South Africa: Final day at Kruger, part I

Our fourth and final day at Kruger was possibly also our best, in terms of photographic loot. We started driving along the Sabie River Road, where we saw this bird, which I believe was later diagnosed as a fisher eagle.


Things perked up two minutes later, when we stopped for a long time to watch a flock of baboons cavorting, with a special guest appearance by some literally buck wild impalas. This cheeky monkey was sucking his thumb like a human child.


The little ones are very cute and playful.


This one had his gangsta swagger on.


While this guy had a wide stance. Way to literally let it all hang out, dude.


I got video of him. And another one, with a horrible case of the hemorrhoids.


Watching the kids and pondering life.


Video of mother grooming baby and some cray-cray impala bucks jumping around to show their fitness to attract mates.


Then, things went sour quickly, with a huge quarrel over my desire not to take up too much space and time for everybody else, and a certrain someone who felt that the universe should revolve around her wish to get the thousand and thirteenth picture of a lion. Here, you can see a small group of them just chilling.


Close up of one. I was happy with this, even if it is a tad soft due to the long distance/crappy lens.


I also got in some video.


Back on the asphalt, this ellie was heading straight for us, but blissfully he walked off into the bushes before reaching us.


We then decided to drive up to Lake Panic, just north of Skukuza. When we got there, it didn't really look like much and the signs said the place itself was a bird sanctuary. But it turned out to be OH, so much more than that. We walked a short distance down to a bird shelter, but no one was really interested in birds. First, this bunch of hippos seemed to be snoozing on the shore.


Ah gots video:


Then, there were a couple of crocs chillaxing right next to them. You can only see the tail of the one in the back.


Ah gots more video:


Hard shell taco buffet.


And then... the cavalry arrived. A big herd of ellies came walking through the bush. We heard some trumpeting and I scurried over to the side of the shelter just in time to see them coming through the trees. Balance was restored to the universe when I let that certain quarrelsome someone have my seat and take appx. a quadrillion photos of them. We spent the next half hour or so taking pics and just gawping at the ellies drinking, until they disappeared into the forest again.


The babies are so cuuuuute.


Naturally, I have video.