Africa Wild

Catching up, Pumbaa!

Firstly, thank you so much for all the travel info, it is a real eye-opener!

And then the lovely wet birdies, amazing you missed the rain as you say!

The saddlebill bird in flight is amazing, as well as the hornbill interaction.

The leopard is just wow, in interesting light!

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 3:02 pm Thank you, Pumbaa In any case, if I am going to SA, I'll probably wait until Jan/Feb

That was not a leopard sighting, it was a leopard study

I so much hope that until then most will return to "normal" again at least I do hope so It was an incredible study indeed

harrys wrote: ↑Thu May 13, 2021 3:07 pm Such a awesome sighting of my favourite animal

Leopards are indeed one of the most beautiful animals on earth

Richprins wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 6:21 pm Catching up, Pumbaa!

Firstly, thank you so much for all the travel info, it is a real eye-opener!

And then the lovely wet birdies, amazing you missed the rain as you say!

The saddlebill bird in flight is amazing, as well as the hornbill interaction.

The leopard is just wow, in interesting light!

At least we missed the rain that day but it got better and we even had also sunny parts and it got better and better with each day At the end of our trip we unfortunately had then two complete rainy days

Our leopard lady simply crossed the sand road behind our car with unflappability and we already thought that this now was finally the end of the sighting but she gave us a bonus as she simply waited in the high grass close to a small stream which was flowing across the street



and looked a bit around from there.



Meanwhile also other cars arrived and we pointed most willingly the leopard to them and also gave up our space where we parked to let the others also have a view onto her



but she must have followed us as now she walked still into the direction we drove



and we still could see her now in an area with extreme high grass.





After now more than one hour we were impressed by her beauty and presence until she finally disappeared in the high grass and had never be seen again.



Still more than happy with this sighting of the spotted beauty we continued and for sure stopped for a nicely posing lark

and we meanwhile reached the tar road and stopped for a short while on the bridge across the matjulu where we spotted a grey heron



and on the other side of the bridge a hamerkop in a bush.



Another car stopped on the bridge and the woman in the car told us about a leopard in a tree only a few kilos back right at the tar road although this was not our direction we for sure followed her hint and we were not disappointed as we discovered another leopard lady in a tree.



Of course due to the Saturday along the tar road at that leopard sighting far more cars parked but as the leopard was from nearly everywhere good visible in the tree there was enough space for each car.



Also this spotted lady was still a bite tired



and we meanwhile thought we were dreaming as we never spotted two leopards on one day within that short time



either this will be a good omen for the future sightings we might have or a bad one – We still had to find out at this early stage of our trip





to be continued……

A leopard day

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Tue May 18, 2021 9:36 pm A leopard day

Totally right and we had such a luck

She was of course also a cute beauty and offered a couple of poses



to satisfy nearly everybody who admired her.



We stayed also at that sighting quite a while but as not much happened nearly the whole time and we got our shots



we continued our drive and waved a good-bye to the spotted beauty in her tree and turned around.



We left the S121 and S118 beside but noted happily that both roads were open and decided to drive at least later that day our beloved Mlambane loop or latest tomorrow and so we met along the road a large herd of elephants either happily feeding



or a bit too much curious and alert



but luckily mom was not far as these youngsters at that age can cause a lot trouble when they want to mess with a car.



Obviously the food was far more important than chasing cars so our cute youngster calmed down



and presented us all the other things same was already able to show.

More elephants appeared and crossed the road



only to stop and for a short snack at the lush and green bushes



until suddenly much more of the grey giants appeared on the scene. Needless to say that we only heard them in the thick vegetation prior than we say them



whilst our little youngster was still eying us suspiciously.



We drove the short detour to Renosterpan were we saw a lot more of European rollers but overall it got a bit quiet. Renosterpan was deserted so we turned around but we noticed a bateleur in flight



and a cute juvenile magpie shrike on a branch whilst same was waiting for its parents to feed same.



Now the break at Afsaal was more than needed and after the first very well earned ice cream we carried on and met quite a massive number of impalas along that road.



to be continued………