A Fantarantulatastic Trip To Kruger - April 2017

[Richprins]

Hey, Peej! Here's another nice word for you regarding the monitor: supercilious!

Astounding bateleur pics, which is best?

Panoramic lens for the dam shot?

Why didn't the guys waiting for the campsite help with the wheel?

Wild dogs seem regular on H7 for many years now!

[Mel]

Beautiful bateleur and kingfisher! Same goes for the Nsemani scenery

But of course, that dog sighting can't be topped.

[nan]

wow and you found the Painted ones
Nsemani is one of my favorite

superb Bateleur
love the Woodland too

[Bushcraft]

Fantastic Bateleur and Nsemani Dam pics

A flat , but at least it resulted in some information about wild dogs

[Flutterby]

Lovely pic of Nsemani.

Dogs can be a bit boring during the day..lots of sleeping and stretching...but always great to see them.

[Pumbaa]

Brilliant wild do sighting, PJL

also love your bateleur and monitors shots - Always great when both species come along

[PJL]

Hey, Peej! Here's another nice word for you regarding the monitor: supercilious!

Astounding bateleur pics, which is best?

Panoramic lens for the dam shot?

Why didn't the guys waiting for the campsite help with the wheel?

Wild dogs seem regular on H7 for many years now!

Supercilious
Panoramic phone for the dam shot
We have explored the H7 a few times (particularly the last visit) in the hope of finding the dogs... but this was a first for us

Beautiful bateleur and kingfisher! Same goes for the Nsemani scenery

But of course, that dog sighting can't be topped.

Thanks Mel

wow and you found the Painted ones
Nsemani is one of my favorite

superb Bateleur
love the Woodland too

Very nice to find the painted ones nan

Fantastic Bateleur and Nsemani Dam pics

A flat , but at least it resulted in some information about wild dogs

Yep I guess the flat worked out, but at the time I was huffing and puffing with all the extra effort

Lovely pic of Nsemani.

Dogs can be a bit boring during the day..lots of sleeping and stretching...but always great to see them.

We were lucky to see them get up and retreat to the shade... I think any later and they would have just been entirely flat

Brilliant wild do sighting, PJL

also love your bateleur and monitors shots - Always great when both species come along

Thanks Pumbaa

[PJL]

April 8th Continued

After the detour to the dogs we were a bit behind on time, so we didn't stop for too much when heading down the H1-3, but we were fortunate to get a few sightings of some slender mongoose including a youngster before they ran away





This big bull was trying to make the best of very little shade provided by a small tree



Kumana dam was a very peaceful scene



Shortly after the dam we caught the 'tail end' of a ground hornbill coming in to land which made for quite an unusual view





There was a good size herd of buffalo relaxing at Mazithi Dam, whilst an elephant was busy cooling off by the water



We were thinking of getting some lunch at Tshokwane, but the queues were horrendous so we gave it a skip and continued on towards Skukuza. Here's that section of road that got washed away along the H1-2... we were thankful that the diversion was in place by the time of our visit!





A bit further along the H1-2 we hit a roadblock and were informed that there were a couple of cheetah resting in the shade of some bushes. It was a bit of mayhem and although seeing cheetah would be nice, by this stage I was more interested in getting to Skukuza and getting the camp set up again... plus with the trailer we had no way of doing any special manoeuvres so we had to sit and wait to get through all the traffic.

Eventually people started moving and we were able to get a proof pic of one of the cheetah.



Just after taking the pic the cheetah started moving. We were totally blocked in, but got to watch it cross the road a few cars in front and then explode into the bush scattering impala in all directions

Thankfully the end of the hunt wasn't visible so the traffic dispersed quite quickly and were able to resume our journey with just one final stop to take a pic of a nice fish eagle

[Lisbeth]

Cute mongooses and a lovely fish eagle.

At least you got to see the cheetahs run

[PJL]

April 8th Continued

This was our first stay at Skukuza and it took a while to get our bearings in such a big camp. The top priority was to find a decent site, but pretty much everything was already taken. After a while we settled on a decent spot which had a little bit of afternoon shade and the tent pitching effort began. Unfortunately in our rush to pack at Satara we had forgotten the caravan adapter plug for our extension cables, so it was a good job that the Skukuza shop is well stocked with such things (and not badly priced either which was a pleasant surprise).







S and the kids went off for a swim whilst I went to pump up the flat tyre assuming it just had a slow puncture. However after getting back from the garage I noticed a hissing sound and realised it was a genuine puncture that we must have picked up when rolling in to Satara. I set to work trying to get the offending bit of metal out but it turned out to be a lot bigger than I had expected





Once the metal rod was finally removed I was able to plug the tyre and happy to know it wouldn't go flat again in a hurry

It was getting quite late but we were keen to do a drive to explore the area so we chose to head along to the S1, down the S65 and back up the H3. It was a quiet evening with only a few sightings including a full load of terrapin hitching a ride at Nwaswitshaka and the klipspringer near the H3 junction





As the daylight ended we enjoyed the view from Mathekanyane viewpoint



There were quite a few other people enjoying the view and when we wandered back to the car, S and D picked the wrong white Fortuner
After sitting in it for bit they realised their mistake which had us all in stitches. They apologised to the owners who didn't seem totally convinced that they weren't trying to steal it