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| Difficult to distinguish in this photo. Two male lions are sleeping. |
“Sighting of the Day in the Bush”
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| With the male bushbuck in the yard munching on pellets, this female hid in the bush until he left. |
After a pleasant evening out to dinner with friends, we were home shortly after 2200 hours (10:00 pm). I couldn’t fall asleep when I went to bed at least an hour before Tom for some odd reason.
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| Tom spotted this lion napping across the Crocodile River as we peered through the fence between Marloth Park and Kruger. |
Finally, by midnight, I dozed off, only to awaken every hour or so. By morning, I hadn’t slept for more than three or four hours, asking myself what possibly could have caused the poor night’s sleep. Nothing had changed. I hadn’t had any caffeine or eaten anything that would precipitate such a stormy night.
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| He was at quiet a distance, making me struggle to hold the camera steady for these shots. |
Subsequently, I was relatively pooped when I began today’s post, a little later than usual after I’d made breakfast (Tom did the dishes), did laundry (Tom hung it on the clothesline), and prepared the majority of tonight’s dinner.
I was dozing off sitting at the big table on the veranda on a gorgeous warm sunny day. By 10:30 am, I headed back to bed (an infrequent occurrence for me) to try for a short nap.
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| Male bushbuck can be dangerous with their sharp horns. See this article where a farmer was gored to death by a male bushbuck. |
After spending an hour and a half in the bedroom, sleeping only about 20 minutes, I felt considerably better and returned outdoors to Tom, who’d stayed in place at the table while I was trying to nap.
Somewhat refreshed, I knew I’d better get going on today’s post, or I’d be sitting here all day. On this gorgeous day, we’d like to do our usual drive in the park, especially after what we’d seen two days ago when we stopped along the river road and walked through the dense bush to get to the fence between Marloth Park and Kruger National Park.
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| Tourists should not hand feed any animals with horns. |
We’d spotted several vehicles parked on the narrow road and a dozen or so people armed with binoculars and cameras looking across the Crocodile River. We love it when others find incredible sightings, and we follow suit.
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| The sky changed dramatically while we were in Kruger a few days ago. |
But, this is not as easy as you’d think. The terrain and the color of the lions are an identical match, and bringing them into view on a camera is often tricky. Others who’ve spotted them will often say, “Oh, they are near that big bush, next to the tree.”
There are dozens of big bushes and trees on the opposite side of the distant bank of the river. We’ve often seen people leaving in total frustration when they couldn’t see them after trying for an hour or more.
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| Female bushbuck were preparing for a drink in the cement pond. |
As all of our readers so well know, we’re stubborn and determined and will try and try until we get it right. Why is it worth it to go through the angst of trying to get the wildlife in the camera’s lens for such a distant shot?
Tom says it’s like fishing. You sit. You wait. Nothing happens. Time passes slowly. Finally, you catch a fish, only to take a photo, carefully remove the hook from the fish’s mouth and toss it back in the lake, the river, or the sea.
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| Sugar cane burning at a distance. |
Go figure. What’s with us humans? Why do we get such pleasure out of this? The only answer we can come up with is this: ANTICIPATION! It’s a magical thing.
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| The burning of sugar cane fields is almost daily, often leaving our white tiled veranda covered in soot based on wind conditions. |
We’re reminded of Carly Simon’s famous song, found here as we say this word aloud. Yes, it’s anticipation that drives us to make the weekly run to Kruger, the almost daily drive in Marloth Park, and to sit on the veranda when we’re not doing either and wait, morning, noon and night.
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| A bloat of hippos. |
The funny thing about anticipation is that one must occasionally experience “results,” or the interest would fade away in time. Here, in South Africa, in this unusual place, we’re rewarded with results over and over again.
May anticipation bring you the results you’re seeking today and always!
Photo from one year ago today, July 22, 2017:
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| As always, we had a great evening at The Elephant Bar with friends while we were in Las Vegas, Nevada, last year at this time. For more photos, please click here. |