Browns in Kruger - August 2013 (JHB Clan) *

[Supernova]

Hi All;

The Johannesburg Browns are back. Apologies for being so scarce on the forum, spent the last week catching up on the TR's, some great reports

Really enjoyed the RP - Bushcraft meet - That's my Boet -O

Our 2013 annual Kruger trip was again in August during the Johannesburg private school holidays.

The booked trip was seven nights:

Malelane - 18th August
Biyamiti - 19th & 20th August
Talamati - 21st & 22nd August
Skukuza - 23rd & 24th August

I was a bit late in booking hence we had to move around a far bit. the Skukuza booking was also in two different huts, I had requested Sanparks to move this to a single hut via numerous emails, but no luck, not even a response (received a read receipt on every email).

One thing I did learn on this trip is: If you have 3 cameras in the car, make sure to synchronise the time on all the cameras, it makes sorting out the photos soooo much easier.

Before our trip began we had some issues to deal with, my SO's (Melly) Mom had just been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer and had to have an emergency operation the week before we were due to leave, we had to decide if the trip would still go ahead . Unfortunately the operation was unsuccessful, but Granny was recovering well enough by the 18th for us to leave.


Sunday 18th August

We agreed to stop at Sudwala cave on the way to Malelane. We have been there before but the kids had not, so this would be something extra for them. We had a great tour guide and were in a small group, very enjoyable tour of the cave.

Family portrait under the "Gorilla scratching it's head".



Kids in fairyland:




Kids in the Dinosaur Park:






We entered Malelane Gate just before 3pm and headed for camp.
I will leave all Rhino out of the TR, except to say that we had at least 15 separate sightings in the 7 days, sometimes with 4 or 5 Rhino together.

After unpacking, we took a quick drive along the S114 and S25. It was already 16h30, so it was going to be a short drive. We had agreed to play the game below during the trip, so there was tense competition and all heads were turned to the windows.






Our first Ellie of the trip.





As we were about to turn back to camp at the S114/S25 junction we saw a lone car parked on the side of the road, on asking what was up, we were told that a Leopard was seen earlier in the grass about 10 meters in. The other car left and we decided to wait for the few minutes we had left. It was getting late...



then we spotted the Leopard in the grass.




He stood up, looked around then posed for a photo.





and left...



This was a great way to start our trip.

On the way back to camp, we found these Ellies intent on destroying the tree.





19th to follow soon ......

[Supernova]

Thanks Toko, Dewi, RP, Flutterby, steamtrainfan and vinkie for the comments

Dewi : How many points for a T-Rex and a Gorilla?

With the way some people behave at the sightings, I became a gorilla a few times - no points though

RP: Where does one get that spotting list?

The spotting list is from "go! Kruger Complete Guide 2013" - PM me your email and I will email the scanned copy to print.

Flutterby: I'm interested to hear about your sightings as we were in the park about the same time.

Been watching your TR as well to see if we were at some of the same sightings

[Supernova]

Monday 19th August

Early the next morning we got some bad news, Granny had been rushed back to hospital but was stable. We now had a choice to call off the trip or to continue. Granny advised that we should continue and Melly's sister would keep us updated. Melly was happy to continue as long as she could call her Mom at visiting hours which were 11h00 to 12h00 and 15h00 to 16h00. With most of our trip being in bush camps without signal this would be quite a challenge. We would have to change our normal driving patterns and make sure that we were in signal at these times.

Our normal driving pattern is to have a morning drive from 06h00 to 10h00, then relax in camp and have an afternoon drive from 15h00 to 18h00, this had to change. So we took some long drives that we normally do not and we found some great sightings that we would not have seen had we continued with the original plan.

The direct drive from Malelane Camp to Biyamiti changed to a drive to skukuza, down to Lower Sabie and then to Biyamiti.

First we took a morning drive to Gardenia Hide via the S114 – S119 - S118 – H3 back to Malelane.

First we found a large herd of Ellies



And a Giraffe that was keeping low and a Buffalo still sleeping.





Then this hyena came out the bush and walked alone the road with us for a few kilometres.





Teagan, our 7 year old took this picture of a "Unicorn"



At Gardenia Hide we found a few Franklin and some Geese . The hide was deserted when we arrived and the kids did not want to get out unless I checked first that all was ok.





The day was starting to clear up and this Kudu came out of the riverbed





We kept searching but there was not much else on route back to Malelane, only a few Ellies and an Eagle








19th Continued....

[Supernova]

Monday 19th August (continued)

Thanks Heksie, nan, Flutterby and vinkie for the comments & following

We packed up at Malelane and headed up to Skukuza.

We have never been too lucky on the H3 and that did not change this time, the only real sighting (besides Rhino) was a Kudu and this Klipspringer .



With a quick smoke break and Afsaal, we continued up to Skukuza for lunch. After lunch it was down to Lower Sabie, this is our favourite road H4-1 and we always get a good sighting.

The first of these came just before Nkhulu with a lion pride on the other side of the river, they were far away but it was our first Lion sighting of the trip.









Then at Nkhulu we saw this guy raiding a Jeep jockey's cooler box




Continuing on to Lower Sabie we found a Buffalo herd at the S79 Causeway




Followed by the Lubyelubye Leopard, we were too late to catch him on the rock, he had moved down to take a drink.





We had arrived just in time , as after the drink he disappeared into the reeds, not to be seen again for the day.



We stopped for a few photos of the most photographed animals in Kruger - Sunset dam.





Just past Lower Sabie, at the S28 turn off, another roadblock of cars and another Leopard at the small dam .






We now had 3 leopard sightings and only 1 lion sighting, it is not often that we have had more leopard than lion sightings.

We took the H5 and S108 to Biyamiti, at the bridge over the Biyamiti river these Ellies were off in the distance.



And we had our first encounter with one of the MAD Biyamiti elephants.



The afternoon drive, after checking in, was to the Biyamiti Weir, this produced a few birds at the weir.



a blurred heron..





20th to follow....

[Supernova]

Tuesday 20th August

The morning drive was a quick run to Croc bridge and back on the S25, the first sighting was this Hippo sleeping in a dry river bed.



A herd of Zebra all eating in a row.



An small crocodile in what looks to be an upside down photo.



The drive to Croc Bridge was uneventful, we had gone on search of the S25 lion pride. only to find out later that they were at the Hippo Pools and we did not detour that way.

On the return we came across a big herd of Elephant.




This one was having to stretch to get the best leaves.



We watched them for about 15 minutes, most amazing creatures to watch, then decided to move on, they (being the MAD Biyamiti elephants that they are) were not happy with this and took off across the road in front of us.



I was in full speed reverse at this stage and Cailin was snapping pictures of them coming down the road at us.



This was one angry elephant...



Back at camp we had a few things to do - like wash Teagan's hair, always a mission in Kruger. We try to keep the noise to a minimum but Teagan really does not like her hair being done, and lets the whole camp know !!



A squirrel watched the goings on from a tree.



Hair washed and scanning the Biyamiti riverbed. We were warned that there had been a leopard in camp recently and small ones were not to wander off too far, so had to keep watch.



20th continued...

[Supernova]

BC: What unit did you have, a NCO2+2V, the 4 sleeper type

Correct it was a NC02+2V - Number 4.

[Supernova]

Tuesday 20th August continued...


Afternoon drive.

The afternoon drive was planned for Biyamiti road / S25 / S108 /H5 / H4-1 to Causeway (S79) and back the same route.

On reaching the H5 we came across this hyena family in the road.



We approached slowly as not to disturb, the mom did not like the attention and the cubs started squealing each time the mom moved.



The cubs looked a bit too big to still be milk drinkers, but they were.





There was a terrible stink coming from the Den under the road, we soon discovered why, when stinky emerged. The other three would not go near Stinky, we actually had to close the windows, and the aircon could not cope, we could not take the stink for long , so had to move off towards Lower Sabie.



On the way we passed a few more docile Elephant and this little baboon who kept “scratching” its butt, it gave the whole family a good laugh.



We were a bit early on the planned route so took a detour past Dukes waterhole and found another hyena on the S137. He was on a mission; we followed for a while but had to give up after about 10 minutes.



Just after joining the S28, Cailin shouted ”Wild Dog”. They were lying in thick grass and it was very difficult to get a good sight.





After about 5 minutes, and with all the noise and excitement in the car they lifted their heads, for us to discover it was a warthog family . I am glad that there were no other cars around



Just outside the Lower Sabie entrance gate we found this lion hidden in the thorn trees. There was a well behaved line of cars passing him, stop – take a photo – move on, until one idiot decided that it was their sighting and refused to move on. This caused a traffic jam in both directions and the idiot blocked the viewing for everyone else, we moved off before the hooting & shouting started.



This little guy had found a place to get out the water.



A few kilometres past Lower Sabie we found these lions next to the river. The lioness seemed on edge and kept flicking her tail while staring at the water.



The reason became apparent when a large Croc cruised past, she did not move but watched him the whole way past. An interesting interaction to watch.





We did a U-turn at the S79 Causeway as it was already after 4pm and we still had to get back to Biyamiti.

20th continued...

[Supernova]

Tuesday 20th August (Continued)

Near to the lions that we had seen earlier, this cub was next to the road, it was injured and could not walk. There were no visible injuries, which made us think that it had been hit by a car. Others that we spoke to said that it had already been reported to Lower Sabie. A sad sight to see..



This Bateleur was giving his wings a good stretch



Back on the H5 Stinky was patrolling the den area, alone… The others must have booted Stinky out the den, it had been a hot day and the smell was even worse than before.



The Biyamiti elephants were busy destroying trees. We enticed a few mock charges, I don’t think that they like the grey LR discovery ?



They destroyed a few trees in a couple of minutes with what looked like no effort at all.





We only had a few minutes left to get back to Biyamiti, the moon was already out….



After turning on to the Biyamiti road, the kids and I were joking that we were going to cast a spell “Zandu” to have a leopard jump out the bush AND…
(This is what Melly shouts when someone is trying to kick a conversion against the Bulls, especially when it is the Sharks, I am a Sharks supporter )

500 meters later, just before the Biyamiti Camp gate a Leopard jumped out the bush on the side of the road.

It looked like a small female, she crossed the road. (sorry for the photos being blurred, it was already 6pm)



She walked along next to us for about 20 metres; it looked like she was hunting something





But a hunt it was not to be, she stopped at a tree to pose for a photo, and then disappeared off down to the riverbed, leaving us a quick dash to make the gate before closing time.

The time stamp on the last photo was 6.03 PM, lucky the Biyamiti gate was still open



21st to follow....

[Melly]

Hi All;

This was my view while watching Stinky and the Hyena family





Melly

[Supernova]

Wednesday 21th August

The 21st was to be a long day with a drive from Biyamiti to Talamati with stops at Skukuza & Satara for Melly to phone home.

Our route for the day was:

Biyamiti road / S25 / H5 / H4-1 / Skukuza / H1-3 / Satara / Sweni Road (S126) / S36 / S145 Talamati

As we had to be at Skukuza at 11h00, we slept in and only left around 08h00. There was a lot of general game on route to Skukuza, the two highlights below were this male lion just before Lower Sabie






And this buffalo who owned the road just after Lower Sabie, he was imitating what the Biyamiti elephants do and tried to push us to reverse, it didn’t work and he eventually moved off the road.



At Skukuza we had lunch and as always the compulsory Statue picture.



Just outside Skukuza there were these Vervet monkeys at the very top of the tree, they were trying to get away from something



And right nearby an eagle (Marshal ?), not sure why the monkeys would be at the top of a tree with the eagle so close ?



At the low water bridge over the Sabie we found the Kingfisher with a kill, it was bashing the fish on the branch to stun it.



Looked a bit big to swallow



On the H1-2 this Elephant was having a midday snooze



And a crowd of vultures down by the river.



Some Waterbuck at the H12 junction with the H1-2



At a small bridge just after the S84 turnoff we came across a JJ with one passenger, on asking what they had seen, the answer was that there had been a leopard there. We moved to a spot with a better view, watched and waited.

An elderly couple pulled up from the opposite direction and asked what we happening as we were explaining, thing started flying around the elderly couples car. They had seen the leopard cross the road behind us and were now in fight about the camera.

The leopard was hunting and kept low in the grass



This was the last shot I managed before it took off after a buck down into the riverbed. We sat in silence listening for the sound of a kill but nothing & the leopard did not reappear so we moved on up to Satara. The JJ was further up the road missed the whole event.



In the heat of the day there were no significant sightings, just lots of general game around the waterholes.

At Satara Melly made her phone calls and Teagan (tortoise) posed with jet another statue.



We headed down to Sweni Road (S126) and made our way to Talamati.



I expected more from the Sweni road but it was quiet on that day.



We did find this Bull Elephant with his two askari , he was not that much of a tusker yet but huge in size, may well be a tusker one day.





We reached Talamati at 17h00 & it had been a long day, so decided not to do an evening drive. The plan was to go to the Hide after dark, unfortunately there was a big Braai in the Boma, went anyway but with so much noise saw nothing.

That Boma at Talamati is NOT A GOOD IDEA …



Thursday 22nd August to follow….