Africa Wild

Translation : Dear Mother, it really is jolly warm in this place.

Saturday 28 November 2015 - Home -> Skukuza.

A shortish trip for us because we had to use up some timeshare points and a weekend at Ingwenya Lodge was available. To make the trip a bit more worthwhile we booked a further six nights of camping, the first at Skukuza and the next five at Balule. As ever, things didn't go exactly as expected.

We have often stayed at Pretoriuskop for our first night in the park but although Skukuza is my least favourite camp, Lake Panic is nearby and that's the best spot in the park for bird photography.

We entered the Park at Malelane, stopping on the bridge for a while. There was plenty of bird activity and the bridge is a wonderful vantage point.

There was a host of Kingfishers - at least five Pied and a couple of Giants.






There were several other species, including Spoonbills and Yellowbilled Storks, present but most of them were too far away for photos. I did get a Greenbacked Heron and a Little Egret.




The journey from Malelane to Skukuza was interesting but the clouds had rolled in and the pictures were not so good.

A young Hyaena.


An Unmentionable.


A Klipspringer sentinel.

And a very distant coalition of Cheetahs.


After setting up camp we decided that it wasn't worth going to Lake panic as it was quite dim and dreary. Instead, we went down to the Cattle Baron for a very nice meal.

Back at our camp site , there was some bug activity around a nearby light.

An adult Antlion,



some colourful moths,



a Mantid.


beetles,




and a Wasp.

Lucky sightings on you first day. Love the insects

Cute portrait of the Antie

My fav is the Polyclada beetle. Very good find

Love the Trimen's false tiger and the Longhorn, too, should be a Prosopocera sp.

Hello, BT! Long time no smell!

Thanks for the nightmare stuff again, was missing that!


But good birdies...4 pied together!

Awesome kingfisher shots from the bridge, BluTuna

and the rhino and hyaena and the critters are also back - Great shots all of them but my favourite is the second one

Yay, bugs!!!! Can't wait for the rest yet to come!

Strange to see so many pied kingfishers together and furthermore on the ground

Great shots of the BIFs

The usual sensational pics of the kreepies

Nice birdies and the hyena is very cute.

Jezz, plenty pied kingfishers hanging out

Cheetah far off, but still a sighting

Alien insects