Head South: kruger national park as traversed by Jane, Ethan, Jennifer and Jim

Jennifer and I were honored to have Jane and Ethan visit us in South Africa. So honored that we made them fly round trip to Joberg, drive up to Kruger National Park (5 hours) and camp without sleeping pads for two nights, before making the return drive and two massive return flights that must have amounted to at least 36 hours of travel. I did hear that they are alive and well after the trip and we are very excited about that because we are really looking forward to their wedding in a few weeks!

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!

OK, Mom (Betsy) this is the start of your identification challenge.

Maybe the toughest identification for Mom of all the bird pictures. Don't know if it's possible.

The croc was lucky Mr. or Mrs. Elephant was in a good mood.

Tough ID here

Mom??

Zazoo from Lion King. Mom will have to give us the full identification.

Hippo out of water...most deadly animal in Africa.

How cool looking are these guys! We have only seen them twice ever and both on this day!

The beginning of an incredibly rare sight. Two male giraffes fighting each other...or maybe just play fighting.

We could hear the thuds from a couple hundred meters away.

Hippo sex...gross!

Bill's favorite animals.

It is mating season for the antellopes!

Ricky Ticky Tavy the mongoose!

This is also a bird ID picture, ha ha.

Herd of 30+ elephants in the valley. Wow!

It is so cool to see the monkeys watch the sunrise in the morning. They sit on the tallest branches and wait to be warmed by the morning rays. Seems like our genetic ancestors have been doing this for awhile.

Ethan has the binoculars in his lap as the co-pilot. Jim is driving the vehicle and previously thought a female baboon in the road was a large cat. So, it was a surprise when Jim said, "Ethan, ID!", then Ethan says, "It's a male lion!" and Jane screams, "HURRY!"

Now you can kinda see me.

Now you kinda can't. Think of how sparse this bush is!

A dead rhino with it's horn cut off. It could have died from natural causes and had the ranger's remove its horn, or it could have been poached. Very sad.