A Fantarantulatastic Trip To Kruger - April 2017

[PJL]

Great collection of hyenas and I love the banded mongoose

Thanks Lis We saw a lot of mongoose this trip

By this stage of the trip, I was starting to lose track of days (that's a good sign). It's just a good thing that my camera holds images by date otherwise lots of days would merge into one

Ja! Thank goodness for that...same problem for many of us, I think..and you're still young!

What lovely light on the waterbuck horns!

Unique giraffe/hyena combo!

Nice day so far, Peej!

Ah, to be young again! (Talking about the boon)

I don't feel so young... but I'll take it

cute little ones
Boon well...so cute at this age
love too Banded Mongoose

Yes nan... definitely cute boons when they're that little

[PJL]

April 6th Continued

Back at Satara we had a decent lunch & swim break, which turned into a number of good sightings in their own right

While we were busy getting some lunch together my car seemed to be very attractive to a couple of local red-billed hornbill





They kept tapping on the windows, but I when they started on the front window and the wipers I decided it was time to move them off



Whilst sorting out the washing up I had a bit of a fright when a shadow moved close behind my legs - it was a young rock monitor





I quickly got the rest of the family over and we followed it around as it made its way through the camp, checking out some of the bins along the way





Eventually it retreated up a tree



The swim produced yet more sightings. First some kind of bat in one of the lapa areas



On a nearby tree, one of those blue-headed tree agamas was blending in nicely. I guess it was somewhere between it's blue phase





The poor lizard had to endure some photobombers



The last camp sighting was what I think is a red-billed buffalo weaver

[nan]

love the Bat
and the Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
the Calao with competitor and of course the Monitor

[Flutterby]

We sometimes also make our morning drives too long, and it's not just young kids that get restless and cause chaos!

Lovely pics of the hyena youngsters. They can be real babies when the adults are not around.

Great sightings in the camp!

[Lisbeth]

I love your camp sightings

[PJL]

love the Bat
and the Red-billed Buffalo Weaver
the Calao with competitor and of course the Monitor

Thanks nan... I learned a new french word today

We sometimes also make our morning drives too long, and it's not just young kids that get restless and cause chaos!

Lovely pics of the hyena youngsters. They can be real babies when the adults are not around.

Great sightings in the camp!

And there I was thinking the restless thing will change in time
Thanks for the comments

I love your camp sightings

Thanks Lis

There was one more camp sighting that I forgot about. Some of those king crickets had made their way towards our camp



Fortunately D found himself a good job clearing them out the way

[PJL]

April 6th Continued

For our afternoon drive we decided to pop up towards the Timbavati area via the H1-4 and S127. Along the H1-4 we saw a red bishop in bright plumage and a nice close-up view of a young bateleur





Further up the H1-4 there was a line-up of vehicles due to some far-off flat lions. We decided it was better to try and see them later in the evening on the way back

The S127 provides big wide-open views, and from there we could see something of a storm starting to build to the south of Satara, but it seemed innocuous enough





We decided to see if there was any sign of the lions that we had seen a few days previously on the S39 and amazingly after a couple of km along the road we found them



They were very well camouflaged, so only on closer inspection did we see that the lioness was blind in her right eye - and so this was a different mating couple from the one we had seen in the area previously

The storm had crept up on us and by this point there were claps of thunder at regular intervals as it rolled by to the west. The rumbles had the lions looking to the sky now and again.





The lions didn't look like they were moving anywhere quickly, so we started turning around with a plan to head back to the other lions when suddenly the female got up and started moving. I wasn't fast enough to get any pics due to driving, but shortly after the male went for a bit of a wander over to her













They both seemed quite content with their new spots, so we took a couple more pics and started heading back





The storm had really started closing in from all directions, but at least the other lions back on the H1-4 were visible now as well



For a brief moment it looked like they might try their luck on a herd of buffalo, but they thought better of it.



By this point it was getting so dark due to the storms that we figured we better head back to camp and see whether we would be sleeping in the car for the night. We hadn't really expected the storm, and so our tent wasn't perhaps as well prepared as we could have made it





The weather continued to get worse and as we were driving there were some extremely close bolts of lightning and some immense walls of water falling out the sky



Although it had rained back at Satara, it wasn't as bad as we had feared so there wasn't too much mopping up to do... but unknown to us there was more rain to come

[Lisbeth]

D is incredible! Apart from D, you and me, I wonder how many people would do that job

[Lisbeth]

That sky looks real dangerous

[Richprins]

I am incredibly impressed, Peej! Few people use the word "innocuous"!

Should have squashed that disgusting cricket IMO...but then it means ants, I suppose...

Nice storm shots, a different experience in the Lowveld bush?

The agamas are more blue in the summer, if I do not error?

it is an eppauletted fruit bat, I think...only because it has eppaulettes?