Africa Wild

7th July Skukuza to Berg-en-Dal continued

About 1km later we arrived at N’watimhiri Dam and found grumpy again, but this time he seemed to have made peace with his squeeze and lost his upset brother.



The lioness lay down in the grass and I expected grumpy to pull up alongside, but he continued past her and down to the water for a drink.



She seemed to notice his absence and started shouting for his return



Her shouting got an instant reaction and I think he wanted to tell her to shut up in case others heard, so he pulled in rather quickly and scored in the process.







A few minutes later a group of mongoose arrived on the far side of the dam and they seemed to interest the lioness, which I found strange as mating lions are never interested in hunting as far as I’m aware, but she continued across the dam in their direction and then went into the crouching mode.





The mongoose continued in her direction and seemed completely unaware of her presence, but the male lion, who had been relaxing in the grass got nervous that his aunty was getting too far away from him, so he got up and started to follow, which immediately warned the mongoose who took off.

The male then caught the aunty while she was in the crouching position, which resulted in a less friendly reaction.



The aunty seemed to have lost interest in the public display, so moved off into the bush and the male followed a minute later.

Next up were a few ellies having their morning chow including this little chap next to the road



A few km later a herd of impala crossed the road in front of us and then hit the brakes. They seemed nervous about something, so I immediately shouted “There’s a predator around”. This got all excited for a few seconds until we spotted what was interesting the impala.

The remains of a previous kill was lying in the grass next to the road and it was fascinating to watch the nervous suspicion from the impala.



Next up were a few nyala next to the road, which are often fairly difficult to find in the south of Kruger, so we always take a few pics when spotting them.



We stopped at Lower Sabie for a loo break and then headed out towards Mlondozi.

To be continued

Flutterby wrote:Not sure. I know the N'watimhiri Causeway - maybe it's the same place.

N'watimhiri Dam is on the N'watimhiri River

It's the "big" dam on the tar section opposite the S79 causeway

7th July Skukuza to Berg-en-Dal continued

The H10 bridge always produces a gang of locals and unfortunately this can lead to frustration on the bridge as many stop for long periods blocking the traffic flow, so I’m always agitated when crossing and today was no exception, but it did give us time to snap a close up of one of the locals as he came out the water next to us.



A few km up the road we found another traffic jam and based on the number of vehicles I thought that it must be something major, but after 10 minutes of waiting in the confusion we still hadn’t spotted what was causing all the chaos.

The Cow was doing her best to stop me from making a scene as people were pushing in, driving on the wrong side of the road and all looking at each other as if the other knew what we were meant to be looking at. “Control yourself; you have the kids in the car!!”

I eventually found someone with a camera aiming purposefully in a direction and asked “What’s up?” and got ignored, which increased the blood pressure, so I was about to blurt out something that I can’t post on this forum when I spotted something about a 100m away in a bush.

It was a teenage male lion, who seemed as confused about all the commotion, especially since he was deep in the bush, so we took 1 pic and made our way through the gang.



About 30m further we found our first jackal and he was checking out the area where the lion was hiding, so we assumed that the lion must killed something and dragged it into the bush.



We sat away from the crowd for a few minutes watching the jackal shriek, until something with a familiar hairstyle caught my eye in the distance, so I suddenly pulled off in that direction, which set the Cow off “What are you doing now!!”, which I dutifully ignored.

This funny looking guy below, who always gives me a laugh, was cruising along next to the road.



A few minutes later a couple of vehicles from the “lion in deep bush gang” decided that we were onto something and came up to join us, but seemed horribly disappointed and I heard one guy tell others “It’s just a bird”

I decided that it would be safer for all if we moved on towards Mlondozi.

The Mlondozi decision wasn’t the best one either because about half of Lower Sabie had the same idea, so I took one look at the car park and did a u-turn, which set the rats off as they were hungry, so I promised to stop at Lower Sabie for biltong which they would sell each other for.

The crowd on the H10 Bridge had moved on, which allowed us a few minutes peace with the locals.





We stopped at Lower Sabie for the promised biltong, although I nearly passed out at the price, but I had promised, so reluctantly paid for peace in the car.

A few km out from Lower Sabie I quickly came to the conclusion that “buffalo biltong”, as long as it’s shared out evenly by the Cow, resolves any issue in our car, so it became a regular item during the trip.

Just before the S21 the car in front of us suddenly slammed on brakes, so I was about protest when I spotted them “Lion in the road pass the camera”

The Cow passed the wrong camera, which resulted in a scrap that repeated its self many times on the trip, so I only managed two shots as they walked past us and couldn’t reverse because a gang of cars quickly moved in behind me.

There were 4 lionesses, one collared and about 6 cubs.





When we arrived at the S21 turnoff, which was the planned route across towards Berg-en-Dal, the rats had finished the biltong and were starting up again “We are still hungry, can I have a biscuit, etc”, therefore tension was building rapidly, so we decided to duck up to Nkuhlu for a skottel breakfast.

The morning crowd had finished their breakfast and to my surprise we managed to find a relatively peaceful spot, so I sent the rats to occupy the spot while the Cow and I dug through the packed bakkie for all the breakfast stuff.

Hawkeyes went on a mission with one of the cameras instead of occupying our spot, but managed a fairly good pic of a green pigeon and our spot was still available, so the blood pressure stabilized.



As soon as we started breakfast the vervets pulled in and attempted a raid, so one of the staff gave me a stick to guard our food with, which I gave to Albert who spent the next 20 minutes waving it around and lecturing the monkeys on their bad behaviour



A few minutes later I spotted a few people laughing and pointing at us, so I initially thought they were laughing at Albert, but then realized that they were laughing at BP’s and the Cow’s socks. I didn’t mention it until later for fear of a pelican face.



To be continued

7th July Skukuza to Berg-en-Dal continued

It was now after 11:30am, we were still at Nkuhlu and all our meat was defrosting, so it was a rapid breakfast and we headed down to the S21 for the quickest link across to the H3.

The S21 can be a long lonely road at times, but there was a fair amount of traffic today and I can only assume it’s because the S25 link from Croc Bridge to Berg-en-Dal is still closed.

The only sighting worth mentioning on this drive is two giraffe



We stopped at Renosterkoppies, which produced some of the usual gang and then turned and headed down the S114 and onto what I think is the S113, which produced a few locals hanging out at a little “waterhole” next to the road.





The rest of the drive to Berg-en-Dal produced a few more of the usual, a rhino with a fair gash on his neck and a few elephant, including the fat aunty below who must be pregnant.





The Cow again handled the book in while I took the rats through the little show area in reception. Albert was fascinated with the stuffed python and started to stalk up on it, which confused me until she touched it and jumped backwards, which cracked Bushpig up “She thinks it’s real”, which resulted in howls of protest from Albert, so I had to leave the area rapidly.

It had been a long day again for the rats, so we decided to spend most of the afternoon in camp and only planned a short drive for the evening.

I was bored in 10 minutes, so decided to do the “rhino walk” along the fence with Bushpig and Albert.

Bushpig is doing cross country training, so thought that the rhino walk should be the rhino run and took off with Albert tagging along. This irritated me big time because I had to give chase and thought that I was going to pass out when I eventually caught them on the other side of camp.

A small bushbuck had taken up residence on the other side of the fence in front of our unit and seemed almost completely tame, which entertained and fascinated the rats for the rest of the afternoon.



Bushpig called me just before our evening drive and asked me to check out what was happening two units down from our unit. About 10 tables and 50 chairs had been put in the long row in front of those units and she wanted to know why. I didn’t have a clue, so we both left confused.

For the evening drive with did the S110 loop hoping for the resident leopard that hangs out in the area, but only found a few mongooses worth taking pics of.





When we arrived back in camp the weather was looking rather suspect and due to the fact that the 6 sleeper units don’t have a sheltered veranda, which is crazy when the smaller units do, we decided that it was the Cow’s turn to cook, which freed me up to relax with a G&T.

Penga phoned later and we finalized plans for the Cow’s birthday meet, so all I had to do was pour another G&T.

Halfway through the 2nd G&T I noticed people coming from different directions every few minutes past our unit, which was starting to irritate me, so I decided to act part of the crowd and followed.

The musical chair setup two units down from our unit seemed to be having a gathering of some sort, which irritated me further.

The Cow started “Relax”, which always sets me off “Those DARN (not actually what I said) are setting up for a party”

Half an hour later my pelican was seriously out as some seemed to arrive at the party drunk already and were shrieking their heads off.

Around 10pm I was about to make a scene when things quietened down, so I poured another G&T, got a blanket and headed for peace on the veranda, but 10 minutes later a gang of teenagers came cruising past our unit and into the unit next to us.

It seems that the unit next to us had been dedicated as the teenage after party unit, so the pelican face that had returned became a thunder face.

A few loud comments erupted from our veranda minutes later, which seemed to do the trick, because 10 minutes later all the teenagers left the unit and headed off to another unit, but all gave me dirty looks on the way past.

I can’t believe uncontrolled gatherings of this size are permitted, which it must have been, because someone supplied the 50 chairs and 10 tables.

To be continued

8th July Berg-en-Dal to Skukuza

Today was the Cow’s birthday, so the rats were up early for their homemade present delivery

The Cow was taking her time about opening them, so I was quietly jumping up and down with stress, because the clock was ticking rapidly towards 6am.

Just before 6am we started packing the car, but I was still seriously irritated with our surrounding neighbours who were all still asleep, so decided to do the packing mission differently this morning.

“Rats, make as much noise as you like while packing”. This confused them big time as they normally aren’t allowed to make a squeak, but Bushpig didn’t need a second invitation and started the ball rolling, which ended up irritating me more than the neighbours did the previous evening.

The plan this morning was to stop at Afsaal for a loo break and head up to Skukuza early. The Cow had emailed Skukuza management a copy of her ID indicating that it was her birthday and requested a12pm occupancy for a forum meet and braai.

Skukuza responded by saying they would try and help out, but no guarantees, so the Cow followed it up with a meeting when we were in Skukuza on the 6th and all seemed set.

We decided to do the dirt section of the S110 with the hope again of finding the resident leopard and because we had plenty of time to kill, decided to drive the entire section at about 15km/h, but by the time we hit the H3 still no leopard, so I was starting to sulk again.

I was about to turn up the H3 when the Cow spotted a JJ on the Matjulu Bridge and said “They seem excited”, so I turned right to check things out.
The JJ driver immediately said “Leopard”, which instantly turned our car into chaos.

I have to take responsibility for stuffing this one up as the leopard was sitting in the riverbed looking at us and instead of immediately snapping off a shot, I decided to reposition the car so that we weren’t blocking the road, but by the time we were in position the leopard had decided to duck off into the reeds and I only managed the frantic blurred shot below.

(At least you can see the spots in the middle of the pic!!)



While I sat there sulking for 20 minutes, the Cow took pics of these guys below





I eventually accepted the fact that the leopard wasn’t going to show its self again, so we moved on towards Afsaal.

I bumped into the Berg-en-Dal guide Raymond at Afsaal who wanted to chat about the leopard concentration in the Berg-en-Dal area and the fact he rates it as the current highest population in Kruger. He seemed confused by the green ribbon and went on to ask if I could post a few things on his thread. I didn’t have the heart to tell him about the politics in front of his guests.

From Afsaal up to Renosterkoppies we found 3 more of the big 5 and many of the usual gang, but most were far away, so we didn’t take many pics worth posting.

We were now only about 15km from Skukuza and it was still too early to go to camp, so I made the crazy decision to do the S21 again, which produced nothing until the little no name waterhole about 5km before the H4-1



A couple of km up the H4-1 with found this large dude having a drink



We stopped at Nkuhlu for about half an hour to allow all to recover from the long trek across the S21. The rats were wailing for chow again, so I gave in and offered to buy breakfast, but as luck would have it, Nkuhlu experienced a power failure and they closed the kitchen, so snacks became breakfast and my wallet survived another day.

Halfway up from Nkuhlu we found our missing big 5 animal for the morning, but based on the quality of the sightings I didn’t feel that we had really found much.



We arrived at Skukuza just after 12pm and the Cow ducked into reception to organize our early book in, but the staff that she had arranged everything with on the 6th weren’t available and nobody else was informed. I was immediately starting to lose it, but was told by the Cow to “Shut it and go outside!!”, which I did.

10 minutes later the Cow arrived outside with the keys and the duty manager had informed the head of housekeeping to meet us at the unit to make sure it was clean. I was pleasantly surprised and all I can say is “Thank you Skukuza for helping us out”

PN, LVB, mmaR and others arrived at about 12:30pm.

Our meet has been discussed already under the “gatherings” section, so I won’t elaborate too much on it again, other than it was awesome to meet all and unfortunately we were in different camps, because it could have ended up a long night, a second braai and another bottle of Gin.



We had a few visitors while braaiing





The visiting wildies left just before 4pm and we still had some sorting out to do, so only left camp after 4:30pm, therefore had less than an hour, so decided on a short trip halfway to Nkuhlu, which produced nothing until the way back when the Cow spotted movement in the bush



A few seconds later a second cub arrived and then three more.





We could only take a few seconds with the pics before moving on as it was already 5:20pm and the Garmin was indicating 10 minutes to camp, so we reluctantly headed back to camp.

I started another fire, much to the horror of the Cow, but only cooked boerewors this time as we still had food left from our lunch time braai.

The rats made mates with some very loud kids from next door and to my horror they all pulled into our place.

I eventually had peace on the veranda with my blanket just after 9pm, but our nervous neighbours had gone to bed with all their outside lights on, which was ruining my ambiance, so I found myself deep in thought on how to sabotage their lights when suddenly a movement next to me caught my eye.

A genet was walking around in front of me, which as per normal caused a half asleep overreaction and I roared inside for the camera “Out of bed Cow, there’s a genet outside!”

The darn Canon 550 then wouldn’t focus in the dark, so wouldn’t fire, which again caused an overreaction “Move Cow and bring the torch!”

By the time we were organized the genet was at full sprint in the other direction.

I sat outside for another half an hour armed with the torch and camera, but must have fallen asleep, because I woke suddenly with the Cow shouting from the bedroom “Don’t fall asleep outside again”

“No, I won’t” and wobbled off to bed.

To be continued

pooky wrote:Wow all those cubs - great sighting

Thanks Pooky

There were 2 sets of cubs on the H4-1 while we were there, 5 cubs close to Skukuza and 7 about 15km up from Lower Sabie.

steamtrainfan wrote:Man oh man - I just gotta get myself 6 pairs of those candy striped socks and some slops and then maybe I will also see the Big 5 sometime.

Seriously B.C. - the big 5 in one morning is A M A Z I N G.

It looks Berg en Dal is the main camp for Big 5 sightings these days.

Some more great pics and an entertaining episode.

Please convey a very very belated Happy Birthday to Cow.

STF, I would rather wear shoes than those socks and I never wear shoes unless I’m forced.

Berg-en-Dal isn’t my favourite for the Big 5, but it does seem to be producing at the moment.

Thanks for your continued TT support and compliments STF

9th July Skukuza to Olifants

I wasn’t looking forward to this morning because it’s a long drive from Skukuza to Olifants and then the next day we had to drive all the way back to Skukuza. I also wasn’t impressed about only being able to spend 1 night in the central region as it’s probably my favourite area, so I woke with a potential pelican and chased all with the packing so that we could get moving.

Our first sighting of the morning, besides impala, was these dudes waking up in the riverbed.



Next up was a hyena deep in the bush, which strangely for us was the only hyena we spotted on the road for the entire trip.



The next couple of km produced two more of the big 5





Penga had mentioned at our meet the previous day that the weather was going to change for the worse, not that it had been brilliant since our arrival, but that weather change had started and the wind was howling, so chatting in the car plans changed from a skottel breakfast to buying breakfast, which always gets the rats excited because they have a choice, so all were discussing the potential menu when I shouted “In the road”



This chap didn’t seem impressed at the chaos in our car and decided to show us his tonsils.





We reversed for about 100m as he continued walking towards us, but as per normal, vehicles raced up behind us stopping the reverse, so I snapped one last pic as he came past our car and then we continued on our way.



The rest of the drive to Tshokwane was relatively quiet with only a few of the usual popping up.

I was suitably impressed with Tshokwane, new benches, new skottels and all fully functional again.



I was still sour however about the sighting board, which now has even less magnets than before the floods.

The electronic sighting updates can never replace the joy kids get from running up to the sighting boards and I’m tempted to even suggest raising funds to replace magnets as it’s more about effort than the cost of the magnets anyway and why not replace the rhino on the board with a hyena for example?

We were back on the road by 10:30am and it wasn’t long before we stopped for another couple relaxing in the bush.



This chap needed serious encouragement from the aunty, but as he got up to do his duty we noticed that he had a major limp, which probably accounts for his lack of enthusiasm. I had a good laugh at the bemused wildebeest in the back ground who didn’t know if they should run or watch, so some ran and others watched.



To be continued

9th July Skukuza to Olifants continued

The lions chose to duck behind a bush for their next session, so we continued on towards Satara.

The next few km didn’t produce much except for a few giraffe next to the road and the one aunty decided to do her ablutions next to us, which delighted the rats.



Just before Satara we found our first raptor that was close enough for a pic. I think that it’s a Martial Eagle, but I’m too lazy to go through the bird books, so please if I stuff up an ID, help me out.



We stopped in at Satara for a loo break and then went on to check out the only fully functional sighting board south of Olifants.

There seemed to be plenty of action from Timbavati south, but nothing in the Olifants area, which deflated all of us, so the Cow starting plotting a con to look for alternate accommodation, but the rats started throwing their toys, because they had never spent a night in Olifants, so we hit the road again.

Things were relativity quiet until the S39 turn off where we found a couple of ostrich, a lone ellie having a chow next to the road and then a few waterbuck cruising around





The weather seemed to be improving the further north we went, which was something to be happy about.

Just before the H1-5 Bridge over the Olifants River we found two jackal having a rest, which gave us the chance to use the cameras again.





We stopped on the Bridge to check out the flood damage and it was nice to see that temporary repairs had been carried out on the railings, which at least made it safe again.

The local hippos were all trying to catch the little doses of sun that kept peeping through the clouds.



The S91/S92 detour provided some interesting driving as obviously all have to use it and this resulted in a few near head on collisions and caused another pelican.

We stopped opposite Balule and I was amazed to see how open it all was.



In the end I was happy to finally arrive at Olifants just after 2:30pm. Reception was as quiet as the game had been, so booking in was quick and we were off to unpack.

I was stoked when I checked out the unit that we had booked, because it had to be one of the best standard units in the camp and the view was amazing, so I immediately got into the mood for a G&T and settled into the couch on the veranda



The Cow and I had our own room on one side of the veranda and the rats their own room on the other side, which immediately caused a scrap amongst the rats as to who was sleeping where, but they eventually settled on an arrangement.

After about 4 G&T’s I was getting bored with the view as there was no action, so decided to check out the shop for one of those meals that we were short of. The rats nagged to come with, so the Cow ended up with peace.

I found a giant wildebeest sosatie at the shop, which I can highly recommend if cooked on a hot fire.

The rats had been plotting ice cream since we entered the shop and decided on a ganged up team nagging event, which I was trying to ignore until some old lady started “Same, they are asking so nicely”

I now looked like an evil father, so reluctantly gave the ice cream approval.

The Cow in our absence had found some squirrel action and just as we arrived back a herd of ellies came cruising along.





As the view was now more to my liking it was time to hit the couch and another G&T.

At about 4:45pm Hawkeyes started looking at her watch and passing comments about the evening drive “Are we going on a drive?”

I was content on the couch with the G&T and more interested in the braai spot, but she continued “We have never missed an evening drive”, which got others on her side, so we left on an aimless drive towards Balule and only made it as far as the destroyed bridge.



All we spotted was a kori and a steenbok, which I didn’t try that hard to photograph.

Back in camp I started a raging fire and the Cow started butternut and potatoes on the “stove”

Half an hour later the Cow started moaning that the “stove” didn’t work, so I wobbled up from the fire place to check it out, but ended up wanting to attack the stove after 5 minutes of fiddling with the knobs, so gave up on the inside chow.

After supper I caught the Cow staring at the stove “What’s up”, “Look at the writing in pen above the stove”

It said “1 = high and 6 = low”, which is against the convention. I didn’t want to admit that we had both been blind, so tried it and burnt my hand feeling the plate, which only irritated me more.

To be continued

Flutterby wrote:Great pics of the jackal. So I take it the road to Olifants has still not been repaired!

Stunning view from your bungalow...I think I would also have been quite happy to spend the afternoon there!!

We've had quite a few hotplates in Kruger that have that same confusing temp. control!!

The tar piece is still a hole FB Those hotplates drive me nuts Why don't they just wire them correctly