KRUGER National Park

I was blessed recently by the Brown's (Kathryn's parents) to receive an invitation to spend some time with them at the Kruger National Park. We stayed in a lodge just outside of the park and spent a couple of days over a weekend scanning the South African bush for all sorts of amazing wildlife. Cliff and Kat, Murray and Sue Brown, Claire, and myself rolled out of bed around 5:15am to get to the Kruger gate before 6am for an early morning game drive. We spent most of the three days driving around the Park and stopping at watering holes, observing nature at its finest. We were very fortunate to see so much and this is the best time of year to spot wildlife. Some of our sightings included: elephant herds, wildebeasts, hippos sunning themselves (easily confused with rocks...), a lioness on the prowl for a kudu, impala, giraffes, zebras, buffalo, crocodiles, TWO leopards (very uncommon!), hyennas (and even a baby one on our night drive), rhinos, monkeys and baboons, many types of birds, warthogs, dassies (small rodent-type creatures), and two lion cubs playing on the side of a rocky area with the mother keeping a watchful eye from nearby. It was amazing! God was certainly creative with nature in the African plains. After thousands of photos and hours of watching and waiting, Claire and I came home early to get back to work and Cliff and Kat spent the rest of the week with the parents doing more sight-seeing. The pictures should be self-explanatory, but: elephants crossing the road, sunrise with hippos in the foreground, a leopard in a tree on our night game drive, zebras on the road drinking the rain water from puddles, and Kat and I on a tree vine at a rest stop.