Browns in Kruger October 2023

[Bushcraft]

Ja cold windy weather is terrible for game viewing, Bushy, and Talamati hide is a bust if it isn't dry!

But still great sightings!

Agreed the spas in the camps are white elephants, I think some political bigwig's daughter got a tender...

Indeed hyena every morning!

What a leopard sighting!

Ja, we always battle for sightings in cold windy conditions. Talamati in summer or after any rain, is a no go camp for us. Hot dry conditions, the waterhole in front of camp produces plenty sightings.

That Spa is never going to make money in my opinion, there's only 15 units in camp

[Bushcraft]

The hyena is returning from a tough night with the pals at the local pub

The trumpeter hornbill was the first "strange" bird that we saw on our first trip to SA a loooong time ago

I also have a weakness for squirrels

Another leopard and with a porcupine

A lovely elephant sighting at the fence..... Welcome to the anti-screaming kids' club

Wow! The prepared braai looks great Have you ever burned down anything

We often get the trumpeter hornbill around Lower Sabie camp and sometimes on the H4-1.

I remembered your weakness for squirrels

Screaming kids in KNP It's the parents that are the problem though

[Bushcraft]

2nd October Talamati continued

The leopard then crossed the road in front of us with its porcupine and settled in the thick grass right next to the edge of the road, so I quickly repositioned the car in the best spot. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were and it proves that timing plays a large role.

The leopard had it’s back to us while feeding, but eventually he turned to check out other arriving cars and that’s when I managed to see his face clearly, it was a leopard known as Porky. He got given the name by others due to his long track record of killing porcupines and we had seen him before on previous trips, but never with a porcupine kill.

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More cars started to arrive, therefore we got jammed in fairly quickly and this gathering crowd also seemed to irritate Porky, so after 20 minutes of feeding he picked his kill up and stashed it in thick grass before moving off to lay down behind a tree.

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[Bushcraft]

We had been with Porky for more than half an hour and he was now snoozing in the long grass with only spots that were visible, so we were keen to duck back to Tshokwane for a chow, but we were still completely blocked in by other cars.

A further 30 minutes passed and we were still jammed which was causing some stress, but fortunately Porky eventually got up and cruised a couple of meters further down and this resulted in cars around us moving to follow him, so we could get out of the scrum after one last pic of him.

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We were stoked to finally find Porky with a kill and decided to just take it easy for the rest of the day, so we parked off at Tshokwane for a long leg stretch and chow before leaving just after midday to head back to Talamati.

We took the same route slowly back to camp and stopped a few times for various sightings, including a SBS, a jackal, ostriches, a stroppy little ellie that wanted to take us on with mom backing him up, and then just before turning into Talamati a hyena cruising down the road towards us.

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[Bushcraft]

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We arrived at Talamati at around 2pm or 3pm, so decided to relax in camp for the afternoon while Albert caught up on some matric studying.

At around 4pm I started the braai and was enjoying the quiet time, but soon it became apparent that our new neighbours were having a function at their unit and that others were arriving from other units in camp, so my pelican developed again, however after the initial loud greeting ritual, they were fairly respectful of others and their overexcited screaming juniors got told to play inside the unit much to my relief.

We tried another trip to both hides just after dark, but once again it was very quiet and the cold wind was still blowing, so we returned to our unit and found a genet while walking back. The genet was hyperactive and it took some sly manoeuvring to eventually get close enough to use the camera flash.

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Our neighbour’s visiting gang all started to leave at around 9pm, so we also decided to head off to shower, etc, because we had now realised that it was October, so gate opening was 5:30am and as we were moving to Skukuza we still had the car to pack in the morning.

[Bushcraft]

3rd October Talamati to Skukuza

We woke to the coldest morning of our trip, but at least the wind had stopped and the skies were clear. Lions were also roaring close to camp, so we were fairly positive of a better day of sightings while packing the car.

We finished packing just after 5:30am and strangely we were still the 1st out of the gate.

Our plan today was to head down the S145, up the S36 to the H7 and then on to Satara for a loo break before heading down the H1-3/H1-2 towards Skukuza Golf Club for a toasted sarmie lunch prior to booking in at Skukuza.

At the 1st open clearing just down the road from camp we found the lions, but unfortunately they were already moving off into thick bush as we arrived, so we only had a few minutes of visual.

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About 5km further down the S145 Albert suddenly shouted

“WILD DOGS!”

The dogs were in thick tall grass, but it was clear that they had just killed something as the eating frenzy was on the go.

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We have seen this many times and know that the dogs guzzle with speed and then move to find another victim or to sleep in a huddle, so I was hyped up on where to position the car because if the dogs were still hungry, they were going to take off again.

After a short negotiation I decided to turn the car to face back towards Talamati so that we weren’t looking straight into the sun and minutes later 1 dog entered the road in front of us and then more started to follow.

Albert had taken over the photography responsibility, so I just focused on trying to make sure that we were parked in the correct spot.

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[Bushcraft]

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Suddenly there was a commotion up the road and some dogs took off that direction. I couldn’t move as there were more dogs entering the road in front of us that I didn’t want to disturb, but the commotion came closer and then we realised that some gate-crashing hyenas were approaching.

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[Bushcraft]

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The hyenas charged straight into the kill location, but our focus changed quickly to the road behind us because as the hyenas arrived numerous junior dogs emerged from the tall grass, so I turned the car again.

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There was some interaction with the adults and then they started to move straight towards us, so I quickly hit reverse and took off backwards down the road to stay ahead of them.

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The reverse mission continued on for about 1km until we got to the Hoyo-Hoyo fancy lodge turnoff as the adults turned up the private road, so we couldn’t follow. Some juniors that were running behind the adults stopped to sniff around the sign which gave us a final photo opportunity.

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[Bushcraft]

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It was major frustrating watching the dogs disappear up the road because it certainly seemed like they were still on the hunt for another victim. The trailing scallywags then came past us and also continued up the private road, so they must have thought the same thing.

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To be continued

[Pumbaa]

Thanks so much, Bushcraft,

I just caught up again and indeed had a good laugh about the bare foot hating aunty

Secondly as always your leopard luck will never be down - Simply love the leopard with the porcupine kill - This is still one of my dream sightings

Also love the genet shot, the bsk with the kill and the one shot with the wild dogs on the road in the early morning light

Sigh - Overall again incredible sightings