6:30am on Saturday, June 30th, Reed Lessing and I left the guest house at the Lutheran Seminary in Pretoria for the 2.5 hour drive to Pilanesberg National Park. We got lost, of course, and it took closer to 3 hours but we were on our way to see the Big Five.
It's winter in South Africa and the terran shows it by its lack of vegetation and color.
The tallest browser by several metres, the giraffe can reach a height of five metres and it occurs throughout the valley savannas.
Blue Wildbeest
No restaurants :( We stopped at the only open rest stop and bought soda, chips and a KitKat.
So very beautiful and graceful.
Impala. The Park's most prolific antelope, impala are the preferred prey of wild dog, leopard and cheetah.
Blue Wildebeest are often seen in the company of plains zebra. Blue wildebeest prefer short grass conditions and are often encountered on the short grasslands surrounding Mankwe Dam.
One of my favorite animals.
Baby warthogs.
oink, oink, oink
Warthog favour the open, short grasslands of the valleys. They are abundant and can often been seen cropping grass whilst kneeling on their front legs. As they have little body hair and fat, they are sensitive to cold and retire to burrows at night for both warmth and protection.
They had a place to park the car and walk over this wooden bridge to a platform to see the birds and animals in the water. Cool...
So beautiful - stunning.
Do you see what I see? Baby Crocodile.
As a group, crocodilians are pretty impressive animals: Their lineage goes back 240 million years, meaning they've outlived the dinosaurs by a good 65 million years. Ideally suited for life in water and on land, members of the order can swim up to 20 mph (32 kph) and run up to 11 mph (17.6 kph). They're most at home in the water and can hold their breath for up to an hour. Eyes situated atop their heads enable them to keep a lookout for prey, while their powerful tails swiftly propel them through the water.
Crocodiles and alligators are top-notch hunters and will eat just about anything they can get their teeth on, from fish and turtles to monkeys and buffalo. With teeth specialized just for spearing, neither family even bothers to chew its food -- they swallow large chunks or the entire animal whole.
Grey Heron
Dead Giraffe carcass.
Brown hyena
Restricted to Southern Africa, the brown hyena is a solitary and nocturnal scavenger that feeds mainly on carrion. Its senses are particularly well developed and the large ears can detect tell-tale sounds at great distances, while its nose can locate a carcass as far as 2 km away.
Grown up Warthog
I've never seen zebras laying down.
The ground is black because of resent control burn of the area.
almost time to go Mr. Giraffe
Our last sighting: Hippo
Hippo are seldom seen on land except at night when they emerge to graze. Their loud grunts add to the tranquil ambience of all the deeper impoundments of the Park.
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