Back to South Africa/Kruger National Park, 2/21-22

We spent most of Saturday leaving Zimbabwe, flying to South Africa, and driving to our hotel for the next 3 days: Buckler's African Lodge. It is lovely and very close to one entrance to South Africa's premier safari park, Kruger National Park. Ten years ago when we first went on safari, we spent time near here at a private reserve, plus time in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, which was a more traditional safari. This trip is more about the cities, but we do get a taste of safari days, today and tomorrow. 

We left the hotel at 5am, had a late breakfast and a lunch there and drove around the park most of the rest of the days. We saw lots of animals and birds and a lizard.

Park Entrance

Zebras and Impalas often forage in the same area

Yellow Horn Bill

Wildebeast / Gnu

Young gnu bounced around the rest of the herd
a lot like fawns bounced around their moms
in our California back yard

Hippos

Painted dogs

More painted dogs - a fairly large herd of them

This lizard stopped traffic for a while. He kept 
dancing his front and back legs like he wanted 
to finish his run across the road but was too
scared to commit to the necessary action.

Egyptian geese

Weaver bird nests

European Roller. Cousin of the
Lilac Breasted Roller of 2016

Crocodile

Above and below: European Roller

Kudu?

Elephant family crossing the
Crocodile river at dusk - taken 
the hotel on my cell phone

Photos from Sandy

Kingfisher

Busy dung beetle

Zambia For a Day - 2/20

Today was my first game drive of this trip. Normally they are at dawn and dusk when the animals are more active, but since we're not at a reserve, we had to drive there and go through immigration out of Zimbabwe and into Zambia. We had 9-seat 3-elevated row open trucks. We drove to Mosi - O - Tunya National park. 

But the fun actually started on the way there:

Baboons, including youngsters on a roof in town.

The wildlife photos start here....

Monitor Lizard

Termite mound killing tree

Warthog

Baby Zebra

Cape Glossy Starling

Vulture

Impalas. The stripes on their backsides make it
easier for the herd to follow and stay together
while running from a predator.

Gnu (Wildebeast)

Hippo

2 sleepy white rhinos. Their name is not about 
color but a misunderstanding of wide (for their
wide mouths)

After  this we had a snack, drove into Livingston and tried to engage with local people in the markets and went to lunch. When Southern Rhodesia became Zambia, they changed all but one English city name to a local language name. Livingston was kept because of the indigenous people's appreciation for his contributions to their well-being.

After we officially un-immigrated from Zambia, we decided to walk across the Victoria Falls Bridge, which is in the no-mans-land between the two countries. When Jim and I were here 10 years ago, we walked the bridge and took a tour of the underneath which included a zip line at the end. The zip lines are still in use though they aren't visible here.

The trip home took longer than expected because Zimbabwe Immigration was way busier than in the morning, not everyone had a double entry visa which complicated our process, and one person has a Canadian passport with totally different rules. We finally made it back to the hotel to focus on packing for our flight tomorrow morning to South Africa and a camp near Kruger National Park.