We had two great mornings exchanging drivers and co-pilots and eventually meandering the minivan back towards camp without running it into the brush of too many acacia trees (we were able to cover up the minor damage by slicking some water and soap over them at a gas station, then letting extra dirt stick to the car while driving (that happens as a consequence of normal driving) :).
We would also go out for afternoon game drives and were lucky enough to spend the evening with our friend Taryn, who we met playing ultimate frizbee. Taryn has spent at least 3 years studying in Kruger National Park and went there most years of her childhood. There is actually a whole village in Kruger that helps support park staff and researchers--they just fence their houses. At night the call of bushbaby's and impala can be heard on the local and majestic golf course. Taryn brought us to two excellent places for the sunset--one overlooking a dam resevoir (for the town) that was full of grunting hippos and a variety of birds. The next night we stood atop a kopjie (large granitic rock outcropping or big hill) to look out over the savanna and right below us down the steep slope of rock at a white rhino perusing through the underbrush.
Jane asked Taryn, "what if the rhino tries to come up here?" Taryn laughed and said, "I'd really like to see it try". That pretty much encapsulated how common sense it was for us to feel safe on the kopjie. Yet, Taryn followed up that warm feeling with a story about how they had to close the hill for a period of time because rangers saw a leopard stalking them on that spot one night as the leopard was figuring out that easy prey gathered at the same time and same place every night. Pretty sure that leopard wasn't too close when we were there :).
Check out the pictures!
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| OK, Mom (Betsy) this is the start of your identification challenge. |
