Browns in Kruger - August 2014 (JHB Clan)*

[Supernova]

21st Day 6: Skukuza

Back at Skukuza it was time for our annual picture of the Kudu Statue



When we made an attempt to get a takeaway lunch, we saw that the renovations were underway and it was chaos, hot and dusty under a few tents, we decided against it.





Next stop was the Museum, which I discovered had also been renovated. All looks very new and modern now; I was disappointed to see it was more about the community and politics than the animals.....





Having Cellphone signal at Skukuza meant the iPad was out and Melly & the kids had something to keep them out of my hair.



Continued .......

[Supernova]

21st Day 6: Skukuza

The Family retired to the veranda, while i took a few pictures of the birds.







The trees were flowering so there were plenty of birds in the trees, I know there was a Bee Eater and a Sunbird, no idea what the rest were but it was great to see them all

















Continued......

[Richprins]

Huge cooler there, SN!


And a statue pic to add to the collection!

That last bird is a Natal robin, probably has a new name by now, and quite rare!

Ja, the new and expensive museum is a celebration of recent history, the last 20 years or so, and an indictment of 200 years or so of political history, not the 30 000 years of natural history we are protecting in Kruger, IMO...

[Supernova]

21st Day 6: Skukuza

The evening drive was to follow the H4-1 down to Lower Sabie to try and find a few Lion and/or Leopard. The first on the scene was the Nkuhlu gang.







Next was a traffic jam, looking at a dead impala in a tree





As we scraped our way through the jam, we spotted the leopard lying on the ground under the tree, one of the joys of being in a big SUV, we took a quick pic and continued down to Lower Sabie.



I enjoyed the tweet below describing the situation....



There was a clear road down to Lower Sabie as all the cars were watching and waiting for the Leopard to appear, we would check on it on the way back to Skukuza.





We found a lone male Lion in the river bed just before Lower Sabie



After a quick pit stop we headed back up to the Leopard traffic jam, and found the the Leopard had appeared.





The traffic had grown worse and we needed to get back to Skukuza, so we slowly found a way through the traffic, while watching the Leopard feeding. It was chaos and took about 30 minutes to get though the traffic. It was a great sighting even with all the traffic.









Continued...

[Supernova]

22nd Day 7: Skukuza

Hi All, apologies for the delay in posting, work got in the way again..... Thanks to all that have been following and posting.


The next morning we repeated the same route down to Lower Sabie, again no Lion but lots of Hyena







And the odd Hippo still out of water.




At Sunset Dam we spotted the biggest Baboon relaxing on a stump alongside the dam.




We had a quick breakfast on the deck at Lower Sabie, again happy that there is a Mug & Bean there and the food is now edible .




A Francolin family were eating below the deck.




The route from here was to try the H10 up to Mlondozi , the back on the S29/S30 to Skukuza. Just after crossing the H10 bridge, we had to make a hasty reversing manoeuvre as a heard of Ellies had been spooked and were not happy to have a car in the road while they were crossing






There was lots of general game on the way up to Mlondozi








Continued….

[Supernova]

22nd Day 7: Skukuza

Just after the Mlondozi we can across this Honey Badger digging in the burnt grass.















And on the S29, there was a group of cars that had stopped to look a two cheetah that had been walking along the road. They had moved off into the bush and all we could spot was what we thought was the odd flick of a tail.

Try spot the Cheetah?



Only after we had returned home and Bushcraft zoomed in on one of the photos, did we see that there actually was a Cheetah hiding in the bush.



The drive on the S30 was long and hot and dry with not much game at this time of day, so it was back to Skukuza to relax in the shade, on the veranda of our unit.





Continued……

[Supernova]

22nd Day 7: Skukuza

On our last evening drive we went back down the H4-1, just outside the Skukuza gate was a sign of something that had happened before we got here.



It was a quiet last drive down to Nkuhlu, with lots of general game.





An elephant crossing with babies






23rd Day 8: Skukuza to Johannesburg

We woke early on the last morning and while having a cup of tea, a Franklin suddenly flew up into the tree on the fence line and started shrieking.



I glanced to the left along the fence line and there was a Leopard or Lion running along the fence. At first I thought it was a Hyena that usually walks along the fence, but it had a long talk with a white tuft at the end. It wqas the fist time I have seen one of the big cats along the Skukuza fence line.
I missed it in the photo but included the photo to show where it was walking.



We left Skukuza for Phabeni gate at about 07h00, first up were more Hyena on the S1







and lastly before leaving a gymnogene.





Thanks to all that have followed and commented on our TR

Bye for now.