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Some of Nhongo Safaris Fleet of Open Safari Vehicles

The photo shows some of our fleet of Open Safari Vehicles used while on safari in the Kruger National and Hwange National Parks. These ve...

Monday 30 November 2015

On Safari With Mark From 27 November 2015

27 November 2015

3rd timers Szil and Vannesa joined me in Nelspruit for what we had planned to be a great Safari.

After a quick lunch at Pretoriuskop, we headed out and about.

Great General animals spotted thought the afternoon.

On our return loop towards our first camp, we spotted a leopardess, walking away from us. She eventually stopped and still in sight, she lay down with not a care in the world. We spent a lot of time with her and as we were about to leave so she got up and walked right across the road in front of us. As we were the only car with her, it was incredibly special and will stay as one of the highlights for the safari.

28 November 2015

Today we set out for Satara and on route had some spectacular, elephant, rhino and buffalo sightings. This together with general animals turned out to be a great day despite the cool temperatures.

On route we got to spot a causal cheetah walking and calling for his brothers. No luck on spotting them but fantastic to see how other animals around him respond to his presence.

Further highlight was the ostriches, that were spotted closer to the end of the drive.

These been special for my clients as they had assisted me in the rehabilitation of these birds in the past.

The last highlight that kept us out of camp till the gates closed was a female Impala giving birth. Amazing to sit and watch for an hour and half the process she is in and what she does to bring a little life into this world.


Good luck little guy, girl

On Safari With Amanda 27 November 2015

27 November 2015

The elusive leopard still avoiding us after three days...today we were hoping for luck in finding her!

We decided to have breakfast at skukuza this morning the drive there gave us beautiful sightings of rhinos standing in the middle of the road checking us checking them out!

After a tip off we headed straight to the 114 and low and behold 2 kms down the dirt road lay 2 handsome male lions.. lifting their heads every now and then. It was refreshingly cool and they were obviously enjoying the coolness.

On our return to camp we watched a chameleon painstakingly cross the road we guarded him all the way until he reached his destination.

The afternoon started of with a sighting of reedbuck, zebras and the most adorable baby impalas. Heading on the road we received word from Mark that he had a visual of a leopard so we went a km to the sighting and there so well hidden lay a young female leopard! We had visual of her lifting her head every now and then but she was in no rush to move also enjoying the cool air if she didn't lift her head there's no way she would be visible so it's a wonder we get to see these beautiful creatures at all..


Another successful day in the best place on earth.

On safari With Robbie From 28 November 2015

28 November 2015

Our safari started in the most bizarre weather ever with temperatures not going above 11 degrees!!

This however did not deter any enthusiasm amongst our 3 Indian couples and we saw some superb general game sightings as well as magnificent Buffalo and Elephant herds!!

29 November 2015

Today was special in many ways as the weather worsened but before we knew it we had ticked off the big 5 with ease!!

However agreed and concurrently decided on a 3 way tie as follows were our highlights!!! ...:

... A Nyala bull with huge horns walks casually passed us and the hide entrance at Lake Panic !

... A clan of 9 Spotted Hyena came sprinting at us after being disturbed by a Leopard!

... A herd of Sable meandering through dense Terminalia thickets with good visual on occasions!!

.... Our bird sightings also reached 50 and generally it was a fantastic day ( excepting the weather ..)

The : 3 couples are on a night safari as we speak so will update tomorrow...


Signing off from a rather chilly Pretoriouskop camp

Friday 27 November 2015

On Safari With Amanda From 25 November 2015

25 November 2015

The morning started of nice and cool, we headed out after a quick breakfast for a slow drive to skukuza airport. On the way our guests excited from yesterday's leopard sighting chatted away spotting nice zebras, kudu lots of impalas with their Beautiful babies jumping all around. Lovely woodland kingfishers and nice yellow billed kites were also spotted.

Along the napi road we turned a corner approaching slowly as we spotted something in the distance.. a mammal for sure swaggering without a care in the world.....getting closer we  realized it was a beautiful male leopard!!! He walked along side the vehicle 10 meters away crossing the road without any interest in us!

We watched him for 10 minutes and then he was gone out of sight...the elusive leopard! 
For our American friends their safari was coming to end as we took them to the airport and bid them farewell. The afternoon promised rain and it came down with a vengeance! Another beautiful day in Africa..

26 November 2015

Nice early start this morning, we packed our snacks and drinks and headed off to wherever we wanted to in the park!! We drove around a small loop near camp looking for the resident leopard.. after last night's rain the ground was nice and wet we looked down for fresh track saw some nice buffalo tracks and there they were in front of us!! Lots of babies with their mothers and a huge bull.

Driving around the loop again as I heard the Woodlands kingfisher we passed where we had driven and I looked down to see fresh, fresh leopard tracks...as they say the leopard will see us before we see them. 

With the temperature rising to 42° we went to skukuza to get fresh ice cold drinks along the way encountering elephant zebras rhinos kudu Waterbuck duiker steenbok and some lovely birds including whitefaced whistling ducks saddle-billed storks tawny eagles and lovely bataluer flying above us. 


Returning to camp it was ice creams and cold drinks all around to celebrate another wonderful day in the Kruger park!

Wednesday 25 November 2015

On Safari With Shannon and Amanda 24 November 2015

24 November 2015

One awesome hectic day!!! Our safari experience started from dung beetles to leopards and from there we had smiles all the way!!

We had numerous encounters of different wildlife such as impala ( referred to as a Laté colour looking animal by Sheel our guest.)

We had the privilege of having a day with the Big 5 and many more. Patience payed off at a leopard sighting where we saw the impala kill in the tree in which only a sighting of the leopard ear was present. We sat waiting for this amazing animal and after roughly around 30min this animal graced us with his presence and made the wait worth while.

Heading towards Skukuza for an emergency toilet break ( it was hot and we had drank maybe a little to much water) we had a fun journey back where we did some bird watching and saw many bateleur eagles, tawny eagles and many vultures.

We were lucky enough to spot lions from the previous night relaxing under a tree which completed our big 5 checklist. 

We then headed back to camp for a bushwalk where a herd of elephants +- 20m away were seen.


Perfect day for us all in which we had a social dinner together highlighting the days events and which stood out for whom. Once again another successful day and look forward to what tomorrow will bring!

Monday 23 November 2015

On Safari With Shannon and Amanda From 19 November 2015

19 November 2015

Our safari journey started 6:00am entering Numbi Gate with our guests. After having a wonderful breakfast we were ready to set out for the day.

We encountered numerous sightings of buffalo with a herd of 400+ crossing over the road.

Our journey just got better from there on. We had a number of zebra and giraffe and had the privilege of seeing an albino elephant!!!

To top it all on our way down to camp we sat and watched a meter long blind snake work its way into a termite mound! Fascinating!!!!!

Our girl power team with our humorous guests managed to make this a fun and unforgettable safari.

On the afternoon drive we had beautiful sable on Shabeni Koppies and more of Dennis's favorite animal, the kudu which he calls " Big Ass Deer".

Success is a good word to sum up how our day went! 

20 November 2015

Todays journey started off with a lovely drive down the Napi after entering numbi gate at 6:00 am. We made our way down to Pk where we could grab a quick cup of coffee. While traveling down the Napi we heard the Woodlands kingfisher that indicated that summer has arrived!!

We traveled down to Shithave or as dennis our guest called it " Shit-I- have." We witnessed two waterbuck challenging each other where after the herd chased the less dominant male around. We had a Hippo in the water making its way up for some air while watching a croc sun bathe in the sun. 

We also had a herd of zebra next to the road with a foal. After time caught up with us we decided to move on down the road and had to be a chameleons body guard while it was crossing the road. We had a small herd of mountain reedbuck and warthog that we could watch while they made their way towards Pk rocks.

Traveling down towards Mestel dam we had a nice sighting of buffalo "daggaboys" just hanging around. We witnessed the first two lambs of impala of the season just down the Mestel road.

We headed out on our afternoon drive in which we had a awesome time noticing all the small things of the bush. We had giraffe in the road with some zebra and sat and watched a troop of baboons for 30min in which we realized that they are quite entertaining animals! 

A great day taking in a lot of things and yet again just success can be used to sum our day up! 

21 November 2015

Great start to the day...rain rain and more rain but this didn't deter us or the guests we headed out ponchos in tow.

Napi road gave us lovely giraffe, zebra and very nice mountain reedbuck! Further down we watched three male elephants enjoying the rain and the cool air.

Driving into the rain we were surprised to see hyenas lying by the side of the road close to their den also enjoying the coolness of the morning.

A quick drive up mantikenyane lookout point and the guests enjoyed the fantastic view and great selfie time (selfie stick courtesy of Shannon!!)

After a nice coffee break at skukuza we headed up full of anticipation of finding lions and as luck had it after much searching we found three, two who were mating roughly 200metres in from the road under a macula tree.

We came across a martial eagle perched high in a tree on the way back for a quick lunch.

With rain clouds building in the distance we headed back to camp and were surprised to come across a huge herd of buffalo on the dirt road crossing heading for an afternoon drink..

Heading back to the gate a light rain started with thunder clapping above us...300metres down the road the heavens opened with beautiful rain followed by hailstones!!! We drove as quick as we could along the dirt road back to camp arriving safely wet and exhilarated.


Another great fun day in the best place on earth.. Kruger National Park.