Samstag, 14. März 2020

Kruger Park, South Africa

2020-02-29 / 2020-03-09 : A must! 970 km covered in 9 days in the park. An incredible fauna, a paradise for bird watchers and a wide variety of landscapes and vegetation ....

We spent 10 days and drove almost 1000 km in Kruger Park.
We entered through the Malelane Gate to the far south. Our first camp was that of Berg-en-Dal. The following were: Pretoriuskop, Skukuza, Satara, Letaba, Shingwedzi, again Letaba and Satara, and finally the Lower Sabie.
It is by the Crocodile Bridge that we leave the park by the south, west of Malelane Gate.
We had a great stay there. The only downside is the lack of lions. The only representative of the Big Five that we could not see. We only saw one leopard, but we are very happy with it as they are rare (around 2000) in the park and difficult to meet. The other animals are more or less present and on the whole easy to meet.
Birds are very numerous, both in population and in species. We have discovered a lot.

1st Day

Entrance to Kruger Park at Malelane Gate.

Hippos in the Crocodile River at the entrance to the Kruger.

Couraco Concolore (Grauer Lärmvogel, Gray Loerie)

White rhinoceros (Breitmaulnashörner)

Impalas

Burchell's Zebras (Steppenzebra).

Burchell's Zebras (Steppenzebra) and Impalas.

2nd Day

A few zebras in the distance

Burchell's Owl (Choucador de Burchell / Burchells Glanzstar)

Egyptian Goose (Ouette d'Egypte / Nilgans)

Gandalf and impalas in the Kruger.

Long-tailed Roller (Rollier à longs brins / Gabelracke)

A few rhinos in the distance.

A leopard.

Magpie shrike (Corvinelle noir et blanc / Elsterwürger)

Red-billed hornbill (Calao à bec rouge / Rotschnabeltoko)

Southern yellow hornbill (Calao leucomèle / südlicher Gelbschnabeltoko)

A female Greater Kudu (Grand Koudou / Großkudu).

Blue wildebeest (Gnous bleus / Streifengnus)

Impala

A lone rhino.

Dederik Cuckoo (Coucou didric / Goldkuckuck)

European bee-eater (Guêpier d'Europe / Bienenfresser).

Female Great Kudu (Grand Koudou femelle / weiblicher Großkudu)

Klipspringer (Oreotrague / Klippspringer)

Senegal lapwing (Vanneau du Sénégal / Senegalkiebitz)

Starling (Choucador / Glanzstar)

Fork-tailed Drongo (Drongo brillant / Trauerdrongo)

Dark chanting goshawk (Autour sombre / Graubürzel-Singhabicht)

European Roller (Rollier d'Europe / Blauracke)

Southern Ground Hornbills (Bucorves du Sud / Hornraben)

Carmine bee-eater (Guêpier Carmin / Scharlachspint)

Common buzzard (Buse variable / Mäusebussard)

Helmeted guinea fowl (Pintade de Numidie / Helmperlhuhn)

3rd Day

A klippspringer on a rock.

lilac-breasted roller

Lunch break on the banks of the small lake of the Shitlhave dam

Blue wildebeest

The Great Escarpment and the Blyde River Canyon, South Africa

2020-02-21 /28 : A grand spectacle of mother nature, wild rivers, vast forests, breathtaking panoramas, powerful waterfalls, deep canyons ......

THE GREAT ESCARPMENT

The Great Escarpment is the gigantic 1000m step that separates the Highveld, this high interior plateau of Southern Africa, from the Lowfeld, this wide strip of lowlands along the coast of the Indian Ocean in the north-east of South Africa (where the Kruger Park is located among others). It offers breathtaking landscapes that we had the leisure to discover.

Lone Creek Falls.

Sabie River

Mac-Mac Pools

Mac-Mac Falls

Graskop. The Panorama Rest Camp swimming pool above the Grand Escarpment.

Walk around Graskop.

The Pinacle

Berlin Falls

Lisbon Falls

God's Window

THE BLYDE RIVER CANYON

The Blyde River Canyon forms the northern part of the Drakensberg Mountain Escarpment. It is the third largest canyon in the world and the second largest canyon in Africa (after the Fish River Canyon). It is 26 kilometers long and 750 meters deep on average.
A fantastic region littered with a multitude of top tourist attractions.