Africa: Sabi Sand

Conveniently situated next to the famous Kruger National Park, the private game reserve Sabi Sand is almost as reknowned. It is fenced on the sides that don't border the park, making it seem a bit like a free-range zoo, and it is crowded with safari camps, but it delivers the goods if you want to see the Big Five (lions, leopards, rhinos, cape buffalo and elephants).  The guides (here they're called rangers) stay in radio contact with each other, so if one sees a lion, others will soon know and can bring their passengers.  A rule of no more than three vehicles at a sighting means that you can't sit forever watching a lion -- you get a nice look, but you have to let others have their turn.

    We stayed at Simbambili, a safari lodge with quite large and posh bungalows, complete with decks overlooking an area where the elephants and antelopes play, and plunge pools, which are great during the heat of the afteroon.  An outline of our six-week African trip (and links to every place we stayed) are in an earlier posting. Keep scrolling and hitting "older post" or click HERE. 

Our deck at Simbambili. We were told not to sleep overnight
on the bed at the other end, but it was good for resting between
game drives.

A hornbill. 

Three hippos share their waterhole with an elephant.

A female kudu.

A nyala, one of an almost countless variety
of African antelopes.

I took this photo from our bungalow deck.

This little elephant is probably only few weeks old.

Sabi Sand and Kruger National Park are known
for their leopard populations, and we certainly
saw a number of them.

A cape buffalo.

This spotted hyena has a nasty gash on its neck, but
otherwise it looks healthy.

A white rhino takes on a two-tone look after taking a dip.

This red-billed ox pecker  clings
to a rhino. These birds help control
insects for the big beasts, but they
also keep wounds from healing.

Not sure what this beautiful little bird is.

This is a blue gnu, not the white-bearded wildebeest that we saw in Tanzania.

We saw lilac-breasted rollers at every safari
destination. 

Notice the tongue on this rock monitor lizard. It was running across the trail
and our vehicle would have run over it had our spotter not yelled for the driver to stop.
It quickly climbed into this tree and then remained almost motionless, 

The rock monitor was about a meter long.

A hyena cub steps out of its home, a
tunnel in an old termite mound,

The mother of the previous hyena cub rests with an even younger offspring.

A tree-hugging leopard.

The foreplay.

The act.

The reaction.

Another pair in the same pride. Our guide
said the two males must be brothers
from the same litter. 

African wild dogs at a waterhole. 

Did you ever see such healthy teeth? They'd help this dog take down a small antelope.

A male nyala. We saw these antelope only at Sabi Sand.