Browns in Kruger September 2021

[Pumbaa]

What luck with the birds you had too, Bushcraft

and even impalas

Again incredible leopard luck and on top lions too - Interesting wild dog and vulture sequence too

[Richprins]

Grand luck again, BC! The wild dog and vultures are a once in a lifetime sequence!


Nice lourie in the dead leaves there!


And laughing impala!

[Bushcraft]

It is a blessing that the Cow likes birds, if not we would be without

The purple-crested-turaco would be bad to have missed Also the Little Bee-eater is a nice one!

I like birds of prey and I'm slowly getting into the rest but correct, there would be minimal bird pics without the Cow

[Bushcraft]

What luck with the birds you had too, Bushcraft

and even impalas

Again incredible leopard luck and on top lions too - Interesting wild dog and vulture sequence too

The Cow has the bird luck Pumbaa Yes and impala

[Bushcraft]

Grand luck again, BC! The wild dog and vultures are a once in a lifetime sequence!


Nice lourie in the dead leaves there!


And laughing impala!

Research RP, not all luck

The wild dog/vulture story was funny to watch, we have seen it before

[Bushcraft]

1st October Skukuza

We woke to drizzle on and off, so ended up leaving camp a little later than normal and decided to do the H1-2/H12/H4-1 loop that we had tried to complete the previous evening.

Our first sighting for the morning was a wet sleepy hyena close to camp and then a Bateleur trying to dry out.

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The Sand River produced some lions far off in the riverbed and then the occupant of a stopped car pointed out spots in a tree which got the excitement going, however it was almost impossible to get a view, so some proof pics of the spots was eventually all we got.

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[Bushcraft]

Around 1km down the H12 from the H1-2 we spotted some cars and then the reason why appeared.

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The dogs were lying in numerous bundles, some fairly close to the road and some deeper into the bush, so we had no idea how many dogs there were.

I found a spot, switched off and waited for the odd movement from the dogs.

There were a few vultures hanging around, so the dogs must have killed something earlier, however each time a vulture landed on the ground a few of the junior dogs would do a semi charge but backed out each time the vulture stood its ground.

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[Bushcraft]

The vulture dog interaction was amusing, so we just parked off and had a cooldrink and snacks next to the road.

The adult dogs were out for the count and ignoring the vultures, but the junior dogs all jumped up each time a vulture moved, and the excitement caused the juniors to interact with each other also.

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Eventually the vultures left, and all the dogs went to sleep so we headed for camp for breakfast.

We were back in camp earlier than normal, so we had plenty of time to do our own thing. The Cow settled in with a book, Bushpig retreated inside with schoolwork and Albert and I went to explore the new train restaurant, the lower area of the camping section and the selection of GC6 chalets, which are looking a little tired now.

We stocked up on some items from the shop later and as we were leaving to Biyamiti the next morning for our last night I defrosted our camp freezer, dried it out and then stuffed it with everybody’s dirty clothes.

The weather also improved a little throughout the day and at least the rain had moved off, so we decided to duck out at around 3pm and the plan was to go back to where we had left the sleeping dogs on the H12 with the hope of getting their late afternoon “greeting ritual”, but our departure got delayed by the Cow as she charged off after a Turaco.

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The lioness was still having a snooze in the Sand River and then we were stopped by 2 birds having a major boxing match in the road.

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[Bushcraft]

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As we approached the wild dog section of the H12 our enthusiasm grew but there were no signs of the dogs, so we took an educated guess that they would move on up the H1-2, therefore backtracked to head up the H1-2 towards Tshokwane.

We instantly came across a semi awake hyena, then another, and then more walking.

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As we approached the first dip in the road an adult wild dog popped up in the middle of the road. He looked stressed out and frantic.

“He’s lost the others, we on the right track, let’s check further up the road quickly”

Two corners later the juniors of the pack that were lagging behind came into view.

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Every time 1 or a few of the juniors tried to get closer to the adults, one of the adults dropped back and charged at them (coming in at top of the pic below). The adults that we could see further up the road were clearly on a hunting mission, so this looked like discipline, the juniors had to stay back.

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[Bushcraft]

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This charging off juniors on and off carried on a few times over the next km while we followed along with another car.

The driver of the other car obviously had to get somewhere beyond Tshokwane because he seemed to be looking for every gap to get past the dogs and as soon as one opened up, he ducked off through them. This distracted the adult dogs and the juniors started to catch up.

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