6 Dutchies in a toyota avanza

[Lisbeth]

Welcome back Mattie

[mattie010]

So what made the holes in your tent??

We still are not sure, till today. I think we do have some photos of it, so will post them with the others!

[Richprins]

Hello, Mattie!

Ja, SanParks have been building that bridge for years now...said it would be finished last week, now next week etc. etc.

[Bushcraft]

Yip, that bridge repair has dragged on, but I believe that it will be open again this month.

I wonder what made those holes in your tent

[Mel]

Hello Mattie Good to hear you had a nice time! When you are finished here, we're happy to have some of your photos
from your European travels as well. We do cater for anything. And are always curious.

So what made the holes in your tent??

And how big were they?

[mattie010]

Of all my European travels?
This summer I am going to Thailand/Laos/Cambodja so might just post that one on here.

The holes were not big, just a few mm each, except for three. Those "holes" were more scratches. At least 20 holes appeared that night and if anyone could tell me which animal (guess it was an animal) does this kind of things I would be really happy

The bridge repair was not really nice, although Balule was really silent now during day time - which was both wonderfull and... well, kinda boring. Being more or less stuck (we couldn't bring any of our cooled food with us, because we didn't have a coolbox or anything) it was sometimes rather boring. We did see a lot though - pics are coming up asap. Starting my laptop at this moment!

[mattie010]

Next morning it was out of bed early (well, we tried) to go get some more lions, or at least: a good pic of a lion. We left Satara and checked in at Satara for Balule

The drive this morning was nice, we saw lots of new animals and got some okay sightings. It was hot today - getting near to the 35 degrees at midday, but the morning was chilly!

Our first this morning were some zebra (zebra)



And some beautiful landscapes. Kruger is nice with all the animals, but the landscapes are also truly amazing!



And some warties were also present this morning (wrattenzwijn)!



Next thing were some zebra. Looking at something. Note: at this moment only one car was standing still, so we didn't expect anything, although we knew with this looking in that direction that there were definitely predators!



After stopping and waiting but without asking we found those three - far off (cheeta):






I can't explain my happiness, since I really, really love cheetahs. Their speed, agility, muscles and power are so truly magnificent and there were only a few animals I hoped for, but the cheetah definitely was one of them!
Sadly they were far off and we even had one of the best places. When we tried to leave the scene everyone wanted to get in our gap and we were parked in big time. After 5 minutes of trying to get out, we finally managed.

On the way again we stopped at a bridge and almost drove past this big one (varaan):

We have seen them a lot on other places, especially in Malaysia on the Perhentian Islands you see them a lot. We managed over there to see over 100 of these in one day, but still... It was somehow more special to see it here, because this is true nature. Nature at it's finest, nature is it should be - except for the poachers and the visitors. But you get the idea

Far off we saw this big bird (struisvogel):


And closer by we saw this big bird (korhaan):


That was the drive for this time, tomorrow or thursday I'll continue with part 2 of our drive to Balule, with not all too much surprises, but with some nice sightings nevertheless!

I don't know the names in English by the way, but I'll try to name them at least in Dutch, which looks a lot like Afrikaans, except for names

[Alf]

Very lucky indeed to see cheetahs Mattie.

I have been going to Kruger 3 - 4 times a year for the last 10 years and only saw cheetah twice.

[harrys]

Great sighting of the Cheetahs

[Flutterby]

So glad you got to see cheetah...not that easy to find. Would love to know what made the holes in your tent?