Africa Wild

Hi Guys;

Things are hectic at work at the moment, so this is going to be a little slapped together, but if I don’t start soon I never will, so the Toti Browns are back again.

The planning for this trip started in July 2011 with a mate that I work with, who’s been to KNP in October before and was keen for another trip, so it was off to stand in queues with option spreadsheets at the local SANParks office at 6am on the day bookings opened.

We once again never got our first choice, but managed to juggle a few things and put a trip together.

This was going to be the first October in KNP for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert, but the 2nd time for Brad, his wife Janet and his two larger rats, Mathew and Andrew.

The trip ended up as below:

28th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
29th and 30th Skukuza
1st, 2nd and 3rd Satara
4th, 5th and 6th Lower Sabie

We once again had to put together a tricky shopping list because of the faulty Swazi border post officials. My Gin and Cane found its way into clear water bottles, but on advice, decided to purchase the rest in Komatipoort.

We battled again for my favourite animal, which frustratingly seems to be a habit for us now, missed out on the dogs, had many of the usual and new scraps and a few disappointments, but the trip contained a few surprises.

To be continued

September 28th Jozini Dam

The rats still had to go to school for breakup day and the Cow took the day off to do last minute shopping, but I still had to work half day, so I was stressing as usual about making it to camp before dark.

Brad and Janet were happy to drive straight through without stopping over, so they skipped the Jozini Dam part and agreed to meet us the next day at the Swazi border at 6:30am.

It started to rain at about 11am, so I was flapping about the dodgy dirt road down to the Jozini accommodation as I don’t have a 4x4, so ducked out of work an hour early and we were on our way shortly thereafter.

It rained until just past Imfolozi and then we never spotted rain again, so my teeth were hanging out on arrival as we still had 2 hours of daylight to explore.

I started my ritual fire and the Cow retired to the veranda in her tiger dress, which I’m sure she wears to irritate me.





Hawkeyes is entering those faulty teenager years and was happy to ignore all and sit on her cell phone inside, but Albert and Bushpig were charging around and I was bored after 15 minutes of staring at the fire, so ducked off on a bush walk with the two small ones, which always amuses me, because Bushpig delights in telling Albert war stories about dangerous animals that may be lurking in every second bush.

The first hide was a failure, so we continued on to the second hide, which produced Impala, Nyala and a few warties, but I only had my 55mm lens on so didn’t bother taking any pics of the four legged animals



The rats then decided that they wanted to visit the public boma area, which has a few old skulls, etc lying around, but on arrival we noticed a large group of guys off loading a bakkie load of wood and another bakkie full of cooler boxes, so my pelican was immediately out as I knew that my normal peaceful first night was about to turn sour as the noise levels were already up.

Halfway back to our unit I decided to take a pic of the two juniors and Albert immediately put on a pose, so I dropped the camera and the pose disappeared, but as I lifted the camera again the pose returned. Kids nowadays seem to be able to put on instant cheesy as soon as they spot a camera and this freaks me out.



By the time we arrived back at our unit the fire was ready, so cooking started early and was only interrupted by my occasional outburst each time I heard shrieking from the public boma.

Supper was served while there was still daylight.



Fortunately the boma gang didn’t have a strong constitution and collapsed before 8pm, so silence returned.

The Amarula came out and the bush feel started.

To be continued

29th September Jozini to Skukuza

I phoned Brad at about 5:30am and still thought that we had plenty of time, but they were already at Mkuze, so we had to get moving quickly.

We linked up with Brad at the border post and tested the 2-way radios, which he had organized from work, while we waited for the border gates to open.

The border post was a little busy and for some reason the border officials had chosen today to be neurotic, so it took us more than an hour before we entered Swaziland

We arrived at Komatipoort just after 11am and still had to do all the meat and dairy shopping for the trip, so eventually entered the park after 1pm and blood pressure returned to a normal level.

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 with the current poaching situation in Kruger, was a surprise for us.

The first thing I did was fuel up in Croc Bridge and then ducked up the S28.

Our first “major” sighting besides the usual suspects was a teenage ellie who decided to give us an unfriendly welcome, which always gets the Cow jabbering, so we didn’t spend too much time with him.



Next up was a few of RP’s southern family which were fairly far south from their usual location and they aren’t often spotted this close to Croc Bridge.



The rest of the S28 was fairly quiet, but we did find this Tawny relaxing next to the road and because we only spotted it at the last minute, I stopped next to it and expected it to take off immediately, but he was amazing very relaxed and permitted a few pics.





The stretch of the H4-2 from the S28 to Lower Sabie produced a few of the locals that hang around the Sabie River in the heat of the day.







Lower Sabie was packed when we arrived, which may have had something to do with the 2pm book in time, as it was around that time, so all had a bog break and we continued on.

The locals were hanging out at Sunset dam, so we stopped there for a few minutes, but as time was ticking on and because we had been in the car for most of the day already, decided to push on towards Skukuza.

Somewhere between Lower Sabie and Skukuza we found a gang of giraffe cruising in a riverbed and our second group of rhino.





We only arrived at Skukuza just before 4pm and finished the book in procedure and unpacking more than an hour later, which only left us with less than an hour for an evening drive, so decided to just do a short stint up the H1-2.

After 20 minutes on the H1-2 we had seen a few more of the usual suspects and I was starting to get nervous about the time, but just as I was going to announce that it was time to turn around we spotted our first lion of the trip.





We spent about 5 minutes with them and then had to head back to camp for the traditional first night KNP braai and the usual fence line visitors.



To be continued

30th September Skukuza

The plan this morning was to head on down to Lower Sabie and then up to Mlondozi for breakfast, which has also become a tradition for us in KNP when in that area, so coolers and chow made their way into our cars and we hit the road just after 6am.

Just after the Skukuza 4 way stop Brad shouted “Honey Badger” on the walkie.

He was speeding along next to the road and disappeared into bush before anyone could get a pic. Those HB’s can cause major stress as when on the move they are almost impossible to photograph.

The next 10km or so things were fairly quiet, so I started stopping for the odd bird which suited the Cow big time, but my lip was starting to drag.

We found this guy below which is a Trumpeter Hornbill which we have only seen once before in the park and only found out later in the trip that they are actually fairly rare in Kruger. In the riverbed below him a Goliath Heron was cruising around.





About 5km from Nkuhlu and as we came around a corner I shouted “CAMERA” and the Cow did her usual hand flapping panic and squawked “leopard, no cheetah”.

A cheetah was walking down the middle of the road towards us and I could understand the Cow’s initial reaction because we had seen leopard many times in this area, but not often cheetah.





The cheetah paused next to us for about a minute and then crossed the road in front of us, paused again for another minute before disappearing into the bush. My lip was no longer dragging.





Next we spotted our first non fence line scallywag, but he was too fast, so we only managed a bum shot.



Just before Lower Sabie we found two more chaps having their morning breakfast.





It was still fairly early when we arrived at Lower Sabie, so we went to check the sighting board in case someone had put something up from the early morning shift, but there was still yesterdays stuff on the board, so decided to just head on up to Mlondozi as planned.

The H10 Bridge produced the usual locals, so we relaxed there for a few minutes before continuing on.

Just before Mlondozi we found plenty zebra, wildebeest etc and this Bateleur catching the morning sun.



Mlondozi was fairly busy, but we managed to find a spot and fired up the skottel breakfast.

There was plenty of general game around the dam, including ellies, buffalo, hippo, waterbuck, etc, so the Cow ducked off to take pics and left Brad and I to skottel, which resulted in a near pelican from me, but fortunately the Cow returned before I blew a gasket.

Albert and Bushpig dragged the dolls out of the car and started a weird game, which involved something to do with the large ellie turd and Brad’s youngest, Andrew, found peace from them on the other side of the picnic site.





Shortly after breakfast PennySA, SO and mates arrived, so we chatted in the car park for a few minutes, but it was too crowded for Penny, so they decided to continue on to another spot and we left 5 minutes later.

To be continued

30th September Skukuza continued

We pulled out of Mlondozi at about 10:30am and it was already 30 plus degrees, so we decided that the best route back to Skukuza would be the shortest route and headed towards the S30.

The S29 on route to the S30 produced more of the usual gang, including the odd buffalo and a Kori Bustard





The S30 was rather boring and only produced two giraffe having a scrap that’s worth mentioning and then a couple of elephant on the H4-1 on the way back to camp.





We had agreed to do supper for all tonight and Brad was going to repay the favour later in the trip, so the Cow got busy with a giant potato salad, the rats ducked off to the pool and Brad and I settled in with the map and a few beers on the veranda.

Brad loves the Transport Dam area so the plan for the afternoon was to head down the S65 to Transport and then up the H1-1/H3 back to camp.

The first sighting that involved the cameras was a few km down the S65, which confused Brad as we spotted 3 tortoises in the space of a km and stopped each time, but each time they ducked before he pulled up next to us.



The next few km produced the traditional roadblock that means predator sighting, but it was only 3 lions sleeping in the grass, so we agreed to just take a pic and continue on as it wasn’t worth the stress involved to get better pics.



Transport Dam was also quiet with only the usual water buck hanging around and a few km up the H1-1 the local Klippie made his appearance.





We stopped off at De Laporte for a few minutes on the way back to camp, but no action, so Brad pulled out and we despondently followed.

I was mumbling now big time about the lack of activity when I spotted Brad stop about 100m up the road from us and then we spotted them.





This sighting caused chaos in our car, because we had never seen hyena pups this young before and to top it off it was 5:45pm, I still had my 500mm lens on and the Cow’s camera couldn’t handle the bad light.

The eruption continued “Pass your camera, change my lens, your camera is a piece of @#&$”, “I want to video!!” “Stuff the video, why isn’t your flash working, stuff this camera!!” “I’m going to smash this camera!!”, “Why are you moving forward, STOP!!”, “The flash only works for 2m you idiot!!”

Eventually between us we got a close up pic.



Hyena pups have been on the Cow’s wish list for awhile, so she had a big cheesy as we pulled into camp and I even escaped the normal “picture and no sound pelican face” that follows for hours after one of my tantrums, so my teeth were also hanging out.

Brad, Janet and his rats arrived at our camp at about 6:30pm and the braai started.

To be continued

1st October Skukuza to Satara

Before I continue, we did find a few rhino this day, but due to these locations being obvious if described in the course of the drive, I have decided to omit them from the day’s events.

We had a long drive ahead of us today and Brad was camping, so wanted to get to Satara with enough time to get a decent camp site, therefore the car packing mission started early and we were out of camp just after 6am.

The plan today was to head straight up the H1-2 to Tshokwane, purchase a few toasted sarmies and continue up the H1-3 to Satara.

Just outside Skukuza we found the first of the big 5 who was still waking up and then the first low level bridge on the H1-2 produced a fish eagle sitting in a tree next to the road who didn’t seem concerned about our close proximity and then a rather stroppy hippo who didn’t fancy us on the bridge.







A few km further produced a scallywag doing his morning rounds, a couple of RP’s Sand River family catching the morning sun, a Burchell’s for the Cow and then the 2nd of our big 5.









We stopped in at Olifants waterhole and decided to relax there for half an hour or so as a leopard had been spotted there a few times the day before, but soon the rats started getting bored and irritating, so I eventually pulled out in a semi huff.

The next stop was Kruger Tablets to take a pic of the local Klippie that hangs out in that area.



Leeupan produced a few more locals, so we parked off there for awhile, but the rats started to squawk for chow, so we moved on to Tshokwane.

The toasted sarmies took half an hour and to top it off the rats and the Cow decided to nibble on their food, so it felt like hours for me as I eat in 1 minute flat and want to move on.

Brad’s boys had finished their chow and they were moving on, so I ended up blowing a gasket and behaving like an army drill sergeant “Hurry up, eat your food, put that in the bin, you are lucky that you don’t have big brothers because they would eat all your food and you would starve, go to the toilet!!”

I still waited in the car for 10 minutes as everyone, including the Cow have become used to my impatient ways and ignored me.

I have to admit that I was seriously tempted to drive off to test the reaction, but didn’t feel like a greasing from the Cow, so decided to pace up and down the car park instead, which didn’t seem to make a difference.

I was still muttering when we arrived at Mazithi Dam, but that soon changed as we spotted the gang of cars and these chaps hanging around in the shade.



The bonus was that although there were plenty of cars, there’s a large amount of space for all, so we eventually pulled in to a spot, switched off and waited.

A few minutes later Flutts, BB and Ballie came cruising past us, but heading north, which confused me as I knew that they were meant to be heading south on the 1st, so can only assume that they had turned and were looking for another view.

About ten minutes later we spotted them heading towards us again heading south, so the rats started shouting “Hang your AW shirt out the window”, but it was too late and they passed us, which gave all the rats a pelican.

Ten minutes later the 3 lions lying closest to us got up and made their way over to the rest of the pride, who seemed very interested in a few zebra that were cruising past.





A few minutes later a large number of zebra made their way down to the dam for a drink and tension started to boil in our car as the stage was set for some action.
Suddenly the one lioness took off into the grass, causing me to shriek “The game is on!!”



To be continued

1st October Skukuza to Satara continued

Our car was now wild with excitement as we could just make out the head of the lioness in the grass as she cruised towards the zebra, but a few seconds later we all lost sight of her, which sent my blood pressure through the roof “Where’s she gone!!! Are you all watching!!?”

Suddenly the Cow spotted her and shrieked “There!!” which only got me more excited “WHERE IS THERE!!”

First the Cow pointed and said “There”, which got me more wild “Landmarks!!, left, right, etc!!” and the Cow started with “You see that funny tree with the gap in it and the bush over there....” but the lioness burst out of the grass and the Cow shrieked “There, there!!!”

I first nearly knocked myself out with the camera and then just shot wildly without even looking through the view finder.

The Cow managed to capture it all on the video camera, but I only ended up with the blurred pic below, so was rather sulky afterwards.



The lioness failed, so slowly returned to her pride.



The action seemed to be over for the time being so we decided to cruise further up to see if we could get a better spot, but had no success, so returned to our original spot, but now we were facing south, so I was stressing about having to take pics over the Cow’s or Hawkeye’s head, so issued policeman warnings that all should be aware of the camera, which only added to the tension.

Nothing happened for 20 minutes and it was boiling hot, so attention changed to cool drinks, etc.

A few minutes later two buffalo arrived and went down to the water for a drink.



The buffalo seemed to give three zebra some guts and they slowly also approached the water.

Instantly a lioness took off from under the shade into the grass again, but this time the others from the pride slowly followed.

The Cow started “My hands are shaking”, so I blurted out “Stop, you will stuff up the video!!” which didn’t go down well under the already tense situation.

There were now five or six lion heads moving in the grass towards the buffalo and zebra, but we again had all lost sight of the lead lioness, so I decided to zoom out and only focus on the zebra, with the hope of capturing something as the lead lioness came into frame.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, so concentration levels started to take strain in the car and the rats started chirping about different possibilities, which distracted the Cow with the video camera, but I had the camera against my pip and was refusing to partake in the conversion.

Suddenly a blur entered my view finder and I started shooting, but others seemed to take a few seconds to realize what was happening and then started shouting “THERE, THERE, she’s chasing them”







The one zebra had turned the wrong way and was heading straight towards the other lions who suddenly decided to participate, but also failed.





A staring match then started



Soon all the lions lost interest and decided to cruise back to their shade patch, but one stubborn lioness decided five minutes later that the hunt had to continue, but this time charged after the buffalo, which got the others in the shade excited and they decided to follow.











To be continued

2nd October Satara

The plan this morning was to head down the S100/S41/H6/S126, have breakfast at Muzandzeni and return to camp via the S36/H7

The first few km only produced the usual clan and then the S100 locals warming up in the morning sun.





At the end of the S100 we decided to duck left and pop in at Gudzani Dam.

We immediately spotted a massive crowd and all were trying to squeeze into the small turning circle at the end of the road, so we approached slowly as I didn’t want to get tied up in that rugby scrum.

It was fairly obvious what was causing the crowd, but from our position it was difficult to get decent pics.

I can only assume that this was possibly the mega pride as we could see 2 on the dam wall, another 3 lionesses and a male in the bush, another 4 lionesses in the bush to the right and many others moving around that I didn’t bother to try and photograph as they were deep in the bush.







Brad and I don’t do the crowd thing well, so we turned in the road and ducked back down the S41 as per the planned route.

5km before N’wanetsi Brad stopped in the road about 100m ahead of us, so we slowly approached and found these guys relaxing next to the road.



The aunty didn’t seem at all bothered with the fact that we were next to them, but the chap seemed a little edgy about our close proximity and it looked as if he was about to charge us at any minute, so I warned the rats to sit still and keep quiet, which seemed to relax him fairly quickly.





We sat quietly with them for a few minutes waiting for the evitable “action”, but the aunty didn’t seem interested in all the licking and sucking up that the male was doing, so I lost my patience again and blurted out “What’s up with this slowed up lioness, where’s the interest in some action?”, which set the rats off “What action Dad, what’s going to happen, why’s she slowed up Dad?”, so I again chose the silent route.

The aunty gave us a yawn a few minutes later and got up.





To be continued

2nd October Satara continued

The lioness didn’t make it far and the male pounced, which set the rats off “Is this the action Dad” and I again chose the silent route.



The aunty then gave us a lady like pose and the male seemed concerned about the fact that we were still parked off watching.



Eventually the aunty moved off the road and went to lie in the grass and the male calmed down again and decided to relax in the road.



We stopped off at N’wanetsi for all to use the bog and the Cow found what I think is a Little bee-eater to photograph



The H6 has never been a successful road for me in the past and today was no different as we only spotted a few zebra and the odd wildebeest on the entire stretch.

The last time we drove the S126 to Muzandzeni picnic spot it was very corrugated, but after the first few km realized that it must have been graded or something as it was cool.

We stopped at Sweni “waterhole” as there were a few buffalo approaching and a couple elephant hanging around.



Suddenly something caught my eye and I shrieked “There’s a lion bum”



I did some frantic reversing, turning, etc to get a better view, but ended up back where we had started.

A few seconds later the elephant picked up on the lion and came charging around the corner and this sent lions scattering in all directions into the bush.



The lions then picked up on the buffalo and a few started plotting them, but it was very difficult to see what was happening through the bush.



To be continued

2nd October Satara continued

The lions continued plotting the buffalo, but it was a nightmare to find a spot where one could see the action, so I took off on my reversing mission again, but suddenly the buffalo stormed the bushes and this sent lions scattering again, which caused the Cow to shriek at me for moving all over the place as we missed some of the action.

I only managed a pic of one of the young lions ducking for cover.



A few minutes later a BBJ pulled in as he had obviously heard the action and then decided to take a dump in front of us, which had the rats howling with laughter.





We sat around watching the buffalo for another ten minutes, but the lions seemed to have moved off as things were very relaxed, so we decided to continue on towards Muzandzeni picnic spot.

Just around the corner Brad and I both slammed on brakes, which I mainly had to do to stop us from slamming into the back of his car.

A lioness was cooling off next to the road and seemed to have got separated from the rest of the pride during the buffalo charge as she was anxiously looking in the direction of where the other lions had gone, but there were still buffalo between them.



The buffalo slowly moved off and the lioness ducked down in the grass and watched them pass.

As soon as they were a fair distance away she got up and wandered off in the direction that the pride had gone.



The rest of the S126 didn’t produce much, except a lone ellie having a chow.



The road started to become very corrugated towards the end stretch, so Brad was taking strain in his little sedan and we were all glad to see Muzandzeni.

The skottel got fired up and breakfast was soon served.

Albert once again required some convincing to use the long drop as she still remembers Bushpig’s story that something lived at the bottom, so it eventually ended up a team event, with all the rats and the Cow in the bog at the same time.

The S36 up to the H7 and the H7 stretch back to Satara were very quiet and only produced the odd impala and zebra, but it was very hot by that stage, so I didn’t expect much.

We decided to park off in camp for most of the afternoon as it was cooking. The rats went for a swim, the Cow pulled out a book and I cruised around the camp shop and checked out the sighting board before settling in with a dop.

For the afternoon drive we decided to duck down the H7, up the S40 to Timbavati and back again, but it was very quiet and surprisingly extremely dry considering how green it was further south.

It was almost devoid of life the more North we travelled, so decided to duck back to the H7.

We arrived at the H7/S100/H1-3 and still had more than an hour before gate closing, so decided to duck up the S100 for a few km as it had been successful in the morning.

First up was a saddle bill pulling funny faces, then 4 male lions sleeping and lastly before we turned back to camp was what I think is a Martial Eagle.







We ducked off to the camping section to join Brad for a braai and hoped to spot some of the life that comes out in the dark around camp, but had no luck.

As Brad was only camping for 3 nights on this trip he wasn’t prepared and the first gas light nearly flattened Satara with an explosion and the 2nd light didn’t light up more than what a candle would give, so we ended up operating with torches.

We camp on weekends outside of school holidays on the KZN coast and one can always find a spot away from others, so peace and privacy is obtained, but camping in KNP is always crowded, so how does one find peace?

I don’t understand why some people can’t respect the fact that others maybe don’t want to hear their conversion or party, but I suppose all types visit Kruger, even those that don’t understand that there’s a time and place for everything.

A loud, partying and then snoring neighbour would drive me nuts and a drama would be inevitable, so my camping in KNP aspirations are still on hold for a few years.

To be continued