special moments

[Pumbaa]

Never saw anything bigger than a waterbuck at that causeway, flying cheetah

Only expecting to see birdies there I would have get the fright of my life in finding ellies there

[flying cheetah]

Thank you all for your grteat comments

After posting on th 'flavour of the month' - thread in February and a short trip at the beginning of March it's time to go on with this TR, otherwise I never get to mytp sightings

After leaving the Elephants it was time to go back to camp andto check out. After 5 wonderful days I finally had to leave and headed further North towards Shingwedzi. As I heard that a herd ofElands has been seen at 'Big T.' I was going there again but I only found one of the lionesses lying in the shade. It was getting hot and I took the tar road to arrive in time for a Midday nap. Before arriving at the camp I could see the spectacular changes in the riverbed after the floods





In camp everybody was extremely friendly and it was obvious that they all wanted to go back to normal as soon as possible. In the afternoon I was driving 15 km's into the S50 and herethe changes in the landscape were even more obvious. It was amazing and also shocking to see how many of the big old trees have been washed away But the first animal I saw after leaving camp was this Yellow-billed Kite:









As you an see some stretches looked really bad but that's nature.
Before my drive ended I still had twoi very nice sightings First I saw this Osprey (only saw very few in KNP):



And nearly with the last sun rays of the day I saw a light coloured animal on the other side of the riverbed and I needed my binoculars to identify it. It was my very first Albino Impala Isn't it amazing that this full grown boy survived all the years with this handicap





tbc

[Lisbeth]

How nice to see an osprey

[Flutterby]

Never seen an Osprey or an albino impala....lovely!

[nan]

Super the Osprey

what a shame all this broken trees

and the White Impala...

[Mel]

The landscape looks like some alien place.

Love the kite and the osprey though! And the white impala is certainly a special sighting as well.

[Bush Brat]

Albino impie!
Osprey!

[Richprins]

Very interesting, fc!

Nice to know lion are at Tihongonyeni!

Osprey!

[Pumbaa]

WoW for the osprey and the Albino Impala, flying cheetah Indeed awesome sightings

The riverbeds that far North do still look devastated and extreme airy - It's still scary but I am sure one day everything will become green and thick again

[flying cheetah]

Thank you Lisbeth, Flutterby, nan, Mel, Bush Brat, Richprins and Pumbaa for following this thread and for your lovely comments

As I booked this trip very late I couldn't get accomodation in Punda and so I drove up there from Shingwedzi. The years before I had wonderful sightings at Klopperfontain and so I headed straight t this amazing waterhole. On the way up there it was very quiet and when I arrived at Klopperfontain I was surprised to see that it was full of water (the years before it was more or less dry). For a good while I only saw an Egyptian Goose but I was willing to wait at least one hour..








But finally an Elephant arrived and then the show started. As always it was great to watch him drinking and taking a bath.






Finally he walked away again and a short while later the next one came for a drink. He also took a bath and started to cross the watehole towards me. Because I was so focussed on taking pics I only realized very late that he already was very close to my car. I quickly reversed and tried to get out of the way of the bull. But he showed no sign of aggression and headed towards the signpost where he was rubbing himself and gave me another great opportunity to get nice pics













Altogether I stayed nearly 90 minutes at Klopperfontain and once again it was well worth the visit