Browns in Kruger July 2014*

[Bushcraft]

Hey Guys,

It’s time to start our July 2014 TT. Things are rather busy at work, so please bear with me.

This was the 2nd trip to KNP this year for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert.

As it was the July school holidays we battled a little for accommodation, but eventually scored a reasonable balance. We had also been in contact with our old friends Katja and family who were coming over from Germany, so we both juggled our trips to link up as much as possible and ended up sharing Stanley guest house while at Satara which was awesome.

The trip ended up as below:

11th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
12th, 13thand 14th Skukuza
15th, 16th, 17th and 18th Satara
19th Lower Sabie

The park was busier in the south than we have ever seen which could only be due to incorrect gate quotas and even the normal “escape from the crowd” roads were choked, so we ducked a few “sightings” and just continued on.

We had some major quiet days which rank as some of our worse days sighting wise ever, but then smashed it on other days, so the trip was full of major highs and massive lows.

We spotted something we have never seen in Kruger before, but it was too quick for pics and broke 2 of our personal records for 8 days in the park and I doubt that we will ever match the one again, so it made the trip for us.

There were no medical issues this trip which was a nice change; however there was a tyre and freezer drama which cost more than our trip to sort out.

We also met a few “surprise” wildies and I’m still plotting revenge on one as we got suckered big time

I’m going to omit all rhino sightings as most routes are obvious and try to name a few more birds this time, but I don’t own a bird book and don’t have the time to research, so don’t rip me off too much if I make a major balls up.

In summary, it was an up and down trip and the one day I only picked my camera up that evening, so I hope all ride the wave, hang around during the boring times and still enjoy the TT.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

11th Home to Jozini Dam

The rats were already on holiday and the Cow is now a stay at home mother, so the initial plan was to do some ducking and diving at work and leave for Jozini around at 11am, but everything that could possibly go wrong at work did, so I only got home just before 1pm, therefore I was hyped up to get moving, but our retired pensioner house/pet baby sitters were in the driveway when I arrived and chose this moment to discuss their Kruger memories at a slow pace, so I was forced to be polite and listen, which only increased the tension.

We eventually hit the road later than normal and it ended up a nightmare drive, so my hair was standing up by the time we arrived at Nkonkoni gate.

The gate guard looked rather surprised to see us and seemed to lack a little acumen, so this increased my blood pressure even more and the Cow had to take over.

The Cow handed over our booking reservation and the slowed up guard stared at it for 5 minutes and then handed it back with a more confused expression.

“You stay here?”

I was now just hanging to relax and crack a beer “Yes! Date, camp, unit number, etc indicated, can we proceed?”

“No, you park while I phone to check”

The Cow knows when the gasket is going to blow “Just relax, be polite, calm down, etc, etc”, so I pulled over and switched off.

The calming speech lasted around 5 minutes as it took the guard that long to dial the number and then looked at the phone confused.

“Cow, dial the manageress!!”

The Cow was still trying to calm the situation when I started the car, waved at the confused guard and drove off towards camp.

When we arrived at camp the reception was locked, so I banged on the door until someone I recognised opened. It was the manageress’s husband and he looked as surprised to see us “Are you staying here tonight?”

We were puzzled by this, but handed over our booking reservation, grabbed ice and wood and headed for our favourite unit number 4.

We spotted a buffalo, few warties and nyala on the drive to our unit, but nobody else was around which was strange for a Friday night.

The rats started a scrap on the way to our unit as to who was going to sleep on the 5th bed (which is a different type of bed added to the unit to make it a 5 sleeper), but we left them to sort it out themselves and eventually the youngest Albert won the negotiations and Bushpig had a pelican, but wasn’t going to give up, so as I stopped they rushed off to the unit to continue the scrap, however soon also had confused expressions.

“What now!!”

“The bed isn’t here and the others have strange sheets covering them”

I was now starting to get seriously wild as it was late, so started ripping sheets off the beds and moving things around so that we could all fit in.

A few seconds later my phone beeped. It was a message from a number I didn’t recognise.

“Due to an extended conference at Skukuza we can’t accommodate you, so have moved you to Pretoriuskop”

I then spotted that I had 2 missed calls from the same number and the gasket exploded

“@#%#%......@#%^$^”

I also hadn’t seen that the manageress had arrived and was apologising big time to the Cow outside, but I was beyond being polite and my phone went flying across the table towards the Cow.

“Check this @#%*” “Phone and sort this @#%* out, because I will get us banned from Kruger forever if I phone”

The Cow politely ignored me and finished her conversion with the manageress before phoning the number back while I downed a beer.

“Hello, hello, pardon, excuse me, pardon” and then it was the Cow’s turn to get excited “#@%* He couldn’t speak English and then put the phone down on me!!!” which set me off.

“Stuff this, I will cancel the entire trip at this rate and I want my money back!!” which resulted in the younger rats starting to snivel.

Seconds later my phone rang and the Cow tensely answered, but soon started smiling and then laughing which made me wilder as I wanted to rip a strip off SANParks for this, so angrily started waving at the Cow to give me the phone.

Then I heard the name “GUMP” and realized that we had been caught.

It turns out that RP and Gump had lunch and RP had informed Gump of our plans, which gave Gump a plan.

GUMP, I have to admit you caught us big time with your Swahili, but revenge will be sweet!!

Minutes later the additional bed arrived and we were informed that a large group had booked the entire camp besides our unit, but had just cancelled which caused them to forget about us; however we now had the entire place to ourselves, which resulted in an instant beer introduced cheesy from me and I could start to relax.

It was now already after 5:15pm and getting dark, so we didn’t have time to do our usual short drive down to the main dam; but Albert and Bushpig were hassling to go to the hide, so I agreed to take them on a walk to the boma and then to the hide overlooking the small dam.

I’m not sure why they like these walks because as soon as we can’t see our unit anymore they start moaning that they are scared and a fight always breaks out as to who walks in front or at the back, so we ended up walking in a row to keep the peace.

The boma has a few interesting things for the rats and a great view of the Jozini Dam.







Our boma visit was short lived as we had to make the hide before it was pitch black.

I did my normal hide snake inspection when we arrived while the rats waited in the doorway. All seemed ok, so we parked off.

Initially there wasn’t anything happening and the rats soon became bored, so I got irritated and started for the exit, but suddenly spotted a movement on the path which leads to the units on the other side of the dam.

“What’s that?”

It was nearly dark, so I couldn’t make a decisive ID, but initially thought it was just a wartie, however I didn’t say anything.

Suddenly Albert and Bushpig shrieked “LEOPARD!!” which caused me to jump and produce some shadow ninja movements.

“WHERE!!”

“That’s a leopard dad!!”

The “wartie” at a second glance just before it disappeared did look “catlike” and although there are leopard around Jozini Dam, we have never seen one in around 16 trips, so I still maintain it was just a wartie, but the rats were convinced it was a leopard; therefore I decided to play along.

“We have to walk past there to get back to our unit!!”

The eyes looking back at me were now massive and the bottom lips started to shake.

“How do we get home dad!!”

“We walk”

“But the leopard dad!!”

“I just got to run faster than you!!”

Now the snivelling started again, so I had to back off and spin a story that it was long gone; however it was now dark, so admittedly it wasn’t a pleasant walk back to our unit for any of us and every nyala, wartie, duiker encountered which took off out a bush resulted in more snivelling and ninja movements from me.

I immediately went to start the fire and take a pic of the full moon while the rats roared inside to tell Hawkeyes and the Cow about the “leopard”.



Minutes later the Cow came stomping towards the boma and the greasing started “What’s this I hear about a leopard!!” I decided then it would be safer for me to end the game and explained it was a “wartie”, however the rats refused to admit that and still claim it was a leopard.

Peace returned and the Cow and Hawkeyes joined Albert, Bushpig and I in the boma. The Cow was in her “tiger dress” again, which she states is her lucky charm at the start of a trip, but I’m still convinced that she wears it just because she knows it irritates me.



Soon the ribs and steak went on and I had Hawkeyes and Bushpig join me as braai assistants. Forgive the “gyne” lamp mounted on my pip, but it was required as the lighting wasn’t very good.





Around an hour after supper the rats went to bed and the Cow retired with a book, so I did my normal “alone in the dark next to the fire thing” but I hadn’t had any Oros mixes for a few weeks prior to the trip, so I was feeling a little “faulty” after a few too many mixes; therefore decided an outside shower was in order to “come right”, but ended up doing the 2 step, burning my hand on the shower head which I had to grab to regain balance and then froze sensitive parts in the breeze, so wobbly headed for bed.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

12th Jozini Dam to Skukuza

I woke this morning feeling rather green and normally try to blame the malaria medication, but fortunately remembered that we weren’t taking any before I put my foot in it, however it meant that I had to suffer in silence without compassion, so I had a long face for most of the drive through Swaziland.

We arrived later than normal in Komatipoort due to the road construction stop/go story, so we motored through the shopping and were soon driving across the Crocodile River.

My pelican returned as we arrived due to the long queue to get in the park.



It was around 11:30am and we were 12th in the queue and because only 1 entrance gate was open, it took us more than half an hour to get in.

The first thing we did was fuel up in Croc Bridge and organize all the cameras.

Eventually all were organized and we decided to duck up the H4-2.

The drive to Lower Sabie produced all the normal gang including a large croc at Vurhami which we hadn’t seen before and a Tawny.





Lower Sabie camp car park was jam packed and people were parking all over the place (pics posted on another thread “driving in Kruger”) so I was immediately irritated; therefore we waited in the queue to use the loo and quickly continued on without even doing our ritual visit to the deck.

Next up was a major traffic jam around 2km outside Lower Sabie and the road was completely blocked, so the blood pressure went up another few notches.

After 10 minutes we found out that it was a dead hippo (which I believe from others was hit by a car) and 2 male lions were feeding on it.

After another 10 minutes we managed to move forward 3m and if you have good eyes you will spot the mane of one of the lion the blurred pic below.



We could have sat there another hour and got a close up clear pic, but this wasn’t our scene, so we decided to do a u-turn and head back to Sunset Dam and park off for awhile with the hope that the traffic jam cleared.

All the locals were out and about at Sunset Dam including an ellie having a dop.



It was now nearly 1:30pm and we had been in the car since 6am, so all were desperate to get to Skukuza, therefore we ventured back towards the dead hippo with the hope that the road had cleared a little, but vultures and chaos greeted us.





After another 15 minutes I was ready to lean on the hooter and didn’t really care if a pangolin was swinging through the trees up ahead. If there’s a major scrap and punch up on the road at one of these “sightings” in the future due to frustration I personally put a part of the blame on SANParks for letting so many day visitors into the park in the first place and secondly for not bothering to control “sightings” like this.

Eventually a gap opened up on the opposite side of the road to the “sighting” and we managed to squeeze through.

The S79 causeway produced a few more locals and a squirrel which got the rats excited.



The steady stream of traffic just continued and even a giraffe in the bush caused a roadblock, so I ducked off the H4-1 up the H12 and down the H1-2 with the hope that the traffic would be less. We have realized after numerous trips in holiday season that one needs to stay off the main tar roads between 10am and 4pm in the south as it’s when the day visitor chaos is at its peak, so we drove past plenty locals without stopping, because stopping would cause a traffic jam in 5 minutes.

Just before Skukuza I pasted a vaguely familiar vehicle, so made a point of checking the occupants out.

It was Gump and a mate

I first wanted to know why he was sneaking around the south without informing anyone and he informed us that we didn’t need to worry about his male mate as he was a long time friend from the past and their relationship was strictly platonic, which freaked me out and gave the mate a red pip. I then swore him for catching me so badly with his scam messages and we both headed for Skukuza camp.

The Cow went to book us in while Gump and I did some catching up. The Cow soon arrived to join the conversation and then charged off to get the camera out the car to take pics of a collared sunbird.



I then spotted Petra in the background and we shouted howzit to each other. She informed me that Scipio was at the fuel station, so I made a mental note to pop in there.

We then found out that Gump was only in the park for the day, so he had to start towards the exit and we were hanging to unpack and relax a little, so we said our goodbyes and ducked in different directions.

We popped in at the fuel station, but Scipio wasn’t around, however I knew that he was in the park for the entire holidays, so decided to make a plan to meet later and headed for our unit.

We only got to our unit just before 4pm and the unpacking mission only finished at around 4:30pm and as the gates closed at 5:30pm we had no time for an evening drive, so decided at around 5pm to just drive 15 minutes one way, turn and drive back.

We made it as far as the S114 turnoff, took a pic of a Korhaan cruising in the road, turned and headed back to camp for our first July 2014 KNP braai.



I immediately started the fire while the Cow took the rats to the shop for something, but minutes later my phone rang with instructions to bring the camera as they were having a chat with a bush baby just down the road, so I roared off without shoes once again, which isn’t clever in Kruger, but we got a few pics anyway.





It had been a frustrating first afternoon with traffic chaos and not particularly exciting game wise, so I wasn’t overly enthusiastic to get up the next day at 6am, but we were all stuffed so crashed early.

I woke at around 11pm to the sound of shrieking people and soon realized that the noise was coming from the boma as the soccer world cup playoff game was on. This noise eventually stopped after 12pm, but it got me thinking big time about the next night as the final was on.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

13th Skukuza

I woke with my teeth chattering and was about to swear at the Cow for putting the air-con on, but couldn’t even see her under the pile of blankets. A massive cold front had come through and for a KZN gang it was freezing.

It was 2 degrees when we got in car and the wind was blowing which made it even worse, so I was seriously considering ducking the morning drive, but could see that others were committed.



The plan was to drive down to Lower Sabie on the tar before the day visitor gang arrived in the area and then return via quieter dirt roads where possible.

Things were very quiet for most of the way down the H4-1 with only a few ellies, buffalo and the normal crowd making an appearance, but Lubyelubye rocks produced cats once again.



The one lioness started to cruise towards the river which got the others up also, but we weren’t in the best position to see what was happening as bushes were blocking our view most of the time, however there were around 6 cars further up and we didn’t want to get jammed in, so decided to just stay back.

The temperature was now 4 degrees, so I don’t understand what happened next or if lion are just doff, but the one lioness started into the water and others followed.





The more intelligent lion hadn’t crossed the river and decided to hop across rocks towards the little road inlet just before Lubyelubye Bridge, so I jammed the car in reverse before other drivers woke up and cruised into the inlet.

A few at a time came cruising past including the doff wet ones who had joined up on the other side with the clever ones.





The gang from up the road had now realized that the inlet was the spot to be, so by the time the last lion walked past, we were nearly boxed in, which was frustrating me big time as it was clearly obvious that the lion were going to cruise a little along the river’s edge and then cross the road, but nobody was moving, so I was starting to have a tantrum.

“Hey!! Move, you have blocked me in”

This got the Cow going.

“Relax, be polite!!”

Eventually one chap made enough space for us to get through and 200m up the tar we could see the entire pride crossing the road in the distance, which frustrated me even more because we would have been there waiting for them.

I then realized that my ears were glowing due to an increased blood pressure, so mentally forced myself to calm down.

We did catch the tail end of the crossing and coincidently the 1 lioness was missing the tip of her tail.





The next short stretch to Sunset Dam produced a Burchell’s for the Cow and a shy bushbuck.





The local boon gang were hanging out in the “parking” area at the dam, the Cow was excited about a spoonbill in a tree and the rats were interested in a croc that was rather close to the edge of the dam, so we switched off and relaxed for a few minutes.







To be continued

[Bushcraft]

13th Skukuza continued

It was still fairly early when we stopped at Lower Sabie, but it was already filling up, so I rushed the Cow off to get coffee and we were soon on the road again.

The plan was to head back towards Skukuza via the S128, S30 route which is generally peaceful at this time of the day.

First up on the S128 were a few giraffe and then a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, which I’m still surprised the Cow spotted as it was difficult to see.





I soon lost interest in the sun tanning owl, so started to check around and something poked its head out the grass around 30m up the road and then started to cross the road.

My brain took a little time to process what it was and then I started doing what the Cow normally does.

“SERVAL!!” and the hands started

The Cow and rats started shrieking “SERVAL, GO!!”

My waving hands were now in total panic as I fiddled with the ignition.

I got the car started as the serval entered the long grass on the other side of the road, so I frantically started issuing instructions.

“Mark the spot, tell me where to stop!!”

Then chaos erupted again “SERVAL!!” as another smaller chap charged across the road which must have been a cub.

Instructions where now coming from all in the car “STOP! GO!! THERE!! STOP!!”

The grass was so long that we lost sight of them and still didn’t have pictures, so the Cow and I started scrapping.

“Why didn’t you just shot through the window!!”

“Why didn’t you!!”

“I’m driving, you need to wake up!!”

“Don’t you talk to me like that!!”

Albert had a big cheesy though as she has been neurotic about finding her first serval and ended the scrap with a chirp...

“We still got to see 2 servals though”.

We went slowly backwards and forwards in silence for another 10 minutes trying to see if we could spot them again, but it was impossible to see more than a few meters into the thick grass, so we reluctantly gave up and continued on.

The sighting had started to sink in and although it was quick and we stuffed up our chance of a pic, it was still our first serval in Kruger, so my teeth started to hang out around 1km up the road.

The Cow and rats sensed the lift in tension and all started jabbering at once, but I noticed that the Cow’s face changed as I joined in with my excited jabbering, so I had to do some repair work and Kruger helped out with a massive run of birds, which I duly stopped for and regained points.

First up was a tawny and a pearl spotted owlet, then a bee-eater and what I think is an arrow-marked babbler.









By the time I stopped next to one of her favourite LBR’s and then a BHK, her teeth were also hanging out.





I had now set the tone and all were on the lookout for birds and to my horror the clan spotted what they thought was something rare with feathers hiding in a bush, so I was instructed to stalk the feathered friend with a giant bakkie.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

13th Skukuza continued

It was now around 10am and I was breaking my golden rule to be off the roads after 10am in holiday season, so I was starting to get edgy about the crowds which may be waiting for us up the road; however I had to continue stalking this strange bird in a bakkie because we couldn’t get a positive ID on it.

Suddenly the strange bird stopped and it was just a thick-knee. I wet myself when I heard that its “alternate” name is a dikkop, but decided that as I was back in the good books it would be safer to not elaborate more on the name.



We again decided to take the H1-2 back to camp, but only the normal locals were hanging around and the bird tone continued with a saddle-billed stork, a pied kingfisher and a Bateleur making an appearance.







All were hungry by the time we arrived in camp, so I charged straight for our portable freezer to grab the bacon, but as I opened the door of our unit I smelt a strong burning smell so started shouting for the Cow to help me find out what was happening.

I then noticed a red glow coming through the vents of our portable freezer and what looked like oil all over the floor, so quickly unplugged it.

The darn freezer had packed up and all our meat was warm, so I was now having major concerns that we would have to purchase new food.

The Cow inspected all the meat and decided to ‘pull an RP’.

“It’s just getting warm, so it will be ok”

I was shocked “How many cement tablets did you bring!!”

The suspect meat got squashed into the SANParks mini freezer, then the Cow wobbled off with Hawkeyes to start breakfast in the communal kitchen and I stripped the freezer to see if it was repairable.

I soon realized that I know very little about freezers, and then burnt my hand on the “motor”, so just ended up attacking it with a screwdriver.

After a late breakfast/lunch Bushpig and Albert were nagging to explore around camp and to visit the museum, so I got dragged along, but unfortunately for them the museum closes at lunch time on Sundays, so they lost out.

We did find a massive hole under the fence in front of the boma though. I could easily fit through the hole, so I suspect that Skukuza would have been experiencing a few visitors around camp at night.



It had been a long morning drive, so we only left at around 4pm for our evening drive and decided to just cruise down the H4-1 to the H12 Bridge and back.

First up was the local boon gang and one junior who was having a tantrum gave us a few laughs.



We then found a gang of cars parked on the side of the road so asked what was happening and supposedly there were 2 male lions around 60m into the bush, but all we could see was a little piece of mane in a bush and a fat stomach as they were sleeping, so we just continued on.

Just before the H12 Bridge we found a Bateleur (I think nan ) for the Cow and a few ellies made an appearance in the road.





I was now planning to continue up the H12 and take the H1-2 back to camp, but time was ticking so we chose to play it safe and just drive back the way we came.

15 minutes later we were back at the “lion gang” parked on the road and I could still only see a stomach in the far distance, but the mane part in the other bush wasn’t there.

It was now 5pm which is about the time these guys would start moving around in winter, so we took a guess and moved a little forward from the gang and started plotting the bush in the distance.

It didn’t take long and a pip appeared in the distance, so we had guessed correctly. The gang parked off about 50m behind us wasn’t moving, so the other male must have still been sleeping.

We know the road in this area fairly well so we knew that the road would meet up with the male’s angle of travel around the next corner, so I drove on and it didn’t take long for him to pop out the bush.



We were initially alone with him, but I knew that his brother would start to follow which would bring the gang of cars, so I was frantically trying to work out a plan.

I then looked in my rear view mirror and spotted the first of the train of cars coming around the corner, so I moved to the opposite side of the road to the lion and slowly overtook him, which set the Cow off big time.

“What are you doing, where are you going now, why can’t you just stay in one place!!”

I ignored the greasing initially and went on another 100m, then stopped and turned to drive towards the lion.

“What are you doing now?”

Now I decided to respond grinning “Well, isn’t it better to have a lion walking towards you instead of away from you”.

“But you will still have to turn as he passes you!”

“NO, I can reverse as he approaches!!”, which was a good thing as the gang was already arriving behind him.



We continued in reverse for around a 1km and in this time we spotted the 2nd male enter the road in the distance amongst a massive gang of cars. The first male, which we were hanging with, didn’t realize his brother was on route so started roaring his head off, which is always great to witness.

In the pic below you can see the male roaring and the blurred out 2nd male in the distance behind him followed by the blurred crazy gang of cars with people hanging out, etc.



A few minutes later our Garmin was starting to moan that it was time to leave, so I was amazed that the rest of the gang were still following behind the 2nd male in the distance, therefore we took one last pic of the 1st male, turned and headed for camp.

We got to camp with 30 seconds to spare and nobody overtook us, so the entire gang must have been late.

I started the fire while the Cow took the rats to check out the bush babies again and it didn’t take long for them to find them, but they had the wrong camera, so the pics were a failure.

At around 9:30pm we wobbled off to bed, but just as we started to fall asleep the shrieking from the boma started and it went on until after 1am due to the soccer world cup. I understand that many are keen for soccer and that it was a world cup final, however the noise was hectic. I thought that SANParks would have at least organized for it to be televised in the conference centre to minimize the impact on guests who just wanted to sleep.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

14th Skukuza

The rats woke up nagging to head down to the S128 as they expected the serval mother and junior to be hanging out there again; but the Cow and I knew that finding them again was almost impossible; however we agreed to head that direction to keep the peace.

Katja and family were also arriving at Skukuza today, so the plan was to link up with them in the afternoon, which was getting the junior rats rather excited as they would have company around the same age. It was still cold, overcast and windy, so I hoped that the weather would start to improve slightly for them.

The morning drive started like the previous day with a few locals popping up, but there wasn’t much action until just outside Nkuhlu where we were greeted by 3 lionesses on patrol.







There was a car already following them and a few cars approaching from behind us, so I just moved off to the side and watched them go by.

The Nkuhlu boon population was out and about, but looked rather nervous and a little further on a duiker decided to hang around long enough for a pic.





Today we decided to take the tar instead of the S79 causeway and found some buffalo cooling off and a rather puffed up Bateleur next to the road.





Just past the causeway southern entrance the bush opens up a little on the tar road and we spotted the local lion pride in the riverbed. What amazed me is that there were only 2 other cars further up the road, so the lion must have just moved into that position or others from Lower Sabie had driven past them.

A few members of the pride suddenly jumped up and looked interested in something which got me shrieking, but it was only a false alarm, as seconds later we spotted that it was just another lioness approaching.





Most of the lion then went to sleep and it was obvious by the size of their stomachs that they weren’t going anywhere.



While we were parked off at the lions the Cow noticed a few green pigeons next to the road, so the next mission was to take pics of them before moving on.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

14th Skukuza continued

We left the lion pride and continued on towards Lubyelubye, which didn’t produce anything this morning, so we moved on to where the dead hippo was the day before.

I expected to find a similar traffic jam and chaos, but the road was open with only 3 cars next to the road. I then remembered that it was still early and the day visitor gang wouldn’t have made it up from Croc Bridge yet, so we decided to drive into the mix and check it out.

A few vultures were parking off, but there were no hyena around which was a surprise.



We were then informed that there was a male lion sleeping directly behind the dead hippo and that we would have to get on our roof to spot him, so we said thanks but no thanks, snapped a pic of the dead hippo and moved on.



We ducked Lower Sabie camp and went a few km down the S128 to appease the rats who were glued to the window looking for serval and seemed shocked that they weren’t there waiting for them.

I wasn’t keen to continue on the S128 so after 4km we turned and headed for Lower Sabie camp ablutions.

We weren’t sure what to do next, so we sat in the car park and threw around a few ideas and as all love Mlondozi we decided to head out that direction.

We stopped this time on the H10 Bridge to snap a few quick pics of the normal locals.





The H10 was relatively quiet until just before the turnoff towards Mlondozi where we found 2 cars stopped and it was immediately apparent what they were looking at.

We were stoked as we hadn’t found cheetah in Kruger our last 2 trips.



The other cars were stopped about 30m in front of us, so I decided to drive up towards them to see if the view was better from their angle. The view wasn’t better, but we could see that there were actually 2 cheetah.



I then started the car again and started to move back to our original spot, but this resulted in the normal huffing and puffing from the Cow.

“Why can’t you just stay in 1 place?”

“Do you want to drive? I would rather see 1 cheetah clearly then 2 hidden!”

The Cow has never driven in a game park, but always offers to drive and I always threaten her that I’m sick of driving, however I think we both know that we would end up in a ditch at the first ellie sighting, because the Cow can’t reverse and would instinctively want to reverse at the first sign of ellies.

We sat in silence back in our original spot until a movement caught my eye.

“A pig is pulling in”

This got the Cow social again.

“Where?”

“Coming in from the left, get the video camera ready in case there’s action”.

I knew that the wartie was more than a match for 2 cheetahs and the wartie seemed to share the same opinion as he charged straight up to the cheetah and checked them out, wobbled off and then returned to stare at them.



The cheetah never moved once and the wartie eventually lost interest and wobbled off, so we continued on towards Mlondozi; however a short distance down the dirt we spotted the quantity of cars in the car park, so decided to give it a miss and headed back towards Lower Sabie.

We stopped again on the H10 Bridge to snap a quick pic of a pied wagtail and the hippo locals.





The Cow spotted a tawny in the distance at the H10/H4-2 intersection, so we turned left at the intersection and went a 50m down the road to get a pic.

The tawny had taken something with feathers out, but we couldn’t see exactly what it was.



As I drove off to turn Hawkeyes squawked “There’s something walking on the bank down there”

I didn’t pay much attention and kept moving, but seconds later Hawkeyes shrieked “LEOPARD!”, which instantly got me going.

“Where, specifics, landmarks!”

This was our 2nd full day in the park and the “leopard pressure” was mounting by the hour, so Hawkeyes was now under massive pressure to describe where the leopard was, but we soon all spotted him and he decided to cool off next to the riverbed.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

14th Skukuza continued

I was excited because I thought the leopard was going to head down for a drink in front of us, but he had other ideas and went to sleep, so we pulled off in a good spot and switched off.

After 10 minutes though I was getting seriously cheesed off because almost every car stopped to ask what we were looking at and then parked almost on top of us, which I couldn’t understand as one could see the leopard from just about anywhere on a 300m stretch of open road, so I started up and moved a 100m down the road.

The leopard continued to snooze, so we decided to slowly cruise a few km down the road before turning to head back towards Skukuza.

Around 2km later it was Bushpig’s turn to chirp from the back.

“There’s a lioness down there Dad”

“Where?”

“Reverse a little....there”



We switched off and waited to see if the lioness had another mission on the go or if she was just warming up in the sun, but after 5 minutes it was clear that she was going to snooze.

One could only see the lioness from where we were parked, but other cars had stopped and the occupants were looking at us, which irritated me big time, but I felt like helping 2 old timers out so asked the Cow to call them closer and indicate to them that we would move so that they could check the lion.

The Cow is rather shy in the stranger department so I had to encourage her a second time to call them and they slowly approached; however I couldn’t have picked a worse car and it rapidly became apparent that these 2 old farts didn’t fancy help with sightings, so the Cow got short shift and after the initial shock started to tell the old farts exactly what she thought of their attitude, but I couldn’t handle the drama, so just started the car and drove off.

When we arrived back at the leopard he had turned slightly and was involved in a staring match with a giraffe that had come down for a drink.

There was now a massive gang of cars all parked on top of each other up the road, so we pulled over in a good spot around 150m from them and switched off.

A few minutes later the Cow chirped “What’s that moving on the bank........LEOPARD!”

Another leopard was cruising down to the one in the riverbed and then they proceeded to greet each other.







I was parked off on the side of the road facing oncoming traffic, but on the side of the road where the sighting was, so we thought we were doing the correct thing, but the first car to stop and ask decided to stay right next to us and look at the leopard through our window and then another car stopped next to them and were looking through both windows. This was now becoming very irritating so I passed a comment that one could see the leopards from anywhere along the road, but still they didn’t move and they continued to block the entire road.

Minutes later a SANParks vehicle arrived and pulled up with the front of his car almost against the front of mine and started flashing his lights at us, so I indicated that I was parked on the side of the road where the sighting was and that the 2 cars parked next to me should move, but this clown didn’t understand the general rules at a sighting and just continued to flash his lights, so I slammed my car into reverse to allow the chop through, but then another chop tried to push into my spot while I was doing this which got the Cow chirping out the window also, so it was just turning into a “dog show”.

I was desperately trying to remain calm, but I could feel that the blood pressure was rising and knew that I was seconds away from a scrap on the road, so I indicated that we wanted out and moved 50m up the road and switched off in another clear spot between the 2 traffic jams.

Thankfully minutes later both leopards decided that it was time to cruise off into thick bush which cleared the traffic jams.

I now just wanted to get back to Skukuza as there were cars everywhere and the H4-1 looked like a KZN highway.

We were forced to stop once though for a lion crossing the road just before Nkuhlu, but you can see the traffic chaos between the lion and us in the pic below.



We only arrived back at Skukuza just before lunch time, so we immediately cooked a large chow and I mixed mine with a few beers to calm down.

Katja and family hadn’t arrived yet, so we decided to cruise around the camping section to see if we could find Scipio or Petra, but eventually gave up after nearly pulling into the wrong tent.

At around 2:30pm Katja phoned and they came over to our spot.

It was great meeting old friends again and I was getting into the social vibe, so the Oros mix made an early appearance and I had no intention of leaving camp again, but at around 4pm Katja indicated that they were going on a short drive and would join us for a braai later, so we decided to just duck down to the H12 Bridge again.

The first thing which was noticeable was that there was less traffic on the roads which is probably due to the fact that most day visitors were on their way out.

The normal locals were hanging out along the road, but the first thing we stopped to take pics of was a few GHB’s along the road and then an ellie mom with her young junior caused a stir.





A large herd of kudu were crossing the riverbed below the H12 Bridge so we parked off there for around 5 minutes just enjoying the scene.



Time was ticking and we had Katja and clan joining us later, so we decided to head back to camp and start the fire.

About halfway between the H12 Bridge and Skukuza we found 2 cars stopped in the road and could hear impala barking, so instantly knew that something was up and seconds later a leopard walked out the bush right next to us which caused major drama because it was so sudden.

“LEOPARD!”

“Where’s the camera?”

“$%&*!”

We were still throwing things around the car trying to get organized when the leopard took off at full sprint down the middle of the road, so I jammed the car into drive and nearly ploughed into the guy in front of us who wasn’t moving. This caused more drama.

“Move you $%^”

We all have different ways to enjoy a sighting, but just sitting back and watching a leopard run down the road and off into the distance without following it isn’t my cup of tea, so I was about to be rude and just overtake the 2 cars when they finally started to move forward.

The leopard was still running at full pace down the middle of the road which was an amazing sight, but almost impossible to photograph while trying to drive at the same time.

Suddenly the leopard stopped and turned left, so I knew that I was going to lose sight of him as he crossed in front of the 2 cars ahead of us, so I shrieked at the Cow

“Get ready with the camera out your window!”

“No! Wrong camera! Fast moving leopard means fast shooting camera!”

Then the Cow decided to question and argue in a tense situation like this.

“Why! I can’t see it anymore and you need to talk properly to me!”

“Just do as you are told! It’s about to pop out in front of you! Wake up!”

I should never have said that as now the Cow had lost interest in the leopard and just wanted to rip my head off.

“You $%&*, take your own pics!”

“I’m trying to drive! THERE! It’s in front of you!!” but the Cow was about to spear my pip with the camera, so the chance was missed.

Fortunately Hawkeyes snapped a blurred proof pic as the leopard ran into the bush and the Cow’s stubbornness relaxed enough for her to snap a few spots as the leopard disappeared.





I normally get overexcited in these situations and say things I shouldn’t, but almost always calm down instantly, however this was an awesome leopard sighting and we had completely stuffed up every photo opportunity, so my pelican was out and the Cow was still highly offended with me, therefore the rest of the drive back to camp was in silence.

I quickly got the fire going and gulped down an Oros mix to sort out my leopard lip while the Cow glared at me from the veranda in silence.

Soon Katja, her SO (Mr M), and their daughters (Miss D and Miss J) arrived and they had brought gifts from Germany for us. I also scored a bottle of Gin to top it off.

The Cow had also been busy shopping prior to our trip, so it ended up a gift exchange.

Our young rats and Miss J were soon communicating in a weird common language with Katja decoding sometimes and Miss D, who is already a young adult and Hawkeyes decided it was more entertaining hanging with us.

The first thing I noticed was that Germans don’t feel the cold like the KZN crowd as they were dressed like it was a summer evening and we looked like Eskimos.

It was a great first evening together and awesome catching up and sharing a few laughs.

We were heading up to Satara the next day and the plan was to share Stanley guest house, which we have stayed at a few times before with my boet, but Katja and clan had never stayed there, so I hoped it would be an experience for them.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

15th Skukuza to Satara

I’m going to leave out many sightings from this day as it was one of those “busy” days and I will have to summarize it into around 4 posts or all will get bored.

I did get a little social with the Oros mix the previous evening and we all went to bed later than normal, but we were still up and about early this morning as the car packing mission had to take place.

All pulled their weight and we were ready to leave amongst the first morning gang of cars.

The plan today was to drive the H10 to Tshokwane as the Cow loves this road, but I’m certainly not a fan because it doesn’t produce many leopards, so I moaned a little before agreeing, but I wouldn’t have cared if I had known at the time what the day would bring.

I’m not sure what’s up with many visitors who stop at every intersection and then spend 5 minutes deciding on their route while others wait patiently behind them, but as many will know I lack in the patience department, so by the time we reached the H4-1 2km later we were the front car.

Our first stop for pics was for a small herd of ellies chowing next to the road.



I didn’t want to get stuck in the gang approaching from behind, so we didn’t hang around with the ellies and soon continued on.

As we came around a corner about 5km before Nkuhlu we got the fright of our lives and I nearly shouted “leopard” as the brain didn’t expect cheetah along this dense section of road. We were initially the only car coming from the Skukuza area and I really don’t know where the other oncoming car came from as they must have shunted up from Lower Sabie to be here already.



I slammed the car in reverse and we continued reversing for about 1km with the cheetah walking towards us.





The gang from Skukuza now started to arrive, so I had to modify my reverse mission, but the cheetah also didn’t like this company, so stopped their march down the road, parked off for a second and then cruised off into the bush.



The next 12km or so produced buffalo, more ellies, giraffe, zebra, warties, generally all the normal gang and a few birds, but it wasn’t until halfway between the causeway and Lubyelubye that things got more exciting for me personally.

There’s a long stretch of road in this area where one can see a long way and I spotted something in the distance walk into the road and sit, so chirped “What’s that up ahead?”

There was silence from the clan and then “LEOPARD!”

We had a problem now because we had a car in front of us doing 20km/h and they weren’t increasing their speed, so they obviously hadn’t picked up on what was happening, so the drama started

“Move you slowed up blind bat”

Then the leopard got up and started walking towards the bush, but the car in front of us still continued along at 20km/h.

The leopard then disappeared into the bush around 100m in front of us, so I lost it and overtook the car in front of us

“Take landmarks and tell me where to stop!”

“STOP”

The leopard was still visible but moving.





The car I overtook pulled up next to us

“What was that?”

I was still frantically trying to track the leopard, so the Cow responded “A leopard, didn’t you see it in the road?”

Shocked blank faces looked back “Where!!”

We couldn’t help them as the leopard had cruised out of sight, but it goes to show how easily one can miss something.

We were now heading towards the dead hippo and I was worried about the potential traffic jam, but fortunately our timing was correct and there were only 2 cars.

The smell was vicious and the rats joked that even the vultures were blocking their nostrils.



We could see a male lion eating, but my Oros mix from the previous evening started to return due to the smell, so I shrieked at the Cow “Take a quick pic, I need to move before I vomit!”, but I rushed her and she focused on the bush in front of the lion, but one can still make out the dead hippo with the lion behind it.



Around a km later we stopped for a fish eagle and then again as there were a few cars next to the road and all were looking at a fairly fresh leopard kill in a tree. We decided to hang around awhile as the rumour was that the leopard was hiding there somewhere, but after 5 minutes the traffic jam and noise started to increase big time and I felt that the leopard would only return to feed in the late afternoon/evening, so we moved on towards Lower Sabie for a pit-stop.





To be continued