We started the first Walking South Africa JJa14 Hiking Trip for the year 2018 end of January, and what a trip it was! Lloyd and I (Natalie) were travelling with 11 clients from Germany and Holland and had a wonderful time in Balule / Greater Kruger National park where we saw a male Lion next to the vehicle and it got even better when he started to call the rest of the pride. It was very impressive to hear him roar 4 meters next to us! 

Having a lucky strike on this drive we encountered a few minutes later a male Leopard crossing the road just in front of our open Game Drive vehicle. We all saw this impressive bundle of pure muscles for a few short minutes before it disappeared into the thicket. In the Kruger National Park, where we went after Balule, we saw plenty more general game, lots of Elephants, Buffalos, Giraffes and as well some 22 lions!!!

The next place to experience a game drive was a few days later at the world renowned Hluhluwe National Park in the Province of KwaZulu Natal. We entered the park early morning and took the first loop veering of the main tar road and what we experienced in the next 2 hours was National Geographic material.
I was talking about Buffalos which we saw in distance and some 3 Nyala Antelopes which were close by when Lloyd told me he can see quite a few Wild dogs in the rear mirror! I stopped in the middle of my sentence and told everyone this exciting news.

By this time the dogs were already on the hunt after one of the Nyala and we could see some of the dogs running pass the truck and up the hill. We followed them on the road, saw them crossing in front of the truck and shortly after we heard a distress call of the Nyala… it was over in such a short time we nearly missed it!
We positioned the truck that everyone could see the pack feeding in distance. After a while there was another vehicle approaching the sighting and at the same time the Hyenas started to howl.
We couldn't see the short argument between the Wild Dogs and the Hyena but could definitively imagine what the commotion was about.

There are only about 70 Wild dogs in the Hluhluwe National Park and we saw nearly a fifth of them! Being a highly endangered predator - and my favoured mammal - makes this encounter even more special. Not something we as guides see every day and for sure very special for everyone else in the truck! After about 30 minutes at this mind-blowing sighting we continued our drive through the park with a big smile on our faces!