A Blissful Flutter with the Brat

[Flutterby]

Sorry for the delay in posting. We were down in the Cape visiting the Brat and then I had a lot of work to catch up on when we got back.

So, back to a cold and miserable Satara.

For our afternoon route, we decided to head down the H6 and come back on the S100.

The wild dogs were still on the H6 but the pups were probably staying warm in the den. I was driving and didn't take any pics, so, again, these are stills from video.



The adults were awake and restless.



There was a small herd of wildebeest nearby, which the dogs watched for a while, but then ran past them and soon disappeared. Here you can see how miserable the weather was.



We carried on and found a lone wild dog further on....





...and a jackal....



... and a hyena.



About 5kms before the end of the H6, we came across a pair of mating lions with an extra male tagging along. The bush was very thick, so it wasn't easy to get pics.





The S100 was very quiet, and the only noteworthy sighting was this hare in very bad light.



When we got back to camp, the wind was still howling and it was freezing cold, so we decided we would eat at the restaurant. I then got a message from Leachy to say that he was also at Satara, so we made plans for him to meet us at the restaurant after he had finished his dinner. It was great to see him again! He had a glass of wine with us, and we chatted for a long time until we were the last people in the restaurant. We invited him back to our hut for coffee and Amarula and we continued catching up.

[Lisbeth]

When the weather is like that, the pleasure of being in the bush drops to a minimum, despite a wild dog sighting.

How did Leachy know that you were at Satara? Anyway, nice to have company

[Flutterby]

I agree, I hate it when the weather is like that when we're in the bush.

Leachy had seen something I posted on FB the previous day.

[Pumbaa]

Thanks so much, Flutterby,

despite the obviously inclement weather you had fantastic sightings with the wild dogs, jackal, hyena and the lions

And on top a nice evening meeting

[Lisbeth]

[Mel]

WOW, that was a successful drive First those beautiful painted dogs and then also lion and hyena

[Richprins]

No rush, Flutts!

What an array of predator sightings in one afternoon! Satara really can deliver!

The video stills are very crisp!

Sorry, hope leachy didn't too much!

[Flutterby]

Thanks so much, Flutterby,

despite the obviously inclement weather you had fantastic sightings with the wild dogs, jackal, hyena and the lions

And on top a nice evening meeting

Yes, it was still a good day despite the weather.

WOW, that was a successful drive First those beautiful painted dogs and then also lion and hyena

Yes, not bad!

No rush, Flutts!

What an array of predator sightings in one afternoon! Satara really can deliver!

The video stills are very crisp!

Sorry, hope leachy didn't too much!

Yep, seeing a leopard would have been nice but we can't be greedy. leachy was very well-behaved.

[Flutterby]

The next morning we up early to pack for our move to Lower Sabie. We were ready to leave at about 5.45 but when the Brat went to start the car it was dead...the battery was flat! We walked to the petrol station to see if they had jumper cables, which they didn't, but a couple that was getting petrol heard our story and offered to help! They came back to our hut and I felt very bad that they had to unpack their whole boot to get to the jumper cables but they were so friendly and helpful and didn't seem to mind. My car soon started, and after helping them to repack, the man suggested we go to Skukuza to see if they could change the battery and reminded us that we mustn't switch the engine off! In hindsight, we should have just headed straight for Hoedspruit via Orpen but we didn't think of it at the time.

Anyway...we headed out. Our original plan had been to head down the S100 and then pick up the Trichardt road but obviously, we now had to head straight down the tar. Near Sweni, we found three lions, but they were in thick bush so we carried on. Just a little further on, we found a lone cheetah!!







We obviously couldn't hang around too long and left it behind. However, just before Kumana we came upon a large pride of lions, we counted 15!







Once again, we couldn't spend too much time there, so took a couple of pics and carried on...only to find a pride of 9 lions just before Mazithi!









At the high level bridge on the H12 we had another good sighting...a lone sable!







So, this had been our best drive so far with 27 lions, 1 cheetah and a sable, but we hadn't been able to enjoy the sightings as we were constantly worried about the battery! However, we did acknowledge that we wouldn't have taken this route if we hadn't had problems so we were happy that some good had come out of a bad situation.

We had now decided that it was probably a waste of time to go to Skukuza and would head straight to Kruger Gate and go to Hazyview. As we passed Sabie Sabie, there was some sort of kill right against the fence with hundreds of vultures and lots of game vehicles. People were also stopping on the main road to have a look but we soldiered on! We eventually made it to Hazyview and stopped at the first battery/tyre place we found. I was sure that the battery would have recharged itself by now, but when we tried to start the car again it was completely dead....thankfully we hadn't switched the car off at any of the sightings!! The battery was soon replaced (I didn't realise how expensive batteries were ) and we headed back to Kruger Gate feeling much more relaxed and quite chuffed with our morning sightings!

[Lisbeth]

That's what happens when you buy a FIAT it did get you some great sightings though

Lovely pics of the sable

(Are your pics very big? They take ages to load )