On Safari With Curtis From 1 June 2014

1 June 2014

The first day of a new tour and after a stop for lunch in Nelspruit we headed down to Phabeni gate, our first sighting was a large herd of impala close to the road and then a short look at a buffalo before he disappeared into the bush. We stopped at Nyamundwa dam and found hippos on the other side as well as wildebeest and a variety of birdlife such as cormorants, Egyptian geese, blacksmith lapwings and an African fish eagle. Further along doispane we found zebra before turning onto watergat where immediately we found a nice sighting of impala, kudu and vervet monkey's in the same spot. We then came across a large bull elephant only a few metres from the road, we pulled up close and watched as he pushed over a smallish acacia tree and started to pick branches off it before crossing over behind us. We then found impala alongside baboons and a warthog at the watering hole. After turning onto Napi we found a young hyena cub lying by his den before visiting transport dam. Again we could see hippo on the other side, as well a waterbuck, a couple of steenbok and more water birds. The rest of Napi was very quiet with just a few impala and kudu. As we drove down camp road we got another close sighting of an elephant before entering the gates of Nkambeni tented safari camp for the night.

 

2 June 2014

This morning we immediately bumped into an elephant just outside the lodge gates before taking a drive around shabeni and finding a leopard, we only got a short glimpse of her before she moved deep into the bush but never the less it was a good start. We drove down Napi which was quiet, with only impala and kudu seen. Continuing on with our drive we spotted rhinos and on closer inspection showed that the two were actually mating, a very unusual sighting. Further along we came across a large herd of buffalo with animals on either side of us and on the road in front of us. We carried on and found elephants before one of my guests shouted lion!! We reversed and unfortunately the thing she had seen was not a lion, we would have been disappointed however the thing she had seen was in fact our second leopard. We were the only vehicle for some time and spent plenty of time watching him before he got up and walked over to the road enabling us to follow him closely. A great sighting enjoyed by us all.

We then drove to Skukuza seeing giraffe along the way. After our break we took a trip around the river spotting kudu, bushbuck, a nice crocodile sunbathing on the sand as well as group of white backed vultures which were also sand bathing. We then heard about some lions on bravo. We headed down there and found two lions a bit into the bush, the Acacia trees blocked our view a bit but with some positioning we were able to get a good view of the pair. On the way back we came across 3 hyena cubs , plenty of elephants and impala we also saw the buffalo herd we had seen earlier.

 

3 June 2014

The last morning of this tour and after packing up our bags we set off for a last safari before transfers.

As we left the lodge for the last time we spotted a couple of common duikers which quickly dived into the bush before we set off down Albasini, we spotted impala before we got to mestel dam and found a mum and small calf hippo out of the water lying on a sandbank, maybe the water was colder than the winter air around us!! We carried on down the road, which was quiet, finding a nice herd of Zebra close to the road, we just had time to drive down to nyamundwa dam finding more hippos and the water birds at the edge before we had a drive down to phabeni gate and leave the park.

I would like to thank Evie, James, Josie and Susan for their company, we have been very successful over the last three days and we got everything that you had hoped for. Hope to see you back here one day!!!