Browns in Kruger September 2024

[Bushcraft]

Hey Guys,

It’s time for a new TT and to capture some history.

I’m going to push this out fairly fast as per normal, so catch up when you can if interested.

All the kids have finished school now, so this was the 1st year since 2010 that our annual KNP trip didn’t need to be governed by school holiday timeframes. I have been to KNP every month of the year except February and prefer the months of August/September for game viewing, but obviously we wanted to avoid the free week due to the crowds as our previous experience during this week wasn’t great, however Sanparks don’t publish those dates until a few months before, so they indirectly stuff things up for those who plan in advance. Sanparks should publish the free week dates 11 months in advance when bookings open.

This trip was once again only the Cow, Albert & I because Hawkeyes had work commitments and Bushpig Varsity commitments so they stayed and looked after the house, granny, dogs, cat, rabbits, fish and hamster. Next year we have booked a week during the July school holidays, as that’s unfortunately the only time they both get time off and can join us.

We juggled a few dates and changed things a few times, but eventually settled on the last few days in August and the 1st week of September, as per below, because historically the free week hasn’t been during the 1st week of September. (We found out 2 months before the trip that the free week started the day after we were leaving KNP, so we were lucky).

29th August Nkonkoni Fishing Camp, Jozini Dam
30th and 31st Lower Sabie
1st & 2nd Satara
3rd, 4th and 5th Skukuza
6th & 7th Biyamiti
8th Mpila Camp, Imfolozi

The rhino population is again a massive concern as they were missing from many of the usual spots and I fear that in the near future a rhino sighting in Kruger may be as rare as a pangolin sighting. I will post a few rhino pics towards the end of the travel tale as I don’t believe this will be an issue months later.

We still found the condition of the accommodation rather sketchy for the price in some camps, but we prefer staying in the park than putting up with the entrance gate chaos each morning.

In summary, the trip was again a little different without Hawkeyes & Bushpig, the weather unfortunately wasn’t the best, although Kruger needed the rain, and it’s the 1st trip since around 2010 that we never found any wild dogs, but Kruger is still a special place.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

29th August Home to Nkonkoni Fishing Camp Jozini Dam

I sometimes work half day when we are stopping over at Jozini Dam on route to Kruger, but decided to take the entire day off to eliminate the pressure I put on the Cow to have everything ready and waiting in the driveway, however we could only book in at Nkonkoni at 2pm and as per Murphy’s law, the cold front of the year had also arrived, so there was no rush and we only left home at around 9:30am to take a slow relaxed drive up.

Around 30 minutes later, while on the freeway passing Durban, I noticed a strange noise coming from the car’s engine. I had noticed it the evening before on the way home from work and we had tried to see what the issue was, but didn’t come right, however the noise was now getting worse, so I decided to turn off and head to my office where we could safely stop to check it out.

Fortunately, there were still some staff at the office with experience of similar issues and they immediately advised that it was the pipe from the turbo to the intercooler.

There was no time to wait for a mechanic, so we stripped the pipe and a work colleague left for various car part dealers to try and purchase another. Fortunately, he eventually found a replacement pipe in Pinetown 25km away, but on arrival we found that the pipe was the wrong size, so we had to cut it to size and make a plan.

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This entire mission took more than 2.5 hours and it was now around lunchtime and we still had a 4-hour drive to Jozini Dam, so we were under pressure to pull finger. I also wasn’t totally confident in our “jippo” repair, so I wasn’t keen to put the foot down until it was clear that the repair would last.

It rained most of the 4-hour drive and the truck chaos around Richards Bay didn’t make things any easier. The Cow was also flapping about the dirt road down to Nkonkoni in the rain because we got seriously stuck last year, so my pelican was out by the time we arrived, which was just after 4pm, but we never got stuck fortunately. The Cow was now a little more cheerful since we had made it to reception, however I knew that the weather forecast predicted rain for the next few days and that the drive out on the dirt was going to be the real test because it was all slightly uphill, but I decided to rather keep that to myself at this stage.

Nkonkoni is actually marketed as a tiger fishing camp with direct access to the dam and it’s largely unfenced on the northern side, so it has plenty general game, including the odd mental Jozini elephant and hippo, however no land predators, so it’s generally safe to walk around which is cool.

My pelican evaporated on arrival at our unit because there were some warties hanging out in front of the unit and a frog hiding on the veranda, so the bush feel started and my teeth were soon hanging out.

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[Bushcraft]

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The sausage tree next to our unit was also full of sunbirds and some other colourful models, so the Cow and I immediately tried for some quick pics, but the conditions were just too dark for my camera kit and the birds had A.D.D, so we gave up on that idea.

After a quick unpacking mission, we all went on walk around camp because the Cow’s brother and wife are visiting next year from Australia and she wanted pics of the camp to show them as they are coming with us on our next trip, but it was freezing cold for Jozini Dam, around 15 degrees, the wind was howling and the rain we had driven in for most of the way up was about to arrive, so it wasn’t a long walkabout.

We then took a quick 1km drive down to the dam to see if any local animals were around and found an ostrich next to the reeds and then on the slightly longer 3km loop around back to camp we found some nyala and a herd of very nervous wildebeest which charged across the road in front of us.

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[Bushcraft]

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We were very concerned about the reaction many of the animals outside of camp had to the vehicle as most ran off almost immediately. In our experience this is normally because they don’t see vehicles often, which isn’t really the case here, or something more sinister is happening, like hunting from a vehicle. Our hope is that some darting and animal relocation has been taking place from vehicles and not hunting.

I’m not the type that can sit still for long, unless drunk, therefore after sitting in camp for 5 minutes I was on a mission for the next adventure. Albert was also keen, so we decided to walk to the 2 communal boma areas so that she could video them on her phone and we encountered numerous nyala while on the walk, but not much else other than birds, so I decided to rather get the fire going at our unit’s boma before the heavy rain arrived.

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[Bushcraft]

Once the fires were going, the Cow and Albert pulled in to join me with some beer shandies. We are still getting used to catering for 3 and not the entire clan, so the Cow had brought way too much meat, but at least we had some left to eat in the car the next day.

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The gentle rain started to increase in volume after supper, so we sat chatting on the veranda for another half an hour and then Albert cruised off to her unit.

The Cow and I still had to shower, but they are outside and open to the environment, so it was an experience at around 10 degrees Celsius in the howling wind and rain.


To be continued

[Bushcraft]

30th August Nkonkoni Fishing Camp Jozini Dam to Lower Sabie

We were up and about at around 5:30am and it was still drizzling and freezing cold, so we quickly packed the car and hit the road.

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The Cow was now panicking about the dirt road out again and it did feel like I was driving on soap, but we made it out with minimal drama as they had improved the drainage on the sides of the road.

It rained most of the way through Swaziland, which isn’t such a bad thing at the border posts because the staff are less enthusiastic to inspect everything in the rain.

We got to Komatipoort at midday and we were shocked at the temperature because we had never experienced a midday maximum temperature of 13 degrees in KNP and the howling wind made it feel even colder, but fortunately it wasn’t raining, however we knew based on what we had driven through that the rain was on its way.

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I managed to semi behave through our dreaded Spar shopping mission and we arrived in a peaceful mood at Croc Bridge just before 1pm.

It was a fairly quiet drive up to Lower Sabie, but we did see all the normal locals, however only stopped for pics of a martial and a hyena.

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[Bushcraft]

We continued on past Lower Sabie to quickly check out Sunset dam before booking in and found all the hippo out the dam which may have been due to the heavy overcast cold weather. A lioness was also sleeping or trying to suntan in the riverbed below Sunset dam which we found very strange in the conditions.

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The lioness was only visible through bushes from possibly 2 places and other visitors hadn’t seen her yet, so as per normal on the H4-1, our peace didn’t last and we were soon getting crowded, so moved on to Lower Sabie to book in.

There were some elephant cruising around in front of Lower Sabie’s main deck and after unpacking the Cow heard green parrots, so I got roped into the parrot hunt and a Robin also got caught up in the photographic mission.

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[Bushcraft]

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At around 3:30pm we bailed back into the car and headed up the H4-1 towards to H12 bridge for our afternoon drive, but as expected it was very quiet and even the “suntanning” lioness had taken cover from the howling cold wind and the odd rain shower.

We got to the H12 bridge sooner than expected due to the lack of sightings, so decided to head up to the H12/H1-2 intersection before turning to head back to Lower Sabie and this turned out to be a lucky decision because just past the intersection we found a leopard in a tree with it’s kill, so I immediately went into overdrive.


“THERE!”

“@#%, this camera won’t focus! It’s too dark!”

“#$^t it’s getting wet in the drizzle”

The leopard initially seemed rather nervous, but then settled down, continued chowing and eventually lay down on its kill.

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[Bushcraft]

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The clock was now ticking on us and the weather continued to worsen, so I eventually reluctantly turned back towards Lower Sabie, but my teeth were secretly hanging out because I didn’t expect to find a cat in these conditions. We generally always score a luck sighting wise in overcast cold conditions, but it’s always a battle for sightings, especially cats, when there’s a howling cold wind involved also.

The temperature continued to drop on our return drive and the sightings initially didn’t improve on the H4-1, so we were chatting and not paying much attention, but something caught my eye around 10km from Lower Sabie.

“What’s moving up ahead?”

“@#%t, it’s a Civet next to the road. Get the camera ready!”

The Civet was parking off next to the road, but got a skrik when it noticed us and it started to head off into the bush, so we only managed a few pics and none were totally in focus.

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It was around 8 degrees by the time we pulled into Lower Sabie and the fine drizzle had started again, so it wasn’t pleasant conditions for a braai, but we had no other option, so I started the fire anyway, however I needed half a box of firelighters and had to still blow on it until I nearly passed out, so supper was much later than normal. This is the 1st night ever in KNP that I could have done with a pair of closed shoes, but I only own 1 pair, besides the work safety boots, and never packed them.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

31th August Lower Sabie

We woke to no change in the weather, the cold wind was still pumping, the persistent intermittent drizzle was very irritating, and my car temperature gauge was indicating 6 degrees, so the morning coffee was very welcome.

We knew that there was a good chance that the leopard from yesterday would still be hanging around it’s kill, so the plan was to simply head back to the H12/H1-2 intersection.

There was no change on the way up the H4-1 with very few locals making an appearance, but we did stop a few times, however only took pics of an approaching hyena.

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