Imfolozi Browns July 2017

[Bushcraft]

Hey Guys

This is just a quickie TT from a weekend trip up to Imfolozi.

I wanted to book the weekend of the Cow’s birthday, but Ezemvelo has introduced some holiday penalty story which means one pays nearly 70% more during school holidays, so instead I booked for the weekend of the 21st & 22nd of July.

I have also had some hectic deadlines at work, so told the boss I was taking Friday and Saturday off which caused a stir and some pelicans at work, but my cylinder head would have popped without the “time out”.

We woke at around 5am on the morning of the 21st, but the weather was faulty so we didn’t rush too much and arrived at Nyalazi gate at around 9:30am.

We could only book in much later in the day, so the plan was to cruise around slowly before choosing a picnic site to braai lunch at.

All the normal locals were out to great us on the way to Mpila camp.

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We stopped at Mpila camp for a loo break and spotted that we had scored tent number 24 which is the 2nd 4 sleeper unit and a more secluded unit on the camp perimeter “fence”, which is just a single strand of wire, so my teeth were hanging out for the evening.

It was now an awkward time as it was a little too early to start the lunchtime braai, so we continued on towards viewpoint 17 and then on towards 20 which produced a lone male lion parking off. We couldn’t believe that we were the only car and could easily have missed him.

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I switched off and we got comfortable, but as normal I soon got itchy feet, so started to try different spots to see if we could get a different angle on the lion, which as per routine got the Cow chirping, however my backwards and then forwards seemed to interest the lion or irritate him, I’m not sure which one and he started towards us, crossed the road in front of us and moved on into the bush.

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[Bushcraft]

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We now realised that if we turned and headed back to Mpila that we would arrive a little early for book in time but the Cow was confident that she could pull off the con, so we decided to rather braai lunch at our tent since it was the one on the perimeter. We stopped on the way back to camp for a few more locals but only the Cow took pics of her favourite bird and more rhino.

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To be continued

[Bushcraft]

We slowly unpacked and then I started the fire while the clan relaxed.

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After boerewors rolls, the clan all went for an afternoon snooze but my peace didn’t last long as vervets pulled in and entered the rat’s tent via the bathroom section which was open, so the shrieking and a mass evacuation started, however after 15 minutes the vervets moved on and peace returned.

An hour later I was bored of staring at the dying coals, so went on a small mission along the camp perimeter near our tent and ended up giving a male nyala a skrik; however the females seemed very relaxed.

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Before we realised the time it was already nearly 5pm and all were still sick of being in the car, so I just added more wood to the coals and we decided to have an early supper. After chow we parked off on our veranda chatting while taking the odd pic of the locals who cruise through at night.

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It was a rather cold morning in a tent for KZN coastal locals, so there seemed to be more blankets than people in the car; however we eventually got going at around 6:30am.

There was no real plan so we just headed out towards Bhejane hide. All the usual suspects were around but we didn’t take pics until just before road 20 where I heard some impala barking, so I switched off and it didn’t take long for us to spot a male lion on morning patrol.

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[Bushcraft]

Bhejane hide was rather quiet animal wise but there was another family present and their young boy was making a massive noise in the hide, so it took me around 10 seconds to give the Cow “the look” and she knew to do a U-turn and head back to the car.

On the return trip towards number 17 the Cow found her hoopoe and some more Imfolozi locals popped up.

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We stopped at number 17 for our traditional family pic as there was nobody else there, but that soon got interrupted as the Cow suddenly shouted “Wild dogs, wild dogs!!” seconds after we got out the car.

Impala were charging all over the place but I could see at least 4 dog tails charging through the grass after them and they were heading towards the road that goes to Sontuli picnic site, so we frantically bailed back in the car and roared off after them but the dogs did a disappearing act which got me hyped up, however minutes later a dog popped up halfway between the viewpoint and where we now were, so I charged off back to the viewpoint and the dogs had come down into the riverbed.

It was awesome to have the freedom of being on foot while at the viewpoint with wild dogs walking around in the riverbed below us.

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To be continued

[Flutterby]

Wow, great sightings so far for a short trip!

Haven't you seen wild dogs there before?

[Richprins]

Jeez, Hamster! What a trip!

Nice to see the family relaxed and well.

Ja, you see, you are also relaxing more!

[RogerFraser]

Wow what a great start to the trip like the night visitors

Hmm thinking a drive up to Imfolozi to test the bus sounding good

[All-Nature]

Great start with splendid sightings and pixs

Been years since I was last there Just so far from CT

What is the accommodation prices like? ...Very pricey ... do they have pensioners rates?

[nan]

lovely

[Bushcraft]

Wow, great sightings so far for a short trip!

Haven't you seen wild dogs there before?

Thanks Flutts Haven't seen dogs exactly there, but to the left of the view point, yes