my holiday in the game reserve

[leachy]

during my last school holiday i went to the kruger national park with some friends of mine
and i saw lots of lovely animals and birds.


we went in at the gate near to where joão albasini used to have a shop.

we were not allowed to go and see the place because someone had put a whole bunch of logs across the road.


we stopped at the capital of the kruger national park to have a weewee.

my one friend, hans, told me that this city has the nick-name of the 1st warden.

i do not know why there was a warden there...


i did not even know there was a prison there.


after that we went on the road that goes next to the sand river....

there we saw some scary looking birds having a bath in the river..



it looked like they were trying to scare each other by making big movements with their wings....



some of them were just sitting in the sand like like chickens on an egg....



then we turned off the tar road onto a very bumpy sand road

and stopped at a dam that rowland jones helped to build..




there we saw some water buck



he is lucky the dam is still there because the new owners of the kruger national park have broken a lot of the other dams,

like the next one we stopped at in the ripape creek

we also saw, what we were certain to be, roan antelope trying to hide away

(i have a friend that calls them rohan)



i was told that they are quite rare - i think that they just hide away very well...


our next stop was also at a dam next the tarred road that they are trying to hide away under some sand


hans also told me that a man called kumana used to live here before 1933. then a dam was built here.

there were lots of birds playing and feeding around this dam

like these two herons chasing each other



and this goose flapping away while the swallow was drinking ( i suppose it has to swallow when drinking at that speed)



and this fish eagle eating -
i suppose it might have been eating a mud-fish



i managed to get a snap of seven different birds in one picture -

common sandpiper, wolly-necked stork, fish-eagle, sadle-billed stork, yellow-billed stork, egyptian geese, grey heron
i hear that is worth 220 points.....



there were also some lions resting in the shade after eating a buffalo....



we then arrived at the place that was supposed to be called satrah - which means seventeen in hindi

it has nice huts that use "air-conditioners" to make hot water



and big aloe plants



and a very big and very beautiful painting

of different places that must be in the game reserve somewhere.











and also some big sick trees......

[Lisbeth]

Leachy I had a good laugh, my rips are hurting

Seriously, so many vultures together doing strange non-vulture things looks scary all right

[Richprins]

Brilliant, leachy! Reliving the childhood days!

I like your "rohan"....

[Amoli]

Excellent story line

History, geography and art all combined in one.. - and the air conditioner making hot water cracked me up

Give the man his ..... 220 points... Well done.

[pooky]

Well done Leachy

Like the childhood angle of your story line

The rohan/sable are great

[leachy]

thank you very much lisbeth and richprins and amoli and pooky for reading my story.........

[Richprins]

Interesting elephant damage on the tree there...maybe they are getting hungrier, my boy?

[leachy]

that night we made a fire and did a braaivleis

and it was quite hot in the camp and my friends justerini and brooks needed lots of ice..



early in the morning we left the camp

and there was the this burchell's coucal that looked like he had just woken up




and we went to my favourite place nearby to sit under this tree like the one that zacchaeus climbed up to be able to see jesus better.........




but when we got there we saw that there was no water there for the animals to drink



then we went to the other sand road that everyone who comes here always likes to drive on.

it is next to the n'wanetsi river and there are many more sycamore trees there.

in the one tree we saw these swallows that my one friend austin told us are mosque swallows.






we had never seen these swallows in the kruger national park before.

and there was this old grey bufallo



and a tree full of very noisy magpie shrikes.



we went to the gudzani dam and it had a lot of water in it

and there were these zebra and impala drinking water but something must have frightened them because they ran away



but they came back soon afterwards



and at the mavumbye crossing there was this saddle-bill stork mommy with her two children.



the gudzani water hole down the road only had a waterbuck but no water




and just after that there was this beautiful tawny eagle busy eating the back leg of a buck.....










we could not see the rest of the buck anywhere nearby



so we thought that the eagle must have already eaten it all up




that night back at the camp my friend arabella from ashton and i went to visit uncle bushcraft

and the rest of the brown clan who were staying in a villa near the informal settlement.

the villa was very nice with two bathrooms and a big garden.

uncle bushcraft liked the villa but says that the mansion next to the fence is his favourite.

we had another braaivleis that night because uncle bushcraft likes to make a very big fire.

[Flutterby]

leachy, I think you've been reading too many of your pupils' holiday stories!!

[leachy]

Interesting elephant damage on the tree there...maybe they are getting hungrier, my boy?

i thought that was the eyes of the tree ?????????



do elephants eat trees ??????????