Browns in Kruger October 2014 *

[Bushcraft]

5th Lower Sabie continued

The Cow went on patrol around camp at lunch time with the hope of finding the killer lizard from the previous day, but instead found a few green pigeons hanging around.



I then took a walk to the sighting board with Bushpig and Albert to see if there was any action south of Lower Sabie but the few magnets available were all placed north of Lower Sabie, so after some negotiations we decided to head up towards the H12 Bridge and return to camp via the S30/S128, which for us is a fairly long afternoon drive, so we left camp at around 3:30pm.

A single member of the Lubyelubye pride was still parking off in the sun, which I found amazingly stupid as it was hot, but we stopped for a quick pic before moving on.



Around 200m after the Lubyelubye Bridge Bushpig again shouted “lion!” and a lion pip emerged out of the bush. I’m not sure why, but Bushpig was on the ball this trip and I think it’s her competitive nature which was coming out because of the “spotter of the day” section in the books Flutts started.

The collared lioness then decided to dump in front of us which caused a small commotion in the back seat.



An impatient chap who had been on my bumper then pulled out in an exaggerated manoeuvre and started to pass us, but then spotted the lion and slammed on brakes between us and completely blocked any view we had, which unfortunately took me from zero to hero in a second.

“Hey, d#*#h*#& you can’t just stop now”

Then the Cow started “Move!”

The driver then started apologising profusely and reversed which immediately made me feel guilty so we took 1 more pic of the lioness as she lay down and then moved on so that they could have our spot.



The one thing that I have learnt is that sightings in the south of Kruger can bring out the best and most definitely the worst in people.

Next up was a Bateleur and a Tawny for the Cow.





The rest of the drive to the H12 Bridge produced all the usual gang, so we just chugged along enjoying the peace without taking pics, but at the end of the bridge a herd of kudu made an appearance and they seemed rather nervous to continue on.



Then the kudu turned around and started to walk nervously in the opposite direction, so we decided to travel a little way up the H12 instead of turning down the S30 and 200m later we found the reason for the kudu’s actions.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Have you ever had this lion pride in peaceful watching conditions

Good birding again, my fav is the pigeon parrots

Lubyelubye pride the previous day, but one isn't often alone with them

pigeon parrot I only looked quickly at the butts in the pic

[Bushcraft]

Thanks all for checking this TT out and sorry about the green pigeon parrot Luckily I didn't call it a vulture

5th Lower Sabie continued

We were now confused about what to do as we were all keen to hang around for the “greeting” ritual, so I turned, got into position and switched off which got the attention of one of the junior dogs.



The minutes started to tick by and the traffic was starting to build, so I programmed Lower Sabie into the Garmin and it indicated that we had 20 minutes to spare, so we sat still watching the clock, which is never easy for me.

Around 10 minutes later, just as I was beginning to stress, a few juniors started to play around which seemed to get a couple of adults interested, but then things settled down again.





Suddenly without warning they were up again, the ritual had started and there were wild dogs charging around all over the place.







In minutes it was over and the dogs trotted off into the bush.

I checked the Garmin and we still had time, but as I turned onto the S30 it changed its mind and indicated that we were going to be 1 minute late which got me a little twitchy, as it had been plotting the route back on the tar, therefore after a moan I turned and headed down the tar. The Garmin then recalculated and indicated that we had 6 minutes spare, so I could relax again.

Our next stop was for a giraffe in the road and then some lionesses that were checking out some buffalo across the river.





We only stopped again just before Lower Sabie camp for what looked like 3 teenage males sleeping in the bush.



It had been a long afternoon for us compared to our normal drives, so I immediately charged for a dop and got the fire going but the peace didn’t last long because a bat flew into our spot, which set the rats off on a shrieking mission and they forced me to try and find the thing.

The darn bat was super fast though and it flew in and out the spot 5 times before I gave up and just closed the door.

I know it was just an insect eating model but couldn’t resist terrorizing Albert and Bushpig about vampire bat war stories. Hawkeyes was in on the deal as she is older and wise to my tactics but the Cow ruined our fun.

“If they don’t sleep tonight then it’s your problem!”

Later that night we eventually found their hang out spot and Albert slept buried under blankets so that there were no body parts exposed.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

6th Lower Sabie to Satara

We were off to Satara this morning and I was rather glad for a change in scenery, so the packing started early and we were out the gate just after 5:30am.

The Cow was immediately on the board with a tawny.



The Lubyelubye pride weren’t around, but around 5km later the lion overdose started.



This was a strange setup as there were 3 males and 3 females hanging out together, but about 10m apart and each male seemed to have picked out an aunty for himself.

The first 2 closest to us seemed to enter into a competition for who could pull the ugliest face, the one aunty hidden in the bush didn’t seem impressed and the other one in the open yawned so much that it was clearly obvious that she wasn’t keen on any action.







The one male decided it was time to come out the bush, but then entered into a jealous staring match with his brother and after around a minute the brother decided it was safer in the bush and soon the others followed.



We continued on about 200m and a few SGH got the Cow excited so we had to stop for a few pics.



Suddenly queen spotter Bushpig shrieked “LION!” which nearly caused me to drop my camera.



The lion from down the road that we thought had ducked obviously cruised along the riverbed and had caught up to us while we were farting around with the SGH.

Seconds later more popped out and the march down the road started. I was operating in reverse so that we could get pics from the front, but this seriously confused the Cow who kept shouting at me to turn around, but I switched off to the chirping as viewing approaching cats is always more entertaining.







In the last pic above one can see the blurry outline of another male next to the cars in the distance and behind him was a 3rd male also approaching.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

6th Lower Sabie to Satara continued

I was keen to hang with the male lions, so the 2 lioness that were ahead of the rest continued on without us irritating them.

I pulled off to wait for the last lioness and the 1st male to approach.





Around a minute later the 2nd male arrived, but he came with a small convoy of cars and I could see in my mirror that the other lions which had past us were causing a traffic drama in the distance up the road.



The arrival of the 3rd male resulted in some interesting behaviour from a faulty overexcited clueless moronic Kruger visitor, but fortunately we managed a few pics of the lion before this tonsil arrived.



In the distance we spotted a blue Audi approaching like he had an emergency.

“Cow, look at this panicked idiot”

The tonsil then skidded between the cars and nearly drove into the lion, while his overweight wife hung out the window with a video camera. If the lion had turned and snapped, the aunty would have been a large lunch.

The lion obviously got a fright and started to run up the road to the others, which ruined the sighting for everyone else, so there was an instant multiple head gasket explosion from the Cow and I.

“You rude inconsiderate idiot!”

“Hey, #$^*#$ why don’t you go and climb a thorn tree”

The tonsil and his elephant didn’t seem to care though and continued to floor it after the lion.

There’s no way I was going to get involved in the moving convoy of chaos up ahead, so we turned and hung back to watch how it panned out and in less than a minute all the lion had left the road and disappeared into the bush, which is what normally happens when an idiot gets overexcited and doesn’t respect an animal’s distance.

The one bonus was that the road had cleared, so we could continue on in peace, but I made a mental note of that blue Audi because if I spotted it again there would be more colourful words.

The rest of the drive to Tshokwane produced a teenage male lion cruising along just past Nkuhlu, but he had his audience already, so we didn’t hang around, then the normal locals, the odd buffalo and a strange herd of punk zebra.







We decided that the only safe thing to eat at Tshokwane was hot chips, so the Cow went to order 2 packets while I went on patrol around the place to maintain the patience levels.

Eventually I spotted the Cow approaching, but she had opened the one packet of hot chips and was trying to steal a few before the vulture rats and I got stuck into them, but a southern yellow billed hornbill had the same plot and roared out of the air and pounced on the chips, which sent half the chips flying and the Cow charging across the car park with the hornbill in pursuit.

I dared not laugh at the time for fear of having picture and no sound all the way to Satara, so I acted shocked and concerned, but really wanted to roll on the floor laughing.

A few km out of Tshokwane we found a car stopped on the side of the road and the driver shouted “There’s a leopard in the tree” and then said that the next tree around 200m up the road also had a leopard in it.

I initially thought he was pulling our leg but we soon found both.





To be continued

[Bushcraft]

6th Lower Sabie to Satara continued

We drove up and down between the 2 sleeping leopard with the hope that 1 would wake up and move around but we all lost patience after 20 minutes, so I continued on towards Satara.

Mazithi Dam produced the normal locals including a SBS cooling off.



The next 12km or so produced the odd giraffe, ellie, etc, but nothing to really get excited about; however Kumana Dam produced the local lion pride on both sides of the road.

We were more interested in 2 lionesses on the baobab side of the road just purely because they were closer to us.



A few minutes later we spotted an open army vehicle with people on the back approaching at speed, but I thought that they would at least have manners and slow down when they got closer to the couple of vehicles stopped at the sighting, however they totally ignored the situation until they were amongst us and then the “people” on the back screamed at the lion, which instantly chased them into the bush.





The lack of consideration, manners and arrogance freaked me out so I was wild, but they were already charging off down the road at around 80km/h, so it was pointless trying to get a message across to the ignorant, therefore we turned our attention to the elephant and lion on the other side of the road.





The lion were semi in the bush and relaxing, so the ellies got most of our attention, but they soon finished drinking and moved on, therefore we did the same, however 200m up the road we found another lioness guarding the remains of an old buffalo kill.



The lion didn’t seem keen to eat and was more interested in a lone vulture who was trying to get in on the action, so we continued on.

Our next stop for pics was on the Sweni Bridge as a giant herd of buffalo were in the riverbed.



The rest of the drive to Satara produced a few of the usual gang, but we never took pics.

It was now just after 12:30pm and as we could only book in at 2pm we had to find something to do for 1.5 hours, which always causes me massive stress.

We were short of a few simple things like milk and bread, so a trip to the shop was required, which normally passes a little time, but the rats had ulterior motives and the ice cream ambush started

“Please, we have some money”

I learnt a long time ago that I’m an easy target for the rats, so I ducked outside and left them to take their chances with the Cow who they can’t con, but as I walked outside and towards the webcam I developed a Lower Sabie killer lizard flashback and found myself jumping involuntarily in the air like a hurdle champion and then back peddling behind a trolley.

An evil looking head was poking out of the flowerbed and it looked like a lizard on steroids.

I first looked around to see if my antics had escaped the attentions of others and then I feared another greasing from the Cow, so decided to charge into the shop and call everyone.

Fortunately the Cow had purchased the ice creams and was ushering the clan outside, so in seconds we all returned and the evil looking overgrown lizard had made its way towards the veranda outside the shop.





Our commotion had got the attention of a few others, so the crowd was growing but this didn’t seem to bother the lizard who was now eyeing the ice creams, so we decided to rather duck to a bench at the fence line to enjoy them in peace.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Thanks all for continuing to check this TT out

The hurdling was rather embarrassing but if the web cam was looking I would have shown it something far more interesting

6th Lower Sabie to Satara continued

The lizard wasn’t following us so we could relax on the bench overlooking the webcam, but soon the yellow billed terrors were making an appearance in an attempt to steal the ice creams and for some reason the tree next to the bench was full of wood hoopoes, the odd crested barbet and what I think is a orange breasted shrike, which created some entertainment and helped pass the time.







It seemed like hours, but eventually it was 2pm, so we could head to our unit.

I immediately organized a dop and hit the veranda to watch the local camp gang which always show up, while the Cow stalked a squirrel.



I then remembered leachy, dropped him a message and shortly thereafter he arrived for a chat.

I was enjoying the veranda and conversion with leachy, so soon lost the plot with the time and eventually leachy said he was going down to Nsemani Dam, which kicked me into gear, but it was already around 4:30pm, so we also decided to just cruise down to Nsemani Dam.

There wasn’t much happening at the dam, so we decided to cruise on down the H7, but it’s a hit and miss road for us and today it didn’t produce much in the way of major excitement with only another lizard and the normal locals popping up.













I immediately started the fire and shortly after 6pm leachy pulled in for a braai and a dop. I was rather thirsty after a warm day, so rehydrating was required and soon I had to concentrate to turn the meat.

Things got a little hazy for me after the cooking was complete and I felt it the next day, but it was great catching up on the politics, skinner, etc with leachy.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Yep, the H7 has been a dud road for us for quite a while now!

So, care to reveal any of the gossip?

Many rave about the H7 Flutts, some even suggest it's the best road in the park, but it's never really cooked for me

What is said around the fire stays around the fire

[Bushcraft]

7th Satara

When the alarm went off at 4:45am I wasn’t keen to move as it felt like a woodpecker was trying to make a home in the back of my head due to the extensive thirst I had quenched the previous evening with leachy, so I lay still with the hope that the Cow didn’t hear it, but luck wasn’t on my side and soon the Cow was up and about, so I got chased into gear.

This 5:30am gate opening still freaks me out and it didn’t feel normal driving out of camp at this time, but there were many already on the road, so I guess people adapt.

The plan this morning was to cruise down the S100 which is Albert’s favourite road, but it wasn’t until about halfway down that things started to hot up.

The lead car stopped, then another, which had us frantically looking around for what they had seen, but nothing registered as important, so I moved slowly forward and the Cow shrieked “cheetah”

“Where?”

“There, you see the small bush”

I was about to start with my specifics speech again and we all spotted it “There”

Then the commotion started.

“There’s an impala, the cheetah is going to..........TAKE PICS, move hurry, #$^$ camera! Your head is in the way!”

The impala hadn’t seen the cheetah and had almost walked on top of it, so the cheetah only took around 10 fast paces and she was on the impala.







I can’t imagine what the occupants of the other cars thought of us as things were going crazy in my car because the rats were jabbering with excitement and it only got louder when 2 small heads came running through the grass to join mom.



After a few minutes the small ones disappeared in the grass and the mother cheetah sat up to play guard, but she also soon sat down to feed, so we continued on.



The rest of the S100 only produced a Bateleur, so the excitement of the cheetah kill soon faded and another fix was required, so we decided to return to the cheetah and see if they were mobile again.



The cheetah and juniors had ducked already which increased the size of the pelican and the rest of the drive to the H1-3 only produced the locals, an ostrich and a martial.





We now didn’t know what to do as it was only 7:30am and too early to return to camp, so we juggled a few ideas and finally decided to continue down the H1-3.

I was in my own little bubble for the next few km and woke up with a fright on the Sweni Bridge when the Cow shouted “lion!”

I didn’t know that the Cow had eyesight that good, but I happened to look in the same distant spot seconds after the Cow had squawked and spotted what looked like male lion far off just before he ducked behind a bush, so I believed that the Cow wasn’t seeing things, however I wasn’t sure if something would come out of it.

The Cow now insisted that we pull over in a good spot on the bridge and wait.

A few cars stopped and asked, but soon thought we were mad and continued on.

Around 5 minutes later a few heads started to pop out of the distant bush and then they started towards us.





To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Thanks BT, Lisbeth, harrys, Flutts, RP, nan, pooky, STF and Pumbaa for commenting and checking things out again

7th Satara continued

The Cow was hyped up because she had spotted these lions, so was ordering me around big time

“Stay here! Where are you going? Stop!”



There was only 1 other car at the time and they were behind us, so I didn’t stress too much and just slowly moved forward until I thought we were in the correct spot, then stopped and switched off.

As the first lionesses moved up onto the road they immediately went into stalk mode which sent me over the top.

“They are hunting! What do they see? Wake up, look!”

The one lioness took off left low to the ground and the other continued on straight.





I was now in panic mode because there were 3 males and more females approaching from the left, so I didn’t know what to photograph.

“Rats, get pics out that side!!”





Suddenly the 2 hunting burst into a sprint and a duiker came flying out the bush with them in hot pursuit, but the duiker was sharp and fast, so they soon gave up.

If the other lion were more awake they would have been successful because the duiker ran across in the road in front of us towards the other lion before ducking off down the road. I have come to the final conclusion that lion aren’t the brightest cats around.

I was in a flap because we had all stuffed up the pics of the lion chasing the duiker and now the rest of the lion were already crossing the road. We counted 3 males and 8 females and they continued on until they found a shady tree.





This is about when we spotted leachy and chirped that we were going to duck down the S126 as they seemed to be heading that general direction, so in convoy we turned onto the dirt.

The view from the dirt was definitely better and the one male, who the rats named “fluffy”, had found some buffalo turd to roll around in.





Soon one of the lionesses decided it was time to move again and the lion march continued, so we followed along in convoy.



It looked as if they were heading towards Sweni waterhole, so we all found a spot to park off and wait, but I soon became restless and drove down the road and then back again and then down the road again. This continued for awhile until one male made an appearance



A lioness made a brief appearance also and she definitely chased an impala, but the bush was thick and we soon lost sight of them again, so we cruised back to Sweni waterhole to wait, but leachy had more patience than me; therefore we decided to continue on down the road towards Muzandzeni. I found out later that we should have waited a little longer.

To be continued