Escape from the Rat Race. Another live TT from BT.

[Flutterby]

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was a major oversight on my part that we weren't in the park for it

Very poor planning BT!!

[BluTuna]

Day 11. Lower Sabie.

Up early again and off to Afsaal via the Biyamiti Wier; one of our first sightings is of these two chaps giving us the bum view.



followed shortly after by a lone Hyaena galloping down the road.



The weather was mostly cloudy and the Berg-en-Dal area looked sombre from the S25.



At one of the many river crossings was a Little Egret and a Reed Cormorant




Biyamiti Wier is a great place for getting close to birds

Common Sandpiper


Hammerkop


Black Crake pretending to be Naomi Campbell


Threebanded Plover - or is it a Lapwing these days?


and an eye level view of an Impala.


At Afsaal, a hairy caterpillar



and on the way back to Lower Sabie (via the N4 as it was getting late and I needed my midday snooze), a Flapnecked Chameleon.



On the H4 from Crocodile Bridge, we stopped next to a minibus to see what they were looking at - "you just missed a Leopard in that dead tree" So we hung around and watched for a while which was a good thing as we would have missed this sighting otherwise.

About 100 metres further up the road - Mom had just got up and moved into the bush.







And here's Super-Mom, raising FIVE cubs to this age us an awesome achievement!



Our afternoon drive took us down a road we haven't driven before (unless it was a very long time ago), the S122 with a stop at Mlondozi Dam.

On the LS bridge, a Giant Kingfisher



and after seeing a lot of nothing on the S122, finally an Ele who must be on Aat's web site but I can't find him.




along the way were some male Ostriches who were trying to impress a female




and when we got to the S29 junction and drove towards Mlondozi, there were suddenly lots of Eles striding at high speed through the bush. This was one of the smaller groups.



Aside from a very bloated, upside-down, dead hippo, the dam had nothing to offer but from the bridge at LS, a not-dead hippo was standing in the rapids.

[Flutterby]

Wow, wow, wow!!!! What an amazing cheetah sighting!!!!

Great pics at the weir and nice tusker!

[Lisbeth]

Lovely birds at the Weir and a great cheetah sighting. Hat off for the achievement of the mom

[Bushcraft]

Brilliant cheetah sighting

[pooky]

Clever mum cheetah with all those cubs - great sighting .

Lovely birds BT

[Mel]

Once again fantastic sightings! I started off laughing about Naomi Campell,
then admiring the chameleon - I got a soft spot for them, but the cheetahs
take away the prize!!! I totally agree, that that cheetah mum is an ubermum
being able to feed 5 of those rascals.

[leachy]

-O -O -O -O -O

loved seeing naomi campbell............. -O -O -O

nothing to do with it being a black crake.... of course....

[Richprins]

Jeez, those are good pics!

My favourite is the ostriches!

They are plovers, NOT lapwings!

[Amoli]

Excellent sightings... wow, beautiful cheetahs - and the birds at weir ...

That is a good looking ellie.