Krugertripping this Summer...

[Lisbeth]

Lots of photos

[Bush Brat]

Another great lion sighting!

[Heksie]

Thanks Flutts, Harrys, Lisbeth and BB
I'm so super excited about day 25 that I'm going to start with the first part...
THis was my absolute best day ever in the Kruger of my life, with the most amazing sightings and never before seen sightings, so let us start

[Heksie]

Day 25… a brilliant Day
4 January

As this is a day full of magnificent sightings and WOW moments there will be a few parts so please bear with me as I can't post 50 kiekies in one episode…

We were up bright and early this morning, it was our last full day and I made it clear that we will be out of camp as early as possible, sis made her coffee and we were in the car and in front of the gate way before it was time to open the gate. We stood next to the car, sis enjoying her coffee, and me lighting my lucky cigarettes whilst we waited for the gate to open. We heard a lion roar in the distance and knew that today had great things in store.
At last the gate opened, and as we left the gate, we were around the 12th car in the row, but luckily for us 4 cars turned unto the S100 and we decided to just drive a bit further on to maybe see a lion perhaps?
Well, not even 50m forward and we only see brake lights, and the rest of the cars, yes, the male lion was walking in the road. But what was great, was the fact that the people were behaving so great, everyone took a few kiekies and moved on past the male, giving us a chance (or mum and sis as I had to do the driving). We passed then drove about 50m forward, stopping next to the road so I can take a kiekie from the front. This is my best lion kiekie of the whole trip as it is a different view for me (looks like the king of the bush is having a VIP escort)



We then let all the cars pass us and then we turned back so we can go on the H6, it was starting to get light now and we were surprised to see that we, and the lion, passed sleeping buffies next to the road.



We stopped for some crested francolins and babies next to the road, and my sis fell in love with these boshoeners (bush chickens), she actually wanted to adopt a few during our trip but we had to reprimand her as we didn’t really want to go to jail for stealing birds from Kruger



We then drove into THoko and his wife on the H7, they were staying at Tamboti, and just like us were in search of the doggies, we were chatting away for 40 minutes having a blast until we had to think sighting wise and not let the morning go by with us chatting away so they turned unto the Rabelais loop (entrance closest to Satara) and we drive on. We stopped at Bobbejaanskrans and the other loopies, but we had a little horrible encounter as well on the H7. A delivery truck were coming from the front and as we drove forward a Frankie came from my left side and decided to fly across the road-----OOPS----and you just saw feathers fly as the truck hit him at 50km/h. My sis couldn’t believe what she just saw and almost started crying, well I can’t blame the truck as the birdy flew from out of nowhere right in front of it. We were talking about what happened and getting closer to the W entrance of Rabelais when we saw this…



I immediately turned around as the dogs were trotting in our direction and then we would be able to be in front and take a few nice kiekies. We waited for them to come and as they arrived, we didn’t even have 2 minutes with them before the people behind us started behaving like morons. They came racing past swearing that they want a chance with the dogs, about 5 cars went past us and actually chased the dogs from the road into the bush, they dogs disappeared in an instant. We waited and basically all the cars raced past us, then as we turned around they came back again, there were only 7 and one was collared.





There came a few cars again, and once more they went into the bushes. We thought about turning around again facing Satara and would you believe it, they come from the bushes in front of us, we drove behind, in front and next to them for about 8 km until just after the bridge that was fixed after the flood, giving the cars behind us time to view them as well. The dogs were definitely hunting, we were very excited especially after I saw a common duiker in front of the road. The dogs didn’t see him in the road and were merrily jogging in the road, I did get to see one flying though.



And I got to take a kiekie of a flying duiker as well…



And then the doggies saw him, and I got to take a kiekie of the chase, but no win for the doggies today.



After this we decided that we had the dogs for 50 minutes, it is time to let them be, and give the other people some great kiekie opportunities as well. (Not that we were selfish during this trip, we made sure that we weren’t hogging the dogs at any time). So we stopped next to the road so that the cars can pass us, and for the second time we were on our way to Orpen.

Then came the first ever OOOOOOH and AAAAAAH sighting for the day…

[Bushcraft]

Flying along

3:50am I wouldn’t be happy either

Awesome leopard

The H6 produced for you; another great lion sighting

A junior croc

You planned for doggies and scored

What next Don’t leave us hanging

[nan]

oups many photos to comment

super tiny Croc and Wild Dogs...
happy they didn't win (horrible to see Dogs at a kill)
what are you watching Lion or cars but nice picture with all this lamps

love Hyena... the sentinel... wow the sentinel
and the two Beetles at a Biiiiig ball, the White Stork and the Carmine one
and I won't forget the Snake

[Heksie]

Flying along

3:50am I wouldn’t be happy either

Awesome leopard

The H6 produced for you; another great lion sighting

A junior croc

You planned for doggies and scored

What next Don’t leave us hanging

Don't you leave when the gate opens in KNP
It was a total surprise, the dogs, I think we saw them as there were so many witches in the car?
And just for you, I quickly typed up the next episode...

[Heksie]

oups many photos to comment

super tiny Croc and Wild Dogs...
happy they didn't win (horrible to see Dogs at a kill)
what are you watching Lion or cars but nice picture with all this lamps

love Hyena... the sentinel... wow the sentinel
and the two Beetles at a Biiiiig ball, the White Stork and the Carmine one
and I won't forget the Snake

Sorry nan, I'm just so excited about day 25 that I just had to begin with it
Oh, I so want to see a dog kill, mum and sis don't feel the same as me but it would've been an amazing sighting
Hahahahah I was looking at the lion \

[Heksie]

Day 25… continues

One car is parked on our side of the road and another races pass him, as we get closer I see a snake wriggling and another part that is squished, I start swearing as it can only mean that the racing car squished the poor snake. BUT WAIT. The snake is fine and it is in fact a squished frog, and the snake has calmed down and is actually slithering towards the snake. I can’t believe what I’m going to see now, a snouted night-adder that is going to eat a frog…

This shows how small the snake was



And what follows is not for sensitive viewers, but totally for those snake lovers (MY type of people)

















It then slithered off underneath our car and into the bushes. I was jumping out of my skin, this totally won over the dog and lion sighting this morning!!!
We moved on towards Orpen for a bathroom break and we were only like 8km from the camp, but before that we had a huge rhino crossing the road, we weren’t able to take a kiekie but was in awe of the size of this creature.
On our way back we took the road to the waterhole just before Rabelais loop and saw our first wartie for the day



And we took the H6 back to camp as well, we had a fish eagle in a tree



And some black stork



We got back to camp by 11:30, and was very happy with our day’s sightings so far. At camp I started packing away the goods we didn’t need, I sorted out my tent as I would have to pack up at 3:00 tomorrow morning, I leave the gate at 4:30 no matter what, or I try my best.
It was my last chance to search for Serval on the S90 so I told mum and sis we would leave the camp earlier so that we can do a decent drive. Our plan was the S100->S41->S90->H1-4 and I didn’t want to rush so I thought 3.5 hours would be efficient.
As per usual we got some general game on the road like waterbuck



And we spent some time with baby vervets playing on a small bush





Then when we dove over one of the causeways on the S41, I saw some fishies in the stream and just had to take a kiekie of them



We went on, I turned left unto the S90 and about 5km on this road I saw something that was the cherry on the cake for this trip, it was the first time ever that I saw this species and I had never seen a sighting like this before in my life…

[nan]

wow super sighting of the Snake even with a ready meal
and magnificent photos never saw a Snouted Night Adder

for sure a Wild Dog's kill will be... a first and interesting stuff...

and then