words from the world

At the eastern part of South Africa, stretching from the Limpopo river at the north to the Crocodile river at the south and flanking the Mozambique border, the largest and oldest South-African park is located: the Kruger park. As vast as Israel, it encompasses various ecosystems and hundreds of thousands of animals. The last inventory discloses : 25150 buffaloes
11700 elephants
5000 white rhinoceroses
3000 hippopotamuses
1500 lions
1000 leopards
2000 spotted hyenas
200 cheetahs
350 wild dogs
150000 impalas
32000 zebras
17000 wildebeests
and 1 000 000 visitors per year
To the visitors getting into the park, the tourist brochure announces « a trip in an inestimable heritage of southern Africa ». The staggering figures promise unforgettable encounters. They can be felines, cattle or pachyderms, each confrontation is unique ; each meeting, a part of feelings that vanishes. To silence their number, the impalas show their grace. Because, it's regarding to the quantity of rare animals we can recognize a lucky person or a good visual hunter. Our result is honourable with about ten hyenas, 2 lions, a white rhinoceros and tens or even hundreds of zebras, wildebeests, kudus, impalas, hippopotamuses and elephants. The leopard is still untraceable. It will remain the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi park to complete our “big 5” list.
We drive a lot to cover the different habitats and ecosystems. Steep-sided rivers, rocky areas, fields of twisted or partially jointed shrubs, long savannah plains. Our eyes scan the branches with obstinacy, in search for the spotted feline. On the knees, a map with all the animals we can find here. We learn a lot of names such as waterbuck, sable antelope, kori bastard or ground-hornbill. Unfortunately, most of these names will remain linked to an illustration.
New odyssey among the animals. New joys.