Africa Wild

15th Satara to Skukuza continued

The leopard parked off in the tree next to us for around 15 minutes, but as you can imagine a new traffic jam was starting to build up, so she got a little edgy in the tree and started to climb down.







She then started a “peek a boo” game with us from behind the tree, so she was obviously plotting her next move to get out of the building crowd.



What happened next caught everybody at the sighting by surprise, including unfortunately the slowed up crowd who had pulled up next to us, but on the other side of the road.

Suddenly the leopard bailed out the tree, ran a few steps straight towards us and then completely disappeared.

I was still flapping with locating her in my camera view finder.

“WT......where did she go?”

She was only around 3m from us when she did this Houdini and at first I thought she was lying flat in the grass at the road edge, but suddenly the penny dropped.

“There’s a drain under the road hidden in the grass!”

“Check the other side of the road sharp!”

The faulty crowd parked next to us had all their teeth hanging out and where trying to get closer to photograph the “leopard”, but the actual leopard was already on their side of the road and heading at pace for the riverbed, so I started squealing at them.

“It’s on your side!”

Blank faces, but still teeth and cameras looking at me

“It’s gone under the road! The leopard is on your side!”

Still no response, so I thought they maybe didn’t understand English, so said again slowly,

“Leopard?” heads nodded “Has gone under the road, it’s on your side”

Suddenly they woke up to what I was saying and all started looking out the other side of their car, but it was too late and the leopard was already in the riverbed and soon out of sight.

It was only a few km to Tshokwane, but I don’t remember even looking for anything because we were so busy jabbering about the leopard sighting.

As we pulled into Tshokwane car park Albert spotted some bird she was keen on, so the Cow sent me on a mission to get a pic. I think it’s a Grey-headed shrike but I’m not sure and always add “Shrike” when I’m not sure.



The H1-2 from Tshokwane to Skukuza produced all the normal gang, so I won’t bore you with all those pics otherwise this day will take forever.

We stopped at Skukuza for a loo break, but it was still way too early, but I was tired of driving, so we decided to duck off to Lake Panic for awhile.

The car park was fairly full, but I decided we should go in and take a look anyway.

As I opened the gate to the pathway down to the hide a stupid francolin ran in front of me, so it was now stuck in the pathway ahead of us. This amused Albert and Bushpig, so I had to keep telling them to “shut it” but as we neared the hide the francolin hit a panic and took off straight at me hitting me in the face, which set the rats off big time.

Through gritted teeth I had to threaten them to keep quiet or we were going back to the car.

Most of the usual Lake Panic crowd was around













Lake Panic is a cool spot for some, but for me personally it’s a nightmare. The place was packed and to be forced into a small space with strangers is bad enough, but then add in the “proper camera” crowd with their bean bags and machine guns and then put my 3 rats into the mix also.

After 10 minutes I couldn’t handle it anymore, so indicated to the Cow it was time to move.

Back in the car park, we checked the time and it was still too early, so we decided to head for Skukuza nursery for a stroll, which produced a few more birds for the Cow.







I hadn’t heard from Gump or RP yet, but it was now about time for the Skukuza book in, so we headed back to camp.

To be continued

15th Satara to Skukuza continued

The next part of this trip is tricky to write about as some of it is already done and posted in the “Africa Wild Gatherings” TT section, so I may skip stuff that’s already there.

Our book in took time as it was 2pm, so the queue was fairly long, therefore the Cow and Hawkeyes took it on while Albert, Bushpig and I wobbled around the “fish pond” outside.

Eventually after a few phone call stuff ups RP and I made contact and they pulled in to our unit.

After a few introductory dops an afternoon route was planned and it was decided we would travel in convoy down to Transport Dam and back.

Gump had put me under pressure because he stated that he couldn’t wait to call me back for a sighting that I had missed, so our car was on “high sighting alert” and the rats were under strict instructions to not fail.

The H1-1 from Skukuza produced nothing really until the intersection with the H3 at “Klipspringer Koppies” where we hit a traffic jam.

A lioness was hiding out in the rocks with some juniors.



Gump eventually “made a path” through the traffic with his monster and I followed which produced another lioness sleeping on a rock.



There was a male sleeping in the grass below the lioness also, but he was out for the count and only an ear was visible.

I thought the lions would park off until after 5pm, so we continued on to Transport Dam, but Gump and RP chose to stay with the lions.

Transport produced a few ellies drinking and a massive buffalo herd just before the dam, so we parked off for a few minutes before heading back for the lions.



We stopped at the lioness sleeping on the rock again and this time tried for a pic of the male, but only got his ear.



As we continued around the corner we spotted a lioness walking in the road towards us, but I couldn’t see Gump and RP, but they also got pics of this lioness so we must have just missed each other. I found out later that RP needed the loo, so they had to head off, but after seeing the below Gump may make RP piddle in a bottle next time.

The lioness cruised past us and then lay down close to the road, but didn’t seem too happy about something.





Around 1 minute later other lions started to appear from over the koppie and they started down towards the lioness which was sleeping next to the road. The mother with cubs then also decided to start moving down.









The naughty cubs were starting to cruise off away from their mother and closer to us, but time was ticking and the Garmin was indicating we had to leave in minutes; however I pushed the limit as the rats were wild for the cubs that eventually came even closer.





I knew they were all going to come into the road, but the Garmin now stated that we had 2 minutes spare, so I reluctantly started the car and left.

We found Gump and RP a few km from camp chatting to a SANParks sunset drive crowd, so we drove into camp just behind them.

RP was concerned about his chicken cooking time, so I was under instruction to start the fire immediately and Gump had fortunately brought his “little fire pit” from home so we could keep warm as it got colder throughout the evening.



The evil ice bucket also made an appearance, but the Cow is slightly superstitious, so I was banned from taking any ice out of it due to the curse RP warned us about. I did sneak some ice out of it later to see what would happen the next day, but didn’t tell anyone.

It wasn’t a late night as Gump had us under control and issued bedtime instructions at around 11pm.

b]To be continued [/b]

16th Skukuza

RP decided to sleep in this morning, Gump was in the gate queue and we cruised out of camp at around 6:20am.

RP had planned a lunch at Nhlanguleni picnic spot for around 12:30pm, so our plan was to head down the H1-1, up the S65 and back to camp on the S1/H11 and then leave for Nhlanguleni a little later.

Gump scored big early in the morning, but hasn’t told everyone about those sightings yet, however we found nothing all the way to the S65 turnoff. Even the lioness and cubs at Klipspringer Koppies weren’t around anymore.

A little way down the S65 a chap stopped us and told us about a male lion parking off at N’waswitshaka waterhole which got the enthusiasm going again.
As we arrived we found Gump cooling off at the sighting already.





After around 15 minutes the lion got up and tried to cruise off into the shade, but it took awhile as he had an injured leg.





Gump and I then decided to move on with Gump taking the lead.

As we drove over the causeway, just around the corner from the male lion, I spotted something approaching in the riverbed, but Gump continued on.

After a frantic search for binoculars we identified a lioness walking in the riverbed, so I started flashing my lights at Gump who was nearly out of sight by that time.



Gump turned and arrived as another lioness pulled in with cubs.







My teeth were secretly hanging out because Gump had said “I can’t wait to call you back for a sighting you missed” and now I had called him back for a sighting he had missed.

While parking off and watching we could hear another male lion roaring in the distance and the roaring seemed to be getting closer each time, so Gump decided to duck back towards the 1st male and after a few minutes we decided to do the same thing as they were probably brothers, so they would link up.

As we turned the corner Gump started pointing because the 2nd male had come out the bush.



The male walked over to the waterhole area, parked off for a few minutes and then started towards the shade where the 1st male was, so we took a few pics of him walking and then moved on.





To be continued

16th Skukuza continued

As we turned off the S65 on the way back to Skukuza we found Gump parked off with a few other cars, but couldn’t work out what was going on. Gump pointed at something and then pulled off which left me even more confused, but the Cow spotted a crested barbet next to the road, so we assumed it was that causing the traffic jam.



A few more normal locals popped up on the way to camp but we never took any pics.

We arrived back at Skukuza at around 9:15am, so we had time to use the loo and relax a little before cruising up towards Nhlanguleni picnic spot.

We had another phone circus trying to get hold of each other, but eventually Gump got through to me to confirm we would meet at 12:30pm at Nhlanguleni.

We decided to duck down the H4-1 and up the H12 to the H1-2, Gump and RP ducked straight up the H1-2.

The H4-1 section produced traffic and a few birds for the Cow.







At the S30/H12 Bridge intersection we decided to take a little drive down the S30 as there are a few inlets around 5km down which are very productive.

As we pulled into the 2nd inlet the Cow spotted some lion parking off in the morning sun.







We couldn’t believe that there were no other cars around, so these lion must have just come out into the open. Our peace didn’t last long though as 5 minutes later an OSV driver arrived and got straight on his radio.

This pissed me off, so I started up, turned and headed back to the H12 and then up the H1-2.

We found only an ostrich on the way to the S36 turnoff which was strange for me personally as we have never spotted ostrich on the lower section of the H1-2.



As we pulled in at Jones se Dam we found RP and Gump parked off. There were a fair number of different animals cruising around so we started off by taking pics of a SBS and zebra drinking before driving over to RP and Gump.





I decided to drive up fairly close to them which got RP excited with my engine noise, so I was immediately given hand signals to switch off.

I was shocked to see RP behind the steering wheel as Gump seemed rather protective of his monster.

RP looked like a Chelsea bun because he was covering himself in suntan cream and Gump, although English, looked like a boer general behind his binoculars.

We then noticed the “man bag” in the back seat which had me quietly laughing as a stranger might have thought there was something suspect on the go.



I then started up and cruised around to park on the other side of Gump’s car.

To be continued

16th Skukuza continued

RP and Gump had taken a bet to see how long I would be able to sit still at the waterhole, but I didn’t know about this until later and I’m not sure who won the bet.

A fish eagle pulled in to attempt some barbel hunting, but nothing happened and the eagle just parked off, so it was a little like watching paint dry, therefore the Cow and I got distracted, however I heard Gump’s machine gun going as the eagle took off, so maybe he got better pics than the below.







I lasted around 15 minutes before deciding to continue on towards the picnic site.

The S36 up to Nhlanguleni was very quiet and boring, so I felt a little like Mad Max in a wasteland but we did have a “false” sable panic which turned into a kudu and we did stop for a pic of a brown snake eagle



There was nobody at Nhlanguleni when we arrived and 5 minutes later Gump and RP pulled in.

Another couple did arrive during lunch but it was generally very quiet. The only headache was the generator for the water pump which was making an irritating noise.

The Prego rolls were fantastic and we have tried a similar thing twice now at home, but KZN seems clueless about the sauce and the required meat.

Some entertainment arrived at the waterhole and you have probably seen Gump’s pics already, which are similar. This ellie wouldn’t let anything drink while he was around.









When the faulty ellie eventually left the water a rhino and the giraffe that had been doing circles around the waterhole decided it was safe to pull in also.





I started to get itchy feet again, so we decided to take the S33/H1-2 back towards Skukuza and Gump and RP parked off a little longer and then went back down the S36.

I actually really enjoyed relaxing there over lunch rather than in camp, so we will do it again in the future.

To be continued

16th Skukuza continued

The S33 turned into a nightmare for us as there was nothing happening, not even impala, however we did stop for a vulture just to take a pic of something



We linked up with Gump and RP again as they were exiting the S36 and a little further down the H1-2 a few little groups of ellies turned up next to the road. Gump decided to get up close, which resulted in the Cow instructing me to “move” which is what I did until we found a group a little further from the road.

At the H1-2/H12 intersection we decided to duck down the H12 to the H4-1 and back to camp while the Gumprins combo decided to continue on the H1-2.

Halfway between the H12 bridge and Skukuza we found a car stopped and spotted our first leopard for the day, which was a major stress reliever for me.



It was now around 4:50pm so we had time to park off and enjoy the sighting, but the sun was setting diagonally behind the leopard, so the Cow and I were battling to understand our cameras and get pics, which added a new stress dimension.

We also tried for signal to phone Gumprins, but eventually gave up on that idea as moving didn’t help with signal either.

Another car stopped next to us to find out what was potting, so the Cow explained to the lady where the leopard was.

Seconds later this lady chirped “There’s another leopard approaching the tree on the ground”

This got my attention “Where, There! Take pics!”

“#$^* it’s gone behind the tree!”

The leopard in the tree jumped up and started forward as the other leopard bailed into the tree.





Around a minute later another leopard arrived and started to climb up, which resulted in the 2nd leopard charging up into the higher branches. The 3rd leopard was a large male and seemed intent on something.

As one can imagine I was now a jabbering idiot because my out of control mindset when leopards are around was compounded big time.

“#$^* this camera won’t focus! The Sun is in my face @*#*”

The growling then started from the first leopard that was on the left which got me even more jumpy.



At this moment a car pulled up next to us.

“What do you see?” So I chirped without moving from my camera viewfinder “Leopards in tree over there!”

There was silence for a few seconds and then “I don’t see them!”

This is where the Cow fortunately took over.

“You see that large tree over there; it has a dead tree in front of it and a fish eagle in the tree to the right of it. There are 3 leopards in that tree. 1 on the right, 1 higher up in the centre and 1 on the right branch”.

Silence again.

“I don’t see them, the tree with the fish eagle?”

“No, the tree next to the tree with the fish eagle!”

This went on for 5 minutes and if I wasn’t so tense I would have been laughing as the Cow was getting frustrated, but now this chap was starting to piss on my battery as he was interrupting the adrenalin I need, so I started chirping rather abruptly.

“There’s only 1 big tree, left, centre, right, 3 leopard!”

“Cow, focus on the leopards now!”

The chap moved on to hassle the 1st car we had told and the Cow turned to me with a confused face.

“Is that guy blind or just rather slow?”

The growling and tense body language from the leopards continued.





Time was now starting to catch up with us and the Garmin was indicating we had minutes to spare. This obviously got me even tenser because there’s no way I was leaving now as this looked like 3 adult leopards so anything could happen.

The one on the left and the one in the middle then seemed to “tag up” and they both started growling and carrying on at the large leopard on the right, who then turned suddenly, paused a little and bailed out the tree.



I took a deep breath now and started the car.

“We have to leave or we are going to be late for camp”

There was silence as I pulled off but seconds later the Cow and rats started jabbering uncontrollably and high fives got passed around. I just drove along with my teeth hanging right out as is the norm after a leopard sighting.

The tension wasn’t over though because we then got 4 of the big 5 during the next 5 minutes and 1.5km.

We stopped for a second just to get a proof pic of the lion in the riverbed.



Gumprins arrived at our unit a little after 6pm and as it was my turn to provide meat and cook, I had chosen large steak because it’s a few things to turn and it cooks quickly on a hot fire, which means we can feed the rats and get them out of our hair before it’s too late.

A decision was made to take a group photo before too many dops went down, so I set my camera up on a timer thing and we all posed for a pic.



The new mask Bushpig had made for RP was actually a school project or something, but it was meant to be a vervet monkey, however the bright orange additions made it look more like a strange chicken.

After a few dops Gump pulled out pics of himself from the late teenage years and I tell you now that none of you would recognise him. Picture a blond long haired surfer dude from those old late 70’s movies and you will have a description of Gump in those days.

I still believe Gump may be conning me about those pics though. He probably paid some thin surfer dude to pose for the pics so he could con it was him to catch me.

Time disappeared this evening, but Gump was a little more relaxed about bedtime, so RP managed to con him around 4 times “Last dop”.

We ended up calling it a night just after 11:30pm.

To be continued

17th Skukuza to Biyamiti

I woke this morning with a small woodpecker drilling my head, which must have had something to do with the consumption from the previous evening.

This was our last day in the park and we have lately decided to make this final day our traditional “unwind” day, where we take our time and relax in camp after booking in, so we slowly packed the car, put fuel in and left Skukuza at around 7am.

I wasn’t sure what to do until the 2pm book in at Biyamiti as we would normally have gone to park off at Afsaal, but recent reports indicate it’s not what it used to be (no pancakes, which is the reason the rats nagged to go there in the first place), so we decided to rather head slowly down to Nkuhlu, waste some time down there and then head back to Skukuza, waste some time there and then head off down the H3/H1-1/etc towards Biyamiti.

First up was the raptor below and I’m not sure of the model, so please assist.



Next up were a few hyenas playing around next to the road and the 1 in particular had us all laughing because it looked as if he wanted to play “fetch” with a stick.







We then drove into one of those H4-1 chaotic sightings and the road was completely blocked. From our position we were able to see it was a leopard parking off on the ground, but I didn’t want to blow a cylinder head, so we snapped a pic of the portion we could see and then turned around to head back towards Skukuza.



The drive back produced a few new sightings including a wartie family which caused a stir. Unfortunately the larger wartie isn’t in frame, but it was a family of 5, which got me comparing the sizes and ages to our family, which had the rats all laughing, but it nearly turned into a disaster as Bushpig started teasing Albert about the smaller wartie which was “her”, so the topic got changed rapidly before fists started flying in the back seat.



Next up were a few ellies crossing the road and green pigeons for the Cow.





Around 10km from Skukuza we bumped into another mini traffic jam which was dispersing so I wondered what we had missed, therefore looked another for a more “social face” and asked.

Supposedly 2 lion had crossed the road and had disappeared down into the riverbed, so I asked about the direction of travel, thanked the guy and moved off, but not too far.

The Cow and I now worked on a plot to figure out where we could catch a glimpse of the lion as we know the road fairly well.

Just around the corner we knew there was a gap with a view, so decided to head there, but couldn’t see the lion, however just up the road there was a car stopped and a camera out the window, so we went to investigate and found the lion which were now “doing the boring thing” so we took 2 pics and continued on towards Skukuza.





Our last sighting just before Skukuza wasn’t pleasant as someone had hit an impala which was now lying dead next to the road.



To be continued

Thanks again pooky, Lisbeth, harrys, nan, Toko and puppy for popping in and commenting

17th Skukuza to Biyamiti continued

The drive down the H1-1/H3 was rather quiet with the odd local and ellies making an appearance



We decided to duck off at the S113 and do the Biyamiti loop, the S23, down to the Biyamiti weir and rather hang out at the weir for awhile because at least there’s always something around to photograph.

The first thing we found at the weir was a lioness parking off on a rock in the sun. We initially were just waiting to get across and hadn’t even noticed her.



We parked on the north side of the road onto the weir so we were out of the way, switched off and waited to see what the lioness’s next plan was. A few cars came past without even noticing her, but then an old couple pulled up next to us to comment on how quiet things were and they wanted to know if we had found any lions. I took delight in saying “There’s 1 over there!” which gave them a little wobble.

The lioness then decided to get up and cruise over to another rock in the middle of the riverbed.





The lioness had become boring, so we moved onto the weir to get pics of all the normal locals who hang out there, but I developed a pelican because there were no kingfishers around.









It was still fairly early but we decided to head down the private S139 towards Biyamiti anyway just to get some “alone” time in the bush.

The Cow is terrified of the ellies in the Biyamiti area as they can get a little faulty, so I was once again given strict warnings at the start of the road to reverse if we spotted any and guess what, our first sighting was ellies in the road, so I had to park off at a safe distance for 20 minutes until they decided to move off.



Next up were some buffalo, more ellies and an eagle owl. Hawkeyes is the eagle owl master in our clan and seems to find at least 1 every trip.







The S139 took much longer than expected to drive, so we only arrived in camp just before 3pm, therefore I canned any idea of an evening drive and purchased 3 bags of wood instead so that I could do our normal last night massive wood fire thing.

There was only 1 very small puddle of water along the Biyamiti fence line and by chance it happened to be in front of our unit, so I was hopeful that some animals would come done to drink, but besides a few impala it was generally quiet, therefore we decided to start cleaning portable freezer/cooler boxes, etc and organizing stuff to ease the trip home, so it was a rather “painful” afternoon.

I started the fire early so the meat was on the go just after dark.



Just before the meat was cooked we heard noises in the riverbed which sounded like a leopard, so there was immediate panic and we roared off down to the fence line.

As we arrived there were 2 civets in the riverbed in front of us, which wasn’t what had made the noise but still cool, however the Cow had grabbed the wrong torch again, which got me going, but then I remembered the meat on the braai, so we all charged back to the unit.

When we returned with the correct torch only 1 civet was still visible and it had moved further off, so after a few failed attempts to get the flash to work through the fence and the inevitable temper tantrum from me, we gave up and returned to eat supper.

After supper the rats went to bath, etc and I switched off all the lights to sit in the dark next to the fire with the Cow, but the Cow was rather twitchy and switched the darn torch on for every little noise which was driving me crazy.

Eventually I convinced the Cow that she wasn’t being stalked by something and that if we leave the torch off for long enough then our eyes would adapt.

Around 5 minutes later a little genet arrived to check us out.





We had a long drive to Imfolozi the next day, so crashed fairly early.

To be continued

18th Biyamiti to Imfolozi

The weather again changed overnight and it was seriously cold for a KZN crowd, so packing the car in the dark and wind wasn’t fun.

I had all under pressure because I wanted to hit the road early due to the long drive, so we were out of Biyamiti at 6am.

There was silence in the car most of the way down the S25 towards Croc Bridge and nobody was really paying much attention to our surroundings as all had pelicans due to the end of our trip.

I took the pic below a few km from Croc Bridge and it was colder at Biyamiti so for the first time windows (not mine) were also closed.



Just before the S27/hippo pools turnoff something walked into the road in front of us, but it took my brain a few seconds to respond

“LEOPARD! Camera!”

The leopard with the “ear muffs” we had spotted on our last Kruger trip in the same area was standing in the road.

The Cow for the very first time this trip, as I had been giving her a hard time about it, did her hand waving “whooo ooo ooo” thing instead of taking pics or passing the camera, so when mixed with my “leopard hypo” we were seconds from detonation.

Eventually we were organized but the leopard had moved off the road and was heading for the thick bush, but we managed 2 pics.





At the H4-2/S25 intersection the Cow found another pearl spotted owlet and our last pic in Kruger was a black crake as we crossed Croc Bridge at around 7:15am.





It had been a shorter July trip than normal for us as finances didn’t permit longer, but in 7 full days in the park we had seen enough, however one is never happy to leave Kruger, so it was very quiet on the road to the Swaziland border

The drive turned into a nightmare for me as the Swaziland roads in places force one to concentrate big time.



Also for some reason the roads were packed with more trucks than we have ever experienced in the past, so I was “finished” by the time we hit the Hluhluwe area and it was much later than the time we expected to arrive, therefore I couldn’t face entering at that gate and we drove down towards the Nyalazi Gate on the freeway, but the 21km from the freeway to Nyalazi Gate was even worse, so a lesson was learnt.

We did however spot elephant and giraffe before even entering the park.





I found that by this stage I wasn’t that interested in Imfolozi either and really just wanted to get home because it felt rather “flat” after Kruger, but we had paid, so we continued on.
I’m going to include this Imfolozi section under this TT rather than another as we were only in Imfolozi around 18 hours.

When we arrived at Nyalazi Gate it was already 2pm so we had been on the road for 8 hours and still had to drive to Mpila camp, so my patience was completely history, therefore I decided to rather wobble around outside reception and let the Cow handle things, but after half an hour and still no Cow I was about to have a meltdown, so stormed into reception.

I restrained myself when I spotted the glare from the Cow because she had obviously been expecting me to come charging in.

A French lady was booking in, but couldn’t speak a single word of English, so the staff behind the counter were completely lost, so I tried to listen, but gave up and chirped the Cow “Why don’t you help out!”

“I don’t speak French!”

Frustration continued to grow and it was safer for all if I went on another wobble around the car park, so I ducked outside.

Eventually another person managed enough French and English for all to understand and we were in the park.

The tar road in Hluhluwe/Imfolozi is completely stuffed, so driving was a pain as I couldn’t relax and enjoy it, therefore Bushpig had to take control of sightings on my side because I couldn’t take my eyes off the road. At least they are now trying to fix it, but that comes with construction vehicles and another headache.

Around 3km from Nyalazi Gate towards Mpila Camp we found lion on a buffalo kill, which changed the mood in our car slightly.







A little further up the road we spotted another lioness cruising and a secretary bird.





The rest of the drive to Mpila produced more ellies, warties, zebra, giraffe, rhino, etc, but we just stopped briefly each time to check things out and didn’t take pics.

At Mpila camp the Cow went to book us in and I went straight to the shop to buy beers as I was now only interested in having a dop and making a fire.

We got our normal unit no 16 at Mpila as units are allocated by surname so statistically we stand the best chance of getting 16 every time, therefore we felt like we had arrived at “home”.

I immediately started the fire as the stomach was crying for food and swallowed a few beers before even unpacking properly.

We spent the rest of the late afternoon just "relaxing" on the veranda and crashed before any local hyena, etc arrived.

To be continued