Browns in Kruger September 2019

[Bushcraft]

Hidden leopards but made up for by a honeybadger

Nice pic of the lion in the river

Flip flops

How is the food at the golf club, when and if you get it?

The golf club can be hit and miss Lisbeth The focus certainly isn't on good food service, but the chow is generally ok

[Bushcraft]

Catching up again after the last few posts .Lovely sighting with the Lions and the Male Lion in the water is pity about missing the chase . Like all the others have said your crew really does seem to have the luck with spotting the Leopards .Nice sighting of the Honey badger .

We research leopard sightings for a month before each trip and formulate a pattern which sometimes works and other times not, but at least we put ourselves in the correct places for leopard and then the rest is luck, but patterns can change overnight also, so we often change our plan at times throughout a trip. Multiple trained eyes looking also helps bigtime

[Bushcraft]

WoW Bushcraft,

I now caught up and must say I am still seeing spots and even more spots - Indeed Incredible number of leopards you saw - Love the one drinking

Not to forget the lions and once again wild dogs plus nyalas

We still want to visit the restaurant at the Golf club sounds like a must do

We averaged 3 leopard sightings a day on this trip, but only 22 leopard in total over the 9 days as 5 sightings were the same leopard but on different days

Don't expect 5 star stuff at the golf club, it's really not on the same level as the recognised restaurants, but it's peaceful

[Bushcraft]

Leopards every day?! We're lucky if we see one in a trip!!

Handsome lion in the riverbed!

Lucky with leopard this trip Flutts and yes a leopard every day this trip, with only 1 day with 1 leopard, more every other day

[Bushcraft]

I already lost leopard count... after only three days or so. Granted, they weren't all brilliant sightings,
but nice for the head count

We were in a similar "hunting" position last year, just with cheetah and springbok. Smack in the middle of
it, but unfortunately with our backs on the real happenings. Was "only" able to watch the hunt and kill, but
never to take any photos. Afterwards I figured that I had found it quite nice to not point the camera and
rather enjoy what was happening in real, not through the lens

Oh, and I see there was a honey badger thrown into the "special sighting mix" as well

Yes, a few leopard so far

That lion hunt was very frustrating but I get the point of sitting back and enjoying the sighting which is what we should have done considering how we were positioned

Hawkeyes was very proud of her badger spot, she seems to find them every trip while the rest of us miss them

[Bushcraft]

23rd Lower Sabie

The wind was still howling when we got up and now it was freezing cold also which was a shock to the KZN systems. I checked an updated weather forecast and it indicated bad weather with howling winds and the odd chance of drizzle for the next 4 days which made us very nervous because over the years we have seen a marked decrease in cat sightings when a cold wind is howling.

We had no idea what to do this day, so as we exited Lower Sabie I said “Left or Right” and everybody said right and 2 minutes later it proved to be the correct decision as a male lion was cruising in the road just past Sunset Dam.

He walked along ahead of us for a few minutes before ducking down to the riverbed, so we continued on.

1.jpg (91.37 KiB) Viewed 315 times

2.jpg (148.48 KiB) Viewed 315 times

We stopped again for pics just past the S79 causeway because a leopard was relaxing in a dead tree in the riverbed.

3.jpg (134.47 KiB) Viewed 315 times

4.jpg (127.61 KiB) Viewed 315 times

[Bushcraft]

The leopard got a little nervous as more cars arrived at the sighting and eventually climbed down and ducked out of sight.

We then decided to head towards the H12 and up the H1-2 to Tshokwane and this route produced a hyena sleeping, lion and klippies on the rocks at Kruger Tablets, zebra, etc.

5.jpg (151 KiB) Viewed 314 times

6.jpg (126.13 KiB) Viewed 314 times

7.jpg (141.66 KiB) Viewed 314 times

8.jpg (147.52 KiB) Viewed 314 times

[Bushcraft]

The cold wind was blowing even more at Tshokwane so it wasn’t a pleasant place to park off, but I needed information so entered into stalker mode at the sighting board while the clan went to the loo. There was 1 ellie magnet and 1 buff magnet on the entire H1-3 and no magnets on the H10, so I wondered around waiting for a victim to interrogate. Eventually someone pulled in who had just done the H10 and he informed me that they spotted nothing the entire way up which gave me a mild pelican as I didn’t feel like driving the H1-2 back again, but when another person arrived and confirmed the same thing we decided to rather head back the same route we had driven up.

The lion and hyena were still sleeping in the same spots on the return drive, but a few ellies and GHB’s showed up.

9.jpg (117.34 KiB) Viewed 313 times

10.jpg (177.12 KiB) Viewed 313 times

As we neared the causeway again the normal story started on whether to take the dirt or the tar, however we drove the dirt on the way up and spotted nothing, but we have always had more success on the dirt loop, so I turned onto the dirt again anyway and as luck would have it, it was the correct decision as around 1.5km later we found the S79 leopard.

11.jpg (174.89 KiB) Viewed 313 times

12.jpg (164.18 KiB) Viewed 313 times

To be continued

[Richprins]

How many leopard are there on that river????

Great pose on the tree stump there!

Ja, BC, cold and wind are not great for game viewing, as you can see, but better than boiling sun!

I wonder if people get out at the Tablets still or not?

[Mel]

Astounding... normal people count the lion sightings, the KZN Brown Clan their leopards

So, this morning was still pretty successful. Am quite curious to learn how the next days went -
as in a) if the weather forecast was correct and in b) if so, if yours was too
Although I should hope not otherwise it might produce some pelicans
(I just love that saying!)