The Travel Tale that is exactly that...

[Mel]

I'll see you all when I get there

[Richprins]

Mello!

[Mel]

I hate unfinished travel tales... So, whether I like it or not, I feel the need to be proper here

BTW, we got some reimbursement for our missed out night at Biyamiti by now. Not sure how much really, since our friends took care of it.
But I assume it was an okay sum because they said something of a fancy dinner out

[Mel]

So, it's still the 09/04/2017 and we just entered the park and are on our way to Biyamiti camp. I was actually rather surprised to see that the journey took us quite a few hours.
It's only like 40 kays from Malelane, but we drove for about 4 hours... and didn't even see that much. Or rather didn't stop for long at the sightings we had because most of them
were well hidden in the vegetation

We stopped at Gardenia Hide where a terrapin was eyeballing me suspiciously

The boys were totally in awe of their first live croc

And me of my first male redbilled firefinch

[Mel]

Further down the road the one and only lions... And this is all we got to see of them

Being used to lions in the open, I didn't fuss much about this sighting, but the joy of the boys made it worthwile

[Mel]

When checking in at Biyamiti, I had to realize that nobody seemed to have bothered to listen to the voice mail I had left the previous evening...
Next time I won't make an effort to call in that we won't be arriving Especially considering how long it took to get the proper number
Otherwise check in went smoothly and seeing that we only had that night in the camp now, we decided not to go on an afternoon drive anymore.
I had so wanted to go down to Byiamiti Weir at least once, but considering that we would have another looong day ahead the next day, I found
the thought of chillaxing with the our friends and the kids much more enticing.

G, the younger of the two boys was allowed to take my camera and walk around the camp to take photos. Alas, most of them turned out pretty
blurred. The tele lens was just to heavy for him to hold it steady. He did however manage quite a nice shot of this paradise flycatcher

Luckily, I had seen another one a couple of days later, so I can claim this as a lifer

And we also had some naughty visitors:

[Mel]

A waterbuck mum and her kid just before the sun went down:

And a woodland kingfisher - another lifer

That night we had a feast of a braai, since we had to use up all the meat and sausages that we had planned for
the evening before but not eaten due to the lack of a braai facility. The left-overs took us well through the next
day, especially with those two growing very hungry caterpillars on our backseat

[Lisbeth]

Beautiful pic of the water bucks and also the woodie is lovely

[Richprins]

Great pics, Mello!

Glad the boys were enjoying it...makes for a thrill for teachers!

Like the croc shot, and the flycatcher!

When checking in at Biyamiti, I had to realize that nobody seemed to have bothered to listen to the voice mail I had left the previous evening...
Next time I won't make an effort to call in that we won't be arriving Especially considering how long it took to get the proper number

This is concerning...I wonder if the system pics up that you never entered at the gate? Otherwise, not good news if you get stuck in the bush?

[nan]

well done to continue

love the Marsh Terrapine and Paradise Flycatcher