10 July 2014
Today we set off with a car full of volunteers from Care for
Wild, who, instead of having to care day and night for their animals, had a day
out of just watching them. We entered through Numbi gate and within a 100m
found a bushbuck hiding behind a fallen tree next to the road.
We carried on where we had two nice sightings of two white rhinos. Two were watching us as much as we were watching them through the bushes. Two others had no interest in us at all and showed us their magnificent backside only. We also spotted impalas, lilac breasted rollers, a Burchell's coucal, two young kudu bulls, two warthogs running away and two bull elephants hiding in the bushes. Guess it was a morning of twos...
After a break for breakfast we drove down towards Marula loop. A duiker crossed the road in front of us and then quickly disappeared. The bushbucks at a waterhole however were hanging around long enough to take pictures. On Sand River low level bridge we encountered a large troop of baboons. They were relaxing, grooming and playing and were fun to watch for quite some time as something new happened or got discovered every few minutes. We also saw a male nyala.
On Marula Loop we saw three giraffes, a family of four tree squirrels, a steenbok and a small herd of elephants. They looked liked they might cross as they were feeding on both sides of the road, but decided not to while we were watching them. An older elephant with a calf looked quite stressed and even got a fright of a bachelor group of impalas coming out of the bush, so we decided to leave her alone and gave her back the peace and quiet of no cars.
On the tar road towards high level bridge we spotted zebras, tawny eagle, more giraffes and a family of warthogs that was feeding on their wrists.
High level bridge was unusually quiet as there were no animals in sight so down Elooff we went. Here the impalas roamed around in big herds and we saw more warthogs, kudus and vervet monkeys before we got a tip about a leopard on the S114. As he wasn't supposed to be too far from the tar road we gave it a go.
Arriving at the sighting there were multiple cars all saying the same thing: yeah the leopard is here, but he is lying flat in the bushes somewhere. We decided to hang around for a bit before turning around and weren't we lucky! Just in the 10min we were there he sat up, and had a lie down again. We then turned around to go to Skukuza for lunch but the traffic wasn't easy to get through. But it gave us another glance of the leopard which got up, walked three paces to a different bush and flopped down again. After that we only saw a tail flick until we managed to get through the traffic to the other side.
After lunch we took a drive down River Road. Having spotting nothing but impalas and a large herd of kudus from Skukuza onwards till just before the S4 turn-off, we were happy to see another leopard. Once again people at the sighting didn't see him, others saying he was walking around stalking something but checking the shady bits we saw him quite clearly just hanging out.
Carrying on we came across a middle size herd of buffalo resting, zebras, vervet monkeys, a bateleur and had an excellent sighting of two rhinos out in the open.
We stopped at Shitlhave Dam to look at a shore full of snoring hippos and a crocodile having a snooze in the sun. A white breasted comorant was apparently hungry as he was catching a fish just in front of us and a fish eagle who didn't pay attention.
Then it was time to continue to Phabeni Gate where we said goodbye to one last sighting of a troop of baboons and a lizard buzzard before driving out of the park.
We carried on where we had two nice sightings of two white rhinos. Two were watching us as much as we were watching them through the bushes. Two others had no interest in us at all and showed us their magnificent backside only. We also spotted impalas, lilac breasted rollers, a Burchell's coucal, two young kudu bulls, two warthogs running away and two bull elephants hiding in the bushes. Guess it was a morning of twos...
After a break for breakfast we drove down towards Marula loop. A duiker crossed the road in front of us and then quickly disappeared. The bushbucks at a waterhole however were hanging around long enough to take pictures. On Sand River low level bridge we encountered a large troop of baboons. They were relaxing, grooming and playing and were fun to watch for quite some time as something new happened or got discovered every few minutes. We also saw a male nyala.
On Marula Loop we saw three giraffes, a family of four tree squirrels, a steenbok and a small herd of elephants. They looked liked they might cross as they were feeding on both sides of the road, but decided not to while we were watching them. An older elephant with a calf looked quite stressed and even got a fright of a bachelor group of impalas coming out of the bush, so we decided to leave her alone and gave her back the peace and quiet of no cars.
On the tar road towards high level bridge we spotted zebras, tawny eagle, more giraffes and a family of warthogs that was feeding on their wrists.
High level bridge was unusually quiet as there were no animals in sight so down Elooff we went. Here the impalas roamed around in big herds and we saw more warthogs, kudus and vervet monkeys before we got a tip about a leopard on the S114. As he wasn't supposed to be too far from the tar road we gave it a go.
Arriving at the sighting there were multiple cars all saying the same thing: yeah the leopard is here, but he is lying flat in the bushes somewhere. We decided to hang around for a bit before turning around and weren't we lucky! Just in the 10min we were there he sat up, and had a lie down again. We then turned around to go to Skukuza for lunch but the traffic wasn't easy to get through. But it gave us another glance of the leopard which got up, walked three paces to a different bush and flopped down again. After that we only saw a tail flick until we managed to get through the traffic to the other side.
After lunch we took a drive down River Road. Having spotting nothing but impalas and a large herd of kudus from Skukuza onwards till just before the S4 turn-off, we were happy to see another leopard. Once again people at the sighting didn't see him, others saying he was walking around stalking something but checking the shady bits we saw him quite clearly just hanging out.
Carrying on we came across a middle size herd of buffalo resting, zebras, vervet monkeys, a bateleur and had an excellent sighting of two rhinos out in the open.
We stopped at Shitlhave Dam to look at a shore full of snoring hippos and a crocodile having a snooze in the sun. A white breasted comorant was apparently hungry as he was catching a fish just in front of us and a fish eagle who didn't pay attention.
Then it was time to continue to Phabeni Gate where we said goodbye to one last sighting of a troop of baboons and a lizard buzzard before driving out of the park.
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