South Africa 2025

April 29, 2025

Karongwe Game Reserve

One last morning game drive then we begin the long drive back to Johannesburg. Lots of wildlife was out and about this morning. The goal for this morning was to track the Cheetah and find them. 

Impala

Wildebeest.

Several trackers walked the road looking for Cheetah tracks and other signs like Cheetah pee. They were successful! If you look really closely you can see Cheetah legs under the jeep.

 

These three cheetahs were rescued as cubs so they had human contact. The were released into this reserve along with a female cheetah. The female is pregnant but injured so she is being kept in a separate enclosure. 

As the cheetah were raised by humans, small groups were able to walk in to see them. 

Jack tried to find the male lion (he's the father of the young lions) yesterday afternoon but we were not successful. This morning we found him and his young giraffe kill.

When we left the compound this morning we saw a hyena with a hunk of meat in it's mouth. Jack, the safari guide /driver figured that a leopard had made a kill and the hyena helped himself. Just as we were getting back to the compound we found the leopard in a clearing. 

Termite hill

One of the great views on the drive back to Johannesburg

April 28, 2025

Karongwe Game Reserve

Today we enjoyed a full day at Karongwe Game Reserve. When we got the all clear at 5:30am that no dangerous animals were in the compound, we headed down for coffee. By 6am we were in jeeps and looking for animals. We came back to the camp at 9am for breakfast, then headed out at 10 for a nature walk.  1pm was lunch then tea at 3pm, followed by a game drive from 3:30pm to 6:30pm. Dinner was served when we returned from the afternoon game drive. As it was dark by 6pm we had to be escorted to our tents. Warthogs and some members of the antelope family were know to frequent the reserve especially at night. And yes, there are a lot of photos again.

Heading out at dawn. 

We found the "pride" of lions --- a mom and her four cubs. 

The pride took down a Kudu. It was an interesting drive through the bush to find the kill and one female still feasting. 

The two young males and one female were digesting there food. 

Mom

One of the two African wild dogs that were introduced into the park last year. He had a kill behind the tree. 

South African Heron

Google Image search says this is a waterbuck.

Impala

Impala

Impala

Our guide, Jack, on the nature walk. Jack really new a lot about types of poop. 

River crossing

Egyptian Goose

I think these are Nyala

Hippos in the last bit of light. 

April 27, 2025

Karongwe Game Reserve

There are a number of private game reserves around Kruger National Park. A number of them were once part of Kruger NP but it was far too big for the National Park system to maintain and ensure the safety of the animals. These reserves do not have interior fences and the animals can move freely between the private reserves and the National Park. Karongwe Game Reserve is unique unto itself. The entire property is fenced and they are restricted with the number of each type of animal they can have on the property. All the animals have free reign of the entire property. 

Karongwe Game Reserve works with the Endangered Wildlife Trust's Cheetah Range Expansion Project. This group has released two African Painted Dogs plus several Cheetahs into the Karongwe Game Reserve. 

This afternoon we did a game drive that ended with a night drive. The photos are in no particular order, except night is seperated from day. 

Mom and baby hippo

A troop of baboons passed a few hundred metres from us. 

For no particular reason the banded mongoose were running along behind the baboons. 

Grey-go-away bird

Male Nyala

Red-billed Hornbills

Greater female Kudu

A great view in the reserve. 

Our tour was split into 2 groups, this is the group Ed and I are not in. 

Sunset

On the way back to the reserve we saw this Leopard. The light doesn't bother the animal so the tracker shone his light on the leopard so Ed was able to get some photos.

April 26, 2025 

Kruger National Park

It felt like the middle of night when we got up, but it actually was 5:00am, We were in the bus by 5:30am with our boxed breakfast and at Kruger National Park by 6:00am. Then we were off for a full day to explore the park. There were far too many good photos but I managed to get it down to 28. They are in no particular order. 

Wildebeest with zebra in the background.

Hyena 

Warthogs

Cape Vulture

Helmeted Guinea Fowl

Cape Starling

Female and young Impala

Male Impala

Male Kudu

Red-crested Korhaan

Lilac Breasted Roller

Chameleon

Hippopotamus

Wooley Necked Stock

Elephants chased the Rhinos away

African Ground Hornbill

The lodge where we spent two nights put on a barbeque with entertainment. These guys and gals were amazing. 

April 25, 2025

Today is mostly a long drive to a lodge just outside of Kruger National Park. Luckily we made a couple of stops on the way. 

Along the way we passed a lot of farms. Many of the crops or fruit trees being grown were easily recognized. Unfortunately, we're not sure what they were growing under the covering. 

Mocking Cliff Chat occurs in rocky habitats in much of Eastern Sub-Sahara Africa.

The Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world, and the largest green canyon. The three Rondavels in Blyde River Canyon.

All the Rondavels

The lake that was formed by the dam on the Blyde River 

A bus load of school aged children, where back at the bus keeping busy 

Some of the many vendors that were at the canyon. 

Some women were ready to dance if you had some tip money at Bourkes Pot Holes. The following photos will give you a good understand of the Pot Holes. 

Do you remember the movie "The Gods Must be Crazy". I thought it took place in Australia but our guide, said it was Africa. Anyway, this is the place where the coke bottle was supposed to have been thrown to return it to the Gods. This lookout is called God's Window.

From a billboard in town, there is a rock formation that looks like a window which is now hidden by all of the greenery. 

April 24, 2025

This morning we were up early to catch a flight to Johannesburg. Upon arrival there was a tour of Soweto which included the Hector Pieterson Museum and Mandela House. 

Nice view out of the airplane. 

The Hector Pieterson Museum is located 2 blocks away from where student protestor Hector Pieterson was shot and killed on June 16, 1976. The museum covers the events of the anti-apartheid Soweto Uprising where more than 170 protesting school children were killed. The above photo shows Hector's sister, who was also at the protest and the newspaper photograph of Hector being carried to the medical clinic. 

Outside of Mandela House there were a group of young men dancing. 

Mandela House is a museum filled with Nelson Mandela memorbilla.

April 23, 2025

Today was a quiet day for Ed and myself as Ed managed to pick up a cold. Luckily, it was a free day so we slept in, then walked downtown to check out some of things we drove by yesterday, then  eat dinner early. Breakfast is at 6:20 am tomorrow morning and we leave at 7:00 am to catch our flight to Johannesburg, so it'll be an early night. 

The lift bridge and the swing had to open to let a sailboat out of the harbour. 

It was a lovely walk along the canal. It got us about 1/3 of the way to downtown. 

A piece of the Berlin Wall was given to Cape Town to celebrate Nelson Mandela's release from prison. 

We walked around a beautiful park. 

I don't think I'd want pigeons all over me. 

Albino Squirrel

Cape Town City Hall. 

Statue of Nelson Mandela at City Hall.

April 22, 2025

There was a lot of stuff packed into today so lots of photos and I even left out a lot of good ones. 

First stop was the Bo-Kaap district in Cape Town. Bo-Kaap is the oldest district and was built for Indonesian slaves the Dutch brought to South Africa when it was being colonized. The houses only started being painted when apartheid ended in 1994.  

There are several blocks with the brightly coloured houses. Some of the houses are painted a different colour every year after Ramadan. 

After a brief tour of the city centre we drove to  at the eastern edge of Table Mountain. A man who worked at the garden for years and is now retired walked us through the gardens starting at the top and working our way down. He was a character and he knew the gardens. 

The first owner of the property brought a lot of plants and trees from other countries hoping to impress Queen Victoria but she never came to visit. After the property was left to the state, Kirstenbosch Gardens was establish and the majority of non-indigenous plants were removed. The emphasis was put on natural beauty not flowers, though there are some beautiful flowers there. 

This area has the oldest plants in the park, some are 340 million years old. Table Mountain is in the background. 

We stopped a few times on the scenic drive to Cape of Good Hope, the south-western most part of Africa.

One of the beautiful views. 

Baboons are fun to watch. This guy decided that he owned the road, while most of them were busy digging for earthworms.

Of course the babies are always so cute. This one found an interesting toy. 

At Cape of Good Hope, we saw Cape Fur Seals sunning on some rocks. It was really windy out there.... I almost blew away a couple of times. 

On the drive we saw several Ostrich farms with lots of Ostriches but it's special to see them in the wild. This was up the hill at Cape of Good Hope. 

One of the cliff faces at Cape Point.

This is the old lighthouse at Cape Point. The lighthouse was built high on the rocks with the idea that it would be more visible. Unfortunately, the clouds decided to prove that the ideal was untrue. The lighthouse was covered by clouds, ships had accidents. 

This is the new lighthouse at Cape Point. It was built much closer to the water, so the visibility is much better. 

This common Eland, the second largest antelope in the world, was grazing near the parking area for the lighthouse. 

The African Penguins (or Cape Penguins) are confined to southern African waters. They are really cute. Ed and I could have spent hours watching them. We got a lot of really good photos and I managed to narrow it down to a few.

Mom sitting on her baby. Baby not so little any more, probably almost as big as mom. 

Coming back after a swim. 

Having a chat after their swim. 

When the seagull landed I realized how small these penguins are. The penguins typically stand between 60-70 cm (24-28 inches) and weigh 2.2-3.5 kg (4.9-7.7 lbs). Males are generally larger than females. 

We're pretty sure this is a juvenile molting and getting adult feathers. 

April 21, 2025

Today was basically a free day as we didn't have to meet the group till 6:00pm. Ed, of course, wanted to do a bit of geocaching and was happy when he was successful with all of the caches on his list .... even found a couple extra. After that, we wandered around the harbour. 

There's a lot of construction at the harbour in Cape Town.

White Breasted Cormorant.

In an effort to keep the Cape Fur Seals off of docks and boats two special platforms were constructed in the harbour. This one is at the Aquarium. It seems to be working as we only saw two seals in a place they shouldn't have been. 

An old clock tower. 

April 19 and 20, 2025

It was a long time in the air but the flights were good.  On the long flight from Paris to Cape Town, no one sat beside me so we had some room to stretch out. By a lucky co-incidence Ed lifted the blind and looked out to see an amazing sunset (not sure what to call it at 40,000 feet with clouds below us). 

April 15, 2025

In four days we will be getting on an airplane and flying to Cape Town South Africa. It's going to be an adventure. 

As this is a long trip, visiting several countries and different areas in each country, I've decided to create a blog for each section of the trip ---- South Africa which includes Cape Town and the Johannesburg Area, Namibia, Victoria Falls including the Botswana safari, and Paris. The latest day will appear at the top of the list.