Kruger: Day 5 (and a farewell to the bush)

September 5, 2024 • 9:15 am

This post documents what we saw on our last day in Kruger, the day we had to leave and repair back to Hoedspruit.

First, you might like to see our accommodations at the Satara Rest Camp, which were lovely and inexpensive. Below is my own personal hut with a high thatched roof (thatching is quite a skill, and roofs have to be re-thatched every decade or two.

A view from the inside. I had two beds, a nice bathroom, and a fridge outside with a latch to keep the baboons out. Not to mention air-conditioning, which I didn’t need as it wasn’t hot.

My two beds:

And a view of the thatched roof seen while lying on one of the beds. As you can see from the first picture, the roof was high.

We were near the remains of the buffalo killed by lions, so we dropped by again. One of the lions was still around. Have a look: this is a male with its normal “tawny” color:

And when our guide Isaac told us there were white lions in the park (leucistic ones, not albinos), nothing would do for me except to see them. Given that there are only a few, the chances of that were small. However, Isaac had read on his “Kruger guides” restricted chat group that a white lion had been spotted about a mile north of Satara. So he went looking for it. Given his skills as a spotter, if it was anywhere near the roadside, he’d find it.

And he did!

Here’s one; note that it’s not pure white, but a light yellow, and clearly distinct in color from “regular” lions.  There’s one famous white lion in Kruger called “Casper” (undoubtedly after the ghost), but I’m not sure if this is Casper. It is, however, a male:

One would think that the whiteness might confer an adaptive disadvantage on these animals, either driving away regular lions who don’t like their color, or making these white ones visible to prey. But they don’t seem disabled. As Wikipedia notes:

White lions are not albinos. Their white color is called leucism, and is caused by an allele that is found at the same locus as the allele that causes albinism. It is thought, but not proven, that the allele is inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion.  They vary from blonde to near-white. This coloration does not appear to pose a disadvantage to their survival. White lions were considered to have been technically extinct in the wild between 1992 and 2004, when the Global White Lion Protection Trust achieved the first successful reintroduction of white lions to their natural habitat. These prides have continued to hunt and breed successfully in the wild, whilst other occurrences of white lion births have been reported in the greater Kruger region since then.

There’s more information:

In light of the recent decision by South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) at CITES 2016, to continue to allow the hunting of captive bred lions (“canned hunting”), and the trade in lion bones from captive bred lions, the Global White Lion Protection Trust (WLT) asserts that the survival of lions in the Greater Kruger Park Region is likely to come under threat, and the white lion is the ideal capstone animal to help better protect all lions in the Greater Kruger Park Region.

I like to think this is Casper. But even if it isn’t, it was a great joy for me to see this animal thriving in the wild. Kudos to Isaac for not only making an effort to find it for me, but also to succeed in that effort!

And a “normal” tawny lion for comparison again. Note the dark mane and distinct brown color.

By this time the remains of the buffalo had been picked clean by both nearby lions and, of course, by vultures, seen below on the bones.  I’m not sure whether the spotted hyenas ever got a crack at this carcass:

A rare sight and one of my collection of “animals crossing the road.”  Lion crossing!  The cars, of course, are lined up to see the sight, which attests to how comfortable these lions are with humans—at least when they’re in cans.

The lion who crossed the road then found a comfortable perch on the other side, explaining “why did the lion cross the road?”:

Eventually we stopped at the Olifants Rest Camp to have breakfast. With a lovely view overlooking the Olifants River (a tributary of the Limpopo River), it has bungalows and would be a delightful place to stay, especially in the rainy summer season when the river must attract lots of wildlife. But if you want to stay there, reserve a year in advance.

It was blowing hard that day, and cold as well, but this brave dude was out there re-thatching a roof with no apparent protection from falling off:

And I got the breakfast I had dreamed of: one that had fried eggs and pap: the African equivalent of grits and eggs.  It was topped with a spicy tomato-y sauce generously larded with crispy fried cubes of pork. It was one of the best breakfasts I’ve ever had, and filled me up so much I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day:

On my way to the facilities, I took a selfie in the mirror:

This view of a thunder of hippos (yes, that’s one proper collective noun for a group of them) was probably taken from the Olipants rest camp, but I can’t remember.

We later came upon a dazzle of zebras (again, a proper collective noun).  I waited patiently with my camera focused on these three until I managed to get a shot of them all looking in my direction. What gorgeous animals!

A Red -crested korhaan (Lophotis ruficrista). I remembered this as a “Jewish bird” by thinking that its real name was the Red-crested Cohen.” It has a lovely pattern as described in Wikipedia:

The red-crested korhaan grows up to 50 cm (1.6 ft) in length with a maximal weight of 680 g (1.5 lb).  The feathering of the wings folded on the back is marked by V-formed patterns of a light cream color with some white at the sides. Breast feathers are black. Legs are pale yellow and feet gray.

Click the picture to enlarge it:

A herd of impala, this one apparently heavy on males (females don’t have horns):

. . . and a male impala crossing the road, probably to rejoin his herd.

You’ll know this species by now if you’ve been following my narrative. Look at the butt for confirmation:

This elephant has had a long drink of water from a cement pool, and the warthog was waiting patiently nearby for its turn to drink. But we waited and waited, and the elephant wasn’t sated. (They can take in 100 liters of water at one time.) So we left, hoping the warthog got a drink.

A journey of giraffe. That’s what you call a group of giraffes that is moving, but a group of stationary giraffes is called “a tower of giraffe”. These are appropriate terms.

And at least we reach the end of our journey in Kruger at the Orpen Gate. There are actually two exits, and at one of them you’re obliged to show your receipts showing you’ve actually paid the conservation fee for each day you’ve stayed.  When I took a photo after the first gate, the gatekeeper woman posted for me:

How sad to leave!

And the second gate, when we once again left the bush and entered “civilization”:

Will I go back again? I’d love to see the park when it’s green in summer, though it also rains then. But, as Stevie Nicks said, “I’m getting older, too.”  Who knows?

If you ever visit Kruger, you should definitely engage Isaac as your guide

Many thanks to Isaac, our guide/driver/spotter, shown below getting a coffee at the exit. Thanks too to Rosemary, who did a pile of work to organize this trip and my visit to Manyelete.

 

18 thoughts on “Kruger: Day 5 (and a farewell to the bush)”

  2. Amazing pictures: the lions, the earthquake of hippos, the dazzling zebras and, of course, Ozy. And what a breakfast!

    1. Agreed! The zebra photo is amazing.

      I hope you tipped Isaac well. He sounds like a fabulous guide.

  4. The trip of a lifetime. I’ve been stunned and amazed and enthralled by your travelogue and the wildlife. Thanks. You should go back–we need to see more.

  5. I’m amazed by that huge lion crossing the road right in front of those cars. I would love to experience that. Quite a thrill.

    The zebra photo is a prize photo. Those patterns are spectacular, especially in a line like that.

    I have never seen a photo of leucistic lions. I was expecting them to be pure white.
    They seem they are sort of camouflaged being slightly yellow like the grass there.
    Compared to the regular lion, I do see the difference.

    Thanks for a great trip! I loved journeying vicariously even though it’s not quite the experience.

    2. I agree. The picture of the zebras is … dazzling. Jerry should submit it to a wildlife photo competition!

  6. The photo of the lion lazily obstructing traffic reminds me of this quote by George Bernard Shaw —

    I have never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from other men. There is not much harm in a lion. He has no ideals, no religion, no politics, no chivalry, no gentility; in short, no reason for destroying anything that he does not want to eat.

  7. Excellent trip – I’ve had a great time!
    The hut you’re staying in is very Lesotho architecture (and Natal area).
    D.A.
    NYC

  8. A dazzle of zebras? Interestingly, perhaps, during WWI and WWII the U.S. Navy experimented with a variety of camouflage schemes for its ships. Camouflage that feature contrasting vertical lines to break up a ship’s silhouette was called “dazzle”.

  9. You lucky man. Such good pictures, the impala are so good and your zebras are stunning. Thank you.

  10. What a fantastic trip! I do hope you get to go back. So many animals and so much beautiful scenery. Truly amazing (or dazzling if we’re talking about zebras!).

  11. You definitely saved the best photos for last. So many standouts. The lion casually crossing the road is so cool. You can really appreciate the size of him in comparison to the vehicles. That’s a great shot. Also, the one of the warthog waiting for water by the elephant shows the immenseness of the elephant. I love the impalas. They are so beautiful. I love the markings on their rumps. I agree, the 3 zebra staring straight at the camera is a winner! Nice that you caught all those hippos outside of the water at the same time. All of these are simply spectacular. What a cutey Isaac is. You guys must have had a blast together. How fun! I’m sad it’s over. What a special trip. Thank you so much for all the photos and information. And thank goodness Ozy came home! Bye bye Kruger.

  12. And as the sun slowly sets, we say goodbye to Kruger National Park…

    Thanks for taking the time to share your excellent pics, and commentary. Those moments will stay with you forever.

    I think we’re all sad to leave!

  13. A few notes about white lions.
    ===================

    Thanks for the shout out Jerry, appreciate it. I’ll convey your gratitude to Isaac. He’s out guiding and I’ll be seeing him in town in a few days. Also, we hope you’ll be back in the summer months (some day) when the bush is vibrant, green and far far more spectacular than it is in the winter/spring months when water is scarce and the lowveld turns into a dust bowl.

    White lions
    ==========
    Re: the advantage/disadvantage of the coloration of leucistic (white) lions, the wiki entry may need edits; while the lighter mane may not pose a notable disadvantage to their (white lion) survival, it does impair the potential of a white lion to gain dominance within the pride – the darker the mane the more *attractive* the male is to females; this is (likely) due to the higher testosterone level in darker males as well as the coloration of the mane and corresponding/correlated behavior of darker males.

    (Frankly, the darker male lions *are* stunning – better looking than the lighter ones, opinion of course).

    Quote:
    “Males with darker manes had higher testosterone levels, were more likely to recover from injury, spent more time resident with prides, and had higher offspring survival. Thus, mane color appears to convey information about male aggressiveness and potential reproductive success.”
    https://cbs.umn.edu/lion-research-center/lion-research/mane-research

    It turns out that lions (like domestic cats) can see color, but not the full range that -say- humans can.
    Quote:
    “…Yes they do. Eyes have two kinds of receptor cells, called rods and cones because of their structure. Rods are mainly responsible for black and white vision, and cones do the colour bit. Human eyes have a predominance of cones – we see colours very well, especially in the red spectrum of light, but consequently we have a problem with night vision no matter how many carrots we eat. Lions have fewer cones so see less colour but have great night vision especially since their eyes also have a membrane that concentrates weak light back to the retina and their pupils are able to enlarge to an extent much bigger than ours. ”
    https://lionaid.org/faqs_lions/do-lions-see-colour.htm

    Females appear to prefer the darker mane.

    The Orpen/Satara area is quite good for spotting white lions, it’s not unusual for the region; incidentally, the “white lion” we saw is not as light as others I have seen closer to Orpen gate. Also, Isaac had the exact GPS location of the white lion we saw (via his WhatsApp group for guides) and the tens of cars on the road were a dead giveaway. 🙂

    Of course, this does not take away from Isaac’s genius as a spotter, he has a gift. He’s a brilliant spotter.

    Lions and cars: lions in southern (mid) Kruger are highly habituated to cars/vehicles, they simply don’t care. However, if you tried getting out of your car or standing up and yelling in your Open Game Vehicle, you’ll see the behavior change in an instant – within seconds. And yes, many “dumb” tourists have decided to get out of their vehicles in big 5 country and paid the price. The Darwin Awards must be resurrected.

    In other (deeply troubling) news, even as we celebrate earth’s last iconic mammals in Kruger and throughout Africa, hundreds of elephants, hippos and other animals are slated for culling in Namibia (drought and poverty) and 9 elephants (including lactating mothers and young calves) were unceremoniously killed (shot, in a low-cost cull) in KZN in South Africa to prevent further HEC (Human Elephant Conflict). Tourist who come to visit generally witness the sunny-side of Africa’s wild wonder and remain uninformed/naive about the details and the ugly underbelly of conservation or CONservation in Africa.

    The devil (really) is in the details. It is best for these precious creatures if we were all more aware of the existential threats faced by a multitude of species in the great parks.
    https://x.com/EleRhinoMarch/status/1831404429368783081
    and
    https://africageographic.com/stories/conservationists-condemn-namibias-plan-to-cull-amid-drought-meft-responds/

    Ending on a sunny note: Ozymandias, king of pigs (and of warts) is sitting outside my little studio as we speak, making odd crooning sounds, probably looking for a treat. 🙂

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