6th Biyamiti to Lower Sabie
We were up in the dark to pack and were the 2nd car out of Biyamiti camp at 5:30am.
The private S139 is a long story in the morning if heading west as it’s not in the best condition, so we decided to take the quickest route to the H4-2 to get ahead of the Croc bridge clan and the day visitor gang, hence ducked down the S25 and up the S108/H5 but didn’t stop much as nothing was happening besides a few ellies, buffalo, giraffe and a Bateleur for the Cow.
We arrived at Lower Sabie just before 7am and I was rather despondent as it had been a rubbish drive so far and we could only book in at Lower Sabie at 2pm, so we had to find something to do for 7 hours, hence a debate started and the decision was to return to the Skukuza golf club for hot chips and some relaxation.
I was still sulking, hence wasn’t paying attention, but fortunately Bushpig was, as just past Lubyelubye she let rip “LEOPARD!”, so I slammed on brakes “WHERE!”
“REVERSE!”
The leopard had cruised out of a drain under the road, but was on a mission which resulted in blurred panicked pics.
Eventually the leopard lay down for a few seconds which enabled us to at least get a proof pic before it cruised off again.
I pulled into the little loop just north of Lubyelubye rocks to see if we could get a view of the leopard from there, however suddenly the water erupted in front of us, but it took my brain a few seconds to register what it was.
“WT……….OTTER!”
Hawkeyes is spastic about otters, so she was flapping big time in the back, but eventually the car was calm and we could get some pics.
There were 2 SBS’s cruising around the otter also and they seemed to be plotting a theft mission, but another movement distracted us again and it was a second otter swimming around.
Eventually one of the SBS’s caught its own chow and then a kingfisher got spotted by Bushpig and we got distracted again.
The otters cruised up the river, so we decided to continue on, but stopped again just before the causeway for an ellie chowing next to the road and then 2 male lions having a hippo breakfast in the riverbed. The young hippos seem to be getting hammered by lion at the moment.
The rest of the drive to the golf club didn’t produce anything out of the ordinary except an optimistic dung beetle which the Cow insisted on photographing.
To be continued