Africa Wild

Hi Guys;

The Toti Browns are back again.

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

This was going to be our 3rd April in KNP for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert. It’s not the best time to be there in my opinion, but it’s always been a good time for wild dogs for us, so decided to go for it anyway as we are limited to school holidays.

The trip ended up as below:

27th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
28th, 29th and 30th Lower Sabie Huts
31st Biyamiti
1st Talamati
2nd, 3rd and 4th Satara
5th and 6th Lower Sabie (Originally back in the huts for 1 night, but scored a luck, which I will elaborate on later)

We once again had to put together a tricky shopping list because of the faulty Swazi border post officials and luckily we did, because for the first time in many trips they inspected.

We experienced a few days of reasonably heavy rain, which was a first for us as we generally prefer the winter months, thicker bush than previous trips, more closed roads than previous trips, battled again for my favourite animal, which frustratingly seems to be a habit for us now and found more tortoises then I have ever seen in my life, which aren’t the most exciting in my book.

I’m not sure what happened to me for the first part of the trip as all I wanted to do was sleep, which is crazy for me. I first put it down to malaria tablets, or maybe I’m visiting Kruger too much and have lost the “charge”, but I think it was probably a release from work pressure as it’s been a hectic start to the year.

In summary it felt like we had to work fairly hard for what we got, although the Cow thinks it was a good trip and I’m just spoilt. We also had a camera crash, which was partly electronic failure and partly because I lost my temper and attacked it, but there are many of the usual and new scraps and a few long lips, so those may entertain if the pics don’t.

To be continued

Woo-hoo. Another Brown's TT.

Hope there will be lots of


From you in this one BC. -O

27th March Jozini Dam

We decided to pull the rats out of school for break up day and duck up a day early to our routine 1st night at Nkonkoni camp, which is in the Pongola game reserve. This caused a few issues, because we would only get their school reports the next term, but at least we would get through the border before the holiday rush.

There had been heavy rain in KZN on the 25th and 26th and it was still raining “on and off” when we left Toti, so I was worried that we wouldn’t get out the next morning, as getting in isn’t a problem and one can slide your way down, but getting out is another story.

We stopped to check out a few warties, giraffe and impala on the short road into camp, but luckily there were no crazy elephants this time and the road was much better than I expected.

It stopped raining a few minutes after we arrived at our unit, so after my initial unpacking tantrum, the teeth were hanging out as we still had a few hours of daylight to explore.





I was bored again after the first beer and it was a little early to start the fire, so ducked off on a bush walk down to the hide with the rats, but hadn’t catered on the fact that a herd of zebra had just been on the path with diarrhoea, so we ended up dodging plenty land mines before finally making it to the hide.



After a minute in the hide I realized that most of us hadn’t been successful in our landmine avoidance tactics, which didn’t go down well with 3 girls, so it was back to the unit to clean their boots.

I started my ritual fire and the Cow chased the rats into the outside shower with their boots.



The outside shower has always been an issue, probably because I can’t resist telling “war stories” about things that could visit it and normally only Bushpig is brave enough, but this time all 3 decided to take it on, which probably was because of an enraged Cow and putty on the boots.

A few minutes later the noise from the shower started, which was irritating my peace at the fire, so I decided to leopard crawl into a bush around behind the shower and growl like a lion, which resulted in instant silence and then a massive amount of shrieking. A greasing from the Cow followed, so I decided it was safer to return to the fire.

It started to get cold as the sun was setting so I made another fire to warm the Cow and rats who had arrived in the boma



This is when the Cow noticed my worst type of creepy crawly hanging out above the boma, a golden orb spider, which caused me to get rather itchy, but the rats were highly excited and soon found a few more.



I then decided to add some spice to the equation and said “I’m sure they come down from the tree at night to hunt”, which caused a hairy eyeball from the Cow, but really got the rats jabbering and soon they were adding small sticks to the fire to keep the spiders away.



A few beers later supper was ready.



The rats crashed shortly after supper, the Cow retired with her book and I sat in the dark boma listening to the hippo, the bush feel had started.

To be continued

28th March Jozini to Lower Sabie

The border post was very quiet, but for some reason the border officials had chosen today to be neurotic and had introduced new forms that had to be completed for laptops, cameras, etc, so I had a small pelican by the time we entered Swaziland and it got worst 30km later when the Swazi police pulled me over for doing 94km/h on the freeway and insisted it was a 60km/h zone.

The speed limit according to the signage in Swaziland changes every few km for no apparent reason and varies from 60km/h to 120km/h, so over the years I have just driven at 100km/h, but when I was told “That will be a R60 spot fine”, I decided to shut my mouth, as it would have been 10 times that in South Africa.

We arrived at Komatipoort just after 11am and still had to do all the meat and dairy shopping for the trip.

I have the patience of an elephant in musth when shopping, so it’s never a pleasant experience for those shopping with me, but we eventually entered the park after 12pm and my blood pressure returned to a normal level.

Before I continue, I will keep rhino locations vague, or omit the sighting completely where it’s impossible to be vague. The one thing that I have to say though is that rhino are territorial and over the years we have marked spots where we always find them at some stage, but not on this trip and it makes me very worried about their future.

The first thing I did was fuel up in Croc Bridge and then ducked up the H4-2 as I was feeling rather flat after my “elephant” shopping tantrum and just wanted to get to Lower Sabie

Our first “major” sighting besides the usual suspects was a giraffe that decided to cross the road in front of us and then our first zebra of the trip.





At the H5/H4-2 intersection we spotted a few cars next to the road, so I stopped to find out what was happening. Apparently there were 2 male lions lying in the grass and they were only visible when they sat up, but after 5 minutes we had only spotted tuffs of hair and the odd movement, so my patience was up and I wanted to move on, but the Cow suggested that as we couldn’t book in until 2pm that we should continue a little way down the H5 and then return past the lions.

A few km further we met our first nervous driver and ellie of the trip and then the first of many tortoises while following the ellie.





The nervous driver eventually ducked down the S108, waited for the ellie to pass before venturing back onto the H5 and then explained to us that the ellie had been “chasing him” for 2km. I wasn’t in the mood to drive behind the ellie for another 2km, so was about to turn when the nervous driver said “BTW there are wild dogs just up the road”, which changed things and we were back on the ellies tail.

Fortunately the ellie left a road a few minutes later and a little further on we found the wild dogs right next to the road.







I couldn’t believe that there was nobody else around and we were alone with the dogs for half an hour before another car arrived.





The dogs eventually got restless and started to move deeper into the bush, so we turned and headed back towards the H4-2 and the sleeping lions.

The “sleeping lions” had moved off while we were at the dogs, so we lost out on getting a pic, but I wasn’t stressed as dogs are why we came in April.

Just before Lower Sabie we found our first boons of the trip, but it was now after 2pm, so didn’t hang with them for long.



To be continued

28th March Jozini to Lower Sabie continued

We arrived at Lower Sabie a few minutes after 2pm and the Cow went to book us in as she handles the patience thing better and I took the rats to the deck and then the shop, but soon decided that I wasn’t going to last long in the shop with the rats, so cruised back to reception where the Cow was wrapping things up.

Halfway way through the car park a cool ballie stopped to tune the kids “Did you see the lions just down the road”. My pelican returned as I knew by the faces that we weren’t going to our unit, so would have to hang a little longer for a beer.

Fortunately the lions were on the S82 about 4km from Lower Sabie, so it wasn’t a major mission.



We managed to get a fairly good spot to check them out, but the 1 teenage male wasn’t keen on the attention and was giving all the evil eye. This is when it sunk in “Cow, these lions are a meter from us and we are still battling to get pics through all the grass, if they were 10m off the road you would never see them”.

I actually think that I also had a little camera brain freeze because I hadn’t touched a camera in months and could only remember how to switch it on.





We spent about 5 minutes with the lions before turning and heading back to Lower Sabie, stopping once to get a pic of a mongoose.



We had been allocated EH5 hut number 49, which I was stoked about (initially), because we didn’t have anyone on our left, so immediately went on a mission to “steal” the best braai, chairs and table that I could find in the communal section and put them in front of our unit without getting caught, but our darn neighbour on the right of us was also plotting the same thing and put his wood on the best table, so I wasn’t impressed and started plotting again.

Soon our neighbour went to the car to unpack another load, so I charged across and swapped our faulty braai with his braai.

By the time our neighbour returned from his car, I had the 2nd best table, but the best braai with my wood on it. Our neighbour didn’t even notice, but I did have a laugh later when he tried to get his grid to stay up.

I decided to have a double G&T and enjoy my successful braai theft and the Cow went on a mission to her usual lizard tree.

A few minutes later I was getting irritated by a nagging Albert to come and see the lizard tree.

I was shocked to see that the same chap from October 2012 was still cooling off in the same spot.



After a few minutes the monitor lost its cool and moved off to spy on us from an elevated position. It reminds me of something from Jurassic Park.



We didn’t have much time left for an evening drive and made the decision to drive up the H4-1 to the Lubyelubye area and then check on the lions on the S82 again before cooling off for the last few minutes at Sunset Dam.

Another lizard was first on the scene, but the legavaan only stopped for a few seconds before ducking into the bush.



Next up was a saddle billed stork and some ellies crossing the road, but not much else happening, so we turned and headed for the S82.





The lions were still sleeping in the same spot, but the crowd had increased to we took a few pics and ducked back to Lower Sabie to start our braai.



After 5 minutes in camp, the fire was going, the G&T flowing, my neighbour was battling with his grid and the communal section was quiet, so I was having a good time.

After my second G&T, I was really starting to relax, when suddenly loud music started, which immediately caused the head gasket to blow.

I hadn’t realized that the darn SANParks movie theatre, or whatever, was right next to unit 49 and it was blasting.

The kids ran off excitedly to check it out, so I shut my mouth, but they returned in 5 minutes and said “It’s boring”. This continued to drive me nuts for the next 2 nights also and I personally don’t see the need for it, especially when most have already seen what’s showing.

Finally the movie shut up and peace returned, so it was time for another G&T, but as I sat down again something shrieked in the tree directly above me. Once at first and then it went crazy, so the pelican returned and out came my high powered torch.

A gang of bats had pulled in and were shrieking so loud that my ears were ringing, so I continued to point my torch at them, but they would fly off and return 5 seconds later and shriek louder, which got me even more excited.

The rest in the communal area thought that I had found something in the tree and came hassling “Wat sien jy, wat sien jy, n nagapie”. My Afrikaans isn’t good at the best of times, especially when excited, so I just squawked “@#$# bats”, which resulted in confused looks, but they got the message and moved off.

The Cow arrived to check out what was happening and proceeded to give me a greasing for pointing the torch at the bats and then grabbed the torch, which excited me further “I will chop the tree down!!”

After an hour I found myself desperate to get in the hut and put cotton wool in my ears as it certainly wasn’t peaceful outside, which resulted in an early bedtime for all.

To be continued

29th March Lower Sabie

I woke feeling that I was in a different time zone, because I had swallowed too many G&T’s in my bat attack excitement, chowed a sleeping tablet in desperation and still had cotton wool stuffed in my ears.

The rats were jabbering on about a noise in the roof throughout the night, but I didn’t hear a thing, so said that we would check it out later and wobbled off for a cold shower.

The plan today was to head up towards Skukuza and then return to Mlondozi for breakfast, which has also become a tradition for us in KNP when in that area, so the cooler and chow made their way into the car and we hit the road just after 6am.

The first thing we realized once out the camp was that the weather had taken a serious turn for the worse and it was spitting on and off.

Sunset Dam produced the normal locals, but it was still fairly dark, so we decided to take pics another time and continued on.

Things were very quiet and my pelican was getting bigger each km, so when they Cow said “There, there” a few km from Nkuhlu, I immediately got overexcited “Where, left, right, tree!!”, “The car idiot, its Poplap, Theuns and LO”

Hawkeyes had been communicating with LO via BBM and found out that they were at Skukuza, but were moving to Talamati the next day, so we never expected to link up.

Theuns informed us that it was pouring with rain and very quiet from Nkuhlu all the way to Skukuza, so we agreed to do a u-turn and have a chat at Lower Sabie.

It was a little brighter at Sunset Dam, so we took some pics of the resident locals





The Cow spotted a yellow ribbon as we pulled off towards Lower Sabie, so I reversed and introduced myself, which maybe was a mistake, because of the evil eyes I received, but I thought that maybe they were shy, so continued to force conversion and went into the green ribbon explanation.

The cold shoulder only got colder, so I politely said goodbye and continued on.

If you don’t want meet people or draw attention then don’t put a ribbon on. I often remove mine when the pelican is out.

It was awesome to link up with Poplap and Theuns again, so we spent close to an hour chatting in the Lower Sabie car park. The rats were also in their element as they had made big mates with LO the last time we met.

From left to right: Bushpig, Hawkeyes, LO and Albert.



We decided to both head south to see if we could find the lions, but they had already moved on and we lost Theuns on the road, so assumed that they had continued up the H10.

Confused on what to do next I switched off at the H4-2/S28 junction and ambushed drivers from both directions on their morning success, but nobody had good news, so we turned and headed back towards Lower Sabie, stopping to take a pic of a Bateleur trying to dry himself along the way.



We were now stuck in a train of cars and realised that it was Good Friday, so felt that Mlondozi would be crazy and especially bad in this weather, so weren’t sure on where to go for breakfast.

After half an hour of confusion we decided to just drive to Nkuhlu and get breakfast out the way.

The rain had stopped and the boon gang was out to warm up, so the rats all squawked about pics for Richprins, who was meant to link up with us later in the trip.





Next up was a lone lioness relaxing in the riverbed, but she was a long way off, so after a few pics we continued on.





Just before Nkuhlu another tortoise, an ellie and a rather cold looking boon.







To be continued

29th March Lower Sabie continued

Nkuhlu was also busier than expected and there were no skottels left, so we wobbled around to pass the time while we waited.

Albert and Bushpig found 2 crocs and a massive nest of spiders, which kept us entertained until a skottel was available.



The skottel was one of those “full power, no power” jobs, so after the initial tantrum from me during the lighting process, the Cow got breakfast on the go, the rats guarded the rest of the food from the vervets and I perfected the art of looking busy.



We only finished breakfast after 11am and I also had some work to do on my PC, which I wanted to get out the way, so we decided to head straight back to Lower Sabie for some relaxing time in camp.

The weather had improved and the sun was trying to come out, so at least there were some positives on the way back to camp

Another darn tortoise and then some ellies





Back in camp, I got busy on the PC, the Cow another book and the rats went swimming.

We left camp at around 4pm for our afternoon drive and headed down the S28, which was exceptionally boring, so we ended up on a bird mission.

As most know, I’m no bird expert, so will give it a bash with the easy ones.

We found an unknown, a LBR and finally a Kori, but soon decided to duck back to camp a little early and get the braai on the go.







The movie and bat in tree scenario started again, but this time I gave in to the scene, quietly went with it and was well behaved with the exception of a few comments.

I found that I was way more tolerant at bedtime and even had a dop in the dark with the bat shrieking above me, but when I entered our unit the clan was still all awake.

Hawkeyes was under her blanket with just eyes poking out, Bushpig was grinning, Albert was hiding and the Cow had a face like thunder with the egg lifter in hand “There’s something crawling on the roof!!!”

Under instruction the high powered torch was now welcome, but I was still battling to comprehend and focus on what I was meant to be doing with the torch, when suddenly a movement caught my eye and unfortunately Hawkeyes also spotted it and shrieked “There’s a bat!!”, which set a choir in motion

I now knew that this was going to be a long night as all were jabbering at once “I’m not sleeping here, phone reception, get them out, do something!!”, so in panic under this vicious attack I put the torch in flicker mode, but still don’t know why as the bats seemed even more deadly in the changing light.

I eventually stated that we were going sleep with company, chowed another sleeping tablet and put in larger cotton wool balls, but I think that my head was the only one on the pillow.

To be continued

30th March Lower Sabie

I woke feeling rather fresh and had completely forgotten about our guests in the roof, but the rest had pelicans, so obviously didn’t sleep well.

While wobbling to the loo I heard lions roaring and it sounded like they were just outside camp on the tar, or the S82, so the plan this morning was to scout around that area for a few km and then head up to the Skukuza area.

All were still half asleep as we were driving up to the Lower Sabie entrance/exit gate, so when Hawkeyes shrieked “Civet, Civet next to us!!” I bumped my head on the roof of the car in fright and the Cow started waving her hands in the air and was making “whoo, whoo” sounds.

This then turned into a major commotion as cameras weren’t ready and the Civet had got a bigger fright than me and was running at top speed for the day visitor’s entrance gate which had been left open and in seconds he was gone.

I was plotting a leopard crawl in the day visitor’s section to see if I could get a pic, but eventually decided to continue with the original plan.

We drove for a few km on the tar, but found only a few locals, so turned and ducked up the S82 for a few km and found this chap eating. Based on his facial expression he didn’t like the taste of whatever it was.





A few km later a lone ellie having breakfast, but no lions, so the Cow was looking at me as if I needed a hearing aid because nobody else heard the lions in the morning, therefore I turned and headed up towards Skukuza on the planned route.



Next up was one of the Cow’s favourite, but it looked like this Burchell’s Coucal had a serious case of constipation, so I couldn’t help laughing, but was told to “shut it” rather quickly.



A few km later a martial eagle made an appearance, so the Cow was stoked.



The rest of the way to the H12 bridge produced some warties, more darn tortoises, the odd ellie, etc, but nothing to get excited about, so I was getting rather impatient for action.

At the H12 we decided to do the S83 Marula loop and head back down to Mlondozi for breakfast as the rats were complaining for chow.

A few km down the S83 we hit a traffic jam and it wasn’t moving, so it took a few minutes for the blood pressure to rise and I was about turn around while I still could as there was nobody behind me when a movement in the bush next to us caught my eye “Lion, camera!!”, but couldn’t get the lens cap off in the panic, but luckily Bushpig got a pic.



The traffic jam gang was now all coming towards me, so the Cow shrieked “turn and get in front”, which I rapidly did. We followed behind the lion for about 100m and then he started roaring, which set the Cow off “He’s singing”, which set me off “Singing Whahaha”. He continued to roar and mark his territory on and off for a few minutes and then stopped behind a bush.





I had a feeling that he was about to do a u-turn as he looked edgy, so I started to turn our car, which set the Cow off “What are you doing, we are in front, you are going to stuff this up”, which pushed all the explosion buttons “Do you want to drive, no, then shut it!!”

We sat in silence, but now facing the lion who was hiding behind the bush and all the oncoming cars.

After 2 minutes the lion started to move.

To be continued

Nice couple of episodes with stunning pics BC.

Love the Red-backed Shrike & Coucal pics. The Martial is also a stunner.

30th March Lower Sabie continued

The lion turned and started to cruise back in the direction that he had come from, which immediately set me off “See, I told you, now we are still in front because all the other cars can’t turn”. The Cow ignored me.

We followed him past all the other cars back down to a riverbed where he had obviously come from and the initial traffic jam had been.



There was another male, a female and a larger cub having a snooze in the riverbed also



The traffic was starting to build up from the oncoming side and some completely lost it and made their own route across the riverbed, which was all too much for me, so we took a couple of pics and continued on down towards the H12 bridge again.



I was keen to do the S30 to Mlondozi, but the latest road update said it was closed, although when we arrived at the H12 bridge/S30 intersection it looked open and cars were turning down the S30, so we weren’t sure what to do.

We eventually decided to ignore the fact it looked open as there had been heavy rain the day before and continued down the H4-1 towards Lower Sabie. If I had a 4x4 though, I would have done it.

The H4-1 was as quiet as it was in the morning with only a buffalo herd being the addition to the normal locals.



The day visitor Easter weekend crowd had also arrived and it was like driving in the middle of JHB, so I wasn’t even looking for wildlife after a few km.

I have come to the conclusion that the H4-1 sucks big time in the “summer” months, but definitely cooks in the late winter when water is scarce, although probably also sucks in school holidays, due to the crowds.

Somewhere between Lower Sabie and Mlondozi we found our very first rhino of the trip, which is the longest we have ever been in the park without seeing a rhino and this makes me very nervous for their future and current numbers.



Mlondozi was packed and we had to wait for a parking, so I was immediately pelican, but as we were in an EH5, had no choice but to wait as I hadn’t packed our skottel.

I eventually got a parking and went to hire a skottel, but the poor attendant was highly stressed and said “There’s many waiting”, so we found a spot off to the side and parked off to admire the view.



45 minutes later we eventually got a skottel, but had to operate from the spot behind the attendant’s hut in the roasting sun, so I putting major pressure on all to get breakfast out the way quickly so that we could get out of there, which isn’t the way a skottel breakfast should be in Kruger.

Half way through cooking the vervets pulled in and stole bread, which put the cherry on top of our Mlondozi experience.
We left Mlondozi just before midday and decided to do the S29 as it was the shortest route back to camp, but it only produced a bemused looking buffalo



We stopped on the H10 Bridge to watch the hippos for a few minutes and the Cow captured 2 having an intimate moment.





We left just before 4pm for our afternoon drive and again did a portion of the S28, which again produced very little in the way of sightings, but the day visitor crowds who were heading back to Croc Bridge was the major issue for me.

We stopped for a few pics though, but I think if you stopped for an ant you would have been absorbed in a crowd in 5 minutes, so we would snap 1 pic and move each time.







We eventually called it quits and were back in camp just before 5pm.

Hawkeyes decided to write a note for the cleaning staff to make sure that the bats were evicted, Albert was plotting for the Easter bunny who was arriving during the night and Bushpig was overexcited as it was her birthday the next day, but the Cow and I were already packing things for Biyamiti, as we had seriously had enough of the crowds, noise, movies and bats, so just wanted out.

There were also new occupants in one of the FU5 units, which are opposite the EH5 units and they thought that a communal get together with others from around camp and music was the way to go, so if you want peace in camp, I personally don’t think Lower Sabie is a spot you should visit, but maybe it’s just like this in school holidays, although as I said elsewhere, the camping section was quiet, so maybe a different type of person who is more respectful of others camps.

I would love to have seen a Duty Manager walking around on duty that night.

To be continued