Krugertripping this Summer...

[Bushcraft]

Left camp at 04:50 I would take strain at that time

Another reedbuck and great lion sighting

That leopard seems to be a local in the Ngotso area

Sable hide

Sparrow sounds like a cool guy and he lives 30km from me. Send him here

[Twigga]

Great sightings Heksie, your luck never seizes to amaze me!!

That secretary between the grasses a very cool pic!

Leppie!! Lions!!!

That carcass the same that Sprocky saw as well??

You survived Sable Well done, certificate in the mail!

That lioness looked mean

[Flutterby]

Lovely leopard sighting! I think he/she is a regular in the area, but we've never been lucky enough to see it.

Looks like you had a great night!

[Heksie]

Just caught up with the wonderful day of sightings you had Heksie

Thanks Duke, hope you are enjoying my tale

All I can say is that I survived the night.

Otherwise we would have to suspect a severe case of fraud here -
password stolen and all.

Didn't you get bored with all the cats?

What's a 'terry'?
(Still need to brush up my slang language...)

Oh, and please, don't bother coming back to me. I'm useless with cars.

HAhahahaha Mel, I should have rather said that I survived the night with everything intact and have not lost a part of my mind yet
I can stay with cats for hours so bored? NEVAH!!!
terry is a terrapin
It makes it two of us... I had a flat tyre the other morning to work and I was alone, at least I had someone to talk me down on the phone, it wasn't a bad first try, I didn't know how to change a tyre... how bad is that?

Left camp at 04:50 I would take strain at that time

Another reedbuck and great lion sighting

That leopard seems to be a local in the Ngotso area

Sable hide

Sparrow sounds like a cool guy and he lives 30km from me. Send him here

strain?
I saw him twice during the trip, and one of my friends also saw him on another occasion... you just have to catch him on the right time
I will see Sparrow in 3 weeks in Kruger so will have a little talk about a visit here and for you guys to have a braai man!

Great sightings Heksie, your luck never seizes to amaze me!!

That secretary between the grasses a very cool pic!

Leppie!! Lions!!!

That carcass the same that Sprocky saw as well??

You survived Sable Well done, certificate in the mail!

That lioness looked mean

I'm very behind with the forums TR's so will check out Sprocks to see the carcass Time is just against me...
I don't think I have a lot of luck, I've seen or heard other people's sightings and it is WOW and OMG from my side
THanks, I'm going to book again this Dec. I hope after the tenth visit then I would might not be afraid,,, but I do love it there everytime!

Lovely leopard sighting! I think he/she is a regular in the area, but we've never been lucky enough to see it.

Looks like you had a great night!

THanks Flutts
I saw him twice this trip and Sparrow saw him too and another friend saw him as well, all during my visit in KNP so he is there regularly, there is a little riverine just N of Ngotso and he hangs out there... I hope you see him with a trip

[Heksie]

Day 8… moving to my new best place on earth

Dec 18

I was told last night that I am not allowed to put my alarm on so I woke up this morning at about 4:30 and saw that Wendy was already awake, bats had flown into her mosquito net and kept her up this morning… what bats? They were gone by the time I woke. This is the one problem with staying at the hide, we have to ready at about 5:00 for any visitors to the hide so it was time to put the bedding in the bags and hang the beds again. Was glad to see that everything was still there, no cats lying next to our cars…



After putting everything in the cars and cleaning up after us it was time to wake up and have our first MMC’s



And then after a smoke and our first cuppa it was time to leave as we wanted to get to Satara as quickly as possible, to get a fence camping spot.



We went to Phala gate to hand in the bedding and get my freezer then it was a drive not as long as yesterday but still not one I wanted to do. I don’t know what it is but I hate going from one camp to another when I am moving camp so I rarely stop at sightings and try to get to the new camp as quick as possible. But if my car is not cramped and I’m settled in then it is a different story, I can drive around the whole day and have no bother in the world. So we drove straight with only one stop to the camp. We saw buffalo, waterbuck, vultures and impala on our way as well as hyraxes



And Steenbokkies



We made a quick stop at Letaba, got some coffee from the restaurant and some freshening up. Then we were on our way again. The road was very quiet to Satara, with not a lot of people on the road. We saw a fish eagle from the Olifants bridge



And then on the last stretch we had secretary birds, kori bustards, rhino, zebra, willies, giraffes and ostriches. And then we saw the camp. We drove straight to the camping area to check if there were any sites to our liking and there were two next to the fence, except that the nicest one didn’t have an electric point so we took the other one, it was about 150m from a bathroom and the electrical point was broke but worked, we started setting up camp immediately. Sparrow and co didn’t have a long lead so they couldn’t take the other fence spot either and camped about 20m from the bathroom in a shady spot. This was our view…



It was now 11:00 and time to get cleaned up, I had a shower in the newly renovated bathroom in the camping area. Then we had a drink in the Sparrow lounge. After a cooldowner we chilled in camp and then it was time for another afternoon drive, Wendy stayed in camp and I decided to take the S100. I was doing 20km/h and enjoying the drive, this is a beautiful road, right next to the N’wanetsi river and full of general game, I saw waterbuck, giraffe, zebra, willies and warties. I saw my first bushbuck for the last 2 days



And then when I reached an uphill from a turn (+-17.2km on the road) I saw this…



I stopped in my tracks as I didn’t want to chase him away, they were 80m from me? And the people in the car waved me closer so I drove very slowly towards them, he moved into the grass in my direction from the road so I did get to take a few pics of him….





We had a short chat and were both very excited of this sighting, it was only us 2 cars that shared it and they informed me that about 30 minutes ago they saw 3 cheetahs on the S41 towards the H6. They said that they were on a leopard dry run for 4 days in this area so this was the highlight of the week so far. We said our farewells and I decided to take their route as time was against me and it seemed that I needed a loo urgently. Unfortunately for me there were no cheetah but I did see some ellies in the riverbed



And then something strange… I think that this impala was in a snare, it has circle patches on its neck… or am I just seeing stuff?



Then for a quick stop at N’wanetsi picnic spot. Now time was running against me so I couldn’t really stop for any sighting. Don’t you hate when it happens? It was the road with the most sightings for the afternoon and I had to woosh past everything…
Kori bustard



Numerous breeding herd of ellies



And a huge herd of buffalo, unfortunately they were very far and just a few were up close so I could take some pics



And then when I got to the end of the road I saw a few cars parked on the H1-3, I turned on the road and drove closer. It was one of the in the right place at the right time, cause there were 4 cars in front of me and 5 next to them but as I stopped at the end of the row these little critters were coming my way…









There were 3 cubs with no adult in sight, maybe I missed her? Now this one looks like he had a horrible tick infestation. They were also a bit thin for my taste… Not the type of lion I would expect in cat country…



They walked past me and crossed the road behind me.



The people were so nice, the car next to me actually said I could turn around and stand in front of them, I said ‘no’ as I already got nice pics and told them I’m moving on but thanks. I got to camp just in time, we were a 9 car convoy but nobody sped at least.
That night we weren’t really in the mood for a difficult menu so we made steak rolls. We braaied our meat and then with our own toppings together with the steak we made delicious sarmies.



It was enjoyed with ice cold KPA’s, after filling our stomachs and some relaxing conversation it was time to go to bed.

To be continued…

[Lisbeth]

Sound like a lot of day with a lot of sightings

[Mel]

The S100 delivered? And a leppie on top of it.

The impie neck does look weird.

And I also agree on your judgement of the lion cubs.
Although the one in the last pic doesn't seem to be too bad off (hopefully!)

Right, I'm good at changing tyres. At least some service I can offer, if not battling for regress.

[Bushcraft]

Please tell Sparrow to check us out as KZN wildies are in short supply

Another brilliant day

You got a cool camping spot

Awesome leopard You are freaking me out again with all these December sightings

Then lion luck

I thought this was a quiet cat trip

[nan]

wow Leopard, Lions, poor Impala... and an untaken view
love to the Dassies and the BRAAI

[flying cheetah]

Very strange looking Steenbokkie
A leopard on the S100...I didn't know that this is possible