see it in Kruger.


After a couple of false starts, we were finally on the Voortrekker Road and the photo ops started coming. First, I took this short video of a cape buffalo. Widely and rightly feared as one of the great mankillers of Africa, it was peacefully grazing this morning.


Then, the ubiquitous impala, of which there are well over a hundred thousand in Kruger. Their numbers dwarf that of any other animal in the park and they provide a welcome snack for the predators therein.


I then shot a video of a small herd of Zebras walking towards us.


Solitary zebra eyeing me skeptically.


A gnu (aka wildebeest).


And a kudu.


Then the fun really started. By the roadside, not five feet from our car, we spotted a family of hyenas. They were snoozing away and cared not a fuck about our presence. Mommy was suckling her two young 'uns, while dad was snoring heavily in the shade.


I got a video of 'em.


Greedy lil' bastards they were.


More video. The youngsters make these cute lil' snorting noises when they feed.


Then we spotted, on the other side of the road, a single mom and a single little baby hyena. He was walking around sniffing the grass and generally being the cutestest little puppy in the world.


Awwwwwwww.


Naturally, I got video of him.


Then we came across these two giraffes, who put on quite the show for us. I forgot to take pics, but I shot these two videos.


At first, I thought they were canoodling, but I have later come to learn this behavior is a typical dominance game between males.