Africa Wild

Beautiful shots! Agree with Liz about the quality of your pics. What camera do you have?

You're making me very homesick , but enjoying your TT and looking forward to more...

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 2:26 pm Your Botshelo sighting was definitely magnificent

Surprise, surprise.. I love the ground squirrel

Did you only stay at Twee Rivieren?

Yes Lis, only at Twee Rivieren. With such a short school holiday we didn't want to be packing up tents and re-pitching multiple times and given the heat I was very glad we chose to just stay in one place

RogerFraser wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 8:38 pm Caught up on the sightings .Wow what a great full day . And just amazing time with Botshelo and stunning photos .What luck to be in the right place to watch for so long . Love the Squirrel and Red Hartebeest . Pool looks lovely in the camp

Thanks Roger - yep very lucky with Botshelo timing. The pool is really quite small but amazingly was never overcrowded which was good

Mel wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:05 am Terrific sighting and photos of Botshelo! WOW, WOW and WOW

Thanks Mel

Richprins wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 5:26 pm What a quality sighting, Peej, and perfect photos!

The light always seems better in winter?

Can't wait for the next episode...

Not sure whether you can really call it winter when it's 38 degrees

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 8:21 pm WoW PJL,

and even more magnfificent leopard shots

Thanks Pumbaa... was a very enjoyable sighting

ExFmem wrote: ↑Mon Oct 17, 2022 10:22 pm Beautiful shots! Agree with Liz about the quality of your pics. What camera do you have?

You're making me very homesick , but enjoying your TT and looking forward to more...

Nice to see you here ExFmem! I use a canon 7dii with 100-400ii

The next day we were feeling adventurous and planned to do a big trip up to one of the other camps. Seeing as the leopard sighting had been so good the night before, we decided to take the road up to Mata Mata. It was a lot further than I think we had fully anticipated

The day started out well with a nice sunrise as we did our obligatory check of Samevloeiing



After the hop over the dunes and coming down into the Auob riverbed, some movement caught my eye... another leopard



This is Kutyhilwa - daughter of Botshelo who we had seen the night before. She's still quite young and unfortunately for us moved further away across the riverbed for a stretch by a tree and then an attempt to try hunt some Korhaan









Driving on past Auchterlonie we found a secretary bird





Beyond Batulama there was a meerkat clan looking very vigilant due to an approaching brown snake eagle







And that really was all that we saw by the time we pulled in at Kamqua picnic site apart from just a couple of springbok. No herds at all which had made the drive seem extremely quiet

Another Leopard sighting (Staying in the family )

Not even a springbok herd

A bit further on is a giraffe hotspot

Amazing, another leopard!

I think lots of people have never seen even one there, Peej!

No food pics?

Like the eagle and meerkats.

Oh, Kutyhilwa has grown Hope she and her brother will stay rather visible, like their mum and dad

Always love finding and watching meerkats. Ever so cute and full of nonsense

But we need to discuss that tawny... looking at the underwings and the cere and beak, I tend to vote for a brown snake-eagle.

I tend to agree with Mel re the "tawny", especially because of the "under-" colours and -pattern.

Another leopard, PJL

great shots of the secretary bird and meerkats

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 2:05 pm Another Leopard sighting (Staying in the family )

Not even a springbok herd

A bit further on is a giraffe hotspot

No herds to speak of Lis... 2 springbok and a lone wildebeest made it all very very quiet
Apart of course from the leopard

Richprins wrote: ↑Tue Oct 18, 2022 6:19 pm Amazing, another leopard!

I think lots of people have never seen even one there, Peej!

No food pics?

Like the eagle and meerkats.

No food to speak of yet RP... it was still very early as we hadn't stopped for anything much. Brunch was to come at Mata Mata but unfortunately I forgot to take food pics There will be some further along on the trip though

Mel wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 8:53 am Oh, Kutyhilwa has grown Hope she and her brother will stay rather visible, like their mum and dad

Always love finding and watching meerkats. Ever so cute and full of nonsense

But we need to discuss that tawny... looking at the underwings and the cere and beak, I tend to vote for a brown snake-eagle.

Thanks for the ID Mel

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 10:14 pm Another leopard, PJL

great shots of the secretary bird and meerkats

Thanks Pumbaa. The leopard was a good start to the day, and despite her being a long way away it was great fun watching her attempt (rather badly) to hunt korhaan

The birdlife continued with some vultures, a verreaux's eagle owl, spotted eagle owl and quelea in great flocks invading some waterholes









Getting closer to Mata Mata we found some of the resident giraffe including a youngster







Finally we encountered an actual herd of wildebeest



We enjoyed a nice skottel brunch at Mata Mata where we were joined by a crimson breasted shrike