After a good first day in the Park, we figured we'll attempt another early start at 5am this morning in the hope of seeing the animals moving around before the heat of the day's sun set in. So again we set off for Crocodile Bridge Gate and this time we were greeted by a family of warthogs wandering around the entrance. Once in the Park, other than the usual, the new sightings that morning which we hadn't seen yesterday was a lovely male kudu followed by a massive herd of buffalo. There were a few cars up ahead of the buffalo which we thought we'd check up on then come back to the herd. It turned out to be mating hyenas, in the distance and the long grass, but close enough to be visible through the binoculars.

We landed up watching the hyenas for ages, and luckily they even made their way into the road for a decent close up view of them. Unfortunately by the time they vanished, the buffalo were long gone so didn't get to see them again.

Further on, before arriving at Skukuza, we came across a troop of baboons which we hadn't yet seen on this trip. After lunch we headed for Lake Panic, just north of Skukuza, which only had birdlife and a few hippos, not a lot of other activity going on. But so nice and peaceful which was great.

From Lake Panic we made our way down to Malelane Gate to connect to the main road to head home. We thought we'd stop in at Afsaal Picnic Site for a coffee break, but the place was deserted, we'd clearly just missed last orders, so continued towards the gate. But just before the gate, and closing time, we saw a few cars up ahead which had all stopped and turned out it was for lion!. We knew we were tight for time, but sat there watching them for a while. They didn't do much more than move and stretch, but we had a decent view of them and always brilliant to see them in the wild. So we stayed as long as possible before dashing to the gate to get out just in time.

Once out the gate, there was quite a bit of commotion around the entrance and visitors centre, and turned out to be a small herd of elephants all grazing on the trees around the buildings of the gate. Never seen them wander outside the gate like that - the staff didn't seem too bothered at all, while everyone else was going mental with excitement to try get a photo with an elephant in the nearby background.

We watched them for a bit before jumping on the freeway and heading back to Ngwenya for our evening sundowners and braai for dinner. A good couple of days start to the holiday, and another tough few days in Africa!