Browns in Kruger September 2024

[Pumbaa]

Again leopards overload, Bushcraft

and even lions but my favourite is the wild cat inside camp - Always a pleasure when detecting same

[Bushcraft]

The lion looks battered and bruised, poor thing

The elephant bull incident sounds hilarious, but maybe facing it was less fun and those bulls can be darn big. perhaps it's a good thing that the Cow is dead scared of ellies, as otherwise you might be able to stand up against him, just for the thrill

I love the kitties

It is ridiculous that SANParks cannot even keep the sighting boards all alike

It is great to hear that the girls are doing well, although it is difficult to imagine Bushpig doing accounting It will be interesting to discover what Albert will choose

Correct, that lion had been in a few scraps

That particular bull ellie was too large to take chances

I'm not certain how accurate those sighting boards are anyway as kids mess around with them

I was also shocked at the accounting selection, but she seems to be talented in that area and has already signed a job offer for 2027, which is when she qualifies.

[Bushcraft]

That ellie is huge ... I wouldn't want a run in with him!

Great nighttime fence activity!

We took the loop to the baobab tree and it was finally open. The road through the riverbed is very sandy and someone could potentially get stuck there if they drive too slowly, so maybe that has been the issue. The tree looked fine although it had no leaves, while we noticed that the one at Timbavati did have leaves.

Thanks for the baobab info Flutts One with leaves and one without

[Bushcraft]

Again leopards overload, Bushcraft

and even lions but my favourite is the wild cat inside camp - Always a pleasure when detecting same

We were lucky with leopard on the S100 this trip, which isn't normally the case

Those AWC's were outside camp, I had my lens poking through a gap in the fence I was actually surprised at how many "camera holes" are in the fence.

[Bushcraft]

2nd September Satara

We woke to a clear cloudless day and were at the camp gate camp parked in the queue just before 6am.

The plan this morning was to head straight to Nsemani Dam and if there was no action at the dam to turn and head to the S100.

The majority of the cars in front of us turned down the S100 which made me a little nervous that our plan was incorrect, but we turned onto the H7 anyway as we didn’t want to be behind the crowd chowing their dust.

Around 1km down the H7 we found a couple of lionesses and some teenagers moving in the grass next to the road.

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I thought they were going to wander off, but they suddenly turned and started to head back in our direction. It took us a few seconds longer to work out what was going on, but when we spotted a few more lionesses sitting in the grass with some blood on them, we realised that they had killed something and some lions were still eating the scraps.

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[Bushcraft]

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Around 10 minutes later the one teenage lion seemed to be checking something out intently, so we followed his/her gaze and found a scallywag spying on them and then another sneaky scavenger also pulled in.

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[Bushcraft]

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Once the 2nd hyena arrived, the lionesses and teenagers got up and headed off to some trees around 150m away, but one lioness refused to move and continued chowing.

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[Bushcraft]

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The pressure was eventually too much for the last remaining lionesses and as the 3rd hyena came charging in, she got up and moved off towards the other lions.

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The hyenas and jackal moved in while the last lioness was still in the area and the shrieking started almost immediately. We were then able to ID the kill as a kudu because the one hyena had scored the remains of the skull & horns. She adjusted her grip a few times while trying to avoid the other hyenas who were trying to steal it from her and then she roared straight towards us and across the road with another shrieking hyena following close behind. Seconds later the 3rd hyena came flying past on the same route, but with the remains of a leg in its mouth.

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[Bushcraft]

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The hyenas continued to charge off with their score into the distance and out of sight, while the jackal remained at the kill site snacking on any left-over pieces and the lion had all gone to sleep under some trees far off in the distance.

We had been at this sighting for more than an hour and others had started to arrive from the Orpen/Tamboti side, so we took a guess that the rest of the H7 and Nsemani dam hadn’t produced anything exciting, therefore we turned and headed for the S100.


Just before the H7/H1-3 intersection a lone female ostrich made an appearance, so we stopped for the mandatory pic.

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A few km down the S100 we found a few cars stopped on the side of the road, so we slowly approached and it quickly became clear that it was more lions. The Shishangaan male coalition, including Casper, were sleeping about 10m off the road and fortunately they were in an open area, so there were plenty spots to view them from, therefore we found a gap to park in and switched off.

Our timing was lucky as minutes later the 1st male got up and walked to a bush down the road for a cooler place to sleep. This movement woke the other lions up and they started to look around.

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To be continued

[Lisbeth]

I was also shocked at the accounting selection, but she seems to be talented in that area and has already signed a job offer for 2027, which is when she qualifies.

The important thing is that she is happy