Browns in Kruger September 2019

[Bushcraft]

A great thank you for the leopard history study, Bushy!

And the lion cub, and the sable!

Ja, sable are an antelope species on their own, very cautious and pernickety!

Ja, I have plotted plenty leopard south of Olifants

Sable seem more intelligent than a few other antelope species

[Bushcraft]

27th Skukuza to Talamati continued

We only stopped once more on the way to Tshokwane for some klippies in the Kruger Tablet area.

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The sighting board at Tshokwane didn’t help us much as there was very little of interest on it, so we decided to just head straight up the tar to Satara as we needed a few items from the shop.

We stopped a few times on the route, first for a hunting Hamerkop using its wings for shade and then pulling up again before hitting the water and then a nyala, the Albert enforced Baobab pic and some lion that seemed to be hunting a few km outside Satara.

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[Bushcraft]

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The 2 lionesses we were following stopped under a tree and a 3rd we hadn’t seen yet joined them, but the visibility wasn’t great through the twigs so we moved on to the Satara shop.

I got conned in the shop for ice creams, so we didn’t look for animals much on the way to Nsemani Dam because everybody was focussed on their ice cream.

Nsemani Dam didn’t have too much water in it, but at least there was water. There was plenty of general game around, however there was also a lioness chowing something behind the repaired dam outflow. The blurred piece in the bottom left of the pic is the concrete block that has been built around the outflow.

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[Bushcraft]

It was just after 12pm, so still a little early to head down the S36 towards Talamati, therefore we decided to do the S40/S12 loop first and this produced some flat lion at a dry Girivana Dam and an ostrich camouflaged amongst the trees.

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Garmin was now indicating a 2pm arrival at Talamati so we ducked off down the S36 and then the S145, but did stop for 15 minutes at Shimangwaneni Dam as ellies were having a swim.

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They were still cleaning our unit at 2:30pm when we arrived, so we unpacked the car onto the veranda and slowly moved things in as areas were complete.

A squirrel followed the last load into the house much to the Cow’s displeasure so it got a greasing like a dog that isn’t permitted inside and the squirrel ran outside to my surprise and then sat on a branch looking at us so the Cow must have seemed very threatening.

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[Bushcraft]

Albert was very interested in the squirrel and stalked it with the Cow’s camera, however the squirrel had other ideas and it run up her leg which resulted in an instant Highland fling type dance from Albert and then the squirrel got another lecture from the Cow.

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I then decided to take Bushpig and Albert on a patrol around camp while the Cow and Hawkeyes relaxed at the unit. The normal ellie herds arrived in waves all afternoon but a lone bull that pulled in was rather tall by comparison and he was definitely plotting for a female but didn’t come right.

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[Bushcraft]

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A genet pulled in after the braai and it was obviously a beggar that had been fed before as it was very tame, so it also got a lecture from the Cow about the fact that there was no free food here.

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After supper we cruised off to the hide and left the beggar sleeping on the veranda.

3 different hyenas, some buffalo and ellies came in for a drink over the next hour, but we were all seriously tired, so called it a night and ducked back to the unit.

To be continued

[Alf]

Wow no leopards in this episode

[Lisbeth]

How does the Cow dare to scold one of my squirrels It did not seem very scared though

Nice view on the elephants

The baobab is a must

Nice pic of the nyala

[Mel]

Wow no leopards in this episode

Hahaha, that's exactly what I though!

But since I had to catch up on the previous instalment too, I did get my daily dose of leopard
Also, thanks for the history of Sausage! I immensely enjoyed that

That lion youngster from the previous episode had a serious air of confidence about him.

Sable

And those beggar animals - the stupid visitors

[Richprins]

You look very professional, almost with pen in hand there, Bushy!

You must feed the kids a bit more!

And discipline from the wife, at least someone does it!

Nice large-spotted genet...seems they are rarer than the other kind?

Ah, good old Talamati waterhole!