Flavour of the Month - June 2014: H10 & Nkumbe Lookout

[Richprins]

From aat, 2014:

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5183


First story about this amazing day got the title “Look out at a Lookout”

Where ? – It all happpened at and along the H10 (from Lower Sabie towards Tshokwane)
Time: 07:30 am


We left Lower Sabie early in the morning, turned left and left again to the H10, then the S29 and back to the H10 and followed this road for some time.
Then we arrived at the Nkumbe hill and spent a few minutes at the Lookout. Nothing to hear, nothing to see so we moved on and it went downhill towards Tshokwane.
Just after saying something like “it’s quiet this morning” fast moving “objects” at the lefthand side.

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Painted dogs (AWD) ?
Yessss painted dogs… here ? Yes…. here they are.
We were really surprized to see them here. It’s just the fact we have never seen them here before….but it’s Kruger and Kruger has lots of surprizes.
Time: exactly 07:30 am
There were running fast so we had to turn the car to follow them and hoping they were not moving away into the bush

They did not and even better, they came to the road one by one. This one even close to our car so easy to capture this painted dog.

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Instead of showing just close-ups of the dogs I will try to take you with us as we have experienced this whole sighting.
So I will not crop too many pics to show you what we saw

It was running up the hill (sounds like Kate Bush ….smile), going from left to right…. Off road, coming back to the road , wowww… felt like hunting with the painted dogs, being part of their activities…. Don’t know how to express it but it was amazing

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Few seconds later another one joined the pack in front of us. In total we counted 8 dogs

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So we were almost at Tshokwane and now we were going back
This pack was moving around a lot but they also gave us the opportunity to have a closer look at them.

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and this one

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6 minutes with them and just following them. Sometimes they stopped , looking around and also checking of the members of the pack were following the leader..

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And… good educated painted dogs do follow…

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Stops… all the time. Sniffing for signs of possible prey

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This “blond” painted dog was posing nicely.

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11 minutes together with this pack and before I end Part I this view on them… running up that “Nkumbe” hill

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End of Part I and hope to see you back with Part II


Aat & Elly

[Richprins]

Story continued …..

Believe us…it was funny. Driving back where we just came from….

To have a better look we tried several times to get in front of them , always a better view then looking at just tailes.

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Oopssss….did I produce this ??

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And a few other painted dogs felt like checking this too

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One of these moments one is almost standing still and not looking away

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Kate Bush… still singing “and we are running up that hill”. Taking this photo was a moment of realizing that we were together with a pack of painted dogs, no one else around and a beautiful background / view of kruger. How wonderful can it be.

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from time to time we let them pass for a better look at the individual dogs.
20 minutes with them…

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Sanitary stop… sorry… (smile)

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Next dog stops and thinks…. Buhhhhh…what did he had for breakfast????

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Most members of the pack did not really like it and started a “painted dog discussion”

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They tried to convince the culprit “don’t do this again !”

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Just a few seconds before I made this photo 4 Kudu’s crossed the road (at high speed) and disappeared at the side these dogs are looking at. 3 of them were in the bush and these 5 were waiting for a sign (I guess)

[Richprins]

Story continued …..

Almost an half hour with them and still going up-hill

Paradise it is… pack of painted dogs and beautiful view on kruger…

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This scene is what happened several times… a number of them was visible and on the road and some went into the bush and minutes later they came back…kind of organized hunt, checking out the area

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Like this one…coming back after some minutes

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And these two in the bush
This way I was never able to capture all 8 together…but being part of this hunt with them was soooooooo great. We hope you still like it too

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5 on the road… what is around the corner….?

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Buffalo…. We were also a bit surprized to see them almost on top of this Nkumbe hills

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Buffalo and painted dogs… never seen them together so curious about what to come

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No much happened …the Buffalo made some noise and the dogs were slowly walking around the Buffalo

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After this special meeting the painted dogs continued their way.
We were just thinking they were going to Lower Sabie …smile….

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But….. the Painted Dogs were just on a tour and went to the Nkumbe Lookout….

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When you are looking at this scene…some thoughts were going through our minds… “suppose you are sitting there looking at kruger and no idea what is behind you” or you are just out of your car walking around at this Lookout….

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Finally the other 3 arrived so pack complete ….

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This was the last photo of the Painted Dogs before we continued our drive towards Tshokwane… and just “recovered” from this surprise we came to our next surprise …but that will be next story

It’s 08:28 so 1 hour together with these Painted Dogs, life can be beautiful

[Richprins]

From a 2005 Supernova Report:


https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... f=46&t=100

On the way out we took the H10 down to Lower Sabie and spotted this Lioness from the top of Nkumbe look out, lucky I had a 12x optical zoom and a 2.2x converter.

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
16h16 hours ago

15:43
Leopard feeding on a kill in a tree
H10, 15km N of Lower Sabie
Vis 5/5
Tinged by Marlene

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
Oct 6

09:10
1 Adult Ostrich with 7 chicks
H10, 25km from H1-2
Near Lower Sabie
Vis 5/5
Tinged by Mia Oosthuizen

[Richprins]

From a 2014 aat report:

https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... =46&t=4315

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We passed Tshokwane and turned left to the H10… after the hills we spotted these Reedbuck.


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Reedbuck… antelope you don’t see that often so we watched them for some time.

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They were curious too. Nice sighting, we love to see these antilopes. Thinking about it, you see more lions then antelope like Reedbuck

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[Richprins]

One of the drives we regularly make is from Satara towards Lower Sabie. Following the main road and going left to the H10 (Tshokwane > Lower Sabie).
That morning is was real foggy…some parts we had to drive very very slow. Towards the hills we suddenly saw something coming our direction… first thought “a hyena” but after some seconds we could say loud “Leopard !!!!”

Leopard in the mist
First shot and made this was a bit more clear.

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She was walking towards us… looked like her nose was injured.

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Wowwww… a leopard not running away or hiding fast…no… she was relaxed and not at all in a hurry and coming very close

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Sometimes standing still, looking around….



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My camera ? or my blue eyes…what did her make looking this way to me ?

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We stayed with her some time before she left the road and dispappeared in the bush and high grass. A last shot before she left…

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[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
18h18 hours ago

09:45
1 Lion stationary, 20 elephants on the move
H10, Nkumbe view site
Near Tshokwane
Vis 2/5
Tinged by Greg Cutler

[Richprins]

Looks like the Kalahari!