Day 3: June 26 - Morning... brrrr!!!

5:30am:
Holy shit it's cold!!!!!! 40 degrees this morning for our 6am game drive. Oof. I wish I had another hot water bottle to heat up my bra before I put it on this morning!!! Gotta run... morning drive is in 20 minutes. The sun isn't even up, and it's darker than pitch.... but I'm so excited I can hardly stand it!!

(Note: A few minutes later, I did manage to catch a photo of sunrise as we headed to breakfast): AM Game Drive to Crook's Corner:
Crook's Corner is where the (dry) Limpopo River and the flowing Luvuvhu River join. (The Limpopo is dry during the winter months of June, July and August.) It's also the border between S. Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Ever since Zimbabwe has hit troubled times, people sneak across this "border" during the dry season to other, safer countries. Unfortunately, they have to contend with the animals, and Godfrey (our guide) told us that the week prior, one person was mauled by a lion as they were attempting to cross. Here's a photo of Godfrey standing on the Limpopo riverbed, looking for tracks. (Across the riverbed is Zimbabwe.) He did spot some lion tracks, but didn't catch up with the kitty...
Here are the animals that we spotted on the morning drive:
- Impala (the money-back guarantee in Africa.. they're everywhere)
- Yellow-billed hornbill (a.k.a. "the flying banana"). These guys were everywhere, too... at every single place we visited for the rest of the trip...- Nyala (a beautiful antelope that is only found in Pafuri. I love his yellow socks...)- Lilac breasted roller: One of the most heart-stoppingly beautiful birds I've ever seen. We spent a lot of time for the next few weeks trying to catch a photo of it in flight where it was - if you can believe it - even more colorful. But I don't think anyone quite caught it... - Warthogs (their tails stick straight up in the air when they're running... like an antenna! Too funny)

- Kudu

- Vervet monkey- Baboons (Most of the animals ran after they saw us... so we had a lot of these types of photos... )

- Crocodiles

- Waterbuck (antelope identifiable by a white ring around it's butt. The story is that the waterbuck was on Noah's Ark, and Noah told him not to use the toilets, but instead to use the bush as the other animals did. But the waterbuck didn't listen, and used the toilets, but he didn't know that there was fresh paint on it. So he got a ring of white around his tush. God was angry with him, so he cursed his descendants forever with a white ring on their butts. Poor things. In any case, for some reason, none of my photos of a waterbuck turned out, so you're spared the image.)

- Grey herons

- Vulture
- Crested francolins
- Go-away bird
- Natal francolins (a.k.a. "Road runner")
- Hippos (very far away. We didn't really count this as a sighting.)
- Steenbok

Another thing that is everywhere: Poop. Especially elephant poop. There were piles of the stuff on every road, path, field, forest and near every body of water. It didn't smell badly - it's only about 40% digested and all they eat are grasses and leaves. But it was, literally, all over the place:

11:30am:
Back for siesta after an amazing morning drive. The Makuleke tribe controls this Pafuri section of Kruger National Park. It's part of a restitution agreement made with the tribe in 1998 as an attempt at a "make good" for kicking the tribes off their land when the park was originally created. In 1998, the tribe was allowed to return to the land, provided that they manage it as a wildlife sanctuary. They have 25 years to prove that they're keen on managing the property, and so far, everything looks fabulous. Everyone who works at the lodge (except for a few trained personnel) are from the Makuleke tribe, including Godfrey, our guide.

During the drive this morning, we saw tons of animals, even if it wasn't any of the biggies. I'm not a big birder, but this is a fabulous place for anyone who is into bird watching. The variety is amazing. It warmed up nicely from this morning's chill, and now it's about 80 degrees outside. So I took a shower in the outdoor shower (and the monkeys watched... weird little voyeurs.) I'm on the patio of our hut now, listening to the elephants wading in the river, and watching the vervet monkeys play in the trees above my head. How cool is this? I'm still tired from the jet lag - and some strange screaming sounds that woke us up a few times during the night last night (eek!) - so I'll probably take a quick nap before our 3pm tea and our afternoon drive.
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