Story - Hello - Goodbye (Oct 18 2015)*

[aat]

Last day in July.... time for second part about the birds we found.

Thanks for all comments , really appreciated.

*** Travel Tales ***
New series of Travel Tales

17 – Bird-Days (2)

Bird-Days continued…

Going through my pictures of last trip I made a selection of birds I think it’s worth to share with you.

This Bateleur Eagle was looking the “wrong” way all the time. Just before we wanted to move on this nice look

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It was busy on the one of the small roads…busy with raptors. This one was curious and gave me just some time to capture this bird… don’t know the name

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Another day another small road and this raptor was also friendly to me.

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and a few hundred meters ahead this raptor showed up … I always thought birds are flying… but most I could find were on the ground.

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The colours of this Kingfisher did me stop and this bird did not fly away like most do when I try to capture them. I am not a stiffneck so probably I need birds like this one

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and a bit further this little one gave me an opportunity to watch and “shoot” , really don’t knnow what kind it is…

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A beautiful day and driving around in Mopani area. Suddenly we found this Martial Eagle in a tree. Good light … posing nicely and I remember I said thank you to my favorite raptor

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I liked the colours of this bird. Don’t know the name , Ibis ?

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Water and birds…. Just a nice view on this Heron and Stork

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This big bird… Gompu needs 100 meter for take-off. Time enough to capture.

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This was it about the birds and next story will be about ?

Thanks for joining again , till next story. I think I have to speed up a little before next trip…

Aat & Elly
Back in kruger October 22nd till November 11th 2015

[aat]

Thanks for all comments for last story about the Lovely and Loving Lions.... and time for next story. With about 8 weeks to go for next trip I guess I have to speed up a bit...sorry

*** Travel Tales ***
New series of Travel Tales

18 – Love Story

I think I mentioned earlier we have seen a lot of lions during our trip. Quick count was 100+

I am not going to show them all but a selection of them.
This story is about 2 males and 1 lioness… about beauty and expressions.

We were on our way to the northern region of kruger and after a lovely breakfast at Babalala we were driving on towards Punda Maria.

From a distance we could see something on and near the road. So slowing down and trying to find out what it was. Big smiles on our faces…. Together with beautiful light from the still rising sun.

There is lions and lions… this was really mr handsome.

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He was not alone… about 50 meters ahead this love-couple was near the road

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And proudly looking to us … saying “this is my girl”.

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The other male was snoozing… and probably as brother he accepted the situation

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Back to the love-couple…. and enjoy their expressions, looks, caring …

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Lioness with dreamy eyes

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She laying down and he standing up… thinking about ?

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His brother was looking at him … “ ok with you ?”

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Brother in love …laying down again next to his girl

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Then… at once .. both got up and walked away in a “trance” , crossed the road to find a private place

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and

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It was a wonderful private show at short distance. One of the Lion sightings we really liked to share with you. Hope you liked it and see you next story.


Aat & Elly
Back in kruger October 22nd till November 11th 2015

[aat]

Thanks all for the comments. Time for new story about some special Antelopes , triple A ... 3 different Antelopes

Get in the car and enjoy

Story 19 – Triple A

Triple A stands for 3 times Antelopes. There are many different antelopes in kruger and we have seen many of them. From Impala’s with just born babies to Eland and Roan.
Some you don’t see that often or from big distance.

One day in the south we were driving the S128 and close to a junction with the main road H10 we found 3 Reedbuck. I think we did not see them for some years.

First of all we were glad they did not run away but with an eye on us they continued eating.

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The two others were together

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Another antelope is the “Klipspringer” , we normally (if we see them) see them at big distance, somewhere on the rocks and difficult to capture.
This time we were more lucky.
At about 25 meters this Klipspringer was enjoying the fresh leafs

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Funny to experience to see this antelope so close-by.

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and

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One of our last days in kruger. We decided to drive to Pretoriuskop and from Afsaal we followed the “Voortrekker Pad”. After being many days in the north it almost felt like getting close to a city. Many cars here and driving like crazy. Why are they in kruger ? Some of them driving at least 70 KM per hour.

Getting closer to Pretoriuskop we were just talking about Sable antelope. One of our last days in kruger and we did not see them so far. Elly was just saying…”may be near Pretoriuskop ?” and ahead of us we suddenly see a group of them crossing the road and disappearing into the bush at the other side… too late…. I could just make one shot of the male

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After having been so lucky with so many great sighting we did not complain at at all so contimued driving around Pretoriuskop following the small roads and wowwwww how beautiful with all the wonderful young green colours.
Then we saw Reedbuck again

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One of them was curious, thank you and “click”

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Enjoying a few drinks and some snacks at Pretoriuskop. (still feeling a bit sad about missing the Sable’s) We had to go back to our camp and decided to follow “Voortrekker Pad” again… road is still the samen but animals move … and with a bit of hope… smile

After about 5 km driving I produced a kind of “Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssssss”
Why…. ? smileeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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Lucky again. Just near the road , no road-racers this time…just this beautiful Sable.
It’s one of my favorites and can observe them for hours if possible.

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Eye to eye with this Sable…

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We almost got the idea this Sable understood everything we were thinking. He was very relaxed and not shy at all, so we could enjoy this sighting for some time till….? Yes big SUV with high speed approached and Sable went with a last look at us.

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More stories to come… but for now ….bye and thank you for joining this drive


Aat & Elly
Back in kruger October 22nd till November 11th 2015

[Flutterby]

Great sightings Aat...it seems as if you are just able to call your sightings up!!

[aat]

*** Travel Tales ***
New series of Travel Tales

20 – Lazy Leopard

Somewhere in the south. Driving from Lower Sabie towards Crocodile Bridge.

A description of a sighting and why we like the north….

It’s 10:21 AM so Cats are sleeping and most of them taking a nap in the shadow.
But…. Not all of them are invisible. 4 cars parked near the road and following their eyes we saw this leopard


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Waiting for about an hour. What about such a sighting… you don’t want to leave because you don’t know what’s going to happen…
1st time the leopard is moving his head a bit towards us.

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Number of cars around us was increasing per minute….. the sighting APP ? (many cars coming from Lower Sabie)

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Some minutes later… Leopard standing up?

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Around us.. Some people got nervous… some were trying to park two cars at the same spot…. ??? shouting….

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Leopard on his feeth…. May be out of the tree or..?

Around us: some people were climbing on the roof of their car… small van’s and “bakkies” to make pictures or better pictures… others opened the doors to stand next to the car to make pictures. Good idea with a leopard around.
We could not move more then 50cm so enjoying the sighting and the behaviour of so many monkeys around us… well..monkeys normally leave with a leopard in the area.

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We had a great position to observe this leopard. Many did not and it was really going to be a weird situation. I guess there were about 50 cars including these “tourist vehicles” mainly from Lower Sabie.
I only forgot to make pictures of this situation… so just can describe what happened.
10 minutes later Leopard up again…. And watching all these cars and people making lots of noise.
Reason: some rangers / guides of the tourist vehicles were talking to some people standing on the roof of their cars were (talking changed into shouting and warnings). But why listening to them?

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Elly and I were just talking about the peacefull sightings we had in the north. Just you and the animals or sometimes a few cars…. Pffff…. How great it is up there…. And here?

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A beautiful leopard and great spot for pictures in this tree.

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Leopard decided to get out of the tree and getting away of the noise…. Last picture before the leopard disappeared into the bush at the other side of the road….

On the road..? engines on and people moving left and right (chaos) thinking the leopard was coming towards the road…
Smart leopard…. Did not come at all but probably looking for a nice spot to sleep

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Thanks leopard….




Aat & Elly
Back in kruger October 22nd till November 11th 2015

[Richprins]

I don't think the animals care about cars down there, aat...used to them 50 at a time, but once someone gets out...too many...it gets irritating?

Very clever story, and well innovated!

A pic of the traffic jam?

[aat]

RP,
I just forgot to take some pics of the surrounding behaviour....

I don't think the animals care about cars down there, aat...used to them 50 at a time, but once someone gets out...too many...it gets irritating?

Very clever story, and well innovated!

A pic of the traffic jam?

[Pumbaa]

As always you were at the right place at the right time, Aat,

to spot the lions, the leopard, the sable and reedbucks (even twice) and took some WoW shots

[Flutterby]

Lovely sighting.

[aat]

Thanks for all the comments and it's time for a new episode....

*** Travel Tales ***
New series of Travel Tales

21 – Clean & Dirty

We were back in Satara after 6 days in Mopani.

I think I mentioned it several times before. Where to go if you leave Satara early in the morning ?
Many directions are possible and we made a decision to follow the main road towards Tshokwane.
First part of the road was not really exiting, not much to see.
Till we saw one of the kings in the middle of the road.

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Next to the road some more lions in and behind some bush. This young but impressive male looked very friendly to us. Good morning !

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Two of these beautiful Clean males together. Lions can be so lovely.

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and a bit more zoom….

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It was great to see them … a contrast with was going to follow…
10 minutes later and this time at the RH side of the road….

A warm welcome by one of the many cubs …

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Curious as cats can be… some others appeared … dirty little cubs… smileee



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We already noticed more lions a bit behind these cubs but the opportunity to capture these little ones was priority 1…
Loved the expression of this cub

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Situation: Daddy Lion was protecting the kill, the moms were sleeping or drinking and the kids were walking around and some of them came close to see some Dutch visitors.

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The members of the pride were moving all the time. We counted about 15 lions all together.

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Daddy Lion was moving the kill from the tree to more open space…

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Daddy was preparing breakfast for the family… a bit pepper, salt, oil…and finally invited all kids , looking at us if we also would have some..?

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Lions…. Meeting some very clean young men and a “dirty” pride… can’t remember having seen lions covered with mud and dirt like these… but it was funny to see these muddy faces

Thanks again for joining

Aat & Elly
Back in kruger October 22nd till November 11th 2015