Browns in Kruger July 2016

[Bushcraft]

A slightly quieter morning than usual for the Browns, but still some nice sightings.

Yip Flutts, it was one of those quiet days I warned about, but we weren't that enthusiastic either due to the weather

[Bushcraft]

A strange civet It has certainly been fed on that road

Your girls are taking the Mickey out of you

Yes, I definitely think someone was feeding or has fed that civet, but it was seen every day I was in the park, however hasn't been seen for at least a week now as far as I know. I said to the Cow that a leopard would eventually get it

[Bushcraft]

Some more great sightings in my catch-up of your episodes. That civet is great to see, but like you say someone must be feeding it

Speed dating in Kruger... that's a new one for sure

Thanks PJL Ja, the civet was suspect

[Bushcraft]

If that was me you would see it on the front page of the news paper.............

Dad chasing teenage kids around in camp with a wheel spanner shouting "stay away from my daughter"

Your time will come Alf I said the same when mine were the same age as yours

[Bushcraft]

I guess still wonderful sightings, Bushcraft,

especially the civet and even twice - I am still about to find my first one

and the rest of what you saw saw not that bad either with lions again, leopard and, and, and - Love the shot of the ellies in the riverbed and the owl

We always do stay in the Lion Cottage when staying in Skukuza but in February the area is the time we spend in camp always realtively quiet - Can definitely not complain here as I am normally also a person who loves it quiet....During school holidays I would avoid that area for sure...

Thanks Pumbaa It was a fairly quiet day and that civet was suspicious and acted like it was begging from the cars.

I think you will be safe at the Lion Cottage outside of school holidays. The best solution would be to limit "jungle gym action" to gates hours, so both have a chance to experience what they want from Kruger

[Bushcraft]

haha....you are getting old, BC....moaning about the hairstyles of OSV tourists now....getting caught by easy tricks, fighting with other pensioners, sitting on the stoep chasing boyfriends away....all you need is a shotgun!

Ja, some of tourists hairstyles They looked like "my little pony"

The park has too many faulty people in it during holiday season

I have a gun

[Bushcraft]

12th Skukuza

I’m going to leave out many sightings from this day as we were on the road for a large portion of the time, hence will have to summarize it into around 4 posts or all will get bored.

We weren’t in a great rush this particular morning as we had to link up with RP at lunchtime at Nhlanguleni, so left camp around 6:30am with the intention of going out for most of the day.

A few km before the H12 Bridge Bushpig’s beady eyes picked up on something and she suddenly shrieked “Leopard” but didn’t give detail, however I assumed that I had driven past it, so started to reverse and the leopard was just off the road.

I thought we were perfectly lined up, but I didn’t realise that there was a drain under the road and in a second the leopard ducked through the drain into thick bush on the other side before anyone could get a pic and now we were on the wrong side of the road, so some panicked car maneuvering started.



The normal H4-1 chaos and “what do see’s” pulled in behind us though and I don’t want to seem arrogant, but some in Kruger are really clueless on tracking a moving animal in thick bush.

The leopard was very active and was walking left for 20m and then changing direction and heading right for 20m, so I was trying to follow accordingly, but a gang of 4 cars had arrived in seconds behind us and were totally lost, so my frustration was hitting an all-time high.

After 5 minutes of massive frustration we gave up on trying to follow the leopard amongst the gang who still didn’t have a clue that there was a leopard walking around in the bush next to them.

I knew that the leopard was on patrol but ultimately it was heading down to the Sabie for an early morning drink and we knew that there were 2 little lollypop loops where one can see the riverbed either side of where we were at the time, so rolled the dice and headed for 1 of the loops.

Unfortunately some of the gang followed us into the loop, so I positioned the car, switched off and acted as if we were having morning tea and soon all moved off leaving us in peace.

After 15 minutes we had started talking about all types of things and had forgotten about the leopard and the riverbed, so when the leopard suddenly appeared drama started in the car.

“CAMERA! THERE!”

“What? Where?”

“Wake up! There!”

As I was about to snap a pic the bushes in the lollypop got in the way, so I quickly started the car and moved, but this got the Cow excited

“Why are you moving?” “Stop!” “You have messed up my video!”

“Stuff the video!” “We can’t stay here; the effing leopard is walking there!”

Eventually we only managed 1 pic before the leopard disappeared behind a bush and a “blame” scrap started in the car which I won’t elaborate on.



The scrap ended and there was only picture and no sound for the rest of the drive to Lower Sabie, but there wasn’t much happening besides a fresh leopard kill, however just a gang of cars waiting and no leopard.



Just outside Lower Sabie a boon with his “parts” hanging out broke the tension and improved the mood in the car.



We stopped for the loo at Lower Sabie and then ducked up the H10 towards Tshokwane. I really don’t like the H10 as it’s not considered leopard territory; however it was the quickest route for us to head north towards Nhlanguleni.

The H10 was as boring as it can be sometimes with regards to sightings during the midmorning time of day; however we stopped for some hyena, a few ellies and the normal locals. The views are always fantastic though and at least it has less traffic than other roads in holiday season.





Just before the end of the H10 Hawkeyes electric window developed its own brain and started to go up and down, but then suddenly shot down and we couldn’t get it back up again, however I wasn’t interested in hassling with it at the time.

We stopped at Tshokwane, but it was too full, so we just used the loo and moved on.

The H1-3 was also fairly quiet until we were close to Mazithi Dam where it was clear from a distance that something was on the go as there were around 100 cars scattered over a long distance and I think every OSV driver in the park was there also which amazed me because most would have had to drive up from the south. This sighting only appeared on the sighting apps the next day, so all these OSV’s must have learnt about this from each other and the traffic jam was because of too many people in the park.

At the first batch of cars we found a male lion peeking over a bank and at the next batch of cars a lioness hiding in the bush and another male parking off on the opposite side of the road. It was clear that some of the lionesses were hunting; however we still hadn’t got to the main gang of cars which were parked 4 cars deep blocking the entire road.







I checked out the Garmin and we still had half an hour spare before our scheduled meeting time at Nhlanguleni, so I wasn’t stressed, however as we neared the main gang it was clear that there was no way through, so we waited patiently for someone to move which eventually happened as a delivery vehicle hooted and pushed his way through.

Lions had killed a buffalo close to the road.



To be continued

[Lisbeth]

Yet another leopard

Lions on a kill is not bad, but when sleeping lions attract 20 cars, all I want to do is to pass

[Alf]

That's a huge traffic jam

Another boon with bad manners

[ExFmem]

Wow, so many impressive sightings! Love the leopards, of course, but the hyena mom w/ the pesky 'lil one is wonderful. Yay, civet - but wish it was scavenging on its own. Also, loved the ellie parade w/ the dust pic. You're the only person I ever heard use the term "having a pelican", but it's so apropos and quite a funny visual.