After a time in Kruger National park, we began to realize we had unwittingly been playing a game. That is: Who would be the next first person, to spot the next wild animal or bird!

The next thing we spotted was… 

Nyala buck:

I guess they weren’t so hard to find. They were right there. None of us could miss seeing them! 

We had to stop the our car, because there they were crossing the road just in front of us, from the right-hand side of the road. They weren’t concerned about our car. But were more intent on hurrying across the road. 

 Perhaps they were been stalked, but we couldn’t see any carnivorous animals coming up behind them. Perhaps they were just on a mission to get to better grazing across the road. 

See, these buck have thin white lines across their backs and running down the sides of their bodies.

Next, we had to stop our car again, because more zebra were also crossing the road. 

Zebra & giraffe: 

 

The zebra look magnificent don’t you think?! So stunning in their black and white stripes! 

Aaah… but see that giraffe?! He is checking them out. Wonder if he was making sure they crossed the road safely? You know, like school children watched by the patrol officer on duty! That was just a funny wisecrack I couldn’t let pass! ;) 

Oh, well, we waited until the road was clear, then we quietly drove on, still looking all around us into the bush on both sides of the road. 

Hey, there’s a warthog!

And it was in a great big hurry. I suppose he felt exposed out there in the wide open space, as we appeared, and was rushing to take cover. That’s when our daughter said,  

“See, there is a road leading off to the left. Let’s see where that warthog came from. There might be more warthog to see. Because I know there is a waterhole back there somewhere. Been there before…’ 

With that she turned the car in at the next side road (on our left) and followed it. Soon after the road turned and curved around to the left, and brought us up to a waterhole in a wide open clearing. 

Warthog gather at waterhole:

And there we saw quite a few warthog drinking at the waterhole. See how they bend down their forelegs to drink. Looks funny and uncomfortable, hey! 

Then came some Impala buck, also wanting to drink. But they had to wait their turn. Warthogs are such bad tempered `nasty pieces of work’. Guess the Impala were scared of them. 

But there was no fuss:

That wasn’t the warthog’s problem! They just took their time… drinking their full … and messing around. 

The warthog and the buck weren’t worried about us, either. We were parked far off on the other side of the clearing, as not to disturb them. I had to zoom in to get my photos. 

Next week’s travel blog: 

Still our second day out in Kruger National park, but that blog will have a buck oil painting in it