Africa Wild

again nice birds
and a lot of Lions... Lion's "questions"

Gorgeous shots of the birdies

Lovely to have seen more Lions and a honeymoon couple!

On the opposite side the the dam this woodland kingfisher caught my eye


How big is your camera lens exactly?

Ja, that poor male lion is tired, shame...and the wife has hit him in the face too?

What were the questions from the back of the car, and what were the answers?

RP, you have a dirty mind......or maybe you want to learn something new

Catching up

Great sightings so early in your trip

Great sightings PJL

You certainly seem to have had better lion sightings then we did so far

Fantastic photography once again

Lisbeth wrote:Lovely hornbill photo and a great lion sighting

Thanks Lis - there were of course plenty of hornbills around camp, but I don't remember seeing the red-billed ones

Flutterby wrote:Awesome lion sighting.

It was just great to be able to watch them with no-one else around

Twigga wrote:Super sightings so far PJL

The area around Satara will always be special to me, every visit I notice something new

Twigga. Thanks for dropping in here... Satara is a firm favourite for us now

nan wrote:again nice birds
and a lot of Lions... Lion's "questions"

Plenty of lion questions nan

All-Nature wrote:Gorgeous shots of the birdies

Lovely to have seen more Lions and a honeymoon couple!

Thanks All-Nature There were plenty of birds and honeymooners around this trip as you'll see in due course

Richprins wrote:On the opposite side the the dam this woodland kingfisher caught my eye


How big is your camera lens exactly?

Ja, that poor male lion is tired, shame...and the wife has hit him in the face too?

What were the questions from the back of the car, and what were the answers?

I think I meant the opposite side to the dam... ie. the other side of the road
Must work on my english a bit
Questions/answers I'm sure are available in your textbooks

Alf wrote:Catching up

Great sightings so early in your trip

Hey Alf, nice to have you along. Yep, some very nice sightings on our first full day with more to come

Bushcraft wrote:Great sightings PJL

You certainly seem to have had better lion sightings then we did so far

Fantastic photography once again

Thanks BC
Some days we had exceptional sightings whilst others were a lot slower... I'm sure you probably had the same. Although we perhaps didn't realise it at the time this was definitely one of those hot days

April 1st Continued

After a brief stop at Timbavati we trundled our way along the S127 where there wasn't much to see apart from an elephant herding its youngster away from the road



Shortly after turning onto the H1-4 we hit luck with a number of cars lined up along the road looking at something - sprawled out in the branch of a distant tree was a leopard



It really was a good distance away which helped with the traffic as you could see it from a range of angles along the road.





Unfortunately from a photographic perspective it was in the wrong place with the sun setting behind it. However we decided to make the most of that and try some arty shots with the golden light

After a few pics it got up and moved to another branch









Time was running out, and it seemed quite settled in its new perch so we continued south to make sure we got back to camp in time. Near the S90 turnoff this chap was walking along the road



Judging from the number of vultures around there was a kill nearby and sure enough he soon dropped off the road and into the grass to join his companion who was busy snacking on something. There had apparently been a lot more lions around than just these 2, but they must have wandered off earlier in the afternoon.







We couldn't stick around due to the gate closing time fast approaching, but we were again stopped on our way back to Satara. This time the male lion who had been hiding behind the bush in the morning had now come out onto the road.



The tarmac was obviously staying nice and warm so that was a good place to rest



Our first full day in the park had certainly been filled with some great sightings, with plenty of cats appearing in the afternoon

The king of the jungle deciding he is the king of the road too

If your trip continues like this you guys scored big time for April

We tried to find that leopard when up that side for 2 days but no luck Great sighting for the H1-4

Scored again with lion