21 October 2014
This morning
it was time to pack up and leave Nkambeni Safari Camp, as it was time to move
on. On the road out of camp we started by spotting two elephants in the
distance. Then on the tar road a giraffe was walking around with a baby giraffe
by her side. Well, by her side not really, as when the mum walked off the baby
kept on standing behind a tree. When a male giraffe arrived at the seen and
checked if the mum was ready to mate again by sniffing her bum, the baby looked
quickly around the tree before disappearing in the other direction.
We decided it
was our last chance to see the leopard cubs, so we went to visit them straight
away. And oh boy, were we lucky this morning. All three of them were out and it
was all playtime and adventure for these three little ones. With mum gone they
dared to venture more and more away from their den hole, and they were chasing
each other, climbing tree stalks (falling down them too), trying to catch each
other, pushing each other off rocks or out of trees. It was a wonderful sight
to see those three cubs explore the big wild world. So we spend the rest of the
early morning sitting with these wonderful leopard cubs! Ok, we had a little
bit of attention leftover for the slender mongoose that crossed the rock
nearby, but the rest was devoted to the three musketeers.
When playtime
was clearly over, as the cubs started to fall asleep on sight and one by one
disappeared into their den hole, we took leave from the sighting and went for a
little coffee break at Pretoriuskop. We would spend the night here later, but
as it was still too early to check-in we set off again to see some other parts
of the park.
Once again we
spotted a mummy warthog with two tiny little piglets. Babies was definitely a
theme this morning! Furthermore we saw elephants, plenty of wildebeest, zebras
and a secretary bird before we turned down the H3. To stick to the special
birds theme we then saw some ground hornbills too, as well as more elephants
and some white rhinos (including a mum and a baby, still keeping the theme
here).
Just before we
got to Afsaal we had an amazing sighting of this big white rhino bull which had
an itch. And not just one itch. He was scratching his belly, and all around his
backside over this little bush. All that popped to mind is Balou in Disney's
Jungle Book, which in his Bear Necessities song finds a tree to scratch!
After an early
lunch break at Afsaal we decided to go take a look down at the Mlambane river
before returning to Pretoriuskop. We weren't planning on staying long, but we
got distracted by this big herd of elephants. First we saw only one, but we
could hear plenty more of them in the bush. It was rather ghostly as we saw
trees move, heard branches break and even heard munching and some "tummy
rumble" sounds elephants make to communicate. Then one started crossing,
and slowly more and more came out of the bush and followed. There were
elephants of all ages and sizes, a teenie tiny baby (another one for the
theme), youngsters, teens and adults and elderly. One very big elephant was
intending to feed the youngsters some fresh green leaves as in 1...2...3...big
pushes and she was pushing over a large tree! It was right next to the road,
great to see and luckily she pushed it away
from us ;).
Then bit by bit they all moved off and so we set off again, making our way back
to Pretoriuskop.
Back up the H3
and then Napi we had plenty of sightings. We saw lots of elephants (no young
babies this time), a klipspringer, giraffes, zebras, a brilliant male warthogs
showing off his tusks, kudus and let's not forget the impalas! While checking
in the guests enjoyed watching the vervet monkeys huddling together in camp as
it started to cool down and they were getting ready for the night. A tiny little
vervet monkey was shared between the mother and some aspiring mothers before it
got tucked away between mum's nipples to have a drink. It was the end of
another great day of this 7-day safari.
22 October 2014
Today we started
wet, as it had started to rain earlier this morning. Trying not to let it
bother us, we once again packed up and set off for a final drive down Napi. We
didn't get far before we had our first sighting of the day: a leopard in a
tree. It was the same tree as two days ago at the end of the day, so probably
the same leopard. However we spotted only one leopard this time. After looking
at her in the tree for a bit, she had enough of the onlookers and jumped out of
the tree. We saw her again sitting on a little termite mount further into the
drainage line, but then she started moving towards the road. Slowly she walked
down into the drainage line and had a little bit to drink of the water. Then
suddenly she sprinted across and hid herself away in the lush green bushes on
the other side of the road. Leopard gone, we were on the road again.
Shortly after
we saw a small herd of buffalos lying down close to the road and as one of the
mothers was still standing, a little calf was taking the opportunity to have some
milk. Not sure if the cow gave still milk though as the calf had to hit the
udder quite hard a couple of times, but it didn't seem to bother the cow. We
also had a couple of white rhino sightings. A baby was drinking from her mother
here too, but it seemed to be a lot more gentle than the buffalo calf.
Down the road
we saw some wildebeest, impalas, our second secretary bird (but might be the
same one as yesterday), zebras, a shouting red crested korhaan, black headed
oriole, a so far unidentified blind snake, a juvenile bateleur and just before
breakfast we had a glimpse of another leopard walking down the road parallel
but in the dense bush.
We enjoyed our
breakfast at the Skukuza Golfclub, where in the end the hippos came to greet us
too. We then left on our way to Satara. We first drove over Ellooff, where a
leopard tortoise took its time crossing the road. We also saw a large troop of
baboons on the H1-2, including a mother with a tiny baby. Yeah, I know, lots of
babies this tour!
A quick
pitstop at Tshokwane before continuing on the H1-3, but we didn't get far. A
big male lion was having a meal out of a zebra. It looked like a very fresh
kill, and the male was making the most of it. Somehow it seemed impossible he
ate it all though and the answer to get came after watching the male feast for
quite some time: one by one the females of the pride as well as some youngsters
came walking over the hill in the background. Well, I say walking, but it
looked more like dragging or staggering. They were so full the bellies were
protruding like big balloons and it showed in there ability to walk. They laid
down in a big huddle and started washing the blood from their paws. We counted
at least 8 females and youngsters walking into view as well as another male
that kept a bit more distance, and not to forget the massive male that was
still feasting on the leftover zebra when we left the sighting an hour later.
Now I almost
forget to mention that while watching those lions we also saw plenty of white
backed vultures waiting for some scraps (but we were pessimistic they would get
some) and three blackbacked jackals. When it was just the male feeding on the
zebra two of those jackals were rather brave and came quite close to the male
and his kill. One even stole a bit. But as soon as the rest of the pride turned
up the jackals resided to waiting on the sidelines.
When we
finally set off again we drove to Satara without many stops. There weren't many
animals around in this windy and rainy weather, or maybe they just thought we
had seen enough. But we did get to see two groups of 4 ground hornbills (one in
a tree, and then flying down, one further on just sticking to the ground),
another crossing leopard tortoise, lots of giraffes, some live zebras and
wildebeest. And to prove carnivore animals have a varied diet we found
skeletons of giraffe, wildebeest and buffalo all quite close to the road.
We checked in
at Satara where the guests tonight had their evening safari. They were lucky
enough to see even more lions tonight, two lots of them (they said about 10
more lions are added to their count), one including two big male lions playing.
They also saw a herd of elephants with babies, a herd of buffalos, hyenas,
spotted eagle owl and some unidentified animals.
23 October 2014
Before we had
even left this morning we already had our first sighting as a family of banded
mongoose was breaking into the camp. Most of them got away with sneaking in
through a hole in the fence, but one or two actually got zapped by the electric
wires. OUCH! And the spark scared off some of the members of the family too. We
sat watching them playing for a bit before continuing, and spotting a vervet
monkey on the roof of the kitchen and his friend just jumped up clearly having
something stolen from that area. And all that before we were even out of the
gate of Satara.
Across the
gate were 3 giraffes and not far down the road two hyenas were spotted (no pun
intended). Furthermore down towards Tshokwane on the H1-3 we saw Burchell's
coucal, magpie shrikes, plenty more giraffes, a sadlebilled stork, and two more
young hyenas. And then a long stretch of nothing.
Just before
Tshokwane there was some life again with zebras, lots of wildebeest, a kori
bustard came walking by, a martial eagle and a bushbuck was feeding across the
river while we had breakfast.
After
breakfast we settled in for a drive down the H10 to Lower Sabie. First we
stopped at the two Mlondozi Lookout points (Nkumbe viewsites), to take some
pictures of the beautiful view and we spotted some giraffes and zebras in the
distance. Then it was down through the plains where we spotted plenty of
wildebeest, even more zebra, twice a reedbuck, slender mongooses sitting still
long enough for pictures and a black chested snake eagle flying away with a
live snake in his beak! And we saw so many warthogs on this road, we stopped
counting. But none of them stood still long enough with its face towards us for
a picture. Or we weren't quick enough to take one, that's more likely...
We stopped
watching an old bull elephant pushing over a tree for two younger bulls to feed
off the top. When the tree didn't completely fall over right away, after using
his head, he used his feet to push it down completely. Very handy creatures,
those elephants, using every tool that is at their disposal! We also saw a herd
of elephants later on and an ostrich family consisting of mum, dad and at least
7 offspring. But the little ostriches kept on moving around in the grass that
is just as tall, so it was difficult to count them. Oh and not to forget we saw
a red crested korhaan trying to impress a female. He had his crest all up and
bright, jumping up and down in excitement and cooing to the lady. Unfortunately
the lady though, she didn't seem too impressed. He kept on going for quite a
while and then took a run at her. Well, she would have none of that! She spread
her wings and took off, with the male instantly following in pursuit...
Lunch was
eaten at Lower Sabie and then we stopped at Sunset dam, where the crocodiles
were floating in the water or lying on the shores, yellow-billed storks were
feeding, an openbill was snoozing, and so were the hippos, and a grey heron was
snoozing on the bum of a hippo who didn't seem to mind.
Then further
on we suddenly spotted a lion in the bush just past Sunset Dam. He was walking
through the bushes and sometimes lying down. And another one showed and a
little bit later we even saw a third. We stopped at an open spot in the hope
they would walk across for a good picture, and so they did. But we got more
then we bargained for as we suddenly noticed some impalas. We pulled forward as
the lions started stalking and then made a half-hearted attempt at the impala.
No luck, but they did come out of the bush and started walking in the road.
First just the two of them, later all three. We had some good shots in the
beginning, but then let some other cars pass to take a chance. Then the third
one came through the cars and kept on walking alongside us in the traffic jam
(which had grown in great length by now), sometimes lying down and getting back
up to follow its brothers. The three young males were followed by about 40
cars, give or take a few, for a walk down the road that took them an hour.
After 1,5 hours of following their every move, the walked down into the
riverbed and we finally decided to leave them.
After that it
was a straight run down to Skukuza. We did see another new animal: a hinged
tortoise in the middle of the road. But also plenty of the ones we had seen
before: hippos, buffalos, a large family of vervet monkeys with a newborn baby,
elephants, steenboks, guineafowls, kudus including some nice bulls, waterbucks
and of course, impalas!
At dinnertime
we had some nice sounds of the bush surrounding us as various frogs, toads and
bushbabies were letting us know they were there!
24 October 2014
Today we had
breakfast when the restaurant opened after which we packed up and set off for
our last safari. We drove down Kruger road and Doispane to Phabeni Gate. We did
see some last animals like impalas, kudus, elephants and buffalos. We took some
last pictures and then in was time to leave the Park.
After an
eventful drive down to Nelspruit as a truck full of sugar had fallen over on a
very busy crossroads, we arrived safely in Nelspuit. Here we said goodbye to Hennie,
Jan, Charlotte and Dirk. I hope you had a great safari and when you get home,
and look at the pictures, you'll know how lucky you have been with all your
sightings! Watching those pictures will make you go on safari all over again.
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