6 September 2014
The first day
of a new tour and, after picking up all our new guests from Nelspruit, it
wasn't long before we saw our first animal. A troupe of baboons sitting by the
side of the road. We made our way to the Kruger national park and Nkambeni
tented safari lodge, our home for the next few nights. On the camp road we
found a lone female giraffe as well a couple of kudu hiding behind the bushes.
Once at the lodge
we checked in, unpacked and relaxed until it was time for every ones first
safari.
A gentle
start with a sunset drive where you get the chance to watch a beautiful
African sunset maybe with a glass of Amarula before using a spot light to try
and find some of the more elusive night time animals. This evening White Rhino,
Buffalo, Zebra, and Impala were spotted, but the highlight was the sighting of
African wild dog and several puppies up on the rocks.
7 September 2014
The first
activity of today was the bushwalks, which gave all the guests a chance to
experience the African bush up close. A chance to learn about some of the
smaller aspects of the bush which often get looked over in favor of the larger
animals.
However this
morning the guests were lucky enough to witness both big and small. As well as
learning about the spoor and scat of the animals, learning about conservation
and the effect of fire within Kruger and learning about a few of the different
species of trees and plants and insects that are present in South Africa they
also came across a large male elephant, getting within 30 meters of him before
moving away. They also found a large herd of buffalo in the riverbed and were
able to spend quite a bit of time watching them before returning to the lodge
for a well-earned rest and much needed breakfast.
After that well
earned rest and breakfast back to work as we set out on a drive, heading along
numbi we soon found zebra, buffalo and a couple of large male warthogs. We then
turned on to Napi where we found plenty of kudu, zebra and impala until we got
to transport. The road down to transport was very busy with warthog, zebra,
wildebeest and waterbuck and at the dam we found a herd of about twenty
waterbucks having a drink with a family of hippos relaxing in the water and a
large crocodile sunbathing on the other side of the dam as well as numerous
water birds including the white-faced duck, Egyptian goose, egrets and jacanas
to name a few.
We decided to
take a trip down watergat and found two male lions stretched out in the grass,
unfortunately they had no inclination for photography today and apart from a
couple of legs and a belly they didn't show much at all. We also saw a couple
of steenbok as well as klipspringer on the road. We made our way to Skukuza for
a late lunch and then set off once again.
After a tip off
we headed down river road where we found plenty of elephants, baboons and
bushbuck, but we weren't looking for them. We were looking for a pride of lions
which had been spotted and we found them. Again, due to the heat, these lions
were in no mood to show themselves and again we just got legs, bellies and the
occasional tail flick. Time was running out but we still had enough time to
return to the original lion sighting to see if there was any movement. Unfortunately
not!!! so we left feeling a bit disappointed. However this soon evaporated as
we came across an animal which you don't see very often. We found a civet out
in the open searching for food, we got a good look before he disappeared into
the bush and then a couple of further looks before he disappeared..
Back on Napi we
came across the young hyena pup by his den looking a bit sorry for himself, not
helped by the fact someone had decided to throw a piece of apple to him!!! By
this time it was getting late and as the sun set we turned onto camp road where
we found our way blocked by a herd of buffalo. A nice end to a very good day!!!
More coming
soon!!
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