Kruger National Park, South Africa

July 6, 2011

After an incredibly restful sleep of over 8 hours, we awakened at 5:30 AM once again to begin our day with breakfast at 6 and departure at 6:30 AM. One of the chefs made absolutely wonderful pancakes to be served with honey. When I asked if they possibly had syrup, they responded with blank looks, but they did manage to locate some good old Log Cabin (after I finished eating mine). I was surprised by how good the honey tasted as a substitution. We also had to relocate the butter to a position closer to the syrup since everyone knows you butter the pancakes first and then apply the syrup.

Our first morning safari featured more impalas (OK, we're already bored by their shear numbers); yellow hornbill (AKA the flying banana); Burchell's zebras; lilac breasted rollers; Martial eagle; Kori bustard; saddle-billed stork; bush buck; cape buffalo; waterbuck; white-fronted bee-eaters; brown-hooded kingfisher and eland. Jeffrey explained all about the cucumber bush we sighted early - how its roots were ground into a powder that could be used in porridge to combat erection problems. He said the natives called the plant Mupesu, meaning "the one that lifts the ladies skirts." Of course that spawned many hilarious comments, such as "getting to the root of the problem."

Kori bustard

White-fronted bee eater

Burchell's zebras

Male kudu

Female kudu + baby

Male bush buck

Common waterbuck

Brown-hooded kingfisher

Bohm's bee-eater

The definite highlight of the evening safari was the male lion, whose bizarre behaviour could have been possibly explained by the fact that he was looking for a mate. Jeffrey first heard his roar while we were enjoying this evening's cocktail hour off the front of the jeep. Needless to say it's perceived proximity caused us to move very quickly to finish our drinks, stow our gear and climb back aboard the jeep for quick pursuit. It wasn't too long before we were inching slowly on a parallel path with the lion, who seemed to be in no apparent hurry and was clearly indifferent to our violation of his personal space. Of course my camera decided to act up at this critical moment, so I didn't get the high-level quality shots that I would have preferred. Some of the confusion was due to the fact that I couldn't see my settings as dusk was turning quickly to darkness (remember, it is winter here). Anyway, at one point the lion stopped in front of the jeep, turned around so that he was facing us directly, planted his face in the sandy dirt track, rolled around like a dog, got up and then just took off. When we asked Jeffrey what that was all about, he told us he had no idea - that he had, in fact, never witnessed such behaviour in a male lion. Unfortunately, during all this excitement, Don lost his jacket - with his prescription sunglasses - somewhere along the beaten path.

We returned to the camp and ate another fantastic dinner. Since it was very dark every night after dinner, we needed flashlights to see our way back to our rooms along the boardwalk. When we were about to turn onto our boardwalk we noticed that our spear had been placed horizontally (and not by us). It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who the culprits were (Pamela & Shelly), so we went to their tent, which was the next one down and put their spear across horizontally. But I thought we should do more than that so I suggested we go down the boardwalk all the way to their tent, hide in the shadows and scare the bejesus out of them. Needless to say, we were so successful all 4 of us peed ourselves screaming and laughing (Pamela left a spot on the deck to prove just that).