On an evening drive (24 passenger truck) we came upon an entire pride of lions. This guy was lying in the middle of the road. Took one look at me (front seat) and licked his chops. Never felt so wanted. Funny thing, he could have hopped into the truck but they never do. Vehicles are an amazing barrier to all the animals. If you get out they will either run or attack.We followed him down to the intersection, peeing or marking territory along the way (the lion) (captured on video) and as we rounded the turn there were 4 more lions as my batteries died.  Trust me.

She saw dozens during our six days in Kruger Park. We recorded an amazing video of of a family of three with the baby (12 feet tall) hugging mom with intertwined necks. WordPress doesn’t allow video uploads to this blog. It can be seen on Youtube. Search “Tom Brodehl”.

Funny, we sleep within electric fenced compounds to keep the free range animals away from us. That is a hyena on the sign. This area of Kruger Park is blessed with a lot of hyenas. They will run around the perimeter fencing at night looking for a way in. Guess they like people. We were in the Free Range area of Kruger Park. If the animals wish, they can roam into either Zimbabwe or Mozambique. There are no border fences. The other half of Kruger Park is sectioned into Private Reserves. These Private Reserves are completely perimeter fenced with electric fences to keep the animals in. Each Private Reserve covers many square miles of territory. The animals are protected and controlled by the National Park system within these reserves and lead as normal of a life as they would Free Range. The government leases concessions within these reserves  for the luxurious private tent camps. This is where the Americans and Europeans go on safari and spend $500-1,000USD  per night per person to see the animals. Rumor has it that the big five in the reserves have GPS attachments. One should be guaranteed a sighting for $1,000 a night. We did Kruger Park like the South Africans. Stayed in the Rest Camps and took the same 3 hour long evening or late afternoon game drives for $25 USD per person. Our ensuite, air con bungalows with full kitchen ran $85-125 per night for two. Rest camps have restaurants, swimming pools, coin op laundries, general stores etc.

This guy was sunning on the road inside our rest camp. He was about 16 inches long. Not what I would call very camouflaged. There were tons of interesting whatevers to see. Saw a few snakes, one very poisonous crossing the road. There are 74 species of snakes in Kruger Park. The bird life was over the top. Large, small, colorful, weird and funny looking. We had an animal guide for the park and were able to verify over 30 different birds.

Another member of the Big Five, the African Cape Buffalo. We were driving on one of the dirt roads when we ran across this guy. Probably passed another car every 10-15 minutes. Without cell reception one banks on the fact that Avis cars aren’t that old. Would hate to spend the night in our car.

This is a White Rhino. Not to be confused with a Black Rhino. Looks black to me but he isn’t. Big difference is white rhinos graze off the jungle floor and black rhinos (rare) eat bushes. They are one of the Big Five. We saw them all. I don’t think Teddy Roosevelt did that good.

I guess he was lucky to escape some cat’s attack. A gash in his hind quarter, his tail bitten off, and plenty of claw marks on his side. There were so many zebras in the park that one just drives on by without stopping. Same for the elephants. The elephant population has really rebounded because of the world wide ban on ivory. The poachers have now switched to Rhino horns which are just creatin. Ground up the rich Chinese think this is an aphrodisiac. Rhino horns are fetching about $20,000 USD. It is easier to cut their horns off if you kill them first.