Africa Wild

At last our trip is so close I can taste it .

Almost everything is done and packed all we have to do is, Bookworm must write her last subject and then she is finished with school , we have to have her very denty car serviced on Tuesday ,I have to service my bakkie and check the caravan and then on Friday we have to buy the last things, like the fresh foods and charcoal and and and ........

If all goes to plan we will leave at 05:30 on 1 December and then the adventure will continue.........heehaa

Bookworm and Tataruka will do their own TT as they go with Bookworms(denty) car and will obviously have their own photos to share..... .

Our trip starts 1 December where will spend our first night at Phalaborwa Safari Park
From 2 Dec to 4 Dec we will be at Letaba
From 5 Dec to 10 Dec we will be at Shingwedzi
From 11 Dec to 15 Dec we will be at Satara
and on 16 Dec we will be at Crocodile Bridge for our last night.

My wishlist is to have a great trip and what ever we see will be awesome.

I hope you will do this trip with us and enjoy it with us

So in about 36 mins we will be hitting the road see you Wildies later.....

Sorry Sprocky

We arrived in Phala at 14:00 1 Dec 2012, but it was one of the most difficult journeys I have driven , we had a headwind from Bela Bela to Tzaneen and from there it went better, but that is over and done .

Day 0.5:

Bookworm and I went for a quick drive......... we saw a duiker and some Impalas and a Lion.....what a Lion yes we saw a Lioness and she was so close to us. We had great sightings of Impala foals(they're so beautifull) and 2 Ellies drinking .

We went back to camp in Phala and later Sprocky and his daughter came over for a braai . Thanks Sprocky for vsisiting us , one tick on my wishlist .

Day 1:

We left Phala at 8:00 and passed through the gate with no problems, very friendly staff .

About 7 km's in people told us there was a Leopard but it went into the bush, I told the kids to stick around and see if they can find the Leopard.......I went on my way to Letaba as I could turn around with the caravan......how sorry I would be . On my way I saw some Zebra's, more Impala's, Warthogs, Girrafe, Ellies and Buffalos .

The kids caught up with me near Letaba and we booked in at 11:30 and then the told me that they saw a Leopard where I left them and they had the proof .

I had 2 beers................

More to follow.......

Sorry for the delay but the internet connection here is not the best

I will report in brief and post some pics and stories when we get home

We saw 2 Rhino, and that made the big 5 for Bookworm , rather a quiet day 4 Dec as we travelled to Satara and back, we had the usual sightings and at one stage I photographed 4 different animals in one pic . Changed our booking at Shingwedzi from 6 to 4 nights and Satara from 5 to 7 .

5 Dec coming up......

5 Dec:

We travelled from Letaba to Shingwedzi(our next home for 4 days).
We saw a big herd of Baffaloes and a very grumpy Ellie that did'nt like them intruding at his waterhole . The road to Mopani was quiet and we saw 2 Ellies with impressave tusks , but no pics as they where behind some bushes. The closer we got to Shing the more depressed I got, it is so dry in this area there is no grass and even the Mopani trees are hanging limp this area needs lots of rain urgently. At Shingwedzi we booked in and started setting up camp, Bookworm and Tataruka set up there tent on there own and I was on my own on another sight, I must say after a bit off struggling the 2 managed to get the tent up and so they settled in .

Later we went for a drive and saw some Nyala, Impala, Crocs, Hippo and lots of birds......that was one way, so we decided to head back for camp and boy was that a great decision..............................

Ok let me go on.....

About 4 km from Shingwedzi we where talking and not expecting any surprises when at one of the little roads that lead to the river the following chaos broke loose..

H: LEOPARD
T: No not a Leopard it's a Cheetah you must get glasses dad, oh sorry you've already got
B: Yup thats a Cheetah with a collar

So out came the cameras and we got some pics before it dissapeared into the reeds , wow what a surprise that was the last animal I thought we will see here , so after all that we turned onto the road towards the camp.... and then this happened...

T:LION!!!!!
H:(slaming on brakes and reversing) WHERE!!!!
T: There in the river,,,,,
B: Yes I see it there under the tree, wow we are sooooo lucky
H:Wonderfull sighting Tataruka and now it's the big 5 for you too

So as you can see a very special end to our day in Shingwedzi

Just a little update on our sightings at Shingwedzi till 9 Dec:

7 Dec:Sightings where not alot but we did see a BBJ with a kill next to the road on our way to Babalala , some Eland very far (our first Eland sighting in KNP ever), at Pafuri picnic area we saw a Njala calf sooooo cute and he gave us a little show in sillyness -O . on our way back we saw lots of Ellies with impressive tusks

8 Dec:

Was very hot and we saw some Girafes, waterbuck,Kudus,Njala, Monkeys and Baboons. That night we had a mother of a storm that brought alot of relief for the plants and animals.

9 Dec:

Quite a interesting day, firts we had some animals enjoying the water on the road and everything looked and smelled so clean . Then...... about 14 km's from Mopani I could not believe my eyes about 150m down the road 3 Wilddogs appeared in the road and when we got closer we saw about 8 .
12 km's from Letaba we saw a SSJ looking for breakfast . We pulled into Letaba to get some breakfast and bumped into Sprocky , great seeing you again Sprocky

The rest will follow soon......

9 Dec continues...

On our way to Satara we had some ancious moment with no fever than 3 breading heards of Ellies crossing the road with babies and some did'nt like our presence some people made it worse by getting very close to them . We reached Satara after some sightings off Ostriches, Rhino, Zebras Blue wildebeest, Buffaloes and Giraffes.

After setting up camp we took the road to orpen and had some Rhino somewhere, Zebra, Buffs, and near to Orpen 3 BBJ's, on our way back 3 Lions about 150m away and that was our day

10 Dec:

We left at 6:30 and took the S100, we had some Warties, lots of Zebra that are heavy pregnant and then around a bend we came and HELLO 6 Cheetahs on a kill.....mom and 5 cubs we sat and watched them for 45 mins and I took 93 photos ,firts time ever I've seen Cheetah cubs, the rest of the drive was quiet with the usual sightings and a Eagle that I don't know the Id off .

This after noon we had a drive but it was quiet and we had another storm that cooled everything down. Tomorrow we will try the S100 again and then head dow to Tshokwane and then via Orpen back to Satara so what will this day deliver ..........