Kruger National Park - South Africa - November 2021

 We started a new day with a bus ride from Hluluwe to our hotel. For the next two days, we stayed at the Protea Hotel, just outside Kruger National Park Gate. It was a pleasant day to relax and enjoy the scenery from the comfortable bus. A stop for lunch in  Eastvaal District Council made me happy. I finally had a taste of "bunny chow", a popular street food of South Africa that I was looking for since arriving in Durban. 

The bakery that sells "bunny chow"

Bunny chow for lunch - A soft loaf of bread stuffed with curried beef

Our hotel at Kruger (National Park) Gate

The Marriott Protea Hotel is a very nice hotel with excellent accommodations and delicious BBQ/buffet dinner. The safari jeeps picked us up early the next morning from the hotel. It was another wonderful day game driving through this famous park. We hoped to see all of the Big Five, especially the lions and leopards.  Our guide and park ranger, Lawrence thought it's a high probability to see lions and leopards here. We will see!. 

         

Entrance Gate 

Statue of Paul Kruger at Kruger Gate

Our safari jeep

African wild dog.
Per Lawrence, our guide, when we spotted the wild dog shortly getting in the park, it will be our lucky day. Fingers crossed that he is right and we might see the lions and/or leopards which are difficult to see. 

A relaxing leopard, a rare find in the park. We're very lucky to spot one. 

There are two leopards! 

Cape buffaloes

A tower of giraffes from distance.

A herd of hippos on land, another rare find.

Impala and Greater Kudu.

Male impala

A kudu with only one horn.

This Lion made our sighting of  all the Big Five of South Africa complete!

 Lion and friend.

A lion cub

Mama lion watching her cub from a close distance.

Later in the afternoon, we followed a lion walking from the bush toward a big tree for a "siesta".

Lion checking out a place for his nap

Afternoon siesta.

Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and Hluhluwe Game Reserve - South Africa, Nobvember 2021

 It was an early morning when we left for Hluhluwe Game Reserve. The hotel had sent along boxed breakfasts for us. It will be a long, full day on safaris through the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Game Park. In addition to the boxed breakfast, we will be dining "in style" at a "bush camp" breakfast, prepared by the park staff and later a lunch, also in the park. 

Our hotel was about 15 minute drive to the main gate. The two safari jeeps were there to take us on the game drive. Due to the pandemic, the park was not crowded at all and we had professional game guides for our full day on safari. The Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Game Reserve is a Big 5 Game Park in the KwaZulu-Natal Region of South Africa. It's believed to be the oldest game reserve in Africa. It worked out well that we would have a much longer game drive here in Hluhluwe instead of traveling to Eswatini as previously planned.

Park Gate

Entrance to the Game Reserve - Memorial Gate

A beautiful day for a Big5 safari

Safari Jeep and Guide

Riding shotgun

Soon inside the park, we sighted a lone elephant promenading in front of us. Shortly after, a few rhinoceros crossing the road. Hluhluwe Game Reserve is well known for rhino preservation. These are Black Rhinoceros.

Promenading

He's keeping an eye on us

Rhino crossing

Finally all across!

Zebra appearing.

Large family of zebras

A lone rhino

A cape buffalo ready to cross the road

Impalas

By mid day, we had breakfast in the park provided by the park rangers. It was a nice break before we continued the drive through other part of the reserve.   

Breakfast in Hluhluwe Game Park

The White Umfolozi River 

A Southern African Bird

Round bird nests on tree

Behind the scene, we had a private visit to the rhino orphanage in the Game Reserve. There were two orphan baby rhinos that were rescued after the poachers killed the moms.

Orphan rhino

Rhino orphans.

There is an outdoor restaurant near the Centenary Center where we enjoyed a nice lunch before the afternoon safari..

Centenary Gate

Lunch Menu - Ostrich dishes are quite popular here.

Kudu

Beautiful zebras

Zebras, One of the Pretty5s in the Park.

A crossing guard for his family.

A big herd of Cape Buffaloes

Watching us 


Warthog - one of the Ugly5s

Enjoying an afternoon stroll.

A lone monkey by the road bidding farewell to us as we left Hluhluwe Game Reserve.

We had a wonderful day. The weather was pleasant and the game drive was a successful one. We saw 3 of the Big5s: elephants, rihnos and cape buffaloes and look forward to seeing the other 2: lions and leopards in Kruger National Park.