Browns in Kruger July 2013 *

[Bushcraft]

12th July Lower Sabie

I woke with new enthusiasm as the Cow and Hawkeyes were finally feeling better, we had a cool meet the previous evening and RP was on his way.

The plan this morning was to head up to Nkuhlu and then return to Lower Sabie as the Cow was nervous about RP’s potato salad request, so wanted time to make it. I had also told her that RP was extremely fussy, so she couldn’t stuff it up, which probably added to the pressure.

Just before the S79 causeway I started to moan “There’s nothing happening, we should have gone towards Croc Bridge like Heksie and Wendy”, so we decided to do the causeway loop and head back that direction.

As we entered the S79 causeway we spotted a car parked at a funny angle and the 2 young occupants were waving frantically at us, so I cruised up to them and we instantly spotted what was causing all the excitement and our car also went moggie “CAMERA!!, hurry, snap away”.

A large male leopard was lying next to the road and a little female was charging around in the background.



The male seemed very relaxed, but the female was highly excitable and impossible to photograph as she wouldn’t show herself for more than a second at a time, so we decided to concentrate on the male.



About 5 minutes later the male decided to cruise into the bush and join the female, which resulted in some frantic reversing to get a view again.



We were getting the odd view of the female as she charged around, but lost sight of the male, so I decided to move slowly forward again, which set the Cow off huffing and puffing as we never seem to agree on whether to stop or move.

The male suddenly popped his head out the bush next to us, which resulted in more panic. He then decided to cross the road in front of us.





The male stopped for a minute and waited for the female, but she crossed the road with amazing speed and disappeared into the bush behind the male. We only got blurred pics of half the female.

The male sat for another minute and then followed the female down to the Sabie River.



My teeth were hanging out big time as it’s been awhile since we had a leopard cruising around the car, so I didn’t care what we did next, but the decision from all was to finish the loop and head back towards Lower Sabie as planned.

The rest of the loop produced a martial doing his morning ablutions and Hawkeyes stated “It must have had a toasted chicken mayo from Tshokwane” which cracked us all up.



On the way back to Lower Sabie we didn’t find much action, but did stop for a few buffalo crossing the river and then a fish eagle warming up in the sun.





It was still very early when we arrived at Lower Sabie, so we decided to have a loo break and then head towards Croc Bridge for half an hour.

As we approached the S28 turn off we spotted a few cars all on the left hand side of the road looking down the Mativuhlungu river, so I decided to go around them on the right, but spotted a leopard cruising along the riverbed on our side of the road, which caught a few by surprise as they had seen the leopard go under the bridge on the left.





I was now seriously stoked and decided that luck was on our side today, therefore we decided to do a little of the S130 before going back to camp.

To be continued

[Richprins]

I had also told her that RP was extremely fussy, so she couldn’t stuff it up

Nonsense! I'd eat anything, as long as it's on schedule...don't care what it tastes like!


Was the salad acceptable? See here: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1126&start=200



Stunning stuff, BC!

[Bushcraft]

12th July Lower Sabie continued

We had found 3 leopards for the morning already so I was on a mission to break our day record of 4 and thought that the S130 must produce, but we only found a Burchell’s, a tortoise and then some elephant.







It was now after 10am and the Cow was starting to flap about RP’s potato salad, so we decided to turn and duck back towards Lower Sabie.

A few km from camp we spotted a car stopped, so we slowed as we went past him and he said “There’s a leopard in the bush there somewhere”, so I slammed on brakes.

The rats have obviously picked up on my leopard mission and it’s one of Albert’s favourites, so she had her eyes glued to the bush and instantly started shrieking “I see it, I see it, BP give the binoculars”, which with BP never works, so a full scale scrap broke out in the back seat and fists were flying.

The poor gentlemen was still trying to explain to me which bush it had walked into when the Cow shrieked “There!!, there”. I again couldn’t see it to start with, therefore also started shrieking “Walking, in a tree, sleeping!!”, but then spotted him. The friendly chap who had started telling the leopard story was now looking at us with eyes like saucers and I can only imagine what the chaos in our car must have looked like to him.

The leopard had decided to cruise towards us.







I thought that the leopard was going to cross the road, so started the car to get into position, which set the Cow off with the huffing and puffing again, but the darn leopard suddenly changed plans and ducked off behind a large rock formation.

We sat around for another 10 minutes with the hope that he would come out again, but he never did, so he probably moved off into the bush behind the rocks.

I was on a major high now as we had 4 leopards for the morning, so as we approached Lower Sabie I conned the Cow that she had plenty time and that we should drive a few km up the H4-1. After a little nagging the Cow agreed and around 2km later we found this chap cooling off across the river.



The lion suddenly started roaring and then jumped up and walked towards to left, but suddenly stopped, started cowering and then took off at full sprint in the opposite direction, which initially cracked us up as we didn’t know what was happening, but then we spotted the reason.

Another larger male had arrived and wasn’t impressed, so he strutted around until he found the highest rock in the area and then let rip with a few roars of his own, which caused the first chap to run even faster.



I eventually had to return to camp to calm the Cow’s cooking panic.

I realized that I was going to get seriously bored in camp for this length of time, so decided to cruise through the camping section to see if we could find Heksie and Wendy, but after 2 trips around the place we gave up and returned to our unit.

I then realized that we hadn’t had breakfast/lunch, which excited me as it was an excuse to make a fire and cook some sausages. A fire is always an excuse for a few dops also, so I snuck a few beers and escaped the Cow’s hairy eyeball.

The young rats charged across to the neighbour’s rats, which didn’t last long as a scrap developed, so they were soon irritating me with RP questions “Dad why does he hide his face in pictures? Does he look funny? Is he really a teacher? I wonder if he’s strict? What’s his real name? What do we call him? Is his friend’s name really Destroyer? Why is he called Destroyer?”

I couldn’t resist causing a stir so replied “RP is very strict and Destroyer is called that because he’s super strict and destroys naughty kids”, which resulted in a bigger than expected shock from the rats and Albert roared off inside to tell her mother, while BP sat and puzzled things out for a few minutes and then said “I will make him a face on a paper plate and he can wear it in case he looks funny”, which instantly cracked me up.

The Cow then came outside with Albert and gave me a greasing for scaring the kids, but soon Albert was involved in the paper plate face making procedure and I could enjoy my fire in peace.

It was all too much for Hawkeyes as she is old enough to pick up when I’m talking rubbish, so she went on patrol with her camera and scored a “kill”.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

12th July Lower Sabie continued

At around 2:20pm we still hadn’t heard from RP and I had finished with the braai, so boredom was setting in and I was still on my leopard charge to get more than 4 in a day, therefore chased all into the car for an early drive with the con that we had to come back early to meet RP.

The plan was to head up the H4-1 to the S79 causeway as I had a feeling that it may produce again and then duck back to camp.

I sent RP a message as we drove past Sunset Dam and he replied that he was booking in and may do an afternoon drive, so we continued towards the S79 causeway

First up was the same big dude from the morning who had found himself a crowd of onlookers and a bigger rock to sit on, but the smaller naff who ran away was parking off closer to the road watching him. I wondered how long the standoff would continue, but we were on another mission, so continued on.





Things were rather quiet until we entered the causeway where we spotted 2 cars parked in almost the same spot that we had spotted the leopard in the morning, so I pulled up next to them and frantically asked “What’s up” and young guy calmly replied “There’s a leopard lying under a tree over there”.

I was already overexcited so charged off forward, but couldn’t see anything, so slammed the car in reverse and charged off behind them but still couldn’t see anything, so decided to drive back to them “Where?”.

They smiled and said “We will move off for you guys and if you pull into our spot you will find him” I thanked them profusely and pulled into their spot. We found him instantly and he was only 15m or so from the road, so I switched off and said “We are going nowhere”.



After about 10 minutes another car arrived, but only slowed and continued on, which freaked me out as we didn’t have enough time to even tell them. This happened a few more times until 2 old ducks stopped and asked, so we told them to pull in close to us and that they would spot him.

20 minutes later I spotted a movement in the bush behind the male and squawked “There’s another leopard”.

A little female was sneaking in behind the male, who didn’t even seem interested, that’s until she caught us all by surprise and jumped on him, which caused him to complain loudly.



She was rather nervous, so hissed at us a few times and ducked off again, although soon returned.



I couldn’t believe that there were only 2 cars still and this was going down, so my teeth were hanging out big time and the rats were all glued to the window, which is unusual after half an hour.

I suddenly remembered Heksie, Wendy and RP, so tried for signal but couldn’t find anything, so gave up.

The little female keep irritating the male, which cracked the rats up “She’s climbing all over him dad. Why is she irritating him dad?”.
Suddenly the male got up and I quietly told the Cow “The game is on, take video now!!”, but the young rats had heard this “What game Dad!!”

Albert then cracked up laughing “It’s his turn to sit on her”.



Then BP started “He’s biting her now dad, just like a daddy lion does! Why is he growling dad? Why is he biting her?”



Then Albert cracked up “She hit him dad, good he deserved it!!”



The Cow and I ignored all of these questions as mating leopards was a first for us and my adrenalin was pumping so much that I was battling to hold the camera still. I eventually said something which we picked up on the video later “Awesome”.

The male growled a few more times, which got Albert going again “He’s upset dad”



The little female ducked again as she was getting nervous, but the male just flopped down and didn’t seem to care much about us.

10 minutes later the female was back again and seemed even more concerned about our presence. She then started to irritate the male and run off, although she returned each time, so it seemed that she wanted him to follow her away from prying eyes, but during this process she kept a very close eye on us





A few minutes later the afternoon drive crowd arrived and in minutes we were surrounded by a gang of cars all asking questions, climbing out of sun roofs, etc, including a JJ with a crew of loud excited visitors, so I knew that these leopard would duck shortly.

The female appeared one last time, spotted the gang and immediately started growling and hissing, and then charged off into the bush.



I indicated to cars in front of us that we wanted out and ducked through the gap that they made. I stopped about 20m away and watched the scrap going on behind us for our spot and laughed at how faulty some get at sightings.

We slowly moved forward and found another spot totally alone where the male leopard was clearly visible, but 30 seconds later he got up and ducked off into the bush after the female, so we immediately moved on down the S79 as I knew the gang would hang around a few minutes and also move on.

We slowly chugged along in silence for a few minutes and then the Cow said “That was an awesome sighting”, which instantly set the rats off jabbering about the same thing, but I was still taking it all in and could only hang my teeth out.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Wow Wow Wow BC

An awesome leopard day. That first male was beautiful, then the others seemed to be even more
beautiful. That last pair, were they the same 2 that you had seen earlier in the day. So many leopards
I can't keep track Great pics of the mating sequence and the female giving you the finger - so to speak

The coucal and Hawkeye's barbet are awesome!!!

The innocence of kids - the questions came so thick and fast that they didn't even realise that you hadn't answered

Would love to have been a fly on the wall when RP arrived

Thanks pooky Yip you are correct it was the same 2 from the morning, so only 4 different leopard, so we didn't break our record

The rats were nervous to meet RP as he's a teacher and they see teachers as aliens or something

[Bushcraft]

I'm going to post the rest of the day and leave the RP meet until later tonight

12th July Lower Sabie continued

The adrenalin aftershock of the leopard sighting left me feeling rather flat and I was now keen for a beer with RP, but we had spent over an hour with the leopard, therefore all needed the loo rather urgently, so we continued on for a quick stop at Nkuhlu before turning back to Lower Sabie.

We stopped a few minutes just outside Nkuhlu to check out the local hooligan gang doing some grooming and had a laugh at how the one chap kept positioning himself for the best scratch.



We stopped a few times on the way back to Lower Sabie, but only took pics of a few elephant in the riverbed and a lion having a snooze on the rocks.





We eventually stopped at Sunset Dam for a few minutes with the locals.



This had been our best day in the park this trip, so I want to post the below as it played a role. We spotted this blackie at some stage during the day and I hope that the location isn’t too obvious, not that I have ever heard of one spotted there before though.





To be continued

[Dewi]

You should do the lottery with all the luck you had this trip BC. -O

Excellent sightings and pics.

Black Rhino often sport wounds on their flanks. Some are caused by injuries sustained in fights with other Rhino, but they also get ulcerous infections/sores from a filarial worm although I'm not sure if the South African population is affected by this parasite? I know that the ones in East Africa and Zimbabwe are.

[Richprins]

Very lucky, BC! I see you started getting the same light problems?

The black rhino "wounds" are "part and parcel" here, Dewi....virtually all have this skin condition, and it's natural. I thought it was from a certain fly? This individual looks very old and on its way out, to be frank, hence the extended wound, and not caring when/where it drinks and oxpeckers probably having a field day...they go for the blood too, I think?

[Bushcraft]

12th July Lower Sabie continued

We pulled into camp at around 5:15pm and my phone started beeping. It was RP and he was waiting for my wood delivery at his luxurious chalet number 78, which was close to our entry level hut, so I bailed out the car, grabbed 2 bags of wood, while BP carried the fire lighters and we cruised across to his spot, but there was nobody at the unit, so we were initially confused, but I eventually spotted something that I recognised, therefore dumped the wood and cruised back to our unit to organize.

I ordered the Cow to start packing the cooler box while I went to the car to grab our chairs, but halfway through this process I noticed a fancy blue German sports car approaching, it was RP and Destroyer.

Halfway through introductions one of the rats spotted us and soon all were in the road. RP issued orders that we should move it up to his spot, so we ducked off to finish packing the cooler.

BP started things as we walked back to our unit “Dad, RP doesn’t look funny and his friend doesn’t look strict. How do you say his friend’s name? Are they Afrikaans dad?”, but couldn’t continue as the Cow pulled out the “evil look” that BP understands, so BP decided that silence was the better route to follow.

I surveyed my remaining dop stash and I only had half a bottle of cane and a full bottle of Vodka left as my G&T was finished, so thought it would be rude to arrive with only half a bottle, therefore packed the full bottle of Vodka and 2 litres of Oros. I also had a feeling from the red faces in the fancy car that RP and Destroyer had a head start on me in the dop department, so I had some catching up to do.

The phone went again and it was RP getting impatient, so I said “Cow, I’m ducking, you will find 78”, which didn’t go down well and RP was overruled by the Cow “You will wait for us!!”

We arrived at RP’s spot at around 5:45pm.

RP had also purchased the rats a gift so he was immediately in their good books and I received my awesome Timbi pic and sticker delivery.

Destroyer was eyed at a distance by the rats, which probably had something to do with my horror story from earlier in the day about his name, but they soon realized he was nothing like the story.

It also turns out that RP had purchased all the food for everyone, which I did know about, but I still tried to pull my steak out as I was raised that way by the Bullet, however RP refused the meat as the famous chicken flatties were on the menu and there were even rashers for the rats.

I told the Cow earlier to take control of the kitchen stuff if she wanted salads and other rabbit food, so I was surprised to see how organized RP was. There was a selection of plenty things, including a few salads that I had never seen or heard of before and enough buns to feed half of Lower Sabie, so there was nothing for the Cow to do, therefore all could relax. Well almost all.

I soon realized that RP had brought his own personal assistant hamster with as Destroyer was offering drinks, ice, in control of the fire and almost immediately was ordered to call the neighbour to take a pic of all of us so that forum formalities were out the way.

RP has BP’s smiley face mask in front of his pip.



Soon Destroyer was ordered to start cooking for the rats, which got me out my chair to offer assistance, but I was told to relax, so I had nothing to do except pour another dop.

The Cow then stated that she and Hawkeyes were off to the loo again (they were still battling), however RP overheard this and offered his ablution facility, including the use of his shower if the Cow desired, but I knew the issue and suggested that it would be safer for all if they used the public loo.

At around 8:30pm the rats had chowed and were starting to get tired, so the Cow and I took them back to our spot, put them to bed and put on warmer clothes as it was getting freezing.

10 minutes later we were back at RP’s spot and Destroyer was ordered to start the chicken flatties.
By this stage my bottle of Vodka was about halfway and RP and Destroyer had topped up their levels a little more, so I won’t be discussing our conversions as they covered a wide range of things, but RP can elaborate if he wishes, however I will mention that he suggested that we hassle Heksie and Wendy later, which fortunately we didn’t as I don’t think we would have been popular.

The flatties were served and they were awesome, so I made a mental note to hit Malelane Spar on our next trip.

At around 11pm the Cow said she was ducking off to bed and immediately Destroyer was ordered to carry the cooler box and make sure that the Cow made it our unit safely, so all I had to do was pour another dop.

Things then get a little vague for me after that, but I do remember getting a lecture for calling the Cow a Cow and getting told that I wouldn’t see any predators the next day as I had taken ice out of RP’s cursed ice bucket. (This causes massive stress the next day BTW).

At around 12:30pm my Vodka was finished, but my bicycle had no brakes by this stage and I was still thirsty, so I begged a shot of RP’s whiskey, which I think was the final straw and I wobbled off to bed at around 1pm.

I had a jol, “Thanks RP and Destroyer”

To be continued

[Richprins]

BC lies a lot, I'm afraid!

True story on my side!

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=1126&p=122528#p122528