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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 7 December 2015

On safari With Gert From 5 December 2015

5 December 2015

This afternoon saw the arrival of 5 new guests, a group of friends from North America.

Not long after entering the park, we saw our first large herds Impala and Zebra. They were taking full advantage of the lush, short grass sprouting after some recent rains. With the Impala there are also many lambs running around these days, up to about 2 weeks old and they will most likely be joined by many more new arrivals over the next week or two.

We were also lucky enough to encounter a few large bull elephant, one of them feeding quite close to the road and our vehicle and also crossing the road just in front of us.

The highlights of the day came when we found 3 young male Cheetah, slowly on the move and looking as if they were on the hunt. They took turns climbing on fallen trees and termite mounds, having a look for any available targets. Again, we were lucky enough to have one of them cross the road in front of our vehicle twice. We left the sighting with the cheetah still in full view, relaxing on a termite mound.

On our way to camp we passed an active spotted hyena den where we saw a large female with 4 cubs. They were suckling at the den entrance and then moved onto the road, the curious cubs inspecting a few of the accumulated vehicles' tires until a sound or movement send them running back to mother! Having left the hyenas and heading back to camp, we found another solitary cheetah, stalking some nearby Impala! This was quite a dense area with not so much space for the cheetah to gain speed and it needed to get very close for the attempt. The cheetah eventually was about 35m from the Impalas before launching an attack, but even that was too far as the Impala spotted the threat and took off, scattering in all directions. The cheetah immediately abandoned the attempt and headed back where it came from to rethink strategy and we headed to camp.

An amazing and truly memorable first afternoon of safari!

6 December 2015

Setting off early this morning in an attempt to maximize our sightings,  it paid off very quickly.

We stopped to watch a large herd of buffalo in tall grass close to the road. Suddenly, a leopard appeared on the opposite side of the road and, very optimistically, it was actually stalking the buffalo. It was a young male and tried to use our vehicle as cover while approaching the buffalo. Eventually it crossed the road in front of us. By now the buffalo had spotted it and a very large male was keeping a close eye on it.

Even though no serious threat was posed by the leopard, caution overcame curiosity on the part of the buffalo and the herd retreated, leaving the leopard to rethink his strategy! We watched it a little while longer, until it headed back in the direction it came from.

Not much further, we came across the remains of a buffalo carcass, slightly obscured by the surrounding shrubs,  being fed on by 3 spotted hyena and a large number of vultures. Even though the visibility wasn't very good, it was quite an experience hearing the crushing of bones, squabbling of the vultures and the occasional giggle from a hyena. Every now and then a hyena managed to break off a piece and trot off to go eat in peace and quiet...

Next up was another buffalo carcass, this time a bit fresher and 2 young male Lions were lying in the shade close-by. There still seemed to be some good eating left on the buffalo and it looked like they were just taking a break from feeding although there were many vultures around, patiently waiting their turn.

After our breakfast stop it had warmed up considerably and it was a good time to find some Elephants having their mudbath, from a hole dug by themselves in dry riverbed. We also found 2 white rhino lying in a mud pool to cool off as well as the first journey of giraffe for the tour. They were feeding and we observed them leisurely moving from tree to tree and also cross the road in front of us.


After taking a break from the afternoon heat, we set off again late afternoon for a leisurely drive during which we had a very relaxed White Rhino grazing in a clearing, as well as a small breeding herd of elephants feeding in a riverbed. All in all a very successful day!

Friday 4 December 2015

On Safari With Amanda 3 December 2015

3 December 2015

What an amazing morning drive...! my lovely guests were reluctantly leaving today, but not before one last drive.

After a filling breakfast we headed off. A few kms down the road we heard an update of a leopard, possibly two lying relaxing approximately 7kms from nkambeni camp.

As we drove I was hoping to myself that they would still be there as my guests had missed out on the elusive leopard! We arrived and there they were ,my guests were ecstatic, we watched as they wandered around oblivious to our excitement! 

We made a decision to leave the sighting as the vehicles We're building up so we headed to pk to get a coffee. We heard from other guides that there were no other vehicles at the sighting so we decided to try our luck again...we weren't disappointed. As we drove down we saw one of the leopards lying on the rocks and then there literally 2 meters from the road lay the other one under a marula tree.

There's no words to describe how amazing it is to spend time with a leopard  ,quality time, normally you are lucky to have a quick visual or 5 mins at a distance but today we were the luckiest people in the world we sat for nearly 2 hours with the most elusive of cats! It was an incredible unforgettable experience and I was lucky to share it with awesome people. 

Reluctantly we left the leopard but the memory will stay with us.


Another fantastic day in the best place on earth.

Thursday 3 December 2015

On Safari With Amanda 2 December 2015

2 December 2015

Another boiling hot day in the park!! Guests had a great bush walk encountered buffalo, zebra impalas and learnt a lot about the trees and smaller things the bush has to offer.

After breakfast we headed out for a slow drive encountered a small breeding herd of elephants that slowly crossed the road in front of us including a couple of babies that tried to keep up with their mum's! 

We came across a huge herd of buffalo we estimated at least 200 of them.. most chewing on the grass whilst others tried to keep cool under the marula trees.

Lunchtime and the guests enjoyed a cooling swim and we left shortly after as the clouds were gathering on the horizon hopefully bringing much needed rain.

We headed towards shithave dam and there mingling amongst the water buck and 4 sable antelope were 2 litchensteins hartebeest. incredible sighting we sat watching as they drank from the dam ever cautious. 


General plains game came to greet us along the journey back to camp and we stopped to take beautiful sunset pictures, all in all a hot but successful day in the Kruger and the guests enjoying an ice cold beer in the boma.

Wednesday 2 December 2015

On Safari With Amanda 1 December 2015

1 December 2015

Hot! Hot and hotter! Fantastic day in the park. Heading off from camp we were greeted by a big herd of buffalo crossing the road lots of young ones too.

We received an update of a possible sighting of cheetah a few kms down the road so we drove calmly hoping they would still be there...alas they had moved into the bush and there was no visual of them. Following my gut I decided to go to shithave dam to see if they hadn't header that way, on reaching the dam I realized it was too far for them to have travelled so we decided to go to where they were originally Spotted.

Far in the distance we saw 2 sable antelope watching them I realized they were totally static and staring at the same spot, one of them moved closer, as it did out came the cheetah to chase it away that was the only sighting we got ,but, considering there only just over 400 in the park we were very lucky.

The day just got better and better with visual at renosterkoppies of 2 male lions lying in the shade  occasionally lifting their heads only to flop back down again!

After a quick stop at skukuza we decided it was very hot so let's head back to camp and the guests can cool off in the pool...this soon changed when we heard of a leopard lying in a marula tree not far from us so off we headed there quite far in the distance lay a very handsome leopard, after all the other cars had gone we sat watching him on our own for at least one hour.. very lucky.

The journey to camp produced tawny eagles, bataleur eagles, giraffe, zebra, elephant, buffalo and the most beautiful baby impalas. 


Another successful day in the Kruger and very happy, but hot guests!

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Prince Harry Flies Into Skukuza Kruger National Park

His Royal Highness Prince Harry flies into Skukuza Airport for an update on the poaching. He was met by Glenn Phillips (General Manager Kruger National Park), General Jooste ( Head of Anti Poaching Kruger National Park), William Mabasa ( General Manager communications and Marketing Kruger National Park) and CEO Mr Fundisile Mketeni.


On Safari With Robbie 30 November 2015

30 November 2015

These 3 couples were now really starting to get into the " safari groove " and on last nights night drive they were truly rewarded with incredible sightings of Leopard, Civet Cat, Chameleon, Scops Owl, a Serval cat and many more!!!

Todays early set off at 4-30 am was rather quiet until things changed and we literally got 4 predators in a row as in 1) Spotted Hyena ... 2) Lions ...3)Cheetah and 4)Caracal !!!

The Cheetah sighting took the mornings best as we had 3 adults interacting with 2 sub adults when suddenly the youngsters got up and sprinted for about 150 meters!!!

Its not often that this cat known for its speed actually displays it!!!

This fact and bearing in mind that the early dawn light was perfect ... Allowed for some legendary pics!!!!


We wish the crew a great time down south and hope to see them on their " reunion safari " one day soon!!!!

On Safari With Mark 29-30 November 2015

29 November 2015

It was an early rise for us, with a departure for a pre breakfast drive starting at 04:30. Great to be out with Nature so early in the morning.

Amazing to bump ourselves into 9 rhino before breakfast all lying close to the road.

After breakfast we headed for Skukuza where we overnight on our last night of the safari. On our way down we found Wild dogs lying right next to the road, but very counseled in the thicket of some gwari bushes.

On our approach to skukuza we got word of lions in the riverbed and went in search of them. We found all 8 lying and after taking some photos we checked into our camp.

30 November 2015

The last morning, delivered yet again with a beautiful big Black Rhino Male walking out in front of us. To fast for photos though but some sightings just need to be remembered and not shown on a digital screen.

Further down the road we bumped into once again a pack of 9 wild dogs just lying in the road enjoying the fresh African sun. With this as one of the last sighting, we set out to send my lovely safari warriors back home.


Turn around for me as we await our new safari warriors.