Browns in Kruger September 2024

[Bushcraft]

Nice portraits of the lioness She must be quite young with those teeth, that don't need a dentist

Yes, no dentist required for that lioness

[Bushcraft]

What a day, Bushy!

That triple leopard sighting is astounding!

And a kill to boot!

Nice way to end off with a good Albert lion spotting too.

I see you put the wood on the fire early...weird!

Sorry about the tortoise...I've wiped out animals too, sometimes you just don't see them, although this person seemed a bit doff!

I forgot to ask, is the GC6 at Skukuza 6 full beds or does one have to struggle with the silly couches?

That leopard tree scrap was an awesome sighting RP I just wish that we had captured better pics of the event

I always prepare the braai over the midday period so that it's easy when getting back to camp at gate closing, besides you know me and my "hamster wheel" tendencies, so I have to keep busy.

That tortoise story wasn't cool since we were parked right next to it. I was waving at the occupants, but they ignored me

The GC6 at Skukuza used to be 2 x 3 bed huts and they have been joined and a kitchen/dining area created between them. For pics, check out/Google "Lekkeslaap Skukuza" and then scroll through the options until you find the GC6 - link below

https://www.lekkeslaap.co.za/akkommodas ... amp/kamers

[Bushcraft]

Also love the lion portraits and the heron from Biyamiti weir

Thanks Bushcraft,

although the S139 is a lovely road same can be extreme dense in summer months so we never had that much luck on that road and even the ellies are well hidden there

Thanks Pumbaa

We find that the S139 can be very hit and miss, although we have had the big 5 on it twice before. I have never done the drive in the summer months, but have in March & April a few times and agreed, the bush is very dense in many areas. We always finish off our trip in that area more for the peace and solitude that one can find

[Bushcraft]

7th September Biyamiti

This was our last full day in the park so we were up early, but we weren’t in a major rush to leave camp as one has to relax a little when at Biyamiti to fully appreciate the bush camp feeling. The weather had also changed again and it was overcast and windy. The overcast conditions aren’t the issue, but cold howling winds generally result in less predator sightings, so my enthusiasm wasn’t as high as it normally is.

Our plan for the morning was to take the S25 to Croc Bridge, then the S28 up towards Lower Sabie with the hope of finding some cheetah since we hadn’t found any on this trip yet, and then to reassess from there. I admittedly moaned a little about the S28 plan as I wanted another leopard sighting and one has a better chance on the H4-2 than the S28 for leopard according to many years of stats that I have recorded.

The S25 produced a hippo hiding in the bush and then a giraffe chewing something, which looked like a bone, but its facial expressions gave us a good laugh and then some hyena popped up just before Croc Bridge.

2.jpg (80.53 KiB) Viewed 146 times

3.jpg (144.95 KiB) Viewed 146 times

Halfway up the S28 we found 3 cheetahs, so Albert and the Cow’s plan worked out, but they were laying some distance away under some bushes, so the visuals weren’t great, however we sat and waited with the hope that they would eventually move.

Around 30 minutes later some zebra came cruising past and the 1 cheetah instantly snuck out into the open and then lay down again to observe the zebra.

4.jpg (201 KiB) Viewed 146 times

The adult zebras were definitely not an option for the cheetahs, so I only started to pay more attention once a zebra foal appeared in the distance.

5.jpg (186.2 KiB) Viewed 146 times

[Bushcraft]

Minutes later the cheetah in the open spotted the approaching foal, the body language changed immediately, and in seconds the chase was on, which left us frantically grabbing for cameras and trying to follow.

6.jpg (182.16 KiB) Viewed 146 times

The pace was incredible and in seconds the zebras charged across the road up ahead of us with the cheetahs in hot pursuit, so in approximately 5 seconds both were out of sight.

I frantically started the car and roared up the road to see if we could get another visual, but hit the brakes seconds later because the cheetahs had obviously given up on the chase and were now parked off on a fallen tree right next to the road.

7.jpg (170.15 KiB) Viewed 146 times

8.jpg (180.28 KiB) Viewed 146 times

9.jpg (145.86 KiB) Viewed 146 times

[Bushcraft]

10.jpg (161.66 KiB) Viewed 146 times

11.jpg (126.88 KiB) Viewed 146 times

The cheetahs continued to watch their surroundings from the fallen tree for another couple of minutes before climbing down and moving off into deeper dense bush and out of sight.

12.jpg (139.06 KiB) Viewed 146 times

13.jpg (229.02 KiB) Viewed 146 times

[Bushcraft]

We were stoked with the sighting and the temptation was to hang around a little longer in case the cheetahs reappeared, but we had been in the car a few hours already, so Lower Sabie toilets took priority.

We reconvened in the Lower Sabie car park and decided to travel a little up the H4-1 towards the Lubyelubye area in case the local lions were around and they were, however they were laying scattered around in the riverbed sleeping. Eventually 1 lioness woke up and looked at us for a few seconds before going to back sleep.

14.jpg (159.06 KiB) Viewed 146 times

A few km further up the road we encountered a massive traffic jam and the road was virtually gridlocked.

15.jpg (107.31 KiB) Viewed 146 times

I managed to chat to a passing OSV driver who had worked his way through the jam and he indicated that it was a leopard sleeping, but that the visual was bad. This chaos wasn’t my cup of tea, even though it was a leopard, so after a brief discussion, we decided that it wasn’t worth the stress, turned and ducked back down towards Biyamiti.

In the south of the park, due to the amount of day visitor traffic, the “other” lane is never going to be kept open, because nobody is going to sit behind parked cars with no visual for hours and if they overtake and suddenly get visuals, they aren’t going to turn a blind eye to the sighting because the “lane” has to be kept open, so it’s naïve to think otherwise. (Besides the fact that many OSV drivers in the south behave like taxi drivers and seem to spend their time parked in the middle of the road at busy sightings).

The drive back to Biyamiti didn’t produce anything new except a couple of ground hornbills cruising next to the road.

16.jpg (201.23 KiB) Viewed 146 times

Our plan for the afternoon was just to relax around camp, backup pictures, sort out any packing required for our long drive back towards KZN the next day, and to have our traditional last night in KNP wood fire/braai.

17.jpg (151.54 KiB) Viewed 146 times

[Bushcraft]

18.jpg (126.75 KiB) Viewed 146 times

c

19.jpg (134.25 KiB) Viewed 146 times

20.jpg (237.74 KiB) Viewed 146 times

21.jpg (83 KiB) Viewed 146 times

[Bushcraft]

22.jpg (84.81 KiB) Viewed 146 times

To be continued

[Lisbeth]

I'd say that three cheetahs in a tree beat a leopard sighting What do you say?

Beautiful paradise fly-catcher

It's a lovely fire with two pairs of crocs watching