Africa Wild

30 August 2014, Johannesburg - Mkuze

The Brat and I were packed by 2am and after fetching my dad in Randburg we were on the road by 2.30am. I had checked the route and seen that the N17 was open after some fires earlier on. I love our night-time drives - the Brat puts on his headphones and goes to sleep, and my dad and I chat all the way while listening to all the golden oldies. The roads were nice and quiet, it was a totally clear, moonless night and I saw two shooting stars! The cold front meant that for most of the drive temps were below zero reaching -7 at one point!! According to Google maps the trip should have taken 7 hours but we made it in 5 and a half, arriving at exactly 8am!

Would love to know how the name should actually be spelt...Mkuze, Mkuzi, uMkuze, uMkhuze, iMkuze....the list goes on!



First up was a giraffe!



Then we headed towards kwaMalibala hide. We don't often visit the hides in Kruger, but I'm so glad we decided to do it here....there's always something to see! Just before the hide I found my first new birdie...a Striped Kingfisher!!



The hide was bustling with activity...nyala, zebra, wildebeest, impala and lots and lots of birds!











Dark-capped Bulbul and Yellow-fronted Canary



The Yellow-fronted Canaries seemed much brighter than the ones in Pilanesberg and Kruger...almost luminous!

nice start
love the bright Canary
Giraffe with hairs... female
and Striped Kingfisher and... and...

Great start, Flutterby,

and really a great choice to visit Mkuze

Great nyala and giraffe shots already

Great start Flutts

The name is very

Love the birds and hope you have some more!

nan wrote:nice start
love the bright Canary
Giraffe with hairs... female
and Striped Kingfisher and... and...

Thanks nan...lots more to come.

Pumbaa wrote:Great start, Flutterby,

and really a great choice to visit Mkuze

Great nyala and giraffe shots already

Hi Pumbaa, we weren't originally going to visit Mkuze, but I'm so glad we did.

Bushcraft wrote:Great start Flutts

The name is very

Welcome aboard BC!

Toko wrote:

Love the birds and hope you have some more!

Lots more!

30 August, Mkuze

There were lots of Red-faced Mousebirds around the hide but battled to get a good pic. Then I saw these three together - Blue Waxbill, Goldenbreasted Bunting and an Acacia Pied Barbet (the barbet was another first ) but they were just a bit too far away!



This impala had something very funny going on with its nose, and seemed to have some mange!



This little nyala wandered away from the herd and was looking for mom among the impalas but he soon found her!



All sorts!



We eventually left the hide and made our way to Mantuma Camp, where we checked in but could only get the keys at 11am, so we decided to take a short drive to waste some time. There was lots of controlled burning going on all over the park, so there was smoke everywhere, and insects continually flying into the car, which got the Brat a bit excited!



The Fork-tailed drongos were having a ball catching the insects trying to get away from the fires!



The was the only toko we saw in the park!



Heading back to camp we decided to stop at kuMasinga....what an awesome hide!! As we arrived a handsome Nyala bull came down to drink.





There were some serious photographers in the hide with bazooka lenses and they were all focused on the same place...this is what they were looking at!



More nyala...



...and a rather large warthog!

indeed impresive Warthog
poor little Nyala.. dosn't know to search strips
and Acacias Pied Barbet
controlled fire

Great that you had such a pleasant trip

What a lot of things you saw in a few hours

Good bird sightings

a lot of animals and birds in a short time.. great.

Wow for the Arcarcia Pied Barbet and the Touraco