The red-billed queleas had been unleashed

[Flutterby]

A lovely leopard sighting!

Nice pics of the snake-eagle and other birdies.

[Lisbeth]

Nice leopard and some gorgeous shots of birds, flowers and bee

[Richprins]

What a wide variety of pics, Pumbaa! Very refreshing, and it really feels like one is sharing the ride with you.

Those locusts are revolting!

[Mel]

I finally managed to catch up in earnest... not just peeking in and nominating the odd photo of yours

The sighting that stuck to me most definitely were the hyenas! I love watching them frolicking in the water,
but often you only get one of them. So, well done to you and Timon for finding yourselves that little group.

And as always I'm impressed with the variety of birds and the great portraits that you captured of them.
There were so many different ones that I wouldn't do them justice by mentioning only those that return
to my mind after finishing these 11 pages.

Also, it seems that I got back here right in time for the special sightings Lovely leopard!

[PJL]

Well done on getting pics of that leopard with all the grass moving in front of it
We also noticed that most of the rollers were European rather than Lilac-Breasted this time around... something to do with migration patterns but they certainly put pressure on the locals

[Pumbaa]

wow these Leopard
Carmine Bee-Eater and LBR and Plover
Like too the Snake-Eagle, the Bats and of course the colorful cricket has my favor

and well done

Those crickets we in fact do not see that often and so it is always amazing when we do find them

So many amazing sightings to catch up on too beautiful!!

Birdies such a pleasure to see great pix's

Bathing Hyena's must have been a real treat to see super

Also enjoyed all the smalls and Big greys and Buffs

Pumbaa

What would Kruger be without the big grey ones, the possted ones and the smaller ones

A lovely leopard sighting!

Nice pics of the snake-eagle and other birdies.

That snake eagle in fact did not occur that often to us

Nice leopard and some gorgeous shots of birds, flowers and bee

We simply had to photograph all the flowers and insects this year

[Pumbaa]

What a wide variety of pics, Pumbaa! Very refreshing, and it really feels like one is sharing the ride with you.

Those locusts are revolting!

We simply love that variety of everything in Kruger

I finally managed to catch up in earnest... not just peeking in and nominating the odd photo of yours

The sighting that stuck to me most definitely were the hyenas! I love watching them frolicking in the water,
but often you only get one of them. So, well done to you and Timon for finding yourselves that little group.

And as always I'm impressed with the variety of birds and the great portraits that you captured of them.
There were so many different ones that I wouldn't do them justice by mentioning only those that return
to my mind after finishing these 11 pages.

Also, it seems that I got back here right in time for the special sightings Lovely leopard!

That bathing hyaena sighting was in fact something very special sighting and whenever returning to Matjulu we will remember that one

Well done on getting pics of that leopard with all the grass moving in front of it
We also noticed that most of the rollers were European rather than Lilac-Breasted this time around... something to do with migration patterns but they certainly put pressure on the locals

A lilac breasted roller was something very special to find this year

[Pumbaa]

With not much else coming further along we finally drove a slight detour to Gesanftombi as it was still a bit early for the check in. It was a amazing to see that dam again filled up brimful



as I still do have the view from last year in my mind where same was completely empty and even the mud had already dried out. For sure same was again filled with a lot of happy hippos.

We drove slowly to Crocodile Bridge camp and came across large herd of zebras





as well as wildebeests



and with sharp 14.00 o’clock we arrived in camp right in time to check in. As always when staying in that camp I had requested for unit No. 10 and was glad that we were allocated in same. With a long break on our verandah whilst I was preparing our salad for dinner and Timon wandering around in camp with the camera we spent our time until it was time for a short afternoon drive.

Really love the butterflies Timon was able to capture during his photographic excursion in camp.



They are such fascinating creatures.



It was already late when we were ready for our short afternoon drive but we did not bother as our day so far was great. Needless to say that we turned into the S28 but as already expected the grass was extreme high along this road and it was great seeing that area also back to normal after last year’s horrible drought.

We met elephants



and lots of European rollers were around – This one just captured one of those colourful crickets,



we spotted a lilac breasted roller and although photographed them already more than a thousand times it is always amazing when we got some new shots.



The birding was also back to normal on that road as we furthermore saw lots of grey headed bush shrikes



and masses of wattled starling in huge flocks who were competing with the red billed queleas this year about the most seen birds.



In the high grass but a bit too far away we spotted white winged widowbirds and also the elephants were around as well.



Besides the birds we could see the road was quiet but due to the high grass and heat we already did not expect to see that much so we even enjoyed more a breeding herd of elephants crossing the street in front of us whilst we were already back to camp and even a herd of buffaloes followed them.



In the distance but clearly seen a male lion walked along the power line road so this completed our Big 5 for that day. Sorry no picture but a family of rhinos was also a lovely sighting to round off the day.

[Pumbaa]

Whilst the braai was going we enjoyed the wonderful evening and the lovely dinner with lots of red roman spiders running on the ground and also the bugs who were attracted by the lights were a bit a pest that evening and the darker it got



whilst a nearly full moon was shining from above.



Monday, 13. February 2017 Crocodile Bridge

Roads we travelled along that day: H4-2 – S28 – S137 – S130 – H4-2 – S29 – S122 – H10 – S128 – H4-1 – S28

It looked like a wonderful warm day in paradise when we awoke and after the very well needed morning coffee we started to head along our favourite road in that area, the S28. First animal we saw that day was a nicely posing warthog



and as already expected we did not see that much on the S28 but we simply loved to travel this road although must say that the family of side striped jackals was a more than wonderful sighting



as this specie is in fact not coming along that often and they were thankfully running along on the road in front of us.



One of them was begging for food



and all of them were nearly totally wet from the high grass.



Far too soon they finally disappeared in the high grass on the roadside and we could not find them again



and although the rest of our drive until we turned into the road to Nhlanganzwani was extreme quiet as also the birds had not awoke so far.

Nearly at the end of the road close to the once existing dam we already realized some animal activity in form of zebras and wildebeests crossing the road and we had obviously only eyes for them as suddenly a car from the back approached us and asked us: “Did you see the lions?” who we in fact did not notice and so we drove together with the other car backwards and they pointed the lions out to us.



They were in fact not that easy to see as they ducked down in the high grass. Needless to say that we parked and started to take shot after shot and so did the passengers in the other car as well which we thanked enthusiastically in following us and making us aware of the lions.



Another two lions could be traced a bit farer away nearly behind a bush. Meanwhile the other ones stood up and joined the two farer away ones.



All in all we noticed three younger male and one younger female



and now it was in fact even harder to see or even to photograph them -



gladly from time to time they sat up and scanned the surrounding but when lying down in the high grass we could not see anything from them.



to be continued....

[nan]

wow Side-striped Jackals ... 3x

and a Cricket near the end
and Lions looking for...
Ellie and Rhino and... and...

remarkable