Browns in Kruger October 2022

[Bushcraft]

Our next stop for pics was close to Nsemani Dam as there were 2 male lions in and out the road eyeing each other out. Seconds later we spotted a lone lioness which explained why the males were edgy around each other.

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[Bushcraft]

I knew that there were 4 dominant males in this area and that Casper the “white lion” was one of them, but didn’t say anything as I didn’t want to announce it and disappoint the clan should he not arrive, but minutes later another car arrived from the Orpen side and mentioned that he had spotted Casper in the distance down the road and that he was heading this way.

I didn’t wait for others to pick up on this, so started the car, turned and headed 200m back down the road to find Casper as we still hadn’t seen him yet.

We were warned that there were no other cars, so I cruised rather slowly to ensure that we didn’t miss him, but he stood out fairly clearly and he was calling for his brothers.

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I was initially surprised as he was smaller and rather ugly in my opinion by comparison to his brothers. Maybe it was just because I’m used to a tawny coloured lion.

“He’s not really white anymore and he’s ugly!”

I wasn’t impressed, but the Cow came to his defence.

“No, he’s not ugly!”

Casper lay down, checked us out and then continued to call.

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[Bushcraft]

Minutes later there was some movement in the bush beyond Casper and the 4th male in the coalition appeared and pulled in to greet Casper.

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Suddenly I realised that the Cow had gotten distracted by a singing bird that had landed between us and the lion and she was photographing the long-tailed job and not Casper, so I hit a wobble, but fortunately, what I think is a Magpie Shrike, flew off minutes later.

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Casper and his brother lay flat and went to sleep, so they are obviously lower down in the mating pecking order, unless the other 2 brothers were just quicker on the scene with the lioness.

I was about to move on when the lioness followed by 1 of the other males came cruising past, so I thought there may be some action, but she paid Casper and his other sleeping brother no attention and just walked by. Casper did have a quick look and then went back to sleep. (They are sleeping between the lioness and walking male in the pic below).

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[Bushcraft]

A long line of cars was also following the walking lions and now spotted Casper and his brother, so we decided to move on before a traffic jam developed, but stopped for another pic of the 1st brother who was parking off alone watching the lioness and his brother disappear with the line of cars.

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Just after we turned onto the H1-3 an ostrich made an appearance so we stopped for a pic and then stopped again at Marheya Dam because the mud bathing warties from the previous day had been replaced by hyenas.

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Next upon the H1-3, just south of the S86 southern entrance, we found a male lion on the left-hand side of the road and a lion pride down in the riverbed with a larger male parking off in the bush watching them.

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[Bushcraft]

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It was still fairly early when we stopped at Tshokwane, so we decided to find a table, get a takeaway chow/kudu wors roll and just relax for an hour.

The H1-2 down to Skukuza produced the normal clan and we stopped on the odd occasion, but didn’t take any pics.

We arrived at Skukuza a little early to book in, but the Cow turned on the charm and as it was only 20 minutes early, they allowed it.

We had booked the GC6 next to Moni guest house, so we were on the fence line, even though it’s only a partial view. There’s only 1 of these units at Skukuza and it’s better than the GC4V’s and GC6D’s in my opinion, so we always try and get it, however the risk is the Moni guest house gang as their braai area is very close to this unit.

We slowly unpacked and made ourselves comfortable under the private thatch boma thing and relaxed while looking through the bushes in case something popped up across the Sabie.

We only left camp at around 4:30pm for an afternoon drive and decided to just stuff around on the H4-1/H1-2 close to camp.

First up was a young adult hyena chowing something close to the road, and then a little further down the H4-1, a bateleur in a tree.

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[Bushcraft]

We then turned and decided to explore a stretch of the H1-2, but only made it as far as the Sabie low water bridge close to camp as some wild dogs were curled up on the sand next to the bridge.

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It was developing into a chaotic traffic situation on the bridge and time was ticking, so we decided to rather duck back to camp, however stopped for an approaching scallywag just outside Skukuza.

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In 2019 Bushpig was surprised by a porcupine at night in camp while parking off in the thatched boma thing below the GC6, so I have plotted the porcupine’s movements since through various sightings posted on different online platforms and it seems to duck past Moni guest house where there used to be a hole in the fence, but the hole has since been fixed, so the porcupine now cruises past the GC6 also, and then into the storm water drain between the GC6 unit and the 1st GC4V, so I started the fire and all sat chatting in the boma thing while waiting for the fire and potential movement in the bush.

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[Bushcraft]

We finished braaing and eating without any action on the fence line, so we were losing interest, but at around 8pm I heard leaves rustling just in front of Moni.

“What’s that?”

“I didn’t hear anything”

Then there was no more noise, so I switched the torch on.

“#$&*, the porky is here!”

I had the camera ready in preparation, but the pre-flash thing the camera puts out reflected back off the fence line and blinded everybody, therefore the 1st photo attempt ended up a stuff up, however the 2nd attempt worked out.

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We sat for another 20 minutes and then went up to the unit to shower, etc.

As I jumped into bed, I heard rustling in the thatch above my head, and then the familiar dreaded tweeting sounds.

“$^&* bats!”

I stood on the bed and attacked the thatch, but just hurt my hand and covered the bedding in pieces of thatch, so the Cow was giving me the hairy eyeball.

Silence……………

“There I chased them!”

Minutes later more tweeting

“%^*&”

I was now on another bin bag mission with a chair outside in my sleeping shorts. I found the bat entry hole easily, plugged it with the last of our bin bags and went to back to bed.

To be continued

[Lisbeth]

Bushy!

You are going so fast Sooner or later I'll catch up

[Richprins]

Just done page 3!

Ja, that rock on the parking at the S30 has dinged us too a couple of times!

What luck with leopards, Bushy!

Love the interaction with the hyena on the koppie.

[Richprins]

Just done page 3!

Ja, that rock on the parking at the S30 has dinged us too a couple of times!

What luck with leopards, Bushy!

Love the interaction with the hyena on the koppie.

Dwarf and I were at Marloth that weekend of 1 October, as a farewell to the season, and when I heard it was going to hit 42 degrees the Sunday I successfully begged him to go home that morning!