THE KRUGER NATIONAL PARK

Talk about "Spirit of Place" ............... for those of us that return there on a fairly regular basis there can be few places anywhere that imbibe one with that absolute sense of knowing and feeling the 'Spirit of a Place' such as the Kruger does. 
During the last week in November we had the very good fortune, courtesy of our good friends Peter and Rosemary Davidson, to spend a week at their timeshare at Ngwenya Lodge with Rosemary (Peter was unfortunately caught up in a last minute work situation which precluded him from joining us), with daily trips via Crocodile Bridge into the Park.

Just crossing the bridge gets the anticipatory juices flowing as the hippos give the car the evil eye, and large birds of every description wade and flit here and there. Once done with the formalities of entry the real excitement begins, and irrespective of what game one comes across, the thrill is always the same - happily interspersed with the serious business of identifying one bird species or another ................. during our 5 day visit this time around we managed roughly 95 different bird species, loads of elephant, a number of rhino, plenty of Blue Wildebeest, Zebra and of course the obligatory thousands of Impala with their newborn babies. 

There was one couple of mating lions who I think stayed in the same place the entire week ............. a fantastic half hour with 15 wild dogs (which we had all to ourselves), who simply lazed about and spent time playing with each other before wandering off back into the bush.
We saw a leopard kill hanging in a tree - but unfortunately no leopard. And no Cheetah this time around - but maybe next time! 

We had wonderful Buffalo sightings in the water after the good rains, happily complimented by Terrapins on the rocks just a few metres away. There were Giant Blind Snakes on the road and a great bit of time spent with a Spotted Green Treesnake at one of the hides. A giant snail crossed the road ahead of us and I had to airlift it into the bush to ensure that it wouldn't be run over by someone else. Two sightings of Hyena - both in unusual circumstances - a crocodile attacking another in his territory, and four hippos laying into a fifth that has trespassed in their waterhole. 

There were of course the obligatory babons and Vervet monkeys, and the excitement of thinking that we had made only the 5th sighting ever south of the Zambezi of a Long Toed Stint - unfortunately finally dashed after returning home and closely examining over 300 photographs to realise that it was no more than a Wood Sandpiper that had us completely bamboozled ................ but that is what the Kruger is all about. 

Truly a place of wonder that filters its way into the bloodstream and continuosly calls you back from wherever in the world you might be.