The Great Escape

[RogerFraser]

Lovely Cheetah shots .Always happens when you are pressed for time

I know SANPARKS use Fire as a tool but IMHO seems to have been allot of burns over the last few years between Satara and Tshokwane

Great that you got settled in again quickly

[Lisbeth]

I hope that they know what they are doing with all that burning

Great set-up! Is the tyre for decoration purposes?

[Richprins]

Those vultures are always there, Peej! Not sure why?

Ja, lots of burns every year compared to the past, IMO...

How many lion sightings by now?

And grand campsite again!

[PJL]

Flat Lions we also saw lots of burnt areas up north

I like your camp set up

Thanks Harry
Interesting that the north has seen so much burning. There were vast areas in the south as well, but generally the less travelled routes

Lovely Cheetah shots .Always happens when you are pressed for time

I know SANPARKS use Fire as a tool but IMHO seems to have been allot of burns over the last few years between Satara and Tshokwane

Great that you got settled in again quickly

Yeah we couldn't stay forever with the cheetahs unfortunately. I think they might well have hunted that afternoon as they seemed quite alert

I hope that they know what they are doing with all that burning

Great set-up! Is the tyre for decoration purposes?

I hope they know as well Lis
The tyre is important!...



The trailer has the tent on top, which folds out all around the trailer. Then you have the kitchen built into the one side and sleeping the other side plus on top

Those vultures are always there, Peej! Not sure why?

Ja, lots of burns every year compared to the past, IMO...

How many lion sightings by now?

And grand campsite again!

No idea of how many lion by now... we had lost count

[PJL]

Friday July 16th

Some of the guys we had met at Lower Sabie were staying in the safari tents at Skukuza, so we had a good catch up with them about sightings. There had been a number of leopard sightings down in the direction of Malelane the previous day, with one at the Biyamiti bridge as well as the famous De Laporte leopard - both with kills in trees.

With that news we decided that our morning route would be down towards Afsaal and then back over to Biyamiti Weir and potentially see whether the young leopard on the S26 was around. At De Laporte there was a small line-up of cars by the time we got there, but it was only just getting light which made it very difficult to see into the trees in the riverbed behind the waterhole. Scanning with binoculars we couldn’t see anything and although she might have been hiding in an obscure spot we could be waiting hours and not see anything so we continued south. Just back onto the road a number of hyena came bounding across



Down near Kwaggaspan there was a big grumpy chap who seemed intent on hiding



At the Biyamiti bridge there was an OSV parked up, and sure enough the leopard that had been seen the previous day was still around. He was flat out sleeping in some long grass, and the bushes by the side of the road made him very hard to see!





Whilst sitting waiting for the OSV to move, we regularly heard lions roaring and they were moving in the direction of the riverbed. Eventually two big males popped out but they were a very long way down the river. You can make out one of them if you look carefully here



With the leopard not moving, the OSV moved off and we had prime view for a while as other cars started to arrive. The sleepy cat gave us some nice yawns





He didn’t seem to be going anywhere fast, although we could see his kill was still up a nearby tree, so we travelled down to Afsaal for a break and then back up to the S13/S23 to take us down to Biyamiti Weir. On the way to Afsaal we saw a klipspringer on some rocks, and on the way back up we found that the leopard had moved up to his kill, but he was incredibly difficult to see





Along the S23 it was fairly quiet, but we did see a few elephant



Arriving at Biyamiti Weir there was obviously something going on with a number of vehicles parked up on the opposite bank

[Lisbeth]

The tyre is important!...

Does that mean that I am stupid and it's the tyre of the trailer?

That's one sleepy leopard, n.17 more or less

I'll bet that something is going to turn up at the weir

[PJL]

The tyre is important!...

Does that mean that I am stupid and it's the tyre of the trailer?

That's one sleepy leopard, n.17 more or less

I'll bet that something is going to turn up at the weir

Yes - it's the trailer tyre
Leopard number 14 this one

[Richprins]

Seems like your return already paid off, Peej!

Sleepy lazy horse!

That De Laporte leopard is still carrying on there!

I like the klipspringer shot, and the lion in the river...nice patience!

[RogerFraser]

That Ellie looks like he could have been a big tusker at some stage if he had not broken them off

You've found so many Leopards you even found a flat one that was imitating a Lion and then some Lions as well

[PJL]

Seems like your return already paid off, Peej!

Sleepy lazy horse!

That De Laporte leopard is still carrying on there!

I like the klipspringer shot, and the lion in the river...nice patience!

Yep that de laporte leopard is being seen regularly lately

That Ellie looks like he could have been a big tusker at some stage if he had not broken them off

You've found so many Leopards you even found a flat one that was imitating a Lion and then some Lions as well

Haha yes - big cats doing what big cats do best