Africa Wild

harrys wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:54 pm Great to see you on the forum again BC

As usual you guys had wonderful sightings and what would a Browns trip be without lots of Leopards

Howsit Harry shot for reading and commenting

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 12:59 pm I had not realized how I have missed your TTs until I started reading. There is always lots of stuff for laughing...BTW you look terrific with the cow's slippers

You and your leopards....They never fail you, incredible The first might not have been on the first day, but there was one early on the next day and later one more

Imagining Hawkeyes at university makes one realize how time is flying What is she studying?

Morning Lisbeth

Yes, time seems to move faster each year Hawkeyes is doing 3rd year, Bachelor of education.

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 1:39 pm Thanks so much Bushcraft,

for another Kruger report and for sure the leopard luck continued although without one on your very first day

Also the other sightings were nocht that bad either with all the lions and hyenas - Love the zebras in a row

Ready for more

Hi Pumbaa

Ya, we missed out on a leopard on our arrival day which instantly created pressure

Richprins wrote: ↑Sat Mar 26, 2022 4:25 pm Yay, Bushyyyy!

Great to have a new Clan story!


An experience at Lothair!

And you see now...too getting too old for no shoes!

The best time of year for Kruger, and sightings did not disappoint!

Nice you met Flutts and B!

I like the buffalo pic, plus the H11 pics are gorgeous!

Hey RP

Lothair was horrendously cold

I would prefer to go in August, but governed by school holidays

It was great seeing Flutts and Brat again

25th Lower Sabie

The plan today was to just hang around the Lower Sabie area and have a more relaxed day as I didn’t want to drive too far, so we decided to 1st travel up to the S79 causeway and then return to the area around camp for either a short trip up the H10 or down the H4-2.

A few km out from Lower Sabie we found the lion couple who were now back in dense bush and then a little further down the road more lions appeared, and some were right next to the road.

We sat with the lions for a few minutes, but some ellies arrived again and the lions slowly moved further down towards the riverbed, so we continued towards the causeway.


About halfway down the S79 we met a guy parked off in a well-known leopard spot and as we slowly cruised past, he seemed to be frantically looking for something, so I asked him and he stated that he had briefly seen 2 leopard cubs on a rock through the bush, so we also got frantic.

“Where, which rock?!”

This turned into a major mission of reversing, then forward and then reverse again as we tried to find a view of the “rock”. Eventually we settled on a spot with a limited view, switched off and waited.

Around 10 minutes later both cubs appeared for a few seconds

“THERE!” “Where’s the camera?” “WHY IS THE LENS CAP ON?”

“@#%^$#”

The cubs disappeared again before we could get a pic, so the wait continued.

Another 15 minutes past and we all started to get distracted so when they appeared again, we stuffed it up again, but I just fired a shot off without even looking in the viewfinder and managed a blurred semi proof pic of the rear end of 1 cub as it disappeared.

The blob in the middle of the pic below, a little to the right, which looks like the back of a pangolin, is the 1 leopard cub.


I was now highly frustrated and tensions were building in the car because it was also getting boiling hot, so we decided to give up on the wait and headed back towards Lower Sabie.

The lions just north of Lower Sabie in the riverbed were still around, but the traffic had built up, so we just continued past.

We stopped at Lower Sabie for the loo and I fuelled up with diesel while plotting the next move. After a negotiation we decided to head down the H4-2 to the S28 northern entrance as it’s a spot for another leopard local, but instead of a leopard we found another mating lion couple.

The lions moved closer to the road which resulted in more and more people coming up from Croc Bridge stopping, so the sighting started to get hectic, therefore we gave up on it and headed back towards Lubyelubye to see if “Sausage” the leopard had made an appearance, but we found another lioness, however at least there was some action because she was stalking some impala.

“She must just wait there, they going to walk into her”

“No, what is she doing, @#%, they have seen her”


The impala all ran off and the lioness moved back into the bush, so we decided to cruise back to Lower Sabie for breakfast.

After breakfast we agreed to spend time in camp until late afternoon as I had some work to check in on, Bushpig and Albert had some schoolwork to do, and the Cow parked off with her book and then after lunch went on the odd mission around camp with her camera.


To be continued

25th Lower Sabie continued

We decided to leave a little earlier than normal for our afternoon drive as we had spent a large portion of the day in camp already, so everyone was ready to hit the road at around 3pm. The plan was to drive up to Nkuhlu, have a walk around and then head back to camp.

As we approached Lubyelubye we spotted a massive traffic jam in the distance, but it seemed to be heading towards us, so I slowed and then the reason for the jam became apparent, so we just pulled over to the side and let the mating couple and train of cars just go past us and we continued towards Nkuhlu.


The rest of the drive to Nkuhlu only produced the usual suspects and a kite for the Cow.


Nkuhlu was rather quiet on our arrival and the local boon gang had taken the opportunity to pull in, so we didn’t hang around too long.

The drive back towards Lower Sabie was also rather quiet until just past the causeway.

“What’s that, it’s a Civet!”

The civet was scavenging around so it was frustrating to get pics through the twigs and bush, however we eventually managed a few before it ducked down into the riverbed.

It was around 5:20pm as we approached the leopard spot that Flutts had pointed out, so I slowed right down to crawling speed again and this time our timing was good as a leopard appeared from down the drainage line. The darn leopard was moving though, and it was getting dark, so the camera wouldn’t focus initially which nearly resulted in it getting attacked by me in temper, however I eventually got 1 grainy pic of it walking.


I repositioned the car to try and find the leopard again and Bushpig finally spotted it in dense bush at the bottom of the drainage line, so we managed a few more grainy pics with the ISO at max.


This drainage line is about 7.5km from Lower Sabie and the clock was ticking, so we had to leave the leopard and head for camp, but around 1km from Sunset dam we spotted lion in the road and more entering the road.

The entire pride was coming up to the road, however we were more interested in the 1 small junior that was in the mix with them.

The lions were completely blocking the road, so there was some pressure to get through them and to camp and the 1 lady next to us hit a panic, so she started pushing through them and in the process cut us off which set the Cow off bigtime because she couldn’t see the cub now from the passenger seat.

“Look at this stupid woman!” “Hey, do you mind!”

The lions did move off the road due to the panicked lady and more cars arrived from behind us, so we snapped a few last pics and slowly moved on to camp arriving 1 minute late.


To be continued