Browns in Kruger October 2023

[Bushcraft]

Thanks RP, Lisbeth & Pumbaa for reading and the comments

[Bushcraft]

6th October Skukuza to Biyamiti

We woke to another sunny morning, so we slowly finished packing the car for our move to Biyamiti and were out the gate about an hour after opening time.

We weren’t sure what to do until the 2pm book in time and the plan changed a few times until we finally decided to head back up the H1-2 to around the Kruger Tablet/S36 southern entrance area and then turn and head down the H12/H4-1/H1-1/H3 to Afsaal.

First up for the morning was a hyena cruising down the H1-2 towards us and then just after the H1-2/H12 intersection we found some wild dogs snoozing in the morning sun.

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We sat with the wild dogs for around half an hour because we thought that they would eventually move as the heat of the day increased, but my patience collapsed, so we moved on up towards the H1-2/S36 intersection to check if the female leopard that hangs out in that area was around and we would stop back at the dogs on our return trip.

We didn’t find the leopardess local, but found a lone lioness sleeping on a rock instead.

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[Bushcraft]

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It was a mission to get a clear view and she turned to face away from us, so after 5 minutes we turned around and headed back down the H1-2 to the dogs.

The dogs had moved deeper into the bush and they were barely visible, so we just continued on down to the H12/H4-1 where we found a gang of cars and another lioness hiding out in the riverbed.

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It was a terrible view with plenty cars around, so we quickly moved on towards the H1-1/H3 and down to Afsaal which produced the odd ellie, zebra, giraffe, etc, and although we stopped at times, we never took any pics.

It was just before midday when we pulled into Afsaal so it was very busy, therefore we decided to have a quick walkaround to stretch the legs and then to move on towards the private S139 Biyamiti road and to picnic at Biyamiti view point while we waited for it to get closer to book in time.

A few km down the H2-2 we spotted 3 lions walking down the road in the distance, which was very unexpected in the midday heat, but the car in front of us hit a lion fever wobble and pulled into the middle of the road totally blocking our view. I was about to make a scene, but it would just ruin the “vibe” for the day, so I just took a few deep breathes and we waited.

The lions then moved off the road and settled in the shade of some bushes, so we started to get a few views.

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[Bushcraft]

The lions seemed to be comfortable and they started dozing off and more cars were arriving every few minutes, so it was quickly turning into a rugby scrum, therefore we bailed towards Biyamiti weir.

The local Pied Kingfisher was hanging out at the weir as per normal, but another bird, I’m not certain of the model, but I think it’s an African Pied Wagtail, was initially perched on its nest which was attached to the weir, but as we approached it started making a scene and rolling around on the ground below the nest. We stupidly never took any pics of the nest (my fault), but this bird was giving us the impression that it was acting injured to distract us from the nest. If there are any birders reading this, then they can possibly advise.

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The private S139 Biyamiti road to the view point 2km from camp produced the odd general game sighting, but the only thing we took a pic of was a squirrel that the Cow got excited about. There was nobody at the view point so we all got out and had a quick bite to eat while checking the view and the odd buffalo & ellie in the riverbed.

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[Bushcraft]

At around 1:30pm we decided to duck down the road to Biyamiti with the hope of a slightly early book in and the Cow pulled off her usual sweet talking and we were soon at our unit unpacking.

I wasn’t overly impressed with our neighbours since it was a group of “fathers & sons” on a trip and it was clear that we may experience noise in the evening, but I hoped that too many early beers would mean early to bed due to a lack of staying power, however if it was anything like our old AW meets back in the day with RP, etc, it could continue until late.

We slowly unpacked and then all decided to take a cruise around camp and found a wood hoopoe, numerous ellies in the riverbed, including 1 with an itchy butt which created some amusement, but the bat under our veranda roof that was dumping on the furniture was less popular.

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[Bushcraft]

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Our original intention was to just park off in camp for the rest of the day, but just after 5pm we decided to take a drive to the view point 2km up the road for “sundowners” and found a giraffe, that wasn’t keen to move, on the way there. The view point was rather quiet sighting wise and on the way back to camp, we stopped for a large nose dwarf mongoose and a rather nervous duiker that froze long enough for a pic.

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[Bushcraft]

Our neighbours were still going on our return to camp, but it wasn’t that loud so I could mentally deal with it, therefore we started our fire and pulled up some chairs for a relaxing evening.

7th October Biyamiti

This was our last full day in the park so we were up early and drinking coffee on the Biyamiti fence line before the sun even came up and I think we were the 1st car out of camp.

Our plan for the morning was to take the short S25/S26/S108/H5 links to the H4-2 and then travel up to Nkuhlu for a pitstop before returning to camp the same way.

The road was fairly quiet until just after the H5/H4-2 intersection where we found a leopard just casually parking off next to the road watching the scenery.

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To be continued

[Pumbaa]

Thanks so much, Bushcraft,

and again lions, wild dogs and a leopard

Although it was a long drive you had some incredible sightings and simply love the view from the Biyamiti view point - It is always so peaceful there

[Lisbeth]

Two of your stunning females

I do not know what the pied wagtail was doing, but I am not a birder and have not found anything on the Internet.

The leopard whisperer

[Richprins]

I really enjoyed this installment, Bushy, so many interesting things!

Lion on a rock!

Normal morning hyena...

Crazy wagtail!

And I never knew one could get out at that viewpoint, it looks lovely!

Ja, our AW meets were quite long...

A leopard a day keeps the doctor away!