My July Kruger trip at last...

[Heksie]

Day 1
Another cold winter hit Pretoria and I was glad that that we planned to go to Kruger for our annual mother-daughter trip. It was originally a six night stay but we added two more nights and were able to sleep in Sabie Park to start of our trip. Our itinerary was as follow:
9 July Sabie Park
10 July Tamboti
11 July Satara
12-14 July Lower Sabie
15-17 July Tsendze
I did as many of you guys do, I planned roads, bought the necessary meat and veg and alcoholic beverages well in advance. I counted off the days and soon couldn’t believe it when it was time to pack my car and wait for the time when my mum would knock off from work and we hit the road to the lowveld…
The night soon greeted us and we went to bed early as we had a long and slow drive tomorrow to Tamboti via the S36. We decided that because it was holiday and the park was fully booked we wanted to stick to dirt roads that weren’t normally driven by speedsters.
We stopped at Jones’ dam and saw a saddle billed stork, not wasting any time we trundled towards our destination… a few kilometres further mum very excitedly jumped up and down and after stopping and letting her explain the sighting to me. After a few moments I spotted the teeny tiny black antelope and I was elated. My first every Sable antelope in KNP!!!!!





We watched him until he disappeared and with big smiles on our faces we moved on. It was a great drive to Tamboti, quiet and peaceful with some general sightings.
Duiker


Slender mongoose


Brown snake eagle


A Tawny on a nest


Zebras having a dust bath


Warties


Nyala


Ellies giving people a scare, and we had such a laugh from our spot, a safe few meters away…


Then I just couldn’t resist taking pics of the beautiful sunset


We booked in and got ready for our first night in KNP. Tamboti is famous for their nightlife so we had flash lights and cameras ready for any action. Unfortunately for us, the badgers were very quiet, but we did get some genetainment…




Very tired but oh so happy to be in the bush we went to bed, thinking about what we want to see the next few days and then it was only zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
To be continued…

[RogerFraser]

Heksie

Wow what a good start to the trip,great first sighting

[harrys]

Great start Heksie

[Heksie]

THank you Roger and Harrys for your comments and I know I have been soooo MIA from the forum but with my computer that is slower than a snail I struggle to get good connection and be active...

[Heksie]

Day 2 Part 1
It was my first morning at Tamboti that I weren’t afraid of walking to the loo in the dark… I don’t know what you guys feel when you walk in this camp all alone with bush all around you, it is very scary and not talking about the stories about the carnivores that have been seen in the camp every now and then…
So all washed up and everything packed up we were on our way to Satara. We didn’t even drive a few kilometres when the first car swooshed past us, some people just have no consideration. We had a quick sighting of a hyena and not even a kilometre from there, two cars were blocking the road and as we slowly creeped forward, a beautiful male was chilling in then road. We found out that they were the males that took down a male kudu in the road then previous morning…






More cars arrived soon and he decided that it was time to leave the road…



The car that sped past me, started again and we followed him. He braked immediately and couldn’t stop as soon as he wanted because of his speed. We got the same fright and were able to reverse only a meter looking at the speedster about 20m from us. There were another male right next to the road, he had a scar on his eye. But because of the bad lighting I took shoddy pics of him. He also moved on after a few minutes and we decided to leave all the cars with the lions and take the road again.
Nothing really interesting on the road, just some kudu and impala until we were two kilometre form Nsemani. Another roadblock, we parked off and grabbed the binos. There were a rhino that died because of normal circumstances and some lions and BBJ’s were enjoying a huge brekkie.



Unfortunately there were a lot of foliage so the pics are a bit shoddy…




We took a few proof pics and then were of again. Just past Nsemani I were able to spot a road chicken with some breakfast… I was vouching for the chicken as I just despise centipedes…




They soon moved into the grass and we didn’t stop until we reached Satara. We knew it was 9:00 but still took a chance to book in. The very friendly staff said that it was 100% if we would only come and fetch the key after 13:30.
So after booking in we got some coffee and snacks and then decided to take on the S100 in search of the white cub.
To be continued…

[RogerFraser]

Wow day 2 in the Park and the luck continues .You don't seem to have seen as much as you planned on dirt so far..

Lovely Male lion , wonder how the Chicken could manage that centipede

[aat]

Hi Heksieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Good to see you again.... lovely start of your trip !

All well with you ?

[Richprins]

Hello, Heks!

[Pumbaa]

Hello Heksie,

what a great start to your trip with a sable already - I am so happy for you

and then already lions and genet by night

[Heksie]

THank you for your kind comments
Roger I think that my wishlist is always bigger and better than what I know that reality will bring...
HI RP HOw have things been going? Enjoying the hols?
HI Aat All is well, just soooo behind with my trip reports etc. I had such an AMAZING Dec trip and it is taking me forever to go through the pics. I also believe that I saw a tusker on the H9...
HI Pumbaa thank you for your comments, much better sightings to come as this was a great trip...