Kruger Newbies *

[Mel]

Aha! I can see where the cats came into the equation. Fabulous leopard sightings!!!
I don't really know what I'm doing with my camera, but I would have thought as well that darkening is much easier than lightening up.
Either way, it makes it even better shots seeing what the original looked like.

More cats in form of lions too.

But anything else, particularly the birds, are fantastic as well.

[PJL]

I don't really know what I'm doing with my camera, but I would have thought as well that darkening is much easier than lightening up.

I better clarify - that darker one was a 'mistake' shot, which basically showed what the leopard looked like to the naked eye... just showing how dark it was at the time. All the other photos were slightly (over) exposed to the right and came out thanks to the amazingly high ISO available on modern DSLRs

[PJL]

Day 4 Continued: Berg en Dal to Satara

After a welcome stretch of the legs and not-too-frozen ice cream at Skukuza, we took the H4-1 along next to the Sabie river and I can see why sightings are so prolific in that area. It reminded me a bit of the Chobe river in dry season, attracting lots of animals from all around.

First up, another Steenbok was browsing close to the road





And as the Sabie river came into view, we had our first sightings of hippo







There were quite a few cars parked up on the H12 bridge, and after a bit of scanning we saw more lion - a few in the open but many seeking some shade as it was getting hotter. These lion were looking a lot more healthy than the first pride, but we didn't stop for too long as they were some distance away and we really wanted to get to Tshokwane for lunch.





Lunch turned into a right pain. We ordered toasted sarmies at Tshokwane, and could see the monkeys and baboons hanging around looking for unsuspecting victims. After a decade, the sarmies were finally toasted, and the vervets had no fear in attempting to snatch them out our hands which the kids were not impressed with
We beat a hasty retreat to our car to finish the chow. It's a shame that more can't be done to patrol the pests... various people lost food to the monkeys

A vervet actually behaving himself



The baboons were chased away by staff but soon came back



At least the glossy starlings and hornbills posed less of a threat





TBC

[Bushcraft]

The H4-1 cooks from July to November, but so does the supply of traffic.

I believe those lion parked off at the H12 Bridge for a few days

Toasted sarmies at Tshokwane A vervet stole a toasted cheese out of my youngest hand. I hope nobody got food poisoning (Don’t touch the toasted chicken )

More great pics

[Dewi]

Great pics again PJL.

I would not speak too soon about the starlings not posing a threat. When we went there for toasted sarnies in August, we stood in the queue to be served when I noticed that there were lots of starlings sitting on the vents and rafters etc above the cookers and food preperation areas and were pooping down onto these areas. The front edge of the cookers were covered in droppings.

We walked out.

Wish I'd taken a pic at the time, but what's the point. If the parks or inspecting authority cannot see the obvious, I doubt that my pointing it out would have made a difference.

You can tell your kids that they more than likely had a lucky escape from food poisoning or worse if their sarnies had not been stolen.

[PJL]

Day 4 Continued: Berg en Dal to Satara

We made our escape from Tshokwane, and enjoyed spending some time checking out the dams at Mazithi and Kumana. We had sootted some waterbuck in the distance whilst down in the far south, but got some much closer views as we approached Mazithi, where there was also a fish eagle on the lookout.







Kumana had some impala milling around, but a few additional birds to identify.

Hooded vultures quenching their thirst



Another fish eagle (which some very keen birders had their 'his & hers' seriously expensive looking lenses trained on ready for flight)...



Our first yellow billed stork



And our first woolly necked stork



Whilst the kids enjoyed seeing a youngster amongst the hippo clan in the water




TBC

[PJL]

Thanks PRWIN, Lisbeth, Bushcraft, Amoli & Dewi for your comments

Day 4 Continued: Berg en Dal to Satara

Travelling up from Kumana we knew there had been a leopard sighting, but the pile of cars wasn't quite as bad as I had been expecting. After a few minutes waiting, we managed to get ourselves into a position where we could play 'spot the leopard'



The leopard had been seen much earlier in the morning eating an impala kill in a tree next to the road, but was now trying to cool off whilst doing its best to hide from the cars. With a bit of careful focussing it came into view through the branches.





We waited around for a while in the hope it might move into a better position, but after a while it became clear it wasn't going to be moving until evening. We were keen to get to Satara after most of the day in the car, so we completed the route up the H1-3. Apart from the general game, we found a scenic rhino and a hyena on the move as we approached Satara.





We felt at home at Satara right on arrival, and after a meal settled down to some drinks in the company of the resident AWC and honey badger.



TBC

[PJL]

Day 5: Satara

After all the travelling the day before and a later night for the kids, we decided to skip any ideas of alarm clocks and let them wake up when they felt ready. Fortunately their body clocks had swung into early starts, and we were up a lot earlier than I had been anticipating

The kids were a bit gutted to hear that they had missed the nocturnal visitors from the night before while they were sleeping, but luckily for them Stoffel made a morning appearance



For our morning drive, we decided to try our luck along the S100, then down the S41 aiming for a skottel breakfast at N'wanetsi. After a short way along the S100 we came across a herd of vehicles stopped near a pan where 4 male lion had been drinking. Out of pure coincidence we had stopped next to an ex-colleague of mine who was as surprised to see me as I was him!! The lion were now wandering away from the road, so after a quick snap we continued on our way in an attempt to get in front of as many vehicles as possible... I don't really like travelling behind others - especially when it's a dirt road




Before long we had leap-frogged most of the cars while they stopped for the regulars. The rest of the S100 was rather peaceful, though we got a nice sighting of a hooded vulture and an impressive waterbuck ram







Heading down the S41, there were a few low level bridges giving views onto unexpected hippo pods, and we also got our first decent look at some young crocodiles - another favourite of D While we were watching them, some impala came very close by and had us wondering what size the croc would have to be before thinking of the impala as breakfast







Our only other sighting of note before arriving at N'wanetsi was a nice giraffe close to the road. You can see the new shoots contrasting with the burnt areas - there had been a lot of fire in that area recently




N'wanetsi was a very cool picnic spot, and our skottel breakfast went down a treat. However, on comparison to other tables, Granny felt that we had let the side down by not bringing a tablecloth along
The view point provided a fantastic lookout over the area, and we could see all sorts of buck meandering through the bushes in the valley below. The rocks around the lookout had plenty of lizards, one of which was a decent size - I think it's a giant plated lizard







TBC

[BluTuna]

Spot on with the lizard ID

[PJL]

Day 5 Continued: Satara

We continued our morning drive by heading back along the H6 and we had our 2nd distant lion sighting of the day as a lone lioness got up and walked off to find some shade.



There was plenty of general game as we drove along including a purple roller and our first ostrich









Calling in at one of the pans we were surprised with this sighting:



We soon tracked down the owner to be one of the rangers busy checking on the waterhole pump
Back on the H1-3 we stopped to watch a lion pride doing their best to cool down. There was a herd of elephant moving towards them, and we wondered for a while whether they would be forced to move, but the ellies decided to steer clear of them.





Travelling back to camp we came across a huge herd of buffalo - there must have been more than 1000 animals spread out over a riverbed and into the distance. For once the zoom range of my lens simply didn't do the sight justice





We had decided the previous evening to investigate the possibility of going on the sunset drive, but the minimum age was 6. D was a bit short of that, so when we got back to camp we went to find out if they would let him on or not. The main reason for not allowing younger ones on the drives is that they didn't want to have to cut short the drive due to crying/painful kids and spoil the trip for everyone else. We did a good job of convincing them that D would not be a problem, and the guide was fine with taking him, so we made the booking and went off to relax by the pool for the afternoon where S found a blue headed tree agama







TBC