Browns in Kruger September 2019

[RogerFraser]

Nice Lions

Wow what a great junior Leopard sighting and wonderful photos

[Alf]

Stunning leopard pictures by the rats

[Bushcraft]

Thanks Lisbeth, Mel, Flutts, RP, Pumbaa, Roger and Alf for commenting on this episode.

It was a fantastic leopard sighting and Hawkeyes and Bushpig are very proud of their pics


25th Skukuza to be continued

The little leopard started to get nervous after a few minutes even though we were trying to keep quiet and move slowly and then he sat up when the Kombi in front of us moved slightly to another position.

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He sat looking around for a few minutes and then climbed further up the tree to a higher branch, but didn’t like that so he turned and climbed back down before bailing out the tree. Bushpig was the only one fast enough to catch him on the way down.

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The Rats managed to see where the junior ran, so I started up and reversed down the road and stopped just in time to see the mother leopard move out of a massive bush to let junior into the spot she had been lying in and then she followed him in. I was shrieking while still reversing “Take photos!” but nobody was fast enough.

The tiny forward/backward mission then started until we eventually found a “piece” of mom.

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We sat waiting for a further 15 minutes but there was no movement, so we drove down the road and came back 5 minutes later. The other car had moved on but the spots hadn’t moved, so we drove 10 minutes down the road in the other direction and then came back again, but the spots were still stationary, so we moved on up to Biyamiti weir.

The weir had been producing a leopard fairly frequently for the last month, probably due to the availability of water, however today there were plenty zebra, impala, etc, but only 2 saddle bills really got our attention as I started a story.

“I’m sure the males have black eye ring thingy and the females a yellow one. The male has been drilled into submission, he’s on his knees”

The Cow made a funny noise and then

“No, he’s proposing “

I tried a different angle

“Maybe he’s begging her for a chow. Check there, she’s going fishing. Take note Cow”

The Rats seemed to like that and howled with laughter in the back but soon tempered the reaction after a back glance from the Cow and I got “the face”, but just grinned back.

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[Bushcraft]

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The sections of the S23, S113, H3 & H1-1 we drove on the way back to camp produced all the normal game and we stopped a few times to just watch ellies, giraffe, etc, but I only have pics of a hyena and a tawny.

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We got into camp just after 4pm and decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing, backing up pics from the cameras, plus we needed wood and a few other things, like a six pack of beer, from the shop. I hadn’t drunk any alcohol since the Nkonkoni red wine, but I really felt like a dop this particular evening.

As it started to get dark I started the fire down in the boma area while Albert practiced taking sunset pics.

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[Bushcraft]

Albert went inside to join the Cow and Hawkeyes who were in the kitchen, Bushpig came down and sat on a chair under the boma and I went up to the unit for another beer.

I walked back down to the dark boma 5 minutes later and as I approached Bushpig I got a cold chill as there was a dark shape on the edge of the boma 1.5m away looking at her.

I initially thought it was a hyena in camp, but as I got closer and my eyes adjusted to the dark, I realised it was a porcupine. Bushpig was reading something on her phone and wasn’t paying any attention to her surroundings, so I slowly and quietly snuck up to her, squeezed her shoulder, indicated to the porcupine and to keep quiet by putting my finger to my lips, but Bushpig got a big skrik

“EEEEKKK!!!”

The porcupine also got a massive skrik and fluffed its bum towards us, but I just whispered

“You are fine, stay still; I’m running for the camera”

I charged into the unit squawking “Porcupine, camera!” and charged out again, but 2 steps later I realised that I had grabbed my camera which still had the 500mm lens attached so it was useless and I had forgotten a torch, therefore I skidded to a holt and shouted for the torch and the Cow’s point and shoot thing, but then realised that I’m the only one who would get the torch quickly, so I roared back into the unit while the confused Cow, Hawkeyes and Albert went past me towards the boma.

As I got down to the boma the Cow was standing in the middle of the cement area saying “Oh wow, oh wow” and Bushpig was squealing “Dad left me, dad left me”, so I lost it “Wake up! Take pics!”

The porcupine was now standing on the edge of the braai area, but there was now too much commotion, so it aimed its butt at us and started to waddle off.

The Cow woke up and did a gunslinger movement with her camera, but the pic blurred, so I chirped that we have to follow it for a better pic and charged off after it while the clan followed as a huddled group.

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I made it about 10m before I realised that I was barefoot so I now had a carpet of thorns in both feet, therefore wailed

“Go, carry on after it, I can’t!”

There was a pause from the Cow and I could see that she was about to protest, but then she started off after the porcupine with the Rats huddled around her.

Maybe it was the biscuit or the beers, but I couldn’t help but to start laughing as they looked like 4 ostriches tentatively running away.

As they disappeared around the bend behind the porcupine I returned to the fire to start pulling out the thorns.

The gang returned 5 minutes later huffing and puffing, but with grins. It turns out that a porcupine has an accelerator and it left them in the dust.

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The porcupine had put a massive spin on the evening as everybody was now interested in sitting down by the braai area, but they looked like meerkats on guard and every rustle resulted in torches and war stories which I took great joy in feeding.

We chowed later than normal this evening, so soon afterwards we headed up to the unit, but Albert and Bushpig were still interested in every rustle so they keep popping out the door to shine the torch, therefore when the next shriek erupted I thought the porcupine had returned, however the shrieking escalated so I went to check and nearly got flattened as all the Rats stormed into our room wailing their heads off.

A bat had flown into their room and after the war stories, this was a vampire bat in the Rats eyes even though they know that it couldn’t possibly be one.

I took a towel and attempted a capture because I knew that there would be no peace until the bat was out the room, however the bat flew around the room in circles while I looked like a faulty bull fighter with the towel each time it passed by.

The clan was now curious so they were squeezing into the doorway and each time it passed by me the Cow started laughing which wasn’t helping my frustration, however the bat suddenly did a turn and flew over their heads into the kitchen/lounge area between the rooms which resulted in another choir of shrieking as the Rats and Cow stormed back into our room.

The bat had gone into the thatch and was no longer flying around, so I falsely announced that it had gone out the door and peace returned.

Half an hour later the 2 larger Rats had made it into bed and Albert had cruised across to our room to say goodnight, but as she left our room there was more shrieking as the bat swooped down and Albert dived back into our room.

I couldn’t resist

“The bat wants to nest in your hair”

This made Albert’s eyes go like saucers

“Mom, it wants to nest in my hair!!”

The Cow was now tired and getting mildly irritated “No, just go to bed and close your bedroom door!”, so Albert snuck out our bedroom door and as luck would have it, the bat swooped down again, therefore in Albert’s eyes I was correct and the shrieking back dive into our room was repeated, so I had to repeat my bull fighting towel mission.

Eventually the darn bat flew out the door for real, so I announced this with relief, but Albert didn’t trust me and looked like a blind ninja turtle while she fiddled her way to their room.

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To be continued

[Alf]

Wow a porcupine

What an amazing sighting

We also had a bat in our cottage a few times and it's not so easy to catch it

[Flutterby]

Fantastic sighting of the porcupine!! That'll teach you to wear shoes!!

Love the bat episode!!

[Richprins]

That is a huge leadwood tree indeed for the leopard, Bushy!

Ja, porcupine stalking is not easy...ask Joeking!

Thrilling bat story...looks like Skuks was fun after oll!

[Lisbeth]

You all get excited too easily and the porcupine eludes you Maybe if you had had on at least flip flops...

Olé, olé bat vs Bushy

[Richprins]