On Safari With Karen From 14 April 2014

14 April 2014

This morning Jordan and Adriane had booked an additional bushwalk so they left early before breakfast. It was a good walk where they learned loads about tracks, dung and vegetation. They saw impala as well as hippos close by. After their return, we had breakfast, some rest and then set out for our safari.

We were told about a possible lion ...sighting down the H3 so we started driving in that direction. On Napi we spotted our first animals: impalas, kudus and a lone buffalo bull. We continued to Napi Boulders to spot our first elephant for Jordan and Adriane. This magnificent bull crossed the road in front of us and then started having a mud bath in a small puddle. We watched him throw muddy water all over himself and as a prize he kneeled down and keeled over to dump himself in the little puddle. He then got up and walked off.

A little further on Napi we spotted four giraffe walking in an open area so we had a great view. And a couple of kilometres down the road we saw a nice herd of elephants with 2 young ones that were only as high as the thatching grass.

We spotted nothing more than impalas until we turned onto the H3. As it was the heat of the day by now, most animals were hiding in the shade out of sight and this actually fitted us quite well as this way we could make progress to get to the lion sighting. When we arrived on the announced spot there were some cars and we were lucky that one of the lions had his head raised. We took some pictures quickly as he was looking around and then the lion went to lie down. Being flat he almost disappeared from view, if you didn't know they were there you could drive straight by it. We hang around for a while to see if they would move again and once again they were in luck. Nearing the end of our patience (read: bladder possibilities) we were close to driving off when one of the two brothers decided to move. So much so that he got up, walked four meters and went to lie back down on a different spot. Shortly after his brother followed. Once they were lying back down that was our cue to leave.

We drove down to Afsaal for a toilet break and some lunch. After that we decided to drive back the same way we came and have another go at the lions. Another herd of elephants came across our paths just after we left Afsaal. While munching away on a fallen Marula tree, they were one happy family, as more and more elephants crossed the road to reunite with the herd.

Back at the lion sighting we didn't see much more than one of the lions propping up its head shortly, but mostly they just showed us where they were with a flick of their tail. We continued up the H3 spotting kudus, impalas, warthog, a nice bateleur in the middle of the road and a yellow billed kite.

We had our mind set on returning home, as it has been a long day. We were then surprised by two grazing rhinos right next to the road. We watched them watching us for a bit and when we drove off, a 200m further a leopard was walking in the middle of the road. He crept up to a known hyena den had a tentative sniff and decided he didn't like the smell. Looked around at us, and then walked off towards the bush. When he turned around we noticed he had a big gash on his leg so we gave him some distance to disappear before we continued our drive.

As we had been so lucky to now have seen all of the big five in one day we decided to head home and only stop for something special or new. We passed more white rhino sightings, lots of impala, warthog and waterbuck. It had been a long but awesome day!!!

15 April 2014

Today was the last day of the safari tour of Adriane and Jordan. Sadly we packed up, checked out and drove away for our last drive after breakfast.

We drove to Albassini seeing a lot of buffalo tracks and dung. Just before Mestel Dam we noticed a large herd lying in the high grass on either side of the road. As we hadn't seen a herd of buffalo yet, this was a nice sighting! There were some massive bulls as well as young calf’s to be admired. At Mestel Dam itself we saw two fish eagles and the hippos were playing in the water before their bedtime.

We continued on Albassini and got surprised by a large bull elephant suddenly appearing out of a thick bush. He got startled a bit too, but settled quickly, passing us on the road. His companion followed, but he started munching on the marula tree next to us. Branch by branch he took it down. He tried a little push for the big branch or even the whole tree but no such luck. However it was really fun to see him select the branches before grabbing it, pulling it off and then eating it, so we watched him for quite some time.

Down on Doispane towards Nyamundwa Dam it was rather quiet. We saw another bull elephant grazing, a wildebeest, a slender mongoose crossing the road and some impalas.

We then returned down Albassini and Shabeni where a grey duiker quickly crossed in front of us, but the rest of the animals were hiding away. I guess our luck had just run out on this safari.

After all the excitement yesterday it was a bit quieter, but nonetheless enjoyable. Adriane and Jordan, you were great guests, thank you for joining us and good luck with the tour around the world, and the new job! Maybe we will see you back one day!

16 April 2014

This morning we set out for what ended up a full day safari. Just reaching the tar road we sat talking about a marula tree when a call came in from Frank about some lions close by. We headed in that direction and saw two male lions lying flat on a rock. We had to use binoculars to see them, but it was out in the open. On the other side of the vehicle we spotted three klipspringers on Shabeni rock. We drove to Shabeni road to see the lions from a different angle and we were in luck as both of them raised their head for a little while. Nonetheless still too far for pictures, but still a good viewing.

We continued up Shabeni and then Albassini road encountering hardly any animals: a flock of guineafowls and impalas. We had gotten a tip that wild dogs were in the area. We saw indeed the tracks, but we were having no such luck to see the dogs. We quickly stopped at Phabeni Gate for a toilet break before continuing on River Road for our search for the wild dogs. Except for two families of dwarf mongoose and a lizard buzzard we only found tracks of elephant and rhino.

We drove down Riverlink onto Doispane where we spotted some zebras and a large herd of impala, where the male was chasing the females. While watching the male do crazy things a member of the public informed us about two leopards up ahead, so we speeded up a little. This time we did get lucky as the moment we arrived we saw two leopards in a tree. One of them jumped down before we were ready for pictures, but the second one stayed lounging in the tree for quite some time. This made us very happy.

We decided to have an early lunch at the Skukuza Golfclub, seeing waterbuck, leopard tortoises, a brown snake eagle and a chameleon on the way. We had a stop at Lake Panic, seeing a large terrapin swim by, a hippo sleeping close by, a malachite kingfisher and an African jacana.

After lunch we continued down Napi heading for the lodge as it was getting colder and windier. On the side of the road out of the golfclub we had a nice camouflaged grey duiker and we saw two elephants when we reached the tar road. The drive home brought us some nice giraffes, a large herd of buffalo, three lots of rhinos, kudus with a large kudu bull and vervet monkeys. We finished on camp road with two more giraffes just before entering the lodge.

Keep watching for more!!