Krugertripping this Summer...

[Lisbeth]

I love the ellie road block and the dogs are not bad either Nice to spend Christmas in a park

[Bush Brat]

WOW, WOW, WOW!
What an amazing doggy sighting!

[nan]

indeed some superb sightings
and Painted Dogs

[Richprins]

Happy Christmas, Heksie!

Great stuff indeed! Like the snake...quite rare! (One of the advantages of high summer!)

Wish there were food pics!

[Bushcraft]

Christmas in the park must be cool

Great pic of a duiker on the causeway We always battle with duiker as they run off

Intimidating ellie roadblock

Sounds like an awesome Christmas lunch menu

Fantastic doggie sighting Pity about the normal traffic issues

[flying cheetah]

You were vey lucky with outstanding predator sightings I never saw a leopard on a sign post, definetely my favourite

[Heksie]

Wow great doggies heksie unfortunately there must always be one mampara spoiling it for others

More cats and some beautiful birds too and a special snake sighting....wonderfull

THanks Harrys, I was blessed enough to have to proper sightings of them, my first ever doggy sighting I got was them running across the road, they were there one minute and then gone... at least even with the mamparras I got to take a few decent kiekies

That sounds like an awesome way to spend Christmas Day , and some really special presents too with the doggies and lions!!

Flutts you wouldn't believe
I wouldn't exchange my Christmas day for any other day in the year, I had wonderful people as well as great sightings and good food

I love the ellie road block and the dogs are not bad either Nice to spend Christmas in a park

Lis it is great, and the dogs were a treat as I waited 40 minutes at a spot last year for them only to be able to take 1 kiekie of 1 dog... so this was amazing actually for me

WOW, WOW, WOW!
What an amazing doggy sighting!

Thanks BB, I've had better sightings of the dogs but every one is special to me as you don't see them as often as cats

indeed some superb sightings
and Painted Dogs

Thanks nan, as I told BB, any dogs are great for me to see

[Heksie]

Happy Christmas, Heksie!

Great stuff indeed! Like the snake...quite rare! (One of the advantages of high summer!)

Wish there were food pics!

I will remember to take more food kiekies for you RP, sometimes we get too hungry for any flash photography...
The bonus with the snakes were this trip that they actually posed, they didn't just cross the road in a flash like my previous trips...

Christmas in the park must be cool

Great pic of a duiker on the causeway We always battle with duiker as they run off

Intimidating ellie roadblock

Sounds like an awesome Christmas lunch menu

Fantastic doggie sighting Pity about the normal traffic issues

BC any day in the PArk is great but festive season with a super sighting is spectacular
you wouldn't actually believe it, but the traffic were actually mild compared to the colder months, another reason why I prefer Dec/JAn int he Park, the people don't like the heat as much

You were vey lucky with outstanding predator sightings I never saw a leopard on a sign post, definetely my favourite

Thanks FC was an exhilarating moment for me arriving at this spotty sighting, you will get your sighting sooner than you think

[Heksie]

Day 16… a long and bumpy ride
26 December

Happy that I didn’t have to pack up this morning as we pulled a few strings and were able to get another night CB I left the camp early as usual for a drive. Thinking I might find the dogs of yesterday on the S130 I took this route and then the S137, here I drove into Thokozani and his beautiful SO and we had a little chat, I turned around and then went to LS as I wanted to take the S21 today. I would regret that decision as they went S on the S130 and it seems I was just a bit tooooo early for the doggies as they made an appearance for Thoko…
Some of my sightings on my way to LS,





Long-tailed Paradise-Whydah




And just before I entered the camp I had to check out low level bridge…
A lifer; common waxbill



Green backed heron



Now it was time to take on the S21 after my bathroom break and then try the H5 again in search of the elusive serval…




And then something I haven’t seen before in the park, but it seems would not be the last time I see this… It seems like a wart-type skin problem (would like to hear more about this)


And then a beaut, but this sighting wasn’t so nice as it looked like it had black circles around his eyes because a lack of sleep…





Then at renosterkoppies we got a mating pair of lions but very far off, I sat there for half an hour but got this p-poor kiekie of the male underneath the bush…



Then on my way back…



And the entertainment of the day was warties on the s25 having a mudbath







Some impis hiding from the sun



And an ellie also in the famous S25 mudpools



I got back to camp and it was getting very hot so I decided to chill and read up some more, the book reading was going slower than I thought… When the weather allowed, I was back on the road just doing the S130 and back. It was cloudy but nothing more and the sightings were just as slow.

Bobby inspecting something that shouldn’t be in the bush



Leopard tortie



Burchells coucal







And just for the hell of it, more bobbies outside camp, this one was lying down and sipping on this aircon water… he kept me busy till it was time to enter the camp.



It was another fantastic day in the park and I thought that tomorrow morning I would try the H5 again and hope for that serval. We just had chili and couscous that night as we were exhausted and went to bed at about 21:00. You would think that being on vacation would have you all rested out but then I think… who wakes up at 3:30 when they are on holiday?

To be continued…

[nan]

what a lot you saw
Love Long-tailled Paradise Whydah, Common Waxbill
instead of a Serval... a baby Ellie, playing with branch
I already saw a Giraffe like that and the Rhino seems to be hurting
love to the Pumbaas and tiny Zebra
and Bobbies

nice episode, once again