Africa Wild

Flutterby wrote: ↑Sun Oct 28, 2018 10:52 am Wow, what a great start to your trip!!

Thanks Flutts, yes the 1st 4 hours in the park were good and it's not finished yet

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:00 am You have spoilt us with a TT every six months so it was about time to write another one

Your TTs have the ability to make me run out of breath

That is a very beautiful leopard lady and you were lucky to reach her at the right time.....or is it practise?

Poor Bushpig , but luckily her flu/cold did not attack the rest of you

Haha, yes my hypoactive nature does come through in the writing

Kruger is getting out of my price range, so down to 1 TT a year at the moment

Around 10 minutes later something got her attention and she was up and walked off into the bush, so we turned and ducked back towards Lower Sabie.

A few of the usual suspects popped up on the way back to Lower Sabie, but we still had 25 minutes to go before gate closing, so I suggested that we take our first look at Lubyelubye before going to camp.

As we approached Lubyelubye I started to get nervous about the time and it was already nearly dark, so said

“We are turning after the bridge and heading straight back”

Seconds later Bushpig shouted “There! A leopard is on the rocks!”

As we stopped on the bridge a leopard lay down just below the top of the rocks.

We were the only car in the area due to the time and the Garmin was now indicating that we only had 3 minutes left before we had to drive to camp, so we didn’t have time to really enjoy the sighting and it was nearly impossible to take pics from the bridge as it was too dark for our cameras, however I puzzled a semi blurred, high ISO, proof pic.


I drove into the little dirt turning circle which was closer to the leopard but the bush was obstructing the view so I fiddled around backwards and forwards until Bushpig managed a better proof pic through the twigs.


It was giving me a mental tilt to leave, but the Garmin started flashing, so reluctantly I headed for camp for our first KNP braai of the holiday.

I grew up in an all-boys household, so 3 teenage girls are something new and often shocking for me with my preconceived ideas because they aren’t little “Cinderella’s”, so I’m learning each day and tonight was no exception. Albert is 12, Bushpig 14 and Hawkeyes 17, so they aren’t “rats” anymore and I quickly noticed some skinner on the go and hanging of teeth at a teenage dude a few units down from us which was amusing to watch from a distance, but it was short lived because everybody was tired after a long day in the car, so just after 9pm everybody crashed.

To be continued

28th Lower Sabie

My company, much to my horror, is involved in some of the electronics at the new Skukuza Lodge so I had to do a site inspection this morning and had prearranged to meet the installation/commissioning teams on site at 9am to test elements of the various disciplines, so the plan was to head up to Skukuza and then drop the Cow and rats at Skukuza camp to hang out while I finished my work commitments.

Penny and Bobby had told us the previous day, on our arrival, about some leopard cubs that had been seen recently by some of their mates just off the H1-2/S36 junction, so the plan was to head that direction and then down to Skukuza.

A few km outside Lower Sabie some lion made an appearance just off the road.


Minutes later we heard a car door behind us and much to our surprise a lady was out her car trying to take a photograph. The lion immediately reacted by staring intently at her and then they all got up and started to move.

“Get back in your @#%* car!” was my reaction, but it was too late as the lions moved off into the riverbed. I don’t understand why tonsils like this don’t rather go to a zoo.

Yoh! You going particularly quickly this time!

3 leopards on the first day!

And no invite...

Terrible pics, as you say, BC...

And you thought the girls went to sleep...you naive boy!

The rest of the drive to the H12 Bridge produced more locals, a hyena sleeping next to the road, the Nkuhlu boon gang and much to my surprise some Sable deep in the bush just after the H1-2/H12 intersection.


As we took the S36 turnoff from the H1-2 it was clearly visible that there was something on the go as about 5 cars were already stopped next to some rocks, so we slowly approached and some aunty started waving and pointing to me as we got closer.

I quickly spotted a little leopard cub sleeping on the rock, so the blood pressure shot through the roof.

“Wake up, take pictures Cow; I can’t from this side of the car!”

“Take pictures of what!”

“#$^%$, the leopard cub!”

“Where!”

“There on the rock in front of you!”

I then quickly turned, took the last open spot with a clear view and then everybody spotted the cub and peace returned.






To be continued

Richprins wrote: ↑Sun Oct 28, 2018 12:02 pm

Yoh! You going particularly quickly this time!

3 leopards on the first day!

And no invite...

Terrible pics, as you say, BC...

And you thought the girls went to sleep...you naive boy!

Howzit RP

Ja, going to move at pace at times and then quiet for days as work drills me

I thought you guys were doing the northern thing again I'm up again in November for work so will give you at shout

28th Lower Sabie continued

I was super stoked to be lucky enough to be parked off in a good spot with a leopard cub sleeping just in front of us, but it was now just after 7am and I had to be at Skukuza for work at 9am so I found myself clock watching every 5 minutes, but fortunately for us the cub woke up 15 minutes later and started to give us a show.

The cub was approximately 200m down the S36 from the H1-2 and fortunately the S36 isn’t a busy road, but after nearly an hour it was starting to become rather crowded and soon people were hanging out their windows, talking loudly, etc and this instantly upset the cub, it’s body language changed and it ducked into the den deep in the rocks.

We would normally have waited to see if the cub popped out again, but I had this damn work commitment putting pressure on us and we eventually decided that the cub wouldn’t make another appearance as long as the rowdy OSV crowd of new arrivals were around, so much to the surprise of others we started up and moved out of the prime viewing spot.

I was still mumbling about having to leave at the intersection of the S36/H1-2, but seconds after turning onto the tar Bushpig and I both shouted at the same time.

“LEOPARD!”

The mother leopard was parking off in the bush about 200m from the cub, but nobody had seen her besides a guy with a caravan who had now stopped behind us.

Suddenly the rats started shrieking “SNAKE!” which caused another wobble as it was trying to get into my engine, but it was only a little bush snake so I wasn’t concerned, however that didn’t matter to the rest of the clan who continued to shout in my ear, so I moved forward and away from the snake.




The attention reverted back to the leopard mom who was now on the move so we followed along.

To be continued