Kruger, Satara Dec 14th to 16th

Satara is lion county and we did hear a lot of them but it was not until we got up at the crack of dawn for a morning drive that we saw them. For the morning drive we had to be at reception for 3.45am!! It was still dark as we set out and it wasn't long before the vehicle stopped and still in the darkness we were able to use the spot lights to shed light on a small pride of lions, one male, three females and two small playful cubs!! Unfortunately it was really too dark for photo's but it was very cool to sit and watch the cubs play for a couple of minutes before we left them in peace to go in search of more morning creatures!! As the sun rose we came across the usual suspects, impala, zebra, wildebeest and just before another Dam a group of youngish buffalo as well as some hippo grunting in the Dam. On the way to the dam we had stopped to see a giraffe when a hyena with a leg in it's mouth had trotted across the road infront of us!! As we moved forward it trotted off into the bush but on your way back to camp we found what looked like the same animal lying in a shallow water hole, I suppose enjoying the cool of the water and also to disguise the smell of it's food, it didn't look at all appetizing a leg of some thing slowly rotting in the water!! She was right next to the road though so we got some awesome pictures, we assumed she'd been at the kill and filled her belly because when she got up it was round the leg must have been a snack for later!!

All in all the drive had been worth while for the animals and to see the sun rise, I was looking forward to more but as it turned out the weather was to mean that this was to be our only sun rise drive!