Africa Wild

Hey Guys,

I have a quiet day at work, so time to start our April 2014 TT.

This was the 1st trip to KNP this year for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert.

I plotted the long weekend setup for the end of April in February 2013, so I was ready and waiting for bookings to open, but once again I came left and didn’t get the planned trip, however still managed to score the bulk of it.

The trip ended up as below:

24th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
25th, 26thand 27th Skukuza
28th, 29th and 30th Satara
1st and 2nd Lower Sabie
3rd Biyamiti

We mailed Lower Sabie and Skukuza requesting specific units and received confirmation mails from both, but guess what, both camps stuffed it up and we never got either. This used to set me off big time, but I’m now used to an element of incompetence.

We struggled for certain animals and never found cheetah, which makes it 2 trips in a row for us, so my pelican is still a little out over that. We again battled a “little” for my favourite animal and 1 day only did a morning drive, which was a first and it caused a family drama, however there were 2 sighting firsts for us in Kruger, which are always cool to add.

The odd medical issue raised its head again and this time it was me who had an issue for a change. There was also a small drama at Lower Sabie swimming pool involving a flying creepy crawly which had Hawkeyes looking like her old man (Gump will understand).

We once again had to put together a tricky shopping list because of the faulty Swazi border post officials and strangely they didn’t bother to check this time.
We also got to meet a few awesome wildies and have a social, which is always great fun.

In summary, the grass was longer than I have ever experienced, one day I never picked my camera up and the traffic in the south was crazy, which resulted in a few temper tantrums, so I hope all ride the wave, appreciate the rat’s pics, hang around during those times and still enjoy the TT.

To be continued

24th Home to Jozini Dam

We decided to pull the rats out of school for break up day and the Cow is now a stay at home mother, so the initial plan was to do some ducking and diving at work and leave for Jozini after 1pm, but my brother and family came down to KZN a day early to visit my mom, so I took another day’s leave to spend some time with them and ended up ducking for Jozini earlier than normal.

We arrived just before 4pm and the Cow went to book us in at reception and as it was a Thursday night the place was empty, so my teeth were hanging out.

We had been allocated unit number 1, which although still cool, didn’t have the same feel for me personally, so next time I’m going to beg for our usual number 4.



Hawkeyes decided to attempt some close-up stuff and the normal wartie visitors came to check us out.





It was still a little early for a braai, so I was bored in minutes and suggested a 2km cruise down to Jozini Dam.

On route to the dam we found the usual KZN Nyala gang.





The dam was looking beautiful and boiling with fish, so I was initially excited and then realized that I didn’t have a fishing rod, so soon got bored of the dam and had run out of dop, therefore decided to return to the unit for a refill.

On route back to our unit some Reedbuck made an appearance.





This particular unit had an inside table while the others all have the table outside, so the Cow and Hawkeyes were on a mission to renovate “Let’s move the table and chairs outside”.

This is never my cup of tea, therefore I used the opportunity to grab another dop and cruise off on my own mission to the hide with Bushpig and Albert jabbering behind me.

The jabbering stopped as we got further from the unit and soon both rats were walking on top of me “Dad is there leopard here?”

I told them once years ago at Imfolozi when they were walking too slowly that leopard attack the one at the back, so I couldn’t resist “Definitely”, which immediately resulted in both of them increasing the pace until they were in front of me.

This always gives me the opportunity to find a stick or a stone and throw it in the bush in front of them without getting caught “Dad, there’s something in the bush”, which set the war stories in motion “Maybe it’s a leopard!!”

My joke backfired as Albert started snivelling and Bushpig tried to climb up my leg, so I was immediately irritated and had to back off on the stories.

There was nothing much happening at the hide, so we headed back to the unit, but had to dodge a mother wartie on the way who got very excited with our presence near her juniors, which resulted in Albert’s starter motor kicking off again.

I got an expected greasing on our return “You disappeared nicely, the table was heavy!! What have you been up to?”, but I have learnt that sometimes silence is the safest option at least until you have worked out the extent of the pelican and there’s no point in admitting to something until you have totally worked out what you are being accused of, so smiled and ducked to the kitchen for another refill.

I then decided to test the new outside table arrangement and ended up in a staring match with the mother wartie who had followed us up from the hide. “Cow, this wartie is red for us”.



The mother wartie seemed to also take a dislike to my voice and decided to mock charge the veranda, which nearly resulted in a spilt dop and it set the Cow off again “Stay away from it!! Kids, go and bath”, which was my ticket to the boma and soon the fire was on the go.



The dops were having an effect on the bladder now, but all the rats were in the bathroom, so I checked the coast for the Cow and decided that a casual stroll to the bush in front of another unit would be the safest option.

I had just selected an appropriate tree and begun when mother wartie appeared again, so I tried my dog language “foot-sack!!”, however this only caused the wartie to approach with some snorts of its own, so retreat while finishing wasn’t an option, therefore I had to cut things short and bail back to the boma.

Fortunately the wartie backed off as Albert and the Cow had arrived at the boma and Albert was taking pics of the clouds over the mountains which were highlighted by the setting sun. I initially laughed this mission off until the Cow showed me her attempt, which wasn’t bad for an eight year old.



After supper I returned to the boma for some quiet time in the dark, while the rats got ready for bed. The peace didn’t last long though as shrieks erupted from inside the house, which had me wheel spinning in the boma as based on the pitch level I expected to face a giant kid eating snake.

“What, where!!!”

“Moths!!!”

Girls are strange things

Our unit had been invaded by an army of massive moths which were flying and crawling everywhere, which was way too much for the rats “Get them out Dad!!”.
After a few useless hand waving attempts I gave up “They are harmless, relax!!”.

Eventually the clan got used to the moth family and Hawkeyes even did the leopard crawl to get a pic of one.




Peace at last

To be continued

Cream Striped Owl Moth! Toko will Probably know the grasshopper!

Nice sunset shot Albert!

Jozini dam looks nice

Beautiful photo of the owl moth, Hawkeyes

... and I can not ID the grasshopper, but it is one of the cryptic thinggies in the Pamphagidae family

25th Jozini Dam to Skukuza

I had to meet a work mate and his family at the Swazi border to help them with the process, so at around 6am I checked in with his progress and he was on time for the border opening at 7am, so we packed up and started for the border.

The borders both ends of Swaziland were painless and after 2 hectic stop/go’s between Swaziland and Komatipoort we arrived at the Spar to complete our shopping. (From what I saw and the lack of proactive workers, I think that these will be around for the rest of the year).

It was now just after 11:30am, so I was stressing as normal to get into the park, therefore issued strict shopping instructions and we were soon done and on our way to the park.

Before I continue, I will omit all rhino sightings with the exception of 1 or 2 where the route isn’t obvious. We did however battle more than normal for rhino which makes me rather nervous about their future. I’m also clueless with birds and I’m too lazy to check each time, so I’m only going to mention the ones I know, which I may stuff up anyway; the others I will just be call “bird” and wait for the Cow or a sharp reader to ID.

The first thing we did was fuel up in Croc Bridge and organize all the cameras.

Eventually all were organized and we decided to duck up the H4-2.

Our first “major” sighting besides the usual suspects was about 2km from Croc Bridge, but the lioness was walking in the long grass and it was rather difficult to get a pic, so we didn’t hang around.



Next up was a buff who would only show his bum, a nasty road kill and then a potential road kill.







We then decided to do our normal little 1km detour to the no name waterhole at the S130 northern end and found a brown snake eagle, a teenage ellie and the obligatory LBR pic for the Cow.







It had been a fairly relaxed drive to Lower Sabie and the roads were very quiet, therefore I was initially confused, but then realised that it was only the start of the school holidays and the gang were probably still on the way, which unfortunately was the case.

We did a short detour over the H10 Bridge just below Lower Sabie and spotted a dead hippo and plenty crocs hanging around, but this is where the Kruger gang had chosen to hang out. I find sleeping crocs more boring than sleeping lion and even worse when they cause a traffic jam, so we turned and ducked for Lower Sabie.



I spent a few minutes co-ordinating my work mate and in the process lost my clan who wandered off somewhere, so wobbled down to reception to assist the mate booking in.

Just outside reception I heard the birds going crazy so did a search of the bush and spotted a massive Boomslang. This was the biggest I had ever seen so left my shocked Kruger newbie mate and roared off to find the clan as I didn’t have a camera.

After 5 minutes of searching and a tantrum I found the clan and only Bushpig had her little point and shoot camera.

After another 2 minutes of frustration and another meltdown because the idiot camera wouldn’t focus; I eventually got a pic of a portion of the snake. I should have just gone to the car and got my camera.



We then drove into Lower Sabie camp to assist the mate and family to find their accommodation and then continued on up towards Skukuza.

Sunset Dam produced the normal locals, so we only stopped for a few minutes.

We normally take the S79 N’watimhiri causeway as part of our route and today was no exception, especially since we had a boon directing traffic.



The first sighting on the causeway was a “bird” which I hoped that the Cow hadn’t spotted, but no luck as she was on the lookout “There in the tree”.

“It’s a vulture”, which is my normal response and it usually works; however the Cow seems to have got wise to my tactics “It’s a gymnogene, not a vulture!!”, so I had egg on my face.

25th Jozini Dam to Skukuza continued

We eventually left the gymnogene, but 20m later “There, with a kill!! Approach slowly!!”, so I reluctantly idled into position for the next “bird”.



My mind started to wonder back to previous April trips and the thick bush, so thought “Maybe it’s good that there are still the small things which interest all”.

While listening to the camera antics I spotted a lone car up the road and they seemed interested in something, so put the pressure on to move along.

A cool couple were parked off relaxing and immediately waved us in. A male lion was hiding in the shade next to the road, so the causeway had produced for us once again.





The rest of the drive up to Skukuza produced the normal locals including a few more ellies and a kingfisher.





A few km from Skukuza the rats were starting to hassle as they had been in the car almost the entire day, therefore they started to stuff around “Are we meeting RP tonight Dad, is leachy here, when is Heksie arriving, is BB still in Satara, have we met Amoli or Sprocky before, how old is Sprocky’s daughter, who else is coming, are they coming to our unit, what time do we have to go to bed, etc, etc”. (Thank goodness they didn’t know about Gump’s clan yet).

“Relax, tomorrow is the jol!!”, which resulted in silence for a few minutes and then howls of laughter from the back.

Bushpig had attacked RP’s paper plate face and was playing the ass.



“You do realize that you need to give that to RP tonight”, which caused a frantic repair job.

We arrived at Skukuza at around 4pm and the book in went relatively smooth, besides the fact that they stuffed up our unit request and then tried to tell us that all GC4V’s were the same, which they aren’t. (For reference in case anyone ever books 1: Number 222 has a much bigger lounge/kitchen/bedrooms and no other unit on the left).

After a quick unpack we decided to check out the leachy’s boma jol spot and found RP and leachy outside. At around the same time Heksie was looking for Amoli’s number, which Flutts assisted with, so all was on track for a pre meet braai.

It was fairly close to 5pm when we left the boma area, so there wasn’t much time for an evening drive and I was plotting to just go back to our unit for a few dops, but the Cow and Hawkeyes were giving me the hairy eyeball, so the easiest option was a short drive down the H11/S1.

The traffic on the H11 gave me a pelican, but things were quieter once we hit the S1 and as I was about to turn we found a hyena den.





Time was ticking, so we took a few pics and headed back for camp.

What I didn’t realise until later was that another wildie was on the S1 and there was some major action just up the road, which I won’t mention in case they do a TT, but I have to admit I had a pelican when I found out what we missed.

Leachy had given strict 6:30pm instructions so I had plenty of time to swallow a few before heading up to the boma, which is probably why my memory is a little vague in distinguishing between the 2 nights.

Bushpig presented her paper plate face and proudly posed for a pic with RP.



I do remember being tasked with a light and TV sound repair job, a cupboard that smelt like my bait box, the Cow got tuned for not having made a pre meet potato salad, the Sharks caught a carrot and I’m sure RP ate my lamb chops.

It was an awesome spot that leachy had organized, cool to meet some new people and catch up with the old again. It was great pre meet braai.


To be continued

Toko wrote:Cute hyena youngster

Southern White-crowned Shrike feeding over head is also a great find

Thanks for the ID Toko I will get there one day

26th Skukuza

I woke feeling rather rough, but the Cow was giving me the “look” because of the previous evening’s events, although this was genuinely the start of bad flu, so the car didn’t get packed in a great rush and we hit the road at around 6:30am.

We decided to drive down to Lower Sabie and link up with my work mate as promised, but after more than half an hour on the H4-1 I realized that we should have just slept in as nothing was happening and our first sighting highlight was the normal everyday Nkuhlu boon gang and then a hyena in an open patch who ducked as we stopped.





Next up was some sort of weird worm/snake thing which we had never seen before and assumed it to be some form of blind snake (Maybe Toko can help out).





As we neared Lower Sabie the odd ellie and buff made and appearance.





We stopped at Lower Sabie for a loo break and I tried my mate who’s phone went to voice mail, so they were probably still on a drive.

We weren’t sure what to do next, so after a family negotiation we decided to check out the dead hippo on the H10 Bridge again and then turn and duck across the S21 towards the H3 before heading up to Skukuza.

The dead hippo was still floating around and all the crocs were sunning themselves, but no heart pumping action, so I turned and headed for the S21 only stopping once for a pair of fish eagles





Those who drive the S21 often will tell you that it can fire, but when it’s dead, it’s a very long road and today was one of those days so we only stopped 3 times to take pics







Once we hit the H3 my lip was hanging on the steering wheel and I just wanted to get back to Skukuza for a chow, but we eventually decided to stop off at Transport Dam, which was another mistake as we got jammed in a buffalo roadblock, which is never good when one is tired of driving already and Transport only produced the waterbuck locals and a malachite which caused a drama because it wouldn’t sit still and none of the cameras would focus on it.





To be continued

Must have been a shock, an early morning drive without cats

Love the baboon family ... caring and loving eachother

The snake is Megatyphlops schlegelii aka Schlegel's beaked blind snake Who took the photos?

Lisbeth wrote:Never seen and not even heard about blind snakes Are they really blind?

Nice pair of fish eagles

Days like that do happen in Kruger and it is easy to end up with a pelican face

Thanks Lisbeth

My understanding is that blind snakes have scales over their eyes; therefore can’t see; however they do register light changes

A pelican from the morning, but the afternoon.........