A Spotty Flutter

[Flutterby]

A leopard on the fence line at night The record remained intact

You don't often get leopard sightings at camp fences so we were very happy.

Every time we stop at Olifants, I have taken a photo of my son next to the elephant behind the lookout.

Nice!!

It's great that your record wasn't broken but the trip is not finished yet

Indeed...it's not finished yet!

[Flutterby]

The next morning we were up early as usual, and I was busy on the verandah making coffee. Next thing, a large troop of baboons walked past. They looked at me and carried on walking, but something caught the eye of one of them who came onto the verandah. All there was on the table was a jar of coffee, a plastic container with sugar, and a milk carton, all sealed. He was standing in front of the door so was blocking my escape route. I tried shouting at him, but everytime I shooed him away, he came forward, and I was forced further back into the corner. Then he grabbed the sugar container and jumped onto the thatched roof where other baboons must have been waiting. There was then lots of screaming and thumping on the thatch, which I assume was a fight over the sugar. Shortly afterwards, the empty container came tumbling down, and I remarked, 'You could at least give the lid back too.' They were obviously listening to me, because the lid followed not long afterwards!!

We weren't too sure where we wanted to go for our morning drive, as according to the sightings boards, there hadn't been too many sightings in the area. All the action was at Lower Sabie and Croc Bridge. We eventually decided to head down the H11, onto the S1, the S65 and back up the H1-1.

We saw some hyena on the H11 but they were in thick bush, so no pics, and some ellies, buffalo and giraffe, but nothing too exciting.

Another cutie.

Some impala and giraffe were drinking at De La Porte.

[Flutterby]

Due to the quiet drive, we got back to camp very early, so we decided to head down the H4-1, across the high-level bridge and back on the H1-2.

Again, it was very quiet. At the first low-level bridge on the H1-2, we stopped next to a jeep jockey to ask if they had seen anything, which they hadn't, but they had heard there were lions on a kill near the Kruger tablets, so we decided to turn around and give it a try.

The lions were still there, plus lots of vehicles. I think everyone was at the same sighting because it was so quiet everywhere else! The lions were in thick bush, but we managed to find a spot where we could see some of them, without having to join the scrum. We counted about 5 lions, but could only get clearish pics of two of them.

[Flutterby]

The lions soon moved into the shade which made them very difficult to see so we returned to camp.

[Lisbeth]

Lions

[Flutterby]

[Flutterby]

As it was so quiet around Skukuza, we decided to leave earlier for our afternoon drive and go down the H4-1 to Lower Sabie.

Buffs in the riverbed.

A giraffe with a leafy body.

There was a large traffic jam at Lubyelubye as some lions had been seen in the riverbed below the bridge, but they could not be seen when we were there so we carried on.

A few kms further on, there was a smaller traffic jam for a leopard in the riverbed.

It amused us that there was a bigger traffic jam for invisible lions than there was for a visible leopard.

[Flutterby]

We stayed with the leopard for a while, then decided to head down to Sunset Dam as there were apparently lions on a kill nearby.

As we approached we saw another large traffic jam, but then realised that the lions were on the other side of the river and could only be seen with binoculars.

We headed back to the leopard but it had unfortunately moved on. We tried the Lubyelubye lions again, but despite the massive traffic jam they were still in hiding. While waiting to get through the traffic, a woman stopped to tell us that there were mating leopards a bit further on!

After about 2kms we saw a few vehicles and stopped to have look but couldn't see anything. The Brat wanted to stay to see if we could find them but time was moving on and we had to start heading back to camp. I told him we would find our own leopard.


This impala had a very wonky horn.

Somewhere around Nkuhlu, I can't remember where exactly, I saw something and shouted, 'There...in the road!' A leopard crossed the road in front of us!!

It was moving quickly so I didn't have time to check camera settings and just clicked. The pics aren't great, but proof nonetheless!

The Brat was a happy chappy again!

So we had ended our final full day in Kruger with another leopard sighting!

[Dzombo]

@Flutterby,

Slow drives are so frustrating!
Time in Kruger is limited. So a drive when one doesn't see much is a missed opportunity.

Fantastic cat sightings.

[Pumbaa]

Thanks so much, Flutterby,

love all the buffaloes as well as the nyala

plus more lions and even two leopards on one drive again