African adventure, part IV

Final photos from Kruger, I promise! After this we move on to Mozambique...

A couple more from the roads around Lower Sabie, of wilderbeest, and a bull elephant, framing itself nicely in the trees.

The last night in Kruger we headed for a night drive. The tour took us out at around dusk and we spent  a good couple of hours being driven by a guide with quite incredible eyesight. At regular intervals he would stop the truck and point out a chameleon in a tree, or a tiny wild cat hidden in the undergrowth, absolutely invisible to the untrained eye.

The highlight of the trip was certainly a leopard with its cub that had been spotted close to the side of the road. The leopard probably came within about 15 meters of the jeep, which, being open-sided leaves you feeling rather exposed. I would love to have had more chances to photograph the big cats, but they are pretty elusive creatures, and we were extremely lucky to see the mother and child. I'll post it again just for good measure:

As the sky darkened, many of the night animals came out and we spent a while seeing birds of prey, sitting in the trees by the side of the road. These fish eagles and owls were rather beautiful to see, certainly in comparison to the vulture that we saw earlier in the evening (no decent photo of the vulture I'm afraid):

The largest species of owl in the world, an eagle owl:

And so, the next day we arose at 6 in the morning, to the passing edge of a storm, and unaware of the events that would unfold in the following 24 hours. This to come, perhaps tomorrow...