Africa Wild

Peter Betts wrote: ↑Mon Oct 29, 2018 5:39 pm The car gang ..not for me ..even the human habituated leopards are getting crowded out now and have to move cubs etc ,,well as long as they stay south and don't follow me to Grootvlei dam ..I am happy I guess ..Lovely sightings you had in spite of car intrusions

Thanks for popping in Peter

Agreed, the car gang in the south can be too much, especially in school holidays It's definitely getting worse though and the attitude of the visitor in the south is also changing for the worse which is more scary as there's less of a conservation mindset.

29th Lower Sabie continued

The sighting board at Tshokwane indicated that there was zero action on the H10 so we decided to return to camp via the H1-2/H12/H4-1.

It was approaching midday so there wasn’t much happening but just before the H12 Bridge more Sable showed up and this time they were fairly close.


A few km before Nkuhlu, where the dense vegetation opens up allowing a view, we found a lioness parking off in the shade, but she wasn’t moving in a hurry so we continued on to Lower Sabie only stopping once for a giraffe having a drink.

We only arrived back at Lower Sabie just before 1pm so it had been a long morning, therefore we weren’t going to go out again until around 5pm, so the rats ventured to the pool again and the Cow and I backed up camera pics, charged cameras, walked the fence line and just relaxed around camp.

At around 4:30pm everybody was back at the huts so after a little conference it was decided that we had done a fair amount of morning mileage so for the afternoon drive we were just going to drive the 12km to the S79 causeway and then return to camp. We also like to leave fairly late for afternoon drives when staying in the popular camps as we have found that the day visitor numbers tend to decrease big time after 4:30pm as they have to start heading for the gates which makes the roads way more peaceful.

A few km outside Lower Sabie we found 2 lionesses relaxing in the riverbed just below the road, but continued on with the hope that they would become mobile later.


We never made it to the causeway though because 5 minutes after leaving the lions we came across a car parked sideways in the road and instantly spotted what was causing the drama.


Our timing was spot on because the car gang hadn’t arrived yet which can only mean that the leopard had just jumped up into the tree. She stood on the branch checking us out for a few minutes, but then suddenly something moved under the tree and this got her attention big time. We then spotted that it was a small bush buck that had wandered into the danger zone and suddenly the leopard was mobile which caused some camera flapping.

She parked off on the lower branch and I found myself saying “Go, now!” because if she hadn’t hesitated she would have pounced almost on top of the bush buck, however 2 seconds later the bush buck spotted her and charged off while sounding a panicked alarm.

The leopard looked around for about a minute and then bailed to the ground and went behind some thick bush, so we thought that we wouldn’t see her again, but suddenly she emerged with a half-eaten kill and jumped up into a different tree with it.

She soon lost interest in her kill and just left it lying on a branch, but she certainly wasn’t shy and moved closer to us through the trees until she found a spot to her liking and parked off.


The car gang had grown during this time and others were looking for a spot, so we decided to call it a day and returned to camp.

The partying staff, guests or whoever they were (at least 12 people at a place that couldn’t sleep more than 4) behind the EH huts continued this evening but it was much worse and eventually at around 11pm I went outside with my high powered spotlight, dressed in only “sleeping shorts”, and brightened up their night while shouting at the same time that there’s a no noise policy in place from 9:30pm. They got the hint and I never heard them again.

I have since checked on the old Lower Sabie camp map and this “jol spot” is exactly where the old Moffat guest house used to be. On the new camp map they are defined as 2xBD2’s so they should sleep a maximum of 4 people and based on this they couldn’t have been staff, it must have been guests.

To be continued

Okay, Bushcraft,

your leopard luck is getting scary....at least you saw something else as well - Great sable sighting and that blonde male lion on the road is impressive but that leopard luck.....unbelievable

More wonderful Leopards and cool Lions

exquisite shots here mr craft...



are these only your photos or is there a contribution from the female four ??????

Bushcraft wrote: ↑Sun Oct 28, 2018 11:48 am

I grew up in an all-boys household, so 3 teenage girls are something new and often shocking for me with my preconceived ideas because they aren’t little “Cinderella’s”, so I’m learning each day and tonight was no exception. Albert is 12, Bushpig 14 and Hawkeyes 17, so they aren’t “rats” anymore

but the cow is still "the cow" ??

Sable too!

They seem to be hanging around that area indefinitely for now.

What did the manager say about the overcrowding at the Moffat, BC?

The leopard may have been quite full..




I assume the people making a noise weren't Afrikaans, or you would have led with that?

Sightings wise you have extraordinary luck indeed

But you can keep the south for yourself thank you. I will take my alien ship and move further north