Wednesday 30th September 2015 - Kruger (Day 2)

Back to Kruger National Park today.  This time we went in by the Paul Kruger Gate.  We revisited Skukuza for a coffee (Buffalo across the river and Warthogs roaming around) before driving down the H4-1 to Lower Sabi.  

Skukuza

We had heard that this was a pretty good route for wildlife as it follows the Sabi River.  Leopards are also often seen on this route.  The wildlife sightings did not disappoint.  We added two antelope to the list - Steenbok and Nyla and we had good sightings of Buffalo, Warthogs, Zebra and Wilderbeast as well as many repeat sightings from Monday.  We even saw a leopard although he was a fair way away and pretty well hidden (as the photo will show). 

There were elephants everywhere including lying down under trees looking as if they were dead.  Guess it was so hot for them as it's back up around the 40 degrees today. Many of the elephants were in the river keeping cool.  We also saw several herds of giraffe and quite a few different birds - Goliath Heron, Pied Kingfisher, Yellow Billed Kite, Red Billed Hornbill and Southern Yellow Billed Hornbill,  Saddled Billed Stork, Lilac Breasted Roller, the Cape Glossy Starling - the list goes on.  Even saw a monitor lizard but he's not listed in the information.

Along the way we had lunch at Lower Sabi.  Once again the restaurant was right on the water looking down on antelope and herds of Elephants across the river.  The food was fabulous and very reasonably priced.  We have had a number of top class meals in South Africa for under A$10.

Lunch at Lower Sabi

From lower Sabi we continued on south to Crocodile Bridge Gate.  It was along this route that we saw the Zebra and the Blue Wildebeest.

It was then a long drive home as we could not go back through the park (gates close at 6).  On the way we popped into the airport at Nelspruit to check out where we would need to drop off the car on Friday morning.

Home, Nachos for tea then off to bed.