Browns in Kruger October 2014 *

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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

Post by Bushcraft »

Lisbeth wrote:The lions look rather well fed, so maybe they were not hungry......and not too bright either lol

The last two photos are very nice, not that the others are bad ;-) ^Q^ ^Q^
The lion tried 3 times during the morning to catch something. I was around for the duiker and impala attempt, but missed out on the kudu attempt which leachy scored

Not sure about the pics 0: but thanks \O


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

Post by Bushcraft »

7th Satara continued

The S126 turned out to be a bad move as it was long, boring and hot with only a water monitor and a few ellies making an appearance.

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A few were battling for the loo and the rattling road wasn’t helping so we decided to stop at Muzandzeni picnic site before returning to camp, but for some reason it was hectically busy and all the OSV operators in the area had chosen to stop there at the same time.

The long drops cause enough of an issue with Albert already as she still thinks giant snakes live down there and now there were massive queues also, so the “air” didn’t smell that great and my blood pressure was rapidly increasing, so I was keen to hurry things up, but this is where I get very confused about women.

There was no queue at the men’s loo and around 12 women in a queue outside the ladies, which confused me as there were more men than women in the car park, so I initially thought that I had scored a luck, but nearly jumped out my skin when entering the men’s as 2 ladies were inside, so I hit a hasty retreat and wobbled around acting as if I was looking at something interesting in the distance until the coast was clear.

I was back at the car in minutes and ready to go, but the Cow and rats were only now around 10th in the ladies queue, so I thought I had a brilliant plan and shouted at them to use the men’s loo while I stood guard, but all their pips went red and they refused to move out of the ladies queue and I was waved off by the Cow, which I couldn’t understand, so I had no choice but to find a chair and sit under a tree.

Nearly 25 minutes later the Cow and rats entered the long drop. What the heck do women do in a toilet that takes so long?

I was seriously irritated now so just wanted to get back to camp for breakfast and the fastest route was up the S36 and down the H7; however 5 km later a few cars appeared and then plenty more lion under different shady thorn bushes.

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We had already spent a long morning with lion so we just snapped a few pics and continued on stopping only once for a male lion that was under a tree further up the road.

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To be continued


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PJL
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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

Post by PJL »

When we stopped at Muzandzeni we heard that the previous day had seen cheetah wandering through the area. Just imagine what that would have done to the toilet queue =O: =O:

Great lions ^Q^ ^Q^


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

Post by Bushcraft »

Thanks nan, harrys, Lisbeth and PJL for checking out the last episode X#X

7th Satara continued

The rats immediately started nagging to go to the pool and I made an excuse that I had to drop them off and get bread at the shop, so the Cow was left to cook “breakfast”.

I grabbed 6 beers and then forgot what I was doing in the shop, so had to phone the Cow to tell me what I was meant to purchase.

The breakfast ended up more like an early lunch.

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After chow the rats went back to the pool and the Cow did her normal bookworm thing, therefore I was left to entertain myself, which is never a good thing, so the beers purchased for the evening didn’t make it to the evening.

At around 3pm the planning for the afternoon drive started. Leachy had heard about a dead elephant on the S125 and the guy who told him mentioned male lions feeding on it, but a massive stink. The social media had similar postings on it, so the rats were overexcited to check it out, so I was out voted and the S125 was the plan.

The first sighting was once again lion, but they were sleeping, so we just snapped a proof pic and immediately continued on until a few ellies popped up.

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The rest of the drive to the dead elephant didn’t produce much except for a few of the normal locals, so I was hanging for some action, however all we found was an untouched dead elephant and no smell; therefore I’m not sure what elephant people were talking about.

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I later found out that the poor ellie had got its foot stuck between 2 trees and broken it as one can see in the pic, so rangers put him down. Visitors had spotted lion is the area and the rumours started about lions killing an elephant, etc.

The rats now all had pelicans because they felt sorry for the elephant and had lost out on imaginary male lions feeding, so we turned and headed back to camp.

I did stop twice for Hawkeyes to get pics of the sunset and a SBS.

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The cow got excited when we entered camp, as mongoose were cruising around in front of our unit and close to my fire castle.

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Leachy pulled in at around 6pm and we continued where we left off the previous evening, but fortunately I had found a lower braai in the area so I didn’t need to turn the meat while standing, therefore less concentration was required, however it was a hot night, so we were getting roasted.

I had a few Jerry Springer neighbours who were getting rather loud and then they started to feed an AWC in front of us, so I wasn’t particularly interested, but the rats tried to get a few pics.

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Leachy ducked off at around 10pm and the Cow went to read so I was left in the dark outside to listen to the conversions of our faulty neighbours, which initially irritated me, but after a few more dops I found some of the strange “wildlife” theories assuming.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

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8th Satara to Talamati

The woodpecker from the previous day was still nesting in the back of my head and I assumed that leachy had the rest of the family, so once again the 5am alarm didn’t go down well and then I remembered that we were moving camp, so packing had to start, which only increased the size of the long lip.

We eventually got out the camp gate just before 6am, but didn’t have to drive far to find a monstrous traffic jam.

This immediately resulted in a temper tantrum from me, because the “nesting woodpecker” started drilling, which must have been linked to my blood pressure.

“Looks at these idiots, why park 3 cars deep and stop, move you tonsil!”

“Relax, you can’t go anywhere”

“I have a four cross four, I will make a new road!”

“Control yourself!!”

Bushpig then shrieked “lion!” which I was getting used to hearing and then Hawkeyes got excited about a hyena standing next to our car.

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My overexcited out of control brain then clicked onto what was happening.

“There is a kill here!”

“What, I don’t see anything”

“Patience Cow!”

“I must be patient! That coming from you is a joke”

I realised that I was heading into the picture and no sound area as the Cow’s tone was increasing in pitch and once it peaks there’s no sound for a few hours, so I decided to rather keep quiet for the next few minutes and let things level out.

We waited patiently for about 2 minutes and slowly the gaps started to open in the traffic, so we could see what was happening, however I wasn’t keen to get parked in so each time the queue moved we continued on, hence the different angles of the action below.

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We were now confused about what to do next as we could only book in at Talamati at 2pm, so we pulled over for a conference.

The rats know about a hyena den 8km down the H6 from the H1-3, which has been there for years, therefore they started nagging for that, but I was keen to do the S33 which is one of my favourite roads because it fairly quiet traffic wise and yet still produces the odd predator consistently, so a compromise was the order of the day.

The 8km to the hyena den produced the normal H6 crowd and a Bateleur parking off, so it wasn’t that exciting, however the mother hyena was out feeding her large spoilt juniors at the den and there were a few other hyena cruising around, so that was cool to see.

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The same gang popped up on the way back to the H1-3, but with a new ellie addition and then a large buffalo herd showed up at the Sweni Bridge.

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To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

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8th Satara to Talamati continued

Albert started nagging to look at the southern baobab again, which drives me nuts because we have seen the darn tree around a hundred times, but I always hope to find a leopard in the area, however only the normal local steenbok was hanging around.

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Another lizard made an appearance as we exited the baobab loop and the rats got excited about an elephant skull just before the S86 loop.

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We decided to take the little S86 loop because of the 3 leopard we found there together in July, so I drove it at 10km/h and checked every little opening and bush, but sadly the leopards were missing today, however a scallywag was taking a bath in one of the little remaining pools which created some entertainment.

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It was turning into an exceptionally hot morning and we were rapidly running out of cool drinks, so plans changed and we continued on down to Tshokwane to restock quickly before heading back towards the S33. The detour only produced a few more of the usual suspects and a fair quantity of traffic, so I was grateful when we finally turned onto the S33.

This road doesn’t seem to produce as it used to since Vutomi Dam collapsed, but we rarely see more than 1 car on this 19km stretch, so it’s a peaceful drive and if one finds something one is generally alone.

A few km later I spotted a few heads in the riverbed, so we stopped for a few pics and then further up the road 2 more lionesses were hiding in the shade of a bush. We had spent enough time with lion this trip, but this was different as we were completely alone, so although they weren’t fantastic sightings, they had their merits.

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It was now seriously hot and I was getting very frustrated with my camera because I was getting what looked like a “heat haze” on all my pictures, but when I looked at the car temperature gauge I realised why the nesting woodpecker was returning to the back of my head, so we ducked directly for Nhlanguleni picnic site for some relaxing time out the car.

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There was only one other family at the picnic site, which is one of the reasons it’s probably my favourite in the south, but in this heat I wasn’t keen on standing around a hot skottel, therefore soon after it was going I issued all instructions designed to make sure I had nothing to do and then I made myself scarce before all realised.

I sat relaxing on a bench in the shade and noticed that the other family had a teenage boy cruising around with a small little camera, but he seemed more interested in hanging his teeth out at Hawkeyes than the action at the waterhole, so I was getting horribly irritated.

A few minutes later a few elephant decided to arrive for a drink and the teenager cruised closer to act as if he was taking pics of them, but still plotted a look towards Hawkeyes between each pic, so I was getting even wilder, therefore I had to make a plan.

“Hawkeyes, check there are elephant arriving. Leave your camera, take mine” “Careful as it has the 500mm lens on it”

Hawkeyes didn’t seem to notice anything and went to take pics next the cheesy teenage boy. I then called over Bushpig who’s always reliable in these situations

“Check your sister has a larger camera than that bigger boy” which is all I needed to say to set Bushpig off at the top of her lungs.

“Hawkeyes, that boy has a small little camera compared to you!!”

The teenage boy hit a speed wobble, his pip went red and he high tailed it back to his family, which resulted in my teeth hanging out, but Hawkeyes didn’t flinch and got a pic.

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I now felt guilty, but only for a few seconds as a vicious smell burnt my nostrils.

“Bushpig, did you fart!”

“No, it’s that funny thing behind the toilets”

A “honey sucker” had arrived to empty the long drops, so the Cow was left to finish breakfast alone as the smell wasn’t mixing well with the bacon and eggs in the 40 degree heat.

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Fortunately a few more visitors arrived which distracted us from the smell.

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The “honey sucker” then hit a blockage or something, but we weren’t permitted to use the long drops, so I was rather nervous as we were still a fair distance from Talamati, therefore we packed up quickly and hit the road.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

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8th Satara to Talamati continued

It was now well over 40 degrees and we couldn’t handle it, so the windows got closed and the aircon got fired up, which rarely happens in our car in KNP. It felt strange trying to look for game through a closed window and the S36 was rather bumpy, so others soon lost interest and I just got irritated hanging on to the steering wheel, however a male lion cooling off in a bush did get some attention as there were no other cars around.

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We arrived at Talamati at around 1:30pm and the Cow organized on early book in, so after unpacking we took a walk to check the view from the hide and found a few locals cruising around.

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I always like to have 1 night in a bush camp towards the latter part of our trip because it forces me to slow things down and today was no exception, so I decided to spend the afternoon relaxing on the veranda, but the rats sometimes don’t understand what a “timeout” means and in this heat my patience levels were getting seriously tested.

Talamati has 2 beds in each room and a sleeper couch in the lounge, which is probably the most uncomfortable thing to sleep on, but according to the rats it’s the place to be, so all 3 were stubbornly sitting on it with their bags glaring at each other.

The Cow was ready to go into attack mode also because she had spent half an hour trying to resolve the scrap, but now negotiations had failed and war was about to erupt, so I was summoned off the peaceful veranda.

The rats know that I have the patience levels of a drill sergeant, so probably expected me to throw my toys out the cot, but the Cow had already done that and now also had a pelican, so it was clear another avenue had to be explored.

There’s a ventilation “hole” in the lounge of the Talamati units and to the “untrained eye” it looks like a hole in the roof.

“Wow, check that out, there’s a hole in the roof. The bats are going to sneak in through there tonight and bite whoever is sleeping in the lounge”

Albert and Bushpig now had eyes like saucers and were looking at each other while Hawkeyes registered and played along

“Maybe I will take the bedroom, I don’t want bats crawling on me”

Albert and Bushpig suddenly changed their minds and sprinted off to put their bags on the bedroom beds and I could return to the veranda with a dop.

Just after 4pm we decided to head out for a scout around but as we approached the gate a herd of ellies decided to arrive at the waterhole in front of camp and it was still roasting, so we decided to bail out the car and rather spend some time in the hide.

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We heard from others in the hide that a leopard had come for a drink at around 8pm the previous evening, so we decided to cruise back to our unit and start supper early so that we could be back at the hide shortly after dark.

At around 7:30pm the rats made promises that they would sit quietly in the hide so we grabbed some torches and headed off.

Another ellie herd arrived shortly after we got settled in the hide and then 3 hyenas came in to drink which caused my normal drama with the stupid camera which wouldn’t focus. After about 45 minutes Bushpig was taking serious strain to keep the “quiet” promise and Albert was falling asleep on the railing, so we decided to call it a night and head back to our unit.

As we exited the hide a scrub hair came hopping past which created a mini drama and then a scorpion in the road had me tap dancing.

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To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

Post by BluTuna »

Looks like a Tree Creeping Scorpion

Nice one! ^Q^


Hunting cannot be considered a sport as all contestants in a sport should know they are playing the game!
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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

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9th Satara to Lower Sabie

I had spent time on the veranda the previous evening plotting our route from Talamati to Lower Sabie and thought that I had sneaky plan.

The elephant which had got its foot stuck and had to be put down on the S125 was closer to Talamati than any other SANParks camp and it had been a few days, so I expected some action and if we were first out the camp then we would be the only car there for a time period, therefore the car packing pressure was on and I was marching around like an army drill sergeant.

The S145 section towards the S36 produced the odd buffalo and normal locals, however at the join to the S36 a side stripped jackal charged across the road in front of us which caused some frantic searching for cameras, but we were too late on the draw.

As we approached the area of the dead elephant my nose started twitching nervously as I have a rather weak stomach when it comes to bad smells, so I decided to put my shirt around my head just in case, which only added to the rats excitement.

We were all so focused on the right hand side of the road as we knew that’s where the elephant was hence only spotted the lions below, who were on the left hand side of the road, at the last minute, which caused some frantic movement in the electric windows as the 1 chap was very close to our car.

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The rats named the one closest to us “Grumpy” as he was giving us an evil look and never took his eyes off us.

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Hawkeyes started to experiment with her photography and scored the pic below which I think is fairly cool, especially considering that she was using a “point and shoot”.

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A few minutes later a gust of morning breeze came through and immediately the car erupted.

“Is that stink from the elephant Dad!” “Yuck!”

I was starting to pick up the odd stink from the elephant, which was just up the road, through my shirt and we were all curious, so I started up and went to investigate.

“All hold your breath”

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It was a very different sight compared to 2 days ago and I couldn’t help dropping my shirt from my nose to check the air, but this turned out to be a massive mistake and I instantly started choking, so we took off up the road to escape the smell.

Around halfway down the S125 we found a fresh leopard kill in a tree, however no leopard, so the backwards, then forwards, mission started and continued for around 5 minutes, but my patience popped, so we continued on.

The excitement started again as we arrived at Kumana Dam because a small pride of lion were hanging around and we were the only car there.

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The 1 lioness seemed keen to give us a closer look and cruised up onto the road, but then seemed interested in something else on the road, which is when the Cow noticed a small dead bird.

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The lioness just sniffed the bird and then stood there checking us out, which made me rather confused at first, but then I spotted an impala poking it’s head out the bush behind us and realised what was happening.

“$%*#”

The Cow wasn’t on the same wavelength.

“What’s your story? The kids are in the car!!”

The lioness then took off across the road, which had me flapping big time with the ignition, but by the time I had the car turned around the lioness and impala were both in full sprint 50m into the bush which gave me a massive pelican because we had duffed another chance of chase pics.

Soon they were out of sight so we switched off and watched the others, who were still down next to the dam, for a reaction, but they didn’t seem energetic or interested, so we decided to just park off and wait for a few minutes.

After around 5 minutes the “hunting” lioness returned, so obviously failed to catch the impala, but she was still interested in checking us out and decided to park off next to the road.

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Other cars now started to arrive from Satara and soon the lioness was getting crowded, so she got up and cruised down to the dam to join the rest, but first stopped to quench her thirst.

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Around 10 minutes later the lions all looked as if they had made themselves comfortable for the day, so I was about to suggest that we move on, but some impala started to arrive and didn’t seem to notice the lion, so we decided to wait it out.

A few minutes later the doff lions seemed to grow a brain and 1 went right, 1 went left and one snuck into a hole.

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To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger October 2014

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9th Satara to Lower Sabie continued

The Cow and I now started to scrap again because I wanted to drive up to the impala as that’s where the lions would end up and the Cow wanted to remain with the lion which was hiding in the hole.

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The lion in the hole seemed to relax after a few minutes, so I got my way and we drove up to where the impala were and found the lioness which had run towards the right.

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The stage was set for action so I was hyped up as normal and issuing instructions, but then nothing happened for 20 minutes and as you may have gathered I’m not the most patient person, therefore we drove back to the lion in the hole; however nothing had changed, so we drove back to the other lioness.

Another 10 minutes past and then 1 faulty lioness we hadn’t seen decided to go on its own mission after the impala and stuffed the entire thing up which freaked me out.

“More doff lion, let’s move”

Mazithi Dam produced a few ellies looking for shade under a tree on 1 side of the road and a cheetah hiding far off in the bush on the other side. We were again battling to take long distance pics in the heat haze and as it didn’t look like the cheetah was going to move closer we decided to continue on.

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We stopped briefly at Tshokwane for a loo break before continuing down the H1-2 which only produced the normal locals and a klippie at Kruger tablets

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Things were relatively quiet until the S79 causeway with only the odd member of the usual suspects popping up, but just past the S79 turnoff we found a few cars on the side of the road and it was immediately apparent what they were looking at.

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The dogs were out for the count and as it was fairly close to Lower Sabie we decided to rather head on to camp and return later when they were hopefully more awake.

A few km outside Lower Sabie we stopped to check out some ellies in the riverbed and the Cow spotted a lioness cooling off fairly close to them, so I had to mission with the car until she could get both in the frame.

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We were all tired of the car by the time we pulled into Lower Sabie car park so I didn’t wait for a parking and just ramped the pavement like half the other people were doing as the parking facilities can’t handle the day visitor numbers.

We had booked the FU5 unit which is next to the EH5/EH3 huts because my work mate and extended family had 2 x EH5 huts and were arriving the following day, so we planned a big get together braai for our last night and staying close together is easier with small kids at bedtime, but the Cow returned from booking us in slightly confused

“They have circled unit 1 on the map”

“Rubbish, the FU5’s are next to the huts; we have stayed in them 5 times”

We headed down to the “FU5 hut” and found it occupied, so decided that we better check out the circled map again and it definitely indicated unit 1 which is right next to the entrance to reception, the shop, Mugg and Bean, etc, so I was wild.

“No way, that’s an old guest house which has been cut in half to create 2 x BD3 units”

Unfortunately my worst nightmare had come true and we were in unit 1 right next to the chaos and the joke is that they still charged us for an FU5, but just put 2 extra beds in the “lounge” area; however that’s where the initiative ran out because the unit only had 3 of everything else in it, so I was happy for the plastic utensils we had brought from home. At R1830 per night I certainly wouldn’t have booked this unit, but there was no other spot in camp, so we had to accept the situation.

The noise from the shop and Mugg and Bean was driving me mad, so I suggested leaving Kruger early and heading for Imfolozi, but the clan gave me skew looks, so I decided to drown my pelican with a few dops while walking around a quieter part of the camp. The Cow took a few pics while on this peace patrol

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At around 4:45pm we decided to head up the road to check on the wild dogs again, but first stopped for a fish eagle close to Sunset Dam.

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A few Lubyelubye lions were sleeping on a rock again resulting in a traffic jam, so we took the first gap and continued on because we had seen enough sleeping lions.

Unfortunately the wild dogs up the road were in the same mood as the lion and were still out for the count.

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Time was ticking and it didn’t seem like the dogs were going to wake up anytime soon, so we headed back to camp for an early braai start.

The braai didn’t start off well because at least 12 different clueless families decided to cruise through our unit to get to the shop, Mugg and Bean, etc, so I found myself greeting strangers at our braai every 5 minutes.

The Lower Sabie deck noise continued until after 10:30pm and in the future I will always feel sorry for anyone seeking peace who ends up in unit 1 or 2 at Lower Sabie.

We normally end our trip at a place like Biyamiti because by that stage we have all started to relax and the charging for game takes a back seat and peace takes priority, so I went to bed with a major long lip as I felt cheated.

To be continued


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