Africa Wild

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 12:00 am Caught up again, Bushcraft,

again amazing number of leopards you saw - love the younger one in the smaller tree with the giant paws

and birdies (what great shots) and even a genet in a tree Not to forget the cute hyena youngsters

Love the story of the ponytail and the handbag

Ya, that leopard in the smaller tree had massive paws so he's going to be a big boy 1 day

It was a fairly lucky trip with certain animals

Alf wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 7:33 am a Genet in a tree

Sausage again

I have never seen a genet parking off in a tree in the middle of the day

Flutterby wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:19 am Great spot of the leopard in the tree!! I'm still trying to spot my own LIT!

Fantastic sightings all round!

You must have a LIT Flutts If not we must link up on your next trip

Richprins wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 8:43 am Extremely rare to see a genet out in the bush at mid-day like that, Bushy!

put on my emergency flip flops to avoid a family embarrassment.
Good!

Embarrassment nonetheless at the restaurant, though!

Sausage looks like leppie in his prime!

Ja, I have never seen a genet parking off like that in the middle of the day I wonder if it had a screw loose

Highly embarrassed at the restaurant

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu Nov 07, 2019 11:09 am How on earth can anyone, even if a genet, fall asleep positioned like that on three twigs Good sighting though

To me, sausage looks more like a slightly overweight middleaged single with a beer tummy ready for his afternoon nap

I am happy that you have learnt the "shoe" lesson

I think that genet was a little faulty upstairs Lisbeth

I agree on Sausage, he looks a little over the hill which is a worry for us as we have seen him many times over the last few years, hence there's a small bond with him

Shoes

27th Skukuza to Talamati

We finally woke to a sunny morning which was welcome after 4 days of bad weather; however it was our coldest morning as most of the clouds cleared overnight, so we had to dress to undress during the day.

Our last 2 nights were at the bush camps Talamati and then Biyamiti and the idea was to use the time to just unwind and to spend all the time in camp after booking in and that plan hadn’t changed, however when it comes to the price and moving camps on your last 2 nights, I’m not so sure that it’s a smart plan.

The plan this morning was to head straight down to Lower Sabie as the gates open, up the H10 to Tshokwane and then to decide at Tshokwane on the route to Talamati. We could have shot straight up the H1-2 to Tshokwane, but I secretly wanted to find at least 1 more leopard and including Lower Sabie increased our chances.

The h4-1 was initially very quiet and we were throwing around theories like, it’s a sudden freezing morning, so maybe animals will only move once it warms up a little, etc, but the theories went out the window around 2km past the S79 southern entrance as moving spots appeared.


The leopard was on the Cow’s side so I was squawking for her to make the calls on when to go forward which always creates tension, but she guided us to a prime spot because the leopard popped out the bush down the riverbank and then walked up onto the road in front of us and stopped.

This was a little female and she was perfectly positioned between “Sausage’s/Thicky Ricky’s” territory and the S79 male’s territory, so she could con them all. This was the same female we found curled up in the base of a tree a few days earlier in the same area.

She was standing in front of our car therefore the only view was through the windscreen and I had my 500mm lens on, so I was just sitting there with my teeth out in my own world.

She then moved again, but paused a 2nd time for around 1 minute as something in the bush on the other side of the road was interesting her and then she moved off after whatever it was.

We sat and watched her tail as it disappeared, but I didn’t start the car.

“Let’s turn and duck up the H1-2, we got what we came down here for and it’s only going to get busier the further south we go”

Everybody agreed, so I turned and headed towards the H12, but braked again 5 minutes later as lion of all different sizes started to come out of the riverbank and onto the road.


To be continued

The spots are supposed to be for camouflage but IMO they stick out like a red cloth...........almost

You might be very clever finding cats (of all kinds not only leopards) and I am sure that you are, but you are also darn lucky

Such a sweet lion cub

Awesome start to the day and I feel some major changes to the originally hatched plan coming up

Did the people in the approaching car ever get to see the little female?