Africa Wild

Incredible how quickly the water birds, frogs etc. arrive after the rain.....a lot of rain

The first bird might be a juvenile common moorhen and the second a black-winged stilt.

Lovely pics of the red haartebeast and calf

Once again I am sorry for the delay in carrying on with my report. It’s getting to become a habit which I hope to break sooner rather than later

On our trip back to Polentswa we had some interesting sightings along the way.

This Agama was hanging out on a bush. I really love the colours on the agama



This Giant Eagle Owl put us on ignore as we passed by



This Rooi hartebeest with a deformed horn was pretending that if it hid behind the horn, we wouldn’t be able to see it





Back at the waterhole we spotted one of the few Abdims storks we saw during the trip



We carried on back to camp, passing the flat lions along the way. The big male lion had by now joined up with his ladies.



As well as theses bokkies fairly close to the sleeping lions



After spending a pleasant break back in camp where we had gotten our lives sorted out again, and had had a welcome bush shower we decided (as is the norm at Polentswa) to return to the waterhole for sundowners



We stuck around for a while soaking in the quiet and the beauty of the place.

Returning to the carpet of lion at the riverbed, whilst we sat waiting for some type of movement, the evening sky was once again beautifully painted







The lions stayed pretty well flat until we had to leave them to get back to camp.







We finished off my special birthday with a delicious steak braai and a good bottle of the Cape’s finest.

I love the the tree with the raptor sitting in the top

Some awesome pics

and the unusual water birds (for KTP) and bullfrog.

Beautiful hartebeest and calf and the lovely late afternoon light on the trees.

30 December: We leave Polentswa

Friday the 30th December was pack up day. The day we were leaving Polentswa and heading down to Kielie Krankie for one night.
Even though it s a long drive, we had planned to head up north for an early morning drive before returning, taking down the tent and setting off south.

We were woken by the sounds of lions roaring near the lodge, which Corlette confirmed that they had been right next to their accommodation at the lodge in the early hours of the morning.

As left the camp, we were presented with this sunrise:





A the waterhole at Polentswa we spotted this kori bustard, who did not appreciate our attention.





They are such ungainly birds when the try and take off.



The road up to Liejersdraai was a lot dryer than the previous few days, and we had lion and hyena spoor on the road for good periods of time as we headed north. The spoor would tease us for periods and then disappear, only to reappear again a bit further on. It seemed as if the road had been a bit of a predator highway overnight.

Then at the start of the Liersdraai loops our luck changed.

This lone hyena came sauntering down the road



Before walking off away into the distance



We had a quick look to see if the bullfrogs were still around. They were.



Back at camp we were welcomed by these gemsbok in the riverbed



After taking down the campsite, we set off for Nossob.

Beautiful atmospheric photos in the previous instalment... I really like my KTP sunrises and sunsets

Poor hartebeest... not the prettiest animal anyway and then it has to do with crooked horns too

I like the agama in the tree And also the hyena walking down the road. In contrast to Lis, I consider shots like that a scenery captures

Never seen a bullfrog so far, even if we experience lots of rain before as well.

What is wrong with scenery? The landscape and what ever grows in/on it, creates the atmosphere that you like so much

Absolutely wonderful photos, especially the scenery and sunrise/sunset ones.

What a watery wonderland you experienced - so unlike our usual Sept. - Nov. ones. It's great to see both (semi) polar opposite faces of Mother Nature in the same setting.

The quiet before the storm.

Our trip down to Nossob was uneventful, and after doing all the admin housekeeping type stuff we carried on down towards Kielie Krankie

The sightings board said that lion had been seen on Marie’s, and as we ALWAYS do Marie’s we knew to be on the lookout.
As expected, given the fact that it was already 10 am, we found three very flat far away, over on the other side of the riverbed, cropped lions.





Further south at Dikbaardskolk , Debbie had this amazing sighting of one of the locals at the picnic sight.





Whilst Debbie was out and about taking pictures of mice, I was desperately trying to work out why the canopy on the Jap was losing it’s rubber tubing between the canopy and the bakkie .
(I only sorted it when back home in Cape Town)



We had already decided to take the route over the Upper Dune Road and then down to head down the Auob to KK.
The Dune Road was quiet, but as soon as we saw our first journey of giraffe we knew that we had arrived in the Auob.



Did I mention a storm ??? OK not just yet

Lovely photos of the striped mouse