Kruger Park Safari with Ryan, Stephanie, Fernando and Jeff 18 - 22 December 2011 Day 5

Today started off at 04h00 with tea and coffee, and then it was time for Fernando and Jeff to go out on there bush walk that left at 04h30. After handing the guests over to the Kruger Park Rangers, Ryan and Stephanie took a drive with us to see what we could find on the last game drive before leaving the park.

It was not long before we found another good sighting of rhino lying next to the road, after a good time spent on the sighting, we took our leave to see what else was going on. Things seemed to quiten down until e ran into another cheetah walking next to the road, this proved to be a quick sighting as he moved quite quickly into the bush.

We carried on and made our way in the direction of were some large male lions were lying yesterday with a kill just nine hundred meters from Quagga Pan. We turned onto the H3 and made our way in that direction. When we got to Quagga Pan, we saw quite a large number of vehicles parked next to the road, and as we got closer saw that irt was our lions lying about thirty meters from the road in full view of everybody. We turned the vehicle around and took our time at the sighting, spending about forty five minutes watching the lions while they moved around looking for shade from the already hot sun. Soon it was time to make our way back to the camp of Pretoriuskop to meet Fernando and Jeff.

One the way back to camp some good bird species were seen.

Guests enjoyed a good breakfast at the camp restaurant, before we loaded all the luggage and made our way out of the Kruger National Park. We made our way back to Nelspruit were e changed our vehicle over to one of our closed transfer vehicles and then proceeded to make our way back to Johannesburg.

Feedback from the guests were that they had a wonderful time and want to come back with other family members to experience another safari to the Kruger National Park.

Kruger Park Safari with Ryan, Stephanie, Fernando and friend 18 - 22December 2011 Day 4

We left camp again today at 04h30 after enjoying tea and coffee. I decided to take a drive down the Voortrekker road which would free us up from any South African tourists in the area. After a short distance of about five kilometers we came across a nice herd of buffalo lying next to the road, after having a short discussion on them, we drove on finding a short distance down the road a nice male, female and young rhino calf standing in the road. These guys were enjoying our company and only moved away after a good fifteen minute sighting. We continued on down the road and a we came around a bend in the road we found a cheetah walking towards us. He walked past our open safari vehicle and walked up to the "No Entry" marker and jumped up to smell what was going on. After a few minutes of standing there, he jumped down and came to sit in the road in front of our vehicle. After a short while, he was off into the bush and away from the road.


We travelled on down "Voortrekker" road with everybody in high spirits, when we came across a nice elephant bull next to the road. We watched this guy, and as we were coming to the end of the road, we watched him cross the H3.


We turned right on the H3 and got to have good sightings of wildebeest, warthog and zebra on the gabro plains, before another tourist stopped next to us and told us of a leopard that had been seen on the main road. We decided to go and have a look, about one kilometer down the road, we came upon a male leopard trying to hunt some impalas, we watched anticipating a kill was going to happen, but unfortunately the impalas saw the leopard and disappeared into the bush. The leopard slowly made it's way to our open safari vehicle and proceeded to walk next to it in the road for the next two hundred meters, before moving off the road and making it's way in an easterly direction into the bush.


We made our way back towards the little Jock road and heard a messaage on the radio about some lions that had been spotted there and thought we would take a look. We travelled down the road for about three kilometers and found two lionesses lying near to the road with another seven lying deeper into the bush. After spending some time on this sighting, we decided to make our way in the direction of Skukuza for breakfast. We made our way back to the H3 and had not gone three kilometers in the direction of Skukuza, before we ran into a pack of nine wild dogs lying in the road. We followed them for a while, until they diappeared into the bush in the direction of Stolsnek.


We turned around and made our way in a northerly direction. After a short distance, we found more rhino and buffalo next to the road.


As we made our way up, we got a message from another open safari vehicle about six male lions that were lying next to the road, nine hundred meters before Quagga Pan. We made our way in that direction, and it was not long before we had them in our sights, lying next to the road. It was a great sighting as guests could also get some great photos of male lions.
We spent quite a time on the sighting, before leaving and making our way in the direction is Skukuza, stopping off for some good bird sightings.


We got in for breakfast at about 08h45, and after enjoying a good breakfast, it was out back on the road to see what we could find. We took a drive down Elloff Street towards the high water bridge. We got a good sighting of baboons, before we were told of a possible black rhino sighting. We made our way in that direction and found a black rhino walking towards the road. We got a great sighting of this male rhino as he crossed the road. We carried on with the rest of the drive been on the quiter side as the temperature had started to rise into the late thirties. We stopped off at the camp of Skukuza as the guests wanted to do some shopping at the camp shop, before returning to camp.


After leaving the camp of Skukuza, we made our way back to the camp of Pretoriuskop for a rest before guests would go out on a sunset drive. On our way back to camp, things had got really quite with only a sighting of more cheetah lying under the trees about five and a half kilometers from "Transport Dam".


Guests had a wonderful day, and as some are going on a morning walk and some are taking a drive, it remains to see what will be seen tomorrow.

Kruger Park Safari with Ryan, Stephanie, Fernando and friend 18 - 22December 2011 Day 3

Today, it was an early start again, and after enjoying tea and coffee it was back onto the open safari vehicle to see what we could find. We left camp at 04h30 and it was not long before we had our first sighting of rhino, impala and kudu, we continued down the Napi Road and came across some wild dogs lying next to the road. We spent quite a time with the dogs as they were starting to look for something to eat. We followed them down the road for a while. We left the wild dog sighting and made our way in the direction of Skukuza, stopping off for more sightings of rhino, elephant, hyena, kudu, impala, wildebeest and zebra. We continued on down to the Sabie river to see if we could find some hippos, this was not the case as all seemed to be hiding from us. More elephant and rhino were seen with also good sightings of baboon. We decided to make our way to breakfast.


After a good breakfast was enjoyed by all we made our way back out onto the road to see what we could find. It was not long before we got a call on the radio telling us of a leopard that was up a tree close to quagga pan south of the camp of Skukuza. We made our way in that direction. Upon arriving at the sighting, we were greeted by a male lying in the tree with a young warthog kill above him in the tree. Guests got to see a wonderful sighting with some wonderful photos of him moving around in the tree as well. After finishing at the sighting, we decided to return to camp for a rest, before departing at 15h00 on an afternoon game drive.


Guests had chance to have some good lunch and catch up on some sleep before going out on the afternoon game drive. We departed the camp looking for a good herd of buffalo which proved to be ilusive, but we managed to find giraffe, rhino, elephant and three different lion sightings.one which was of a mating pair.we decided to stay there for a while after which we returned back to camp after the gates closed.


Guests then had a good evening meal at the restaurant before retireing to bed for a well needed rest.

Kruger Park Safari with Ryan Patterson and Stephanie Cicconi 18th to22nd December 2011 Day 1 and 2

We picked up Ryan and Stephnie off of there flight at Johannesburg International airport and left Johannesburg for Nelspruit. After a stop along the way we arrived in Nelspruit. We changed from our closed vehicle into one of our open safari vehicles and undertook the last part of the journey to the "Numbi Gate" of the Kruger National Park. After check in procedures, we made our way down to the camp of Pretoriuskop. After checking in, guests were given the chance to get some lunch, before leaving at 15h30 on there first game drive. After leaving the camp, great sightings of rhino, elephant, impala, kudu and waterbuck were seen. Guests also got to see brown snake eagles, pearl chanting goshawks and many more bird species while on the drive. We arrived back at camp at 18h30 and after enjoying dinner in the restuarant, it was off to bed before and early start this morning.


We left camp at 04h30 this morning and were treated to four sightings of rhino as well as buffalo and elephant. We also took a drive down the S112, we're we found nine lions lying next to the road, we had a great sighting, a d after they moved off into the bush we went on finding more lions lying on the rocks on top of the lope as well as more elephant. We went on to breakfast as the Skukuza Golf Club. After a great breakfast, we made our way out were we ran into a large herd of elephants as well as hyena, impala more elephants and buffalo on the way back to camp.