Flavour of the month November 2013 - S99 Mahonie Loop

[Amoli]

Some giraffes and Raptors

The giraffes have a calming effect on me

... and then the Raptors get me up and jumping again...

[Amoli]

Some more lovely sightings on this loop...

Bushbuck


Impala


Squirrel




Last, but not the least

[Richprins]

Great, Amoli!

Wonder what the squirrel is eating!


Interestingly, the road is named after the Pod Mahogany tree, "Peulmahonie" in Afrikaans!

It is probably the road with the most diverse tree sighting opportunities in Kruger, and interestingly also with the highest annual rainfall average over the decades, vying with Pretoriuskop loops...

Fascinatingly, one may think that Pretoriuskop lies further West than this road, but Mahonie is the Westernmost loop in Kruger?

So a lot of strange parallels with PK, including the fact that one may find Silver Terminalia trees on the loop...abundant at PK!

(And that PK loops was a previous flavour of the month!)


There is also an opportunity to see Lebombo Ironwood...a rare type that covers the tops of the hills around there, looking a bit like a pine forest!

[nan]

Yellow-billed Oxpecker

having a bath

[nan]

Green Wood-Hoopoe/Irrisor moqueur


Brown-hooded Kingfisher/Martin chasseur à tête brune


Crested Francolin/Francolin huppé

[leachy]

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[okie]

Leachy , I see both of us love that tree

[Richprins]

Thanks, leachy and okie!

I think that tree is either the Pod Mahogany or Bastard Marula...


leachy's first pic is of the Matukwala stream, I think...these days a perennial one along the Western stretch of the loop with a long lush valley, including the now-defunct Matukwala Dam, where I/we saw lions once!

The second is of the Maritubi Dam area, just behind the hill from Punda Camp, also defunct but also now virtually perennial!


Witsand on the Northern Stretch and Coetzer at the beginning of the Southern stretch are two defunct old windmills, as far as I know. So no official water points along the loop any more?

[nan]

Coetzer

[Richprins]

Ja, nana! It's dry and overgrown! The animals must now go to Punda Camp waterhole/hide in the background, which sort of defeats the object of breaking down waterpoints!