March 1, 2011
Carmine Bee-Eater in Kruger National Park, South Africa

After my gorilla photo safari in Rwanda, I spent a night in Nairobi, Kenya, in order to get a good flight to South Africa. I met up with Jan in the Johannesburg airport. Her flight was supposed to arrive almost two hours ahead of mine, but because her flight was delayed, she ended up landing about ten minutes before me. I caught a glimpse of her ahead of me in the immigration line, but before I could catch up to her in the winding queue, I was directed to another line, and we didn't get to talk until we had picked up our bags.

We spent the night near Johannesburg then drove part way to the northern entrance to Kruger National Park the next day. We did lots of shopping to pick up groceries and other items before heading to Kruger. We entered the park through the Punda Maria Gate then drove down to the Shingwedzi Rest Camp where we would spend three nights. At this time of year, the nothern part of Kruger is great for birds, and it seemed like there was a European roller about every half mile or every kilometer. We stopped to photograph some of them, and also a lilac-breasted roller and a purple roller. While photographing some cape buffalo, I spotted a southern carmine bee-eater on a great perch in the wonderful late-afternoon light. We quickly stopped photographing the cape buffalo and turned our attention to the bee-eater (above).