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September 2005

September 2005: Kruger National Park

Simon and Jennifer
2006-04-26 10:39:56

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We finally left Namibia in July, visiting Fish River Canyon on the way, and made a quick pass through the north of South Africa and in to Kruger National Park. The plan was to spend a few weeks in South Africa before heading into Mozambique, but the magic of Kruger took hold of us and here we are a month later having only just left the park and finally preparing for Mozambique.

Kruger was kind to us, before the end of our first day we came upon a crowd of vehicles, but could not see what was causing the chaos, eventually the driver of a car stopped to explain that a leopard had been spotted in the area but it had moved off to the right of us. Dissapointed to have been so close and yet so far from seeing this we made our way a little further and pulled up in the next lay-by to admire the river view. No sooner had we stopped when Simon suddenly bolted upright with the cry "There!". My gaze followed the pointed fingure and I'm sure my eyes must have bulged to the point of popping out since sitting in the shade not 20m away was the elusive leopard. After the mearest glance in our direction it stood up and made it's way towards the main road. Less than 5 hours in the park and already a leopard spotting, that's impressive. As if ths wasn't enough within a few hundred metres of that lay-by we came up behind a stopped car in time to see two WIld Dog walk onto the road and lie down at the edge. Expecting these beautiful creatures to up and leave any second we scrambled for cameras, and yet they seemed content to lie and watch the traffic chaos which ensued around them. After a few minutes, two more Wild Dog appeared from a different direction and those we were with leapt up and jogged down the main road to greet their friends with excited wimpers and much face licking before disspearing into the bush. One of the group had a broken leg and when we reported our sighting to reception and were told that "Oh yes, we know about that pride of Wild Dog ...