Day 20

Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Another 6:45 start and on to Satara campground. It starts uneventfully for miles and miles, or should I say kilometers and kilometers? A few impala here and there, a zebra or two, the usual birds, a hippo in one water hole, a crocodile and a hippo in the next where the waterboks come to drink and spar. Does that sound like the blasé eco tourist or what?
Then, all of a sudden, things start to get exciting in a hurry. The one sure sign is cars pulled over to the side of the road. The other is circling vultures. Coming in to an intersection we see a dozen or more vultures suddenly fly up. They are the scavengers of the Park, cleaning up all the left over meat from kills by lions or other cats. As we turn the corner and get a better view we see 75 to 100 vultures, some feasting on a dead giraffe, some waiting their turn in nearby trees. It seems unlikely that this big a carcass would be left by lions. We conjecture. Maybe it died in childbirth. Maybe it died of disease or old age. We don’t know, but it is a sight to see that many vultures all in one place fighting for a place at the table.
The next gathering of cars is to look at about 5 or 6 (it’s hard to tell in the bush) lions around the carcass of a water buffalo. It seems to be pretty well cleaned out so the lions are mostly just resting and people mostly just watching. That’s with way it is with lions. After watching for quite a while we drove on and suddenly here were three more lions, two females and one young male, two of which were conveniently and thoughtfully lying down right in the middle of the road! As if they had planned it, there was a turn out for the cars to pull off and take pictures. The lions all seemed to be intently focused on some impalas on the hillside a short distance away but, with no impending attack strategy evident, we moved on after taking some wonderful close-ups, more pictures than we probably need. But what an opportunity! I estimate that with yesterday and today’s sightings we have seen 0.5% of the Park’s lion population.
A little afternoon rest, a little walk around the campground (six circles of 25 nicely appointed round 2-bed thatch-roof cottages), a viewing of the evening movie, a large screen showing of Birds of Kruger, and then a lovely stir fry and rice dinner. What could be better?
Bruce and Paula