Flavour of the Month: February 2014 S65 Waterhole Road

[flying cheetah]

Last week I was asked if I would like to participate in the flavour of the month and I must confess that I havn't known this topic until now. It took me a while to make a decide which road I should choose as I have 3-4 favourite roads but the road that gave me the most outstanding sightings over the years is for sure the S65. I don't know how often I drove this road during the last 5 years but I guess it's more than 30 times and very often I found it very quiet. Also last year I didn't see anything special at all but the year before was unberlievable
I have to do some research on the net before I can give you some more facts about this road but the month has only started and I will finf the time to do this sooner or later.

What I will never forget is thatI saw my very first LIT on thís road on the 7th of Nov 2009. It wasn't a very good sighting as I couldn't even see the head of the cat. Until this day I was very bad with leopards but then the spell was broken and I saw my second one 1o minutes later Whenever I drive this road I look at this tree again but never saw another leopard in it. The amazing thing was a herd of Kudus near the tree who could obviously smell that there was a predtor nearby but they didn't know where or what it was





That was just the starter and I can promise to show you much better pics taken on this road during te next weeks

[flying cheetah]

The road starts (or ends..) around 15 km's west of Skukuza from the S1 and goes southward until you get into the H1-1

[Flutterby]

What Nigel Dennis says about the S65 in "Where to watch game in the Kruger National Park":

It is sometimes worthwhile to leave the S1 briefly to investigate the S65. This road rarely carries much traffic, although in recent years it has become known as a prime area for leopard. Also on the S65 is the N'waswitshaka water hole. The natural-looking pan is very close to the road, and is ideally situated for afternoon photography.

[Richprins]

Google Earth


Northern part:








Southern part:

[Richprins]

Nice one, fc! I have some pics!

It's often known as the "N'washwitshaka Road"..in fact don't know who came up with the "Waterhole Road" idea...but those roadsigns are very old?!

[mposthumus]

Good choice fc

[flying cheetah]

Thank you all for your replies and further informations about this road
I drove this road many times already but until now this was the only leopard that I saw. Lets see what happens during my next visit

The next pic shows te road in the early afternoon and if you look at it you wouldn't expect to see anything soon. It seems to be a bit quiet and deserted..




...and then, just around the corner, a family of 5 Ground Hornbills walked towards me in the middle of the road. Usually they leave the road whe a car comes too close but I stopped 20-30 meters in front of them and then they slowly passed me with 1-2 meters distance. All their movements were very graceful and it was a fantastic sighting for me. Until today I never saw these birds so close again

[nan]

me too, I had a great Leopard sighting
a young one, I was alone, but it was not really comfortable, so I did not stay too long time
13.3.2011

[mposthumus]

Isn't this the same road where the recent ellie drama unfolded?

Yes Flutts it is

[nan]

nice little Mongoose... Darf Mongoose

thank you for posting the rocks
I was not realy sure for this one
1.5.2011