Africa Wild

What brilliant rhino shots, PJL

Flutterby wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:15 am Very lucky to see them.

Yes I think we were Flutts

Richprins wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2019 9:52 am Very nice, Peej!

Lucky these days!

Lucky with the light as well on quite a few of the sightings

Mel wrote: ↑Thu Aug 29, 2019 6:09 pm WOW, you were again lucky with those

Very nice to see them Mel

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Sun Sep 01, 2019 3:01 pm What brilliant rhino shots, PJL

Thanks Pumbaa

Fri 29th June contd

Moving on from our morning lion sightings, we pulled in for a brief pit stop at Lower Sabie before heading up towards Skukuza where we would meet our friends for lunch. Things were relatively quiet until we got to the tar bridge near the S79 causeway where a traffic jam was forming. Apparently a leopard had just killed an impala and was slowly dragging it across the riverbed

Cars slowly moved and only a few minutes after arriving we were on the bridge but the cat was nowhere to be seen

We stuck around a bit to see if it would pop out but nothing happened so we decided to leave the mayhem behind and head on our way. We found buffalo and nyala bulls along the way





After our leopard luck along the H1-2 earlier in the trip we decided to pop up along the H12 and take the S83 before hitting Skuks. Along the S83 we came across one of the smallest baby elephants I have ever seen. It was still incredibly wobbly on its feet and struggled to keep pace with its mom. It was so small we could barely see it through the grass



As we watched it trundle on its way we spotted a squirrel the other side of the car



Down by the Sand river crossing there were a pair of goliath kingfishers



And then a troop of boons... I'm not sure what this one was smoking



The dominant male was parking off and seemed to have an extra hole in his nose



Lunch and meeting up with our friends was very enjoyable. We ended up relaxing a bit too long and figured our fastest route back out the park would be down to Malelane, so we plotted to avoid crowds and travel the S114. The decision paid off as we started with a nice steenbok sighting and then a hyena den







The little one went for a bit of a wander in the bushes and then flopped back by mom to start chewing her paw



Shortly after it remembered a better source of nutrition

Nice selection, and the light is a lot brighter, Peej!

Remarkable hyena suckling pic indeed!

Ja, sometimes best to leave the crowd.

The injured baboon had probably fought off a lion pride,IMO.

Richprins wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 5:20 pm
The injured baboon had probably fought off a lion pride,IMO.

A squirrel and a quite new tinyellie

A couple of Giant Kingfishers

Nice portrait of the buff

I'm sure that baboon fought the lions single-handedly, too, RP

I have never seen a hyena feeding at mum's milk bar
Precious sighting! Just as much as that wee little ellie. So cute

What a nice episode with lots of lovely sightings, PJL,

That small ellie is the cutest but also love the hyenas

You missed the leopard but still had some great sightings, especially the little ellie and the hyenas!!

Richprins wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 5:20 pm Nice selection, and the light is a lot brighter, Peej!

Remarkable hyena suckling pic indeed!

Ja, sometimes best to leave the crowd.

The injured baboon had probably fought off a lion pride,IMO.

Perhaps the boon had one hand tied behind his back whilst fighting off the lions

Lisbeth wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 7:03 pm A squirrel and a quite new tinyellie

A couple of Giant Kingfishers

Nice portrait of the buff

Thought you'd like the squirrel Lis
That ellie really was tiny

Mel wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 9:12 pm I'm sure that baboon fought the lions single-handedly, too, RP

I have never seen a hyena feeding at mum's milk bar
Precious sighting! Just as much as that wee little ellie. So cute

It was nice to see the little hyena Mel... there didn't seem to be any dens that we could find on the other side down near Croc Bridge

Pumbaa wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 10:19 pm What a nice episode with lots of lovely sightings, PJL,

That small ellie is the cutest but also love the hyenas

Thanks Pumbaa! The youngsters were very cute

Flutterby wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 9:39 am You missed the leopard but still had some great sightings, especially the little ellie and the hyenas!!

Yep the spotted cats were being elusive again
But nice to see some other things for sure

Fri 29th June contd

Once down at Biyamiti Wier we again found a saddle billed stork as well as a black crake





The dirt road was proving to be quiet until we hit a small gathering of cars and found a pack of wild dog lying off in the bushes near the road



They were really flat out and there were only a few spots where you could actually see them so everyone was being very organised and taking it in turns to check them out... go on a bit, turn around and repeat the process.

We got a bit lucky with one of our stops when a dog decided to vomit its breakfast... at least we got to see it up and about briefly





Some people were clearly trying to stay until the dogs got up to move properly but we were happy to continue on our way south. Just prior to the Mlambane riverbed there was a huge gathering of buffalo by the waterhole







We hadn't quite realised but the herd had already started to head down into the riverbed and across the road, very much blocking our route



Soon there would be several hundred buffalo over the road so I decided we would try inch our way along and see if we could make it across before the rest of the herd closed off the road for the day!

We received some warning looks along the way



Thankfully most of the buffalo on the road were cows who didn't seem to mind moving as we got closer to them. This bull was very close but he was more interested in his pool of water so we proceeded carefully on.



In the thick of the herd this little one checked us out



Finally we made it through much to everyone's relief. The route around would have taken ages!
On the far bank we found another car heading the opposite direction who had been watching us with amusement to see if we would make it out alive. They decided they would give it a try but very quickly had second thoughts

The rest of the drive was very relaxing and we had a nice peaceful scene to end the day