The Great Escape

[PJL]

Catching up again after a few episodes .

Love the Spider , Cheetahs ,Lions wow you had a really good few days .

Afsaal Brekkie looks really good too .Well done to the chef

And then you get to spend all the time with the young Leopard .Beautiful pictures as always

Thanks Roger - yeah we did have a good start to the trip in terms of cats

Wonderful Leopard sighting, with beautiful photos

Thank you Harry

What stunning leopards shots, PJL

but also wonderful other brilliant sightings and shots as well - Love the honey badger, the cheetahs, the rhinos, the nyala and the monitor - Simply fantastic

Thanks Pumbaa, we thoroughly enjoyed the sightings

Gorgeous leopard

Nice pics of the dagga boys

Thanks Lis - he was a nice young leopard. It will be interesting to see where he gets seen over the next few years as he starts to try and establish a territory

How lucky with the cats, Peej!

Superb leppie sighting, and I love the buffs as well!

Interesting about the eyes.

I also always get lost around that junction, still!

Luck was on our side this trip RP
Glad to know I'm not the only one who gets lost there

Great shots Pete. Tell me are they only allowing 50% capacity camping during this latest Lockdown?? As when we go in Aug/Sept it is Pensioners and @40% discount it is filled by every Oomie (Including me ) but it will be nice if that is what you found as it will be less traffic on the roads Too late for us to now change for a trip into the beautiful South for us for a bit of Nostalgia of the old non Traffic South . We have friends havent seen for 35 yrs joining us at Tsendze for 10 days at the end of our 6 weeks in Kruger North so we will just enjoy our 1 night in Berg en dal at the VERY beginning and then 1 night at Letaba before Starting Proper at Shingwedzi ..I would love to go to GrootVlei dam wall again from Shing at gate opening from the Back gate and be the only person with my Lion pride again if they are in fact enforcing a 50% occupancy my wife told me about that she had read somewhere

Thanks Peter. Capacity is 100% at the moment... when the latest lockdown started the govt initially stated 50% capacity for accommodation, but that was very quickly amended to 100%. Camp sites were pretty much full during our trip, but chalets etc seemed to have plenty of availability so the camps weren't overly busy. The most noticeable difference was that there weren't so many day visitors (particularly jeep jockeys), so even though we were in the south, it wasn't manic at sightings like the normal school holiday madness

[PJL]

Thursday July 8th contd

We couldn’t have asked for a better leopard sighting, so we continued south on the S114 with big grins on our faces. Some hyena were warming up in the sun by their den





Approaching Biyamiti weir there were some waterbuck milling around, whilst at the weir there was a small croc making a fabulous reflection





Some squirrels were also warming up in the morning sun



There was some fairly typical game around including zebra, a lone hyena and a nice sighting of a hooded vulture







We decided to head down to Malelane gate for a bathroom stop, and on the H3 just past the Matjulu bridge there had been a wild dog kill earlier in the morning. By the time we arrived there was no sign of dogs or the kill… just some vultures hanging around. But as we scanned the area a head popped into view…

[PRWIN]

Great shot Pete, Making me want to get back there again

[Lisbeth]

The first hyena is really enjoying the sun

The croc reflection is rather unique

Squirrels

[PJL]

Great shot Pete, Making me want to get back there again

Thanks Peter! I'm making myself want to go back already as well

The first hyena is really enjoying the sun

The croc reflection is rather unique

Squirrels

Those squirrels were very cool Lis

[PJL]

Thursday July 8th contd

The mystery head was another leopard!!



We were again extremely lucky as he decided to walk in the general direction of the road in a nice open area











To begin with there was only our car and one other, but it became busier fairly quickly. He didn’t seem to mind the attention at all and continued on his wander







He stopped for a bit just off the road to have a sniff around some bushes





And then proceeded to head up to the road by us and cross over… one last look at him before he disappeared between the cars







We really had been in prime position to see him walking towards us… two incredible leopard sightings in the space of a couple of hours had really made our morning!

[Lisbeth]

You sure were lucky with the leopards on this trip

[Richprins]

You are becoming like Bushcraft now, Peej!

What a great sighting with brilliant light.

The croc reflection is almost like a trick!

[Peter Betts]

You are very good at those close up shots

Lovely nyala

They have obviously started to cut the rhino horns in Kruger. Better no horns than no rhinos.

They actually stopped chopping Rhino horns like the other big Rhino Reserve Etosha did as well as it doesnt work as the Price of Ivory makes it worthwhile to even kill a Rhino with a Stub >> I havent seen a Rhino in Kruger for years now with a Chopped horn >> its only on these Private reserves that they Chop after being badly advised. I was amazed to see one of Pete's Pics with a Chopped horn >> but the others all had horns so there must be a Non Poaching Story to that

[PJL]

You are very good at those close up shots

Lovely nyala

They have obviously started to cut the rhino horns in Kruger. Better no horns than no rhinos.

They actually stopped chopping Rhino horns like the other big Rhino Reserve Etosha did as well as it doesnt work as the Price of Ivory makes it worthwhile to even kill a Rhino with a Stub >> I havent seen a Rhino in Kruger for years now with a Chopped horn >> its only on these Private reserves that they Chop after being badly advised. I was amazed to see one of Pete's Pics with a Chopped horn >> but the others all had horns so there must be a Non Poaching Story to that

There were others as well Peter - it does seem to have become a policy of late