Wildlife by Kevin Harris: Hippo Hollow Hotel, Hazyview, South Africa

As part of our visit to South Africa we stayed at the Hippo Hollow Hotel in Hazyview, just a few km from the Kruger National Park. This is a wonderful hotel right on the bank of the Sabie River. We stayed in a lodge overlooking the river

The view from the veranda was spectacular.

Some great wildlife was seen here during our stay.

This crocodile was in the river right outside our veranda.

On two evenings a hippo was grazing on the hotel lawn by the restaurant.

Sitting on our veranda one evening a hippo was in the bushes right next to us. We couldn't see it in the dark, but its grunting was initially quite frightening as it was so close.

This footprint in the mud shows how big these animals are.

It's best to be careful when you're by the river.

A large monitor lizard was digging in the lawn one afternoon.

And this one received an aerial attack from 2 Grey-hooded Kingfishers.

Another lizard

Many frogs/toads could be heard at night from the reedbeds. What I believe was an Olive Toad (Bufo garmani) was in the swimming pool. This frog was on our veranda.

There was plenty of birdlife to be seen too:

Egyptian Geese were often seen.

Three Hadaba Ibis landed on the lawn right by where we were sitting.

Cattle Egrets were seen heading off in the evening to roost, and Hammerkop were spotted flying over the other side of the river above the trees.

Two wagtail species were frequent visitors to the riverbank.

African Pied Wagtail