Africa Wild

Hi Guys;

The Browns are back again.

The planning for this trip started in April 2011 as the trip was planned around the July 2012 school holidays and with the Cow’s birthday in mind, so I did the normal 6am in the queue outside the KZN Sanparks office on the 1st of August 2011.

The first staff member only arrived at work at 7:50am, so I had completely lost my pip by that time and I don’t think that he will ever come late on the 1st of the month again, but my tantrum hadn’t helped with the booking issue and the planned trip was once again out the window.

I was wild by the time I got back to the office, which resulted in letters and posts to all, which only resulted in another enforced silence period, so I sat sulking for about a month and then started checking the availability everyday and finally put the below together.

5th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
6th Skukuza
7th Berg-en-Dal
8th Skukuza
9th Olifants
10th Skukuza
11th Skukuza, but moving units
12th Skukuza, but moving units
13th Skukuza
14th Biyamiti

Due to the fact that we were moving every day except for 2 days we knew that it would be hectic and looking back, I would advise people not to do it, especially with this 2pm book in story.

The trip however had a few surprises and we spotted lions and the big 4 every day, including the day we arrived and the day we left, but only the Big 5 for 5 days and many of those sightings weren’t the greatest with only an ear or bum visible.

We found more mating lions then we have ever found on a trip and I will give you the Cow’s theory on this later in the trip if I can word it in such a way that it doesn’t get me in trouble.

At one sighting we didn’t even realize that we were looking at a leopard until we dumped the pics, which I would never admit, but the Cow has already told other forum members, so I have no choice.

We met some great forum members, enjoyed many laughs and had the usual scraps.

To be continued

Flutterby wrote:
I can still sense your tension over the whole booking fiasco!! How did you manage to book consecutive nights in Skukuza when you have to move units? Once or twice we've asked if we can do that and we've been told it's not allowed.

FB, head office and satellite offices don’t permit it, but the Cow phoned Skukuza directly and they said “What rubbish you are the client and can book whatever you like if it’s available” and did the booking for her while she was on the phone.

So again confusion from Sanparks?

Richprins wrote:

Bushcraft wrote: FB, head office and satellite offices don’t permit it, but the Cow phoned Skukuza directly and they said “What rubbish you are the client and can book whatever you like if it’s available” and did the booking for her while she was on the phone.

Skukuza is absolutely right! Madness!

Try and phone head office and book 2 nights in a camp, but moving accommodation RP. They will tell you "No", which is madness

Richprins wrote:Now that I think about it, they used to tell me to phone the camp closer to the time to get specific units...is that what you mean?

No RP,

What I mean is that head office won’t let you book 2 consecutive nights in the same camp at any time from 11 months to 1 week before if it means you are moving units within the same camp even if available I.e. a safari tent one night and then a chalet the next night, but the camps if phoned directly will permit it

steamtrainfan wrote:I have also been told telephonically that I cannot move huts in the same camp on consecutive nights.

Is there anyway we can get an official ruling on this????????

There’s an easy way around it STF. Just book under a different reservation number, which is what I have done many times also in the past.

July 5th Jozini Dam

The rats were already on holiday and the Cow took the day off to do last minute shopping, but I still had to work half day, which always drives me crazy, so I was frantic by the time I eventually arrived home, even though I had said to myself “Calm down” many times in the car before arriving home.

We were eventually on the road half an hour later, but now there were 5 pelicans in the car, which gradually became cheesy faces the closer we got to Jozini.

Nkonkoni camp has become part of our KNP holidays now and “our” unit was ready on arrival and the warthog locals that greet us on every trip were waiting.



The weather wasn’t great, it was overcast and looked as if it was going to rain, but it was a Thursday night and although it was school holidays, we were the only people in camp, so my teeth were hanging out and the first beer didn’t even have time to breathe.



Halfway through the 2nd beer a male Nyala came cruising past the front of our unit, but immediately got a fright and ducked off into the bush, which frustrated me as we didn’t get a pic, so I announced “I going to follow it until I can get a pic”. Bushpig agreed, but the Cow barked” No you stay”. BP’s lip hit the ground and I used the distraction to duck off.

I followed a fair distance from the Nyala for about 300m until it stopped at a waterhole for a drink and I thought “This is my chance”, so the leopard crawl through the bush started and continued until I was about 15m away.



A few seconds after the pic I heard a noise in the bush a few meters from me, which made me lose interest in the Nyala and the mind started racing “You are alone in the bush” “Stuff it there are no predators in Nkonkoni” and I continued lining up the Nyala for another pic.

Suddenly the bush next to me exploded, which nearly resulted in a new pair of underpants.

A mother warthog was coming at me with murderous intent, so I took off in the opposite direction, but still watching the pig and ploughed straight into a thorn bush. Mother pig stopped, snorted as if satisfied and continued on with her juniors following.

The thorn bush crash caused a 30cm scratch down my leg, which was bleeding big time when I reached our unit and caused the rats great excitement as I told the war story, but the Cow was less impressed.

We still had an hour of daylight, so I suggested a drive down to the main Jozini Dam, which is only about 1km from the unit. The drive produced a gang of warthog, duiker and more nyala, but not the ostrich and rhino that we have seen in the past, so it was back to the unit for another beer and a braai.





When I stopped earlier at Mkuze garage to top up the tank I sent the Cow to buy fire wood and shouted “2 bags”

5 minutes later the Cow was making her way across the car park dragging something that looked like half a tree and shouting” You get the other one”

I initially dropped my lip because she had spent R80 on the two “half trees”, but now at our unit my teeth were hanging out at the prospect of having to burn the two “half trees” before tomorrow.



I got over excited again with the fire and wasn’t popular, because it took nearly 2 hours before the meat could go on and the rats were all squealing for their chow.



The rats ducked to bed shortly after supper, so the Amarula came out, the lights got switched off, the 2nd “tree” went on the fire and the bush feeling started.

To be continued

6th July Jozini Dam to Skukuza

We woke up to a fairly cold morning and it had been drizzling on and off throughout the night, so I was keen to get on the road to the border post early, but I had finished the Amarula from the previous evening, so a 5am outside shower was required to kick start the body and by 6am we were on the 5km dirt road out of Nkonkoni.
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Things went smoothly through the Swaziland border posts and we were at the Komatipoort butcher just after 10am.

We had to buy meat for 9 nights, so I attacked the butcher with my well prepared list and horror struck “Sorry, we don’t have everything on your list”. I was immediately going to throw my toys, but decided to take what they had and duck off to the Spar for the rest, which also didn’t help. It must be a Friday morning thing in Komatipoort as we have never had issues on a Saturday, which is normally when we travel through.

We ended up with 2 meals short, but decided to enter the park and make a plan at some stage on the trip.

We finally entered the park after 11am and that familiar seat belt off, window down operation started.

Before I continue, I see that many are still including rhino sightings in their TT’s, but keeping the location vague. I will do the same and where I can’t keep the location vague, I will omit that sighting. If anyone has a major issue with this please say so and I will omit all rhino sightings.

We did however find rhino every day which was surprising considering the poaching statistics and strangely our first sighting wasn’t the normal impala.



The S28/H4-2 junction always stresses me out, because reports and stats all say that the S28 produces more, but we have always found more on the H4-2, including more cheetah and leopard.

The Tinker’s, who wrote the “Guide to Kruger Park”, rate the H4-2 as their most successful road in the park, so I started before the junction “Tar, dirt, tar, dirt”, eventually after stressing the Cow out we took the S28.

About 5km up from the junction the decision proved to be correct.





The cheetah looked like it was on the hunt, although after crossing the road in front of us, sat down for 5 minutes, but refused to look at us for a pic, so we only managed a side profile before he continued on his way.





The rest of the S28 was quiet, but we didn’t care as it’s always difficult to find cheetah in KNP, so I still had a cheesy when we joined the tar again.

On route to Lower Sabie we found buffalo, kudu, giraffe, zebra, elephant and most of the usual suspects.





All the usual locals were hanging out at the H10 Bridge and Sunset Dam







The local boon gangsters were waiting to greet us just before Nkuhlu and Albert thought that this guy was smiling at her, which set me off “Watch out, he wants to marry you”, which started chaos in the back seat as Hawkeyes and Bushpig thought it was a pink ticket to tease Albert who started howling, so I quickly had to spread the marriage amongst all the rats, which pleased Albert.



To be continued

nan wrote:
S28 for some is productive, for other, nothin, nada, niente, rien du tout

It hasn't been kind to us over the years, but things changed this trip

6th July Jozini Dam to Skukuza continued

Nkuhlu was fairly busy, so the Cow took the rats to the bog and I went to check the sighting board, which made for a dismal experience as very few magnets were available, so we decided to just continue up the H4-1 straight to Skukuza.

About 5km out from Skukuza we spotted a few cars stopped on the side of the road and out in the open were the first lion of the trip.



Ten minutes later they decided to move on, which excited the crowd that had gathered resulting in people reversing, hands waving, etc, so we decided to continue on towards Skukuza



About 50m further down the road this old lady below wandered into the road and started towards us.



The old lady wandered up to the crowd of cars and then ducked off into the river bed to find her family.

The rest of the drive to Skukuza was fairly quiet, except for the traffic, so I was happy to get out and walk around as it had been a long drive.

I have very little patience, so the Cow always stands in the long 2pm book in queue while I look after the rats, which usually results in me walking into the office 10 times as I have lost it with one of the rats, who fiddle with just about everything at and around Skukuza reception and today was no exception.

The cherry on top was when the Cow came outside and said “No keys, so housekeeping will meet us there”. I have been down this road before so the blood pressure instantly went up “Are you sure!!”, “Don’t shout at me, it’s not my fault”

It seems the previous tenants ducked with the keys and housekeeping had the only set, which must be a continued nightmare to control.

30 minutes later, after a phone call to reception, housekeeping arrived.

It had been a long day for the clan, so we ducked out for a short afternoon drive towards Transport Dam. I also had forgotten that the gates close at 5:30pm in July, so we decided to drive for half an hour and then turn around and head for camp.
We found the usual gang and these guys below.







The first night of a holiday in Kruger is always special to me and the traditional fire is the only way to go.



The rats remade the fire after supper and cooked marshmallows until the Cow greased them for eating too many, which seemed to become the routine every night on this trip, but I didn’t mind, because at least they were learning how to make a fire and cook something on it.

To be continued

7th July Skukuza to Berg-en-Dal

We woke at 5am and the Cow and I went outside for our usual coffee in the dark, before waking the rats up, but we hadn’t realized that we weren’t on the KZN coast anymore and the 5 degrees that welcomed us was a major shock to the system.

I only own one pair of long non work pants, one jacket and had no shoes, so I found myself eyeing out the Cow’s bag to see what I could steal, but no luck, so multiple shirts had to do.

We decided to pack the car now and head down to Mlondozi for breakfast and then across to Berg-en-Dal via the S21, so we only ended up leaving camp at around 6:30am, which didn’t bother me as it was still dark until about 6:20am.

I refuse to drive in Kruger with a closed window and the family are all aware of this, so all take blankets and dress like they are going to the north pole, but I wasn’t that comfortable this morning with my window down and after 1km realized that I was going to lose my right ear, so ended up driving with my one hand over my ear for the next 1km.

Hawkeyes picked up on this and offered her pink scarf, so I jumped at the opportunity and tied it around my head and over my ears, which cracked the car up.

Albert also has a set of bunny ears that she thinks are good luck and often makes the Cow wear them on her head for sighting luck and I can only imagine what others on the road must have thought looking at the Cow and I as we went past.

Our first sighting for the morning was the boon clan who hang around the H12 Bridge and they seemed as cold as we were.



We stopped at Nkuhlu for a smoke break and I was surprised to see a few hippos cruising around.



Another section of road that always causes me stress is the S79/H4-1 junction as I never can decide which way to go. The S79 causeway is only 3km long, nevertheless has produced the big 5 for us, but the tar piece has produced wild dog, so the “tar, dirt” story started again and just before the Cow exploded I spotted a few cars stopped up the tar piece from the junction, so the decision was tar.

There were about 8 cars stopped over a distance of about 50m next to a herd of buffalo and what confused me is that nobody seemed interested in the buffalo.



We took a few pics of the buffalo and then looked around. Nobody was taking pics of the buffalo and all seemed to be waiting for something, so I asked the Cow “Ask them, they are on your side”, “NO”, which is a fight we always have and I end up shouting across the Cow at someone and today was the same.

It turns out that the herd of buffalo were in the road and 8 lion, including 2 males had surrounded them. The buffalo had punched a hole in the lion circle and escaped, but the lions had moved off into the bush and all were waiting to see if they returned.

I switched off and sat watching the buffalo for signs of agitation. 5 minutes later we heard a distant roar from one of the male lion and I shrieked “They are on the causeway”, so u-turn and down the causeway, which seemed to confuse others, because it didn’t take long for many to follow.

As we hit the causeway bridge I realized that we had gone too far, so u-turned again and back past the crowd following us which confused them even more.

There were only 2 cars left at the buffalo when we returned, so I switched off and waited. 5 minutes later a few buffalo became agitated and all seemed to be looking ahead, so I watched the road in the distance and a few minutes later blurted “lion in the road”





The lioness didn’t seem interested in the buffalo at all and was moving at pace towards us and then ducked off into the bush. The male, who was about 50m behind the female seemed highly agitated and the next minute took off at pace after the female.

We lost sight of them, so I did another u-turn and followed along in the direction they were running.

Suddenly the lioness burst from the bush ahead of us and sprinted across the road in the direction of the causeway.

A few seconds later the male started roaring his head off in the bush, so we waited in the area where the female crossed the road and about a minute later the male came storming across the road in front of us.

He was wild with excitement and I can only assume that his hormones were driving him crazy. Albert started “Dad, why is he chasing the girl”,
“He’s looking for a girlfriend”, “But why is he so grumpy”, “He’s not grumpy, he’s........” I stopped as the Cow was giving me the eyeball again. “He’s what Dad”, “He’s too happy”, which Albert accepted with a confused look, but at least I was off the hook.

The male continued roaring after the lioness in the direction of the causeway, so another u-turn and down the causeway again, but no lions, again, so another u-turn and back towards the tar.

As we hit the S79/H4-1 junction I shrieked “IN THE ROAD”.



I’m not sure if this was the same guy as earlier as he looked different, but this guy was in a worse mood and he was telling all about it.



He pulled up next to our car, looked us up and down and then decided to mark some territory instead of shouting.



His patience didn’t last long and he took off moaning into the bush again.

The buffalo stood still the entire time this chasing game was going on and didn’t seem at all interested in the lion.

We stayed another 15 minutes to see if anything would happen, but the buffalo started eating again and there was no more roaring, so we decided to continue on.

To be continued