Kruger National Park, South Africa.

Our day started early, but no earlier than usual. It would be an unusual day for us, as Dries and company had some surprises. Our day would bring us as far north as we would travel in the park.

Irving, Dries, and Hannes would chat in Afrikaans as we drove north and then tell us what side roads we would take. This was a common occurrence, often precipitated by a conversation in Afrikaans with another tour driver we met along the way. Those conversations usually involved sightings by the other tour drivers and lent some extra excitement on our journeys.

On one of the side trips, we got pretty close to this steenbok. Another tour driver had told us about a leopard kill, so we detoured from the main road to see if we could spot the leopard. There was a bit of a traffic jam around the kill, an impala. The leopard, however, was nowhere in sight. As we waited for traffic to dissipate, a nearby Steenbok enjoyed some tasty leaves unconcerned by all the vehicles around.

There’s no telling what we might see along the way. Back on the main highway, we spotted this hyena family at the side of the road. By now, we were told we would be having brunch at Olifants Rest Camp and visiting Elephant Hall at the Letaba Rest Camp. It would be a longer drive than usual and a later arrival back at Satara, but another surprise awaited us when we arrived there.

This young elephant was having a great time playing in the mud and water in the creek behind. We watched for several minutes, and I took a series of photos. Here are two of my favorites.

Elephants have an excellent tool for washing their backs. Our group took plenty of photos of this young elephant’s antics.

We ordered our brunch at Tindlovu Boskombuis, the restaurant at Olifants Rest Camp. According to their website, it offers a fine dining experience, and our meals were excellent examples. However, the views from the restaurant’s observation deck were a major attraction, and several of us headed out to see the Olifants River views.

No photograph can do justice to the view from high above the Olifants River. Using my Nikon Z7 II, I created a three-image vertical panorama and stitched it with Adobe Lightroom Classic. The herd of elephants at the bottom of the image helps with the context of Africa.

After lunch, we stopped at Letaba Rest Camp to visit Elephants Hall, a museum dedicated to the history of African elephants. Dries provided me with facts about this elephant’s exhibit. The tusks belonged to an elephant bull named Shawu and are the longest ever recorded in Kruger and among the 6th longest sets ever recorded in Africa. His left tusk measured 317 cm (124.8 inches) and weighed 52.7 kg (116.2 lbs.) The right was 305 cm (120 inches) long and weighed 50.8 kg (112 lbs.) He was an enormous elephant and an impressive sight when he was alive, standing 3.4 m (11.1 feet) high at the shoulder!

Though the southern ground hornbill can fly to escape danger, due to its large stature, the species prefers to walk or run on the ground. Its typical means of finding food is to poke the soil with its long beak, looking for tasty morsels. When the morsel is captured, the bird gives it a toss and catches it as it falls down the bird’s throat.

The long eyelashes on hornbills serve a practical purpose: protection. Google told me that these specialized feathers, known as rictal bristles, help shield the bird’s eyes from flying insects and debris, especially while they are foraging for food.

On our way back to Satara, we spotted the fourth of the Big Five animals. We’d seen lions, elephants, and cape buffalo, but we hoped to see the last two of the Big Five today. The leopard and the white rhino both eluded us.

I’m unsure which of our guides first spotted the leopard sitting underneath a large thorn bush. The leopard lay down further into the grassy savanna when I finally saw it. Though I took twelve photos, none showed the leopard’s face clearly. Dries, however, shared the image on his blog, and with his permission, I am posting the photo he captured when the leopard’s head was above the grass.

Our afternoon game drive was a little shorter than usual, and when we returned, we only saw one jackal pup on the anthill where we’d seen the three pups yesterday. By then, we were told of our other surprise for the day. We had a quick take-out supper, which allowed us to prepare for a night safari.

Kruger National Park offers night safaris, but they fill up fast with tour guides who are specially certified to provide guests with this unique experience. Guests are given flashlights to scan the bush and look for the reflections in the animal’s eyes.

We didn’t see many animals that evening, and photography with my Nikon Z7 II and Nikkor f/4 lens was challenging. I’d set my ISO limit to ISO 10,000, and all my shots were at the lens maximum of f/4, and 1/100 second. Adobe Lightroom Classic’s new Denoise feature helped to reduce the noise level in these images.

On that night safari, we saw the fifth of our “Big Five” animals: a white rhino. We’d seen lions, elephants, cape buffalo, and a leopard earlier today, but we had yet to see a white rhino.

We will also see white rhinos in the daytime in the coming days, but this was an exciting find for us. Google tells me that the white rhino, also known as the square-lipped rhinoceros, is the second-largest land mammal on Earth. Despite its name, it’s not actually white in color but rather a grayish hue. Its name comes from the Afrikaans word “weit,” meaning “wide,” referring to its wide, square upper lip, perfectly adapted for grass grazing.

Unfortunately, white rhinos are critically endangered due to poaching for their horns, which are highly prized in some cultures for traditional medicine. Conservation efforts are ongoing to protect these magnificent creatures and ensure their survival for future generations.

For those who wish to see more of the photos I captured on Day Three, they are on my Flickr album here. I will share pictures from our Day Four journey next Friday. We traveled from Satara Rest Camp back to Skukuza, where we stayed for the remaining three nights of our trip. On the way, we experienced something not often seen by the typical visitor to Kruger National Park. I even have a video to share.

John Steiner