Browns in Kruger October 2023

[Lisbeth]

Porky must have become an expert in porcupines, as it cannot be an easy catch

Pretty genet

The tinyphant

Great doggie sighting I was hoping for a hyena/wild dog battle but it wasn't to be

[Richprins]

Beautiful stuff all round, Bushy!

I wonder how Porky gets the quills out?

How was the accommodation at Talamati, we were there the year before and it was starting to get tired...

I like the little ellie shot!

What an astounding wild dog sighting, must surely rate tops!

[Bushcraft]

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

Yes, the Golf club manageress and I have a history regarding shoes

We were lucky with Porky, we have seen him a few times before, but this is the 1st time we have seen him with a porcupine.

Thanks again for reading and commenting

[Bushcraft]

Porky must have become an expert in porcupines, as it cannot be an easy catch

Pretty genet

The tinyphant

Great doggie sighting I was hoping for a hyena/wild dog battle but it wasn't to be

Yes, Porky, originally named the Porcupine Slayer on the "leopards of KNP" facebook group, must be a master at it because I have seen numerous pics of him with porcupines.

There was a mini scrap between the dogs and hyena at the kill, but the grass was so long one could only seen tops of heads and ears. The juniors also took off into the road at the same time, so our focus moved there.

[Bushcraft]

Beautiful stuff all round, Bushy!

I wonder how Porky gets the quills out?

How was the accommodation at Talamati, we were there the year before and it was starting to get tired...

I like the little ellie shot!

What an astounding wild dog sighting, must surely rate tops!

Sharp RP

I assume Porky pulls the quills, that he can reach with his mouth, out with his teeth, but he must have a plan for the facial quills because we see him again

Agreed, some units at Talamati are tired We have a particular unit that we book there each trip and it's slightly better (hence the different braai style).

The wild dog sighting was magic and Albert did a good job of the pics. I think she must take all the pics over so I can just relax and enjoy the sightings.

[Bushcraft]

3rd October Talamati to Skukuza continued

We were reluctant to move on from the private road that the wild dogs had disappeared up in case they came back, but eventually it was apparent that they had moved on permanently, so we continued on towards the S36.

The S36 produced some of the usual gang, including a phantom leopard in tree sighting that I reversed back down the road for as the Cow insisted that there was a leopard in the tree, but it must have bailed out the tree when we stopped to reverse. We scouted around the area, but there was no sign of a leopard, so we moved on.

At the S36/H7 intersection the Cow then spotted a cheetah way off in the grass. I initially thought that she was crazy due to the phantom leopard, but after some of the usual “You see that tree, now look left to the green bush, etc” stories we all could see it.

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A couple then stopped next to us to find out what we were looking at, hence the Cow went into her directional speech again, but seconds later the cheetah started to move, so we followed along with the new arrivals who were still trying to see the cheetah. The cheetah paused, so the Cow snapped a pic and tried to get them to look at the camera to orientate where to look, but seconds later the cheetah disappeared into thick bush further away from the road and we lost sight of it.

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I felt sorry for the new arrivals as they never got to see the cheetah, but unfortunately that’s how it is sometimes, so we said our goodbyes and left them to continue searching for it.

We stopped for a loo break at Satara and then continued on down the H1-3 towards Tshokwane which didn’t produce much action until around 5km from Tshokwane when the Cow shouted

“WILD DOGS!”

The Cow was on form this day and we quickly all spotted 2 dogs approaching from a distance. The 1 dog was missing more than half it’s ear and this was causing a disturbance in our car between Albert and the Cow, but I was to focused on where they were going.

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[Bushcraft]

We followed the dogs for about 1km down the road and then they ran off into the riverbed and up the opposite bank where they stopped to call their heads off for the rest of the pack before disappearing into the bush.

Tshokwane was surprisingly busy and the sighting board didn’t show much action, so we just had a quick loo stop and continued down the H1-2 towards Skukuza.

Just after the H1-2/S36 southern entrance something caught my eye and then milliseconds later Albert and I both shouted

“LEOPARD!”

The leopard was cruising along next to the road, so our timing luck was on point again.

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She was heading straight towards a drainage pipe under up road, so we knew that she was plotting to either hideout/hunt in the pipe or use it to get to the other side of the road, so I started to position accordingly when suddenly another car arrived and got in the way.

“What are you looking at?”

I’m horribly impatient in these tense situations “leopard, right there” and I started to move slowly forward when the penny dropped with the new arrivals and we heard some colourful panicked language as they spotted the leopard. This was amusing for a second, but then they cut straight in front of us blocking our view, so our amusement turned to anger.

“HEY WTF”

These new arrivals had proper leopard fever and didn’t pay attention to us or my hand signals, so I promptly drove around them just as the leopard approached and entered the drainage pipe, therefore I quickly moved to park on the other side of the road.

The new arrivals stopped almost on top the drainage pipe and then checked us out as if we were mad and parked on the wrong side of the road, but I don’t think they had joined the dots yet.

Seconds went past and no leopard so I tried to reposition to get a better view of the pipe, but as I started to move Albert let rip as she had the pipe exit lined up with the camera to get a facial and the leopard’s head popped out as I started to move, so I stuffed the pic up.

The leopard quickly exited the pipe and then went into hunt mode, so our excitement levels increased, but it was short lived as soon her body language changed and she parked off next to a tree for a few seconds before continuing on deeper into the bush and out of sight.

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[Bushcraft]

The leopard fever couple still hadn’t picked up on what was happening and they were still looking on the wrong side of the road, but we knew it was over and drove on.

We then decided to do the S83 marula loop towards Skukuza rather then the tar with the hope it would be more peaceful traffic wise, but just before the end of the loop we found a large traffic jam where people/OSV’s had blocked both sides of the road which is always very irritating.

We slowly moved with the queue and eventually found the lions that were causing the commotion. They were fairly close to the road, but there wasn’t a clear view anywhere, so we quickly snapped proof pics and gapped it as soon as we could get through the traffic.

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We stopped at Lake Panic before heading to the golf club, but the car park was full, so we didn’t even get out the car and just continued on. I was even more shocked at how busy the golf club car park was on arrival; however, I suppose it was midday during school holidays, but it used to be a fairly quiet place, even in school holidays, before the revamp.

I was taking my time in the car park because I was still trying to decide if I wanted to even enter due to the crowd, but the Cow and Albert were already carrying on like early morning guinea fowls in the car park while taking selfies of their seventy’s hippy outfits, so I got out the car and we entered.

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I think we got the last available table, so we knew it was going to be a wait and eventually half an hour later just before we were going to leave, the main manager took our order, and nearly an hour later our toasted sarmies arrived. I made a mental note to never visit the golf club in school holidays at midday again.

The short drive to Skukuza for check in didn’t produce much, however we did spend some quiet time with a junior bushbuck on the Lake Panic road.

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[Bushcraft]

The Cow had managed to organize our usual unit at Skukuza, the only GC6 unit in the camp, which is on the fence line between Moni guest house and the GC4V’s. This unit has its own little Lapa thing close to the fence line, so after unpacking we just parked off and relaxed under the Lapa.

At around 4pm we decided that it was time to hit the road again and the original plan was to do the H4-1/H12/H1-2 loop since it’s not too long.

It was rather quiet on the H4-1 and the H12 bridge, so we had some spare time, therefore I suggested that we should take the 5km trip down the S30 to one of our favourite park-off spots in a little loop just off the road, but it was also quiet, however just as we re-entered the main dirt road to head back to camp, a collared wild dog walked out into the open. A few minutes later more dogs followed, including pups, and then they entered the road. This was our 3rd different wild dog pack for the day.

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Time was now against us unfortunately so after some frantic pics we had to leave them and head for camp and just made it with 1 minute to spare.

It had been a long day, so we had a small braai and tried to hang around in the dark under our Lapa for the porcupine that likes to visit the area in front of Moni guest house and the GC6, but we couldn’t last so wobbled off to bed.

To be continued

[Lisbeth]

Cheetah, leopard, lions and wild dogs twice You were spoilt with sightings......as usual

Why don't you take along homemade sandwiches and drinks in a cooler box from time to time? Of course it is nice to get out of the car and getting served, but if you have to wait for hours...