The Big Five (+ One)

Mammals held no real appeal to me and the idea of collecting the Big Five didn't especially interest me. The Big Five--Buffalo, Elephant, Rhinoceros, Lion,  and Leopard --were the most sought after targets for hunters so I find it surprising that these refuges still promote the idea. Driving through iSimigaliso, Mkhuze, and Kruger, you couldn't help but come across all of them.
BUFFALO:

Kruger 

iSimagaliso

ELEPHANT:
It was entertaining to watch a herd of Elephants cross a river, or the road in front of you and it was even more amusing to watch one knock down a small tree then start stripping it of branches, eating leaves, twigs, bark and all.

Kruger

RHINOCEROS:
We saw few Rhinos and most from a distance--which was all right with me. Generally, if you leave an animal alone, it will leave you alone. What's problematic is the definition of "left alone" to a Rhino.

iSimagaliso

LION:

Mike really wanted to see the lions at Kruger--it would complete his Big Five life list. But for me, it was the least interesting of the quintet. Lions are cats. I have a cat. What does my cat do? Mostly stare vacantly into space and occasionally lick herself. What did the lions do? Pretty much the same thing.

Vacant stare at Kruger

Kruger

LEOPARD:

Now the Leopard was a completely different story. Firstly, it was by far the hardest to find--we saw two at Kruger. When word got out, via the radio, that a Leopard was being seen (probably about 10 miles away) our guide pushed the speed limit to get to the cat. A few cars were stopped in the road and it didn't take long to locate the Leopard in the high grass. At that point I still wasn't very engaged. It was only when the Leopard decided to turn onto the road, passing our vehicle, that I mentally sat up. I was sitting in the last row on the right hand side of the vehicle. The Leopard passed right beneath. I could have reached down and petted it. True, I probably wouldn't come back with a hand, but, in principle, as the philosophers say, I could have petted it. 

Out of the grass, onto the road.

The Leopard then proceeded to play with the cars, first going over to a Toyota and rubbing its face against the fender, marking it the way my cat marks the table legs, and then moving back to Jeep where it lay down and began to bite the tires like a chew toy. 

Marking the fender

Part of my skepticism about the mammals was the nagging thought that these wildlife refuges were just the Bronx Zoo writ large and that there was nothing there that I couldn't see back home. But a Leopard walking around a line of cars? That I'm not going to see at the zoo. 

GIRAFFE:

Personally, my favorite mammal of the trip was the Giraffe. They are just so tall and seem so oblivous of the world way below their heads that I couldn't help admiring them. Even as big as they are, it would sometimes take a moment or so to actually see one, they blend in to the background so well. Besides their camoflauge, I also tended to look too low--sometimes I wouldn't see the Giraffe because I was looking below its belly.