A trip to Kruger

I've been going through pictures from our recent trip to Kruger park and trying to pick out the good ones.  I took surprisingly few pictures...maybe I was too busy gawking.  

The animals are great, but living in Africa can be a non-stop photo op.  I don't know if I'll ever get used to the non-sequitor nature of Africa.  So often you see signs and say, "What?!"  Or someone walking down the street in a Georgia Bulldogs sweatshirt in the middle of summer.  We saw this sign on the way to the park:

Oh yes, you too can go to computer college, get your auto parts, and buy beauty products all in the same building!  

And as long as we're being random...how about a squirrel in Africa?  Ho-hum and common you say?  Many of the people I meet here can't imagine a place where squirrels run everywhere and there are no monkeys in the trees.  When I tell them about squirrels being in our yard they are amazed...much like my reaction to monkeys in their gardens!  This was the first squirrel I had seen since moving here 6 months ago.

And yes, there were the typical African animals, too, though we didn't see too many and most of them were too far into the grass or trees for me to get a good picture.  This guy, however, came out for a better look.  First we saw him in the trees just off the road.

Then he turned and headed our way

Finally, he got downright nosey.  We actually had to reverse to get out of his way...and as I was not driving I took pictures.   The birds on the dash are wooden- I bought them from a guy on the side of the road on our drive up.  There are people everywhere selling all sorts of crafts.  The birds cost me about $5.

Speaking of birds...we saw a few.

The kids' favourite part was actually drawing in the sand at one of the camps.  As fun as seeing animals is, they preferred drawing in the sand to driving around being quiet for hours looking for them.  I wonder why?  

They also enjoyed eating ice cream on a termite mound.  Seriously.  That whole hill is a termite nest.  The kids didn't believe us until we took them around to see the information sign.   

At that same camp these two birds got very close as they scavenged for scraps.  "Common" birds, but exciting for us.

 One of my favourite things that we saw wasn't really an animal, but a spider.  We were trying to see some rhinos in the far distance when this little guy distracted me.  Ok, not so little.  It looked to be at least 5" long.  

 And finally, the talking impala.  I wonder what it was trying to tell us?