Africa Wild

Day 3 Jan 5th cont

on the H3 we stopped off at the view site and caught glimpses of some rare beasties :




Carrying on we found a traffic Jam luckily the cars on our side understood etiquette and stopped did their viewing and pulled off.The same could not be said for the oncoming cars and eventually the OSV pulled forward to exchange a few choice words with the driver..


and the reason for the jostling some lazy lounge suite kitties :




We left and carried on our way back to camp to refresh and get some sossaties out the freezer for dinner and then went out to do a few loops before gate closing .
Of course we saw more of these

The ever present insect watch :

We disturbed this fellow while he was busy in the mens

and this newbie was enjoying some time in the shade

We found this impressive fellow watching out

And by now it was starting to get late


time to get back to camp and light the fire .... still no sight of those doggies !

Thanx for the ID's Lisbeth especially the cheetah we were also surprised at how high the cheetah was up .Always told they don't climb but this one definitely had to climb up to get so high . We felt the Wimpy was actually good value and had good service having said that I am very sad at the state of Afsaal .Remeber it as being a hive of activity with an exciting shop loaded with bric a brak ,safari type goodies and interesting menu . Now there is a barebones shop and the restaurant is seemingly on its last legs (by appearance and the state of the pricelist with paper stuck over some prices showing new prices ,crossed out items and notes to say what is not served anymore ) The site and bathrooms were clean and functional just did have the same feel anymore ...

Lovely scenic shots Roger And a great cheetah sighting!

Have to say the H2-2 is not my favourite road....it's in a bad state and the last time we drove it we did not see a single animal!

With regards to the Jeep Jockey parked on the wrong side of the road...he was actually following the rules - you always park on the side of the road closest to the sighting, leaving the other side open for traffic to get through.

Nice and slow, Roger!

Those rhino are probably still at that bridge!

My family and I came in at Malelane on 1 Jan, stayed at MegaCity, and left on the 3rd...the rhino were there both days! Interesting the baby being behind the mom...wisdom dictates White Rhino move ahead of the parent.

PK is a very good cheetah area, probably the best in Kruger! They climb trees more for territorial purposes, in my experience...that one was probably checking out a competitor or escaping another predator?


Witty narration!

Welcome PJL glad you enjoying the ride .Got to move fast before the memory fades

Lisbeth too true .

Toko sorry about the pace will slow down ,the SO really enjoys the Giraffes also

Bushveld Jock -We tried but it was all out of focus ..will get one for you next time

Flutterby oops mabye did not come across right the Jeep Jockey was actually very good .Was the car in front stopped in middle of road .I have always said the H2-2 is the worst road in the park then later in the report we drive the S126 oh my word I was genuinely surprised the wheels were still attached ...

Richprins I think it is the one problem with Rhino they do seem to stick to routines and areas .If they moved arround more it may be more difficult to find them .

Bushcraft cheetah was special .Somehow we always spot cheetah when in KNP .

Day 4 Jan 6th

The plan for today was to try get to the loops that had been closed over the last few days especially arround Gardenia Hide and the Biyamiti Weir:
Starting with a little mongoose along the S114

And a feathered friend looking for the mongoose

These Impies were rather jumpy on the corner of the S119

This YBK was on guard on the S119

At the hide the only activity was from the swallows


There were some very pretty flowers

This snapping turtle was out on the road nowhere near any water

This ellie was late for a very important appointment

Then we reached the H2-2 intersection with S114 damn and blast there was the dreaded round red sign .The only option would be to turn towards Afsaal which was not high on our places we wanted to go .Picking up the map to try work out a different route .And one last glance at the sign .Wait what was that small yellow metal piece under the sign it shows 4X4 oh must mean 4X4 only luckily we in a Landy .We thus decided to carry on with the planned route.

We found this glossy starling waiting for any insects to move


We reached the weir without any need to engage low range and found some fish



A hippo floated at eye level ontop of the weir



Some ducks shared the water


A lizzard was bathing on the rocks


Found this crock gathering some warmth on the side of the river


We rejoined the H3 again and headed toward Afsaal to use the loos
At afsaal a bushbuck enjoying the cool shade


Carrying on the H3 we found these

Looks like someone had been training the little one to climb trees


And then we found another melee by the S121 intersection what could it be .
Joining the que that was not moving we peered into the bushes and grass .Was it lazy lions or a cat in a tree .
Some of the cars were not moving and so other eventually had to reverse and jostle to move out the way and eventually
Doggies...


Hard to see but with the melee we tried to move out the way and yet somehow still were in the way and the doggies were not moving so getting a SMS from friends staying at BnD that there was a LIT just by the Malelane camp turnoff we decided to not rejoin the scrum and drove off .

We arrived at a much more orderly sighting with cars on both sides stopping and then moving off to share the sight.
The leopard appeared to have chosen a very ungainly perch





Arriving at camp to refresh we found we had left a food container unclipped and had some theives had taken advantage of our laxness.


We found this kingfisher in the camp



We left camp to do a quick loop or two see if we could find the Doggies trail and stop at BnD for fuel to move the van to Maroela tomorrow.
Instead we found some more birds



On the road to Bnd we came across a small puffadder that promptly turned and left .



Arriving back at camp our neighbor informed us of a legavaan trying to raid a nest in a tree and the swallows had been attacking it for hours .




We enjoyed some fauna


and got ready for the drive to Maroela in the morning .

A nice LIT and beautiful Woodland kingfisher and white-fronted bee-eaters

A lovely orange flower

Normally there is a lot of movement at the Weir, but maybe there was too much water

Abundant wildlife again My favourite is the Giant Plated Lizard

I think your YBK is rather a very special WE

And the Candy-striped Crinum is just beautiful.

Did the monitor finally get his meal?

Interesting Puffie observation, have never seen a snake doing an U-turn

Sprocky wrote:

Lisbeth wrote:

Richprins wrote:
I don't think that's a YBK...

Looks more like a tawny

And the ducks are Egyptian geese

For once, I agree with Lis.

Thanx guys so enjoying the feedback as I said we not been big birders but do enjoy finding them .

Ps I am thinking its possibly a Whalberg Eagle looking at the higher res Pics ?

Hey all

Thanks for the comments and help with the ID's

Lisbeth although there was not much at the Weir it was a nice loop possibly also got there a bit late in the day ,by the time we were driving there it was rather hot.

Toko thank you for the Candy-striped Crinum we were trying to find it and had found Impala Lily but it didn’t quite match.

I don’t think that the monitor got his meal after surviving the barrage .It got dark so we left to cook super ...and could not keep track of it .

Bushcraft yes it was great but stay tuned more to come ...

Bushveld Jock we somehow always find a cheetah this one was special though being in the tree .

Richprins sorry somehow some of the pics off my cell seem to have reoriented themselves ,I will try run my posts through spellcheck as the built in one is a bit faulty ......

Pumbaa thank you my sons are the photographers ,SO does videos and logistical and my daughter keeps watch for ellies . First time I have seen a puffader in KNP .