Africa Wild

Hey Guys,

Things are hectic at work at the moment, so this is just a short slapped together summary of our trip to Imfolozi on the weekend.

Imfolozi is a 3 hour drive from our place, so the initial plan was to be on the road early, but work pressure and my usual Friday night “enjoyment” resulted in us only leaving home at around 5am

A cold front also hit during the night, so the wind was howling and it was fairly cold for the KZN coast; therefore I wasn’t overexcited about rushing and we eventually arrived at Nyalazi Gate just before 9am.



The drive from the gate to Mpila camp produced all the usual gang, including elephant and buffalo, but the grass is still long in that section, so we didn’t put too much effort into taking pics and just enjoyed being in the park.

We did however get a few pics of warties, a rather confused member of RP’s gang, a scenic shot of the Black Imfolozi River, a female nyala (we always only take 1 pic and I’m sure that there’s almost as many nyala in Imfolozi as there are impala) and then a giraffe having breakfast.











We could only book in at 1pm, so decided to continue on past Mpila to the Sontuli loop and then return to the Mpila day visitor section for an early lunchtime braai before booking in.

Our next sighting was a rather sad one as a hare had been hit by a car and was battling along next to the road, which wasn’t great to see, so I had to drive off quickly as the rats were all howling to put the hare in the car and take it for treatment, but I could see that it would be all over shortly for the hare as movements were slowing down.



The Sontuli loop has always been a one way, so when the first car came past me driving the wrong way and nearly put us in the bush I was mildly irritated and then a few km later another, which started the pelican and a few gestures from me, but as we arrived at the Sontuli picnic spot we spotted a sign indicating that this loop was now a two way, which is crazy if one considers how tight it is to drive it as a one way.

I suspect a serious accident will happen there shortly.

The first inlet after the picnic site produced a few ellies having a dop and then at the next inlet we found a cheetah warming up in the morning sun.





To be continued

A herd of buffalo arrived on the opposite bank to the cheetah, so I got excited as I expected the cheetah to get nervous and one of the buffalo to get stroppy, but they ignored each other and the buffalo went for a drink



About 5 minutes later 2 other cars arrived at the sighting, but seemed very confused as to what was happening and the conversion between the cars was initially funny.

“What are they looking at”, “buffalo”, “Why are they taking pics over there”, “I don’t know”, “maybe a bird”, “I don’t see a bird”, “ask them”, “why don’t you”

The cheetah was only visible from the exact spot where I was parked, so they had no idea.

This conversion only got louder, so the funny side was evaporating rapidly and the Cow started “That women sounds like a fog horn, why shout between cars when they are next to each other”

The motor mouth was now starting to upset the cheetah who was starting to display signs that he was about to bolt.



A few seconds later one of the fog horn gang pulled up next to us, but didn’t say anything for a change and just stared at the Cow and I. The Cow now had a pelican with them so I knew that a response wouldn’t be forthcoming from her, therefore I chose to break the silence “There’s a cheetah over there, we will move off to give you a gap”

This caused the motor mouth to start up again between the cars “CHEETAH, CHEETAH”, so I rapidly continued on before the Cow got me in a scrap in front of the cheetah.

It was now around 11am and the rats were wailing for chow, so we decided to duck back to Mpila day visitors and have a braai, stopping a few times for the usual gang on the way.

The weather seemed to get worse on the way back, so all got close to the fire once it was going.

Check at the Cow’s dress in the pic, she’s wearing a blanket!



There’s something about a fire, in that it’s impossible for me to braai without a beer, so when the Cow started with her usual bird hunting I ducked off to the camp shop to buy 2 beers.

Once the wors was on the braai I conned the Cow to book us in to save time



When we arrived at our unit we had a family of warties hanging around, so I forced a rather nervous Cow to pose for a pic with them



Some zebra were also visiting, but the Cow refused to pose with them.



About an hour later the rats were hassling to go exploring, so I decided to take them on an excursion to the tented accommodation, which normally doesn’t end well because they terrorise each other with tales of lion waiting in the bush (Mpila has no fences)





At around 4pm we pulled out of camp for our afternoon drive and the plan was to stop at viewpoint 17, which is 14km from camp, for sundowners, which is still permitted in Imfolozi, and then return to camp along the same route.

About halfway to 17 we decided to pop in at Bekapanzi Pan which is just off the main dirt road and this turned out to be a good move because we found this.



To be continued

PRWIN wrote: Can't wait. BC where the best area,s

Hey PRWIN,

I have only done the Hluhluwe section 3 times as I didn’t particularly enjoy the lack of wildlife concentration, although some hit it lucky, but the Imfolozi section many times.

Nyalazi Gate is almost central and I definitely prefer the southern section, which is Imfolozi, but almost exclusively spend most of my time on the dirt section east of Mpila camp.

Very good chance of wild dogs and cheetah in this section; I would say a better chance than Kruger, lions can be a mission as they often cross the Black Imfolozi River and if you look at a map you will see that there’s no roads there, so one has to wait for them to come back again. The bird life lacks in quantity, but has a similar quality to Kruger. If you find a leopard then consider yourself very, very lucky. General game in this area is similar to Kruger.

Mpafa hide and Bhejane hide are cool spots, but Bhejane has a water issue at the moment, so could lack productivity shortly.

The roads in this section make most dirt roads in Kruger look like a highway.

The park is fairly small, so it can get monotonous after 3 days.

These lions were only 10m from the road, but once again there were only 2 spots where one could park to see them and as there was already a car on the scene, we took the remaining spot

Some of the lions seemed to have injuries, but on closer inspection we realised that they had all been branded. Check out the number 31 on their shoulders, one branding is new and the other on the far lion is older.



I generally get rather tense and over excited at these type of sightings, so tend to blurt out all the wrong things, therefore when Hawkeyes started “Check my pics dad” “Quiet!!” was the answer, but she was very proud of 2 of the pics, so as I relaxed into the sighting and tried to avoid the hairy eye the Cow was giving me, I checked the pics out and promised to post them.





2 more cars had arrived in this time period and one tense chap and his dragon missus decided to force their way in and then proceeded to issue commands to all around them, so we decided to take one more pic and move on before another drama unfolded.



We got to viewpoint 17 just before 5pm and there were no other cars on the scene, so I jumped out in the demarcated area and took some pics of a buffalo herd crossing the river, while the Cow entertained the rats with biscuits and chips.



It starts to get dark at around 5:15pm this time of the year in Imfolozi, but as one is permitted out until 6pm, not 5:30pm like KNP, one gets their own half an hour night drive, although we are generally back in camp around 5:45pm as I don’t do the torch thing well, besides I’m half night blind anyway, so we decided to duck back to camp, but as we pulled out of the viewpoint I spotted something sitting in front of the car looking at us.

Sometimes the brain takes time to register and then I squawked “CAMERA!!”. The Cow then asks “Where and what for!!”, “CHEETAH in front of us”

The cheetah got the same surprise and also seemed to have a brain freeze for a few seconds and then took off at full pace.

The Cow then threw her super zoom at me, which takes 3 seconds to focus and then 3 seconds between pics, so a blurred pic as evidence and a tantrum followed.



The Cow then threw my camera at me, but it still had the 500mm Sigma lens on and that turned into another mission as it was nearly dark, but fortunately the cheetah had calmed down and I managed another evidence type pic



We decided to stop back in at Bekapanzi Pan to check out the lions and hoped that Dictator and his dragon from earlier had moved on, but no such luck as we immediately spotted the same vehicle which had moved to hog the main spot.

As we approached a large male and 2 females came out the bush right in front of Hitler, so we slowly approached, which immediately set Dictator off “STOP” and the hand came out the window at us, which doesn’t work for me, so I just continued on past him as he was too thick to realise that the lions were now on the move, so he wasn’t going to be in the main spot for long.

As we slowly past the back of his vehicle the dragon started from the passenger seat, which unfortunately detracted me for long enough to miss a pic of the male and only managed a pic of the last female.



The last female then decided to cool off in the thick bush in front of us and we could vaguely see the large male and the rest of the pride moving around in the dark about 20m away, but it was just too far for my little camera flash



Dictator now realised that he was no longer in the main spot, so started barking orders to his dragon who seemed even more excited and this commotion was just ruining the sighting for all.

Suddenly Dictator slammed his car into reverse and tried to push into the main spot again, but ploughed straight into the front of another car that was off to the side and trying to stay out the way.

This resulted in hooting, shouting, etc, but justice, as Dictator now had to pay for 2 cars because of his attitude.

We moved off to one side, took a few pics of hyena that had arrived and continued back to camp for a braai



It only took about 2 minutes after I finished cooking for the first local to arrive and lick the grid. I don’t know how they don’t burn their tongues, but I learnt years ago that once you put meat on the braai at Mpila you better be prepared to stand there until you finish cooking or your meat will disappear in a second (I lost an entire chicken with the Cow guarding a few years ago as the hyena wasn’t afraid of her)



To be continued

PRWIN wrote:Thanks BC, lion not a major issue, would love to see them in a tree, if we come across wild dog this would make up for the trip.

Great shots

There's between 85 and 110 dogs in Imfolozi according to stats, so you stand a fairly good chance in a small area. I have found dogs near Nyalazi gate, a few times in the Sontuli loop area, twice near Cengeni gate and a massive pack on a kill and then fighting hyena near point 15

When we woke the next morning I expected to see polar bears running around as it was exceptionally cold for Imfolozi and something that a KZN coastal gang isn’t used to.

It took some time to get going as there’s no electricity at Mpila camp until 7am, so we were fighting over lanterns and torches for about an hour, but eventually got going at around 6:15am.

The plan for the morning was to head up to Bhejane Hide and spend some time there relaxing, but after 20 minutes in the car I was ready to duck back to our unit and hide under the blankets.

The thermometer in my car was showing 4 degrees and then it started flashing 3, which I later found out in the owner’s manual means potential ice on the road. I tried to take a pic of the flashing 3, but eventually had a timing tantrum as I couldn’t get it in focus, so waited for the 4 to come up steady again.



We found all the usual suspects on the way to Bhejane and stopped to take pics of a few.







When we arrived at Bhejane Hide I was surprised at the condition of the long sheltered walkway to the hide as it seriously needed some maintenance, but when we walked into the hide another surprise was waiting for us, no water in the “dam”

I was last in Imfolozi in August 2012 and the pump at Bhejane had packed up so water levels were dropping, but now still no pump, so no water, therefore no point in the hide.

There’s no “dams” in Imfolozi so this was an awesome spot to sit and watch game, the Black and White Imfolozi rivers have water all year round, but roads haven’t been constructed along these rivers (besides a short stretch of the Sontuli loop)

In an unnatural small fenced environment, I can’t understand the benefits of not repairing the pump, especially since a hide has been built there for visitors to view game.

A few minutes after entering the hide a herd of wildebeest came charging through the bush towards the dirt pit and their confusion or distress at not finding water was evident.



We sat around in the “hide” until after 9am, but no action, so decided to duck back to camp for breakfast and again found the usual suspects on the return drive, but we noticed a major increase in traffic volumes as day visitors were flooding into the park for “youth day”

I made another fire at lunch time and we spent most of the day just relaxing and cruising around camp as it was more peaceful then trying to drive around with the gang of day visitors.

Albert, our youngest, recently acquired her first camera (a little SX130) and spent a large portion of the day practising on things around camp, including her sisters. Below are 2 pics that she took outside our unit.





The day visitor gang started to file out at around 4: 30pm so we left on a short afternoon drive thereafter. I won’t mention where we went because all we found of interest were plenty rhino and we just let the rats go mad with their cameras.







Back in camp I made yet another fire and took a few pics of our resident guests.



A few minutes after cooking the first scallywag arrived to sniff around the braai.



As per normal, I was the first to finish eating and decided to cruise outside for a dop and a smoke, while the others continued eating at the lounge table.

I hate sitting outside in any park with lights on, so purposely left them off, but as I sat down outside something large moved a few meters from me, which resulted in an instant increase in heart rate as I couldn’t make out exactly what it was, so a slow leopard crawl to the light switch started.

As I hit the switch I shouted “Bushpig!!”



To be continued

I expected the pig to charge off, but he just stood there staring at me and he didn’t even move when the rest of the family came charging to the door to see.

We always stay in unit 16 at Imfolozi and this isn’t by choice, it’s just that they allocate units based on surnames and as ours is Brown so we always get unit 16, which is the first 5 sleeper unit and over the last 2 years we have been visited a number of times by a large Bushpig and sometimes the entire pig family, so I was sure that this was the same chap. The strange thing is that we have watched them each time and they don’t hang around any other unit other than ducking past them on the run.



Bushpig are notoriously dangerous, so I didn’t want to take any chances with him to get a better pic, so we all remained in the doorway of the unit, but suddenly he seemed to get rather excited and his Mohawk shot up, which caused a small flap in the doorway.

We soon spotted what was upsetting him; a hyena was cruising around next to our braai, which caused the Pig to charge off after him.



I thought that it was all over, but a few seconds later the pig returned, but this time didn’t stop, so we frantically reversed into the unit and closed the sliding door. He stood staring at us for a few seconds through the glass and then reversed back off the veranda, so I opened the door again to continue taking pics, but each time I did this he charged towards us, although not in a threatening manner as his Mohawk remained down.

The rats decided to name him Humphrey and I have no idea why, but the name stuck and soon all were referring to him as Humphrey.

Please excuse the pic below as our rat “Bushpig” is out of focus and rather bright from being too close to the flash, but you can see how the teeth were hanging out with excitement as Humphrey retreats from our door



This charging after hyena and then our door continued for about 15 minutes, but eventually the hyena seemed to get the message and they never returned, which resulted in Humphrey settling down and I was able to go outside, take a seat and get a few more pics of him.



As things were calm, I cruised inside to pour a Cane and Oros mix, but as I sat down outside with it, Humphrey started checking the dop out and then charged, which forced me to shout.



This seemed to upset Humphrey and he ducked.

I sat outside until after 10pm waiting to see if he would return, but he never did.

The staff had decided to celebrate “youth day” also and the “thump, thump” of distant music was starting to seriously irritate me, so I went to bed.

To be continued

Pumbaa wrote:Simply breathtaking, Bushcraft,

we already have been to Umfolozi twice and had indeed some more than great sightings especially I ever saw my very first Wild dogs there but with your several cheetahs, rhinos, lions and even the bushpig you must do something different.

As we never stayed in Mpila so far we really should make a plan to return maybe Humphrey will pop in as well

Awesome report with magnificent pictures - Love especially the one with the buffaloes in a row

Hey Pumbaa

I have checked out my stats from June 2011 to June 2013. We have done 7 trips in that time, 2 of which were only 1 night stop over’s and the longest stay was 3 nights, which we have only done once.

Only 1 trip we didn’t spot lion, 10 cheetah and 5 wild dog sightings, so I definitely think Imfolozi is more than competitive with other parks with regard to wild dog and cheetah, on a par with lions and those pigs always pull in if you are in the area of unit 16.

However, it’s definitely not Kruger, with or without sightings, but a cool alternative

Thanks for popping in

But post there! https://africawild-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=616

We woke this morning to no water, fortunately it was fairly early and I managed to drain enough out of the pipes into the bath before other visitors started waking up, so we at least had some water to flush the loo, but I had to use the bin as a bucket.

Besides the water drama we also had to pack up, therefore I was getting highly excited in the dark trying to flush toilets and pack up with only lanterns for light, so decided to relax for 5 minutes with a smoke outside and again got another fright as a rhino was standing next to our braai, but he didn’t hang around, so the Cow and rats only got to see his bum running away.

We eventually got everything packed and the final loo flush done with the bin just before 7am. Only 2 cars had driven out of camp by that time, so all were having similar issues and they probably had no water, because I had drained what was left. Based on the music from the night before the staff were probably still sleeping, so I doubt that the water issue was resolved rapidly

I was already pelican before we even started driving, because of the start to the day and my mind was wandering back to work the next day, shopping to do, car to wash, etc, so we decided to take a slow drive to the gate, stopping at the odd little inlet and have breakfast at Richards Bay Wimpy

I stopped for everything this morning as it’s not a very long drive to Nyalazi Gate and first up was one for the Cow

The first pic was taken by Hawkeyes, the second by the Cow and a scrap started as to who had the best pic.





Next up was another for the Cow. I think this is a Long-Crested Eagle



Next were some buffalo and then a kite of some model (Black Shouldered?)





Finally a giraffe, a few ellies in the long grass, a herd of buffalo in the distance and then a Burchell’s puffing up in the sun.









When we arrived at the gate we found out that we had just missed the Nyalazi pack of dogs by 20 minutes, which increased the size of my pelican.

Next visit in August, but again only 2 nights

Cheers and thanks for checking this TT out