On Safari With Karen From 11 February 2014

11 February 2014

After a night full of sounds of the African bush (frogs, bushbabies, hyenas) we left early to go on a long game drive. It was a bit chilly in the morning but soon enough we spotted marabou storks and a bushbuck. A little further on we saw our first crocodile bobbing in the river.

This morning we were very lucky to come across 4 hyenas lying right next to the road. They were however not very impressed with the car so more than a slight raise of the head wasn't in it, but we enjoyed it very much. Up ahead we already saw the wild dogs playing so we continued to park in their midst. While watching them play and pass us by we counted 17 wild dogs in this pack! The first day of this safari we saw some ears twitch and tails wave at us, this was an awesome wild dog sighting!

While the cavalry passed us by we were told to hurry up as there was a lioness further up ahead walking on the road. We were lucky to catch up and had an amazing sighting when she decided to walk right next to the vehicle, so close that we could see exactly how many ticks she had on her back. I leaned inside the car as to not to upset her but if I had stuck out my hand it would have stroked her (or she would have taken it as a snack).

Before we stopped to have breakfast we also saw some kudus, an elephant herd with youngsters, impalas, plenty of golden orb spiders and a slender mongoose.

After breakfast at Tshokwane we continued our journey southwards toward Lower Sabie. At the view points we had excellent view of the Kruger park and spotted 2 different rhino sightings, 2 different giraffe sightings, wildebeest and ostrich!

A slow drive down the H10 we stopped for beautiful birds as well as other small things of the bush like millipedes. We saw a reedbuck, more wildebeest, 2 herds of elephants, kudu bulls as well as females, baboons, more white rhinos, including a mother and a young calf of which we could see the ears stick out of the long grass, a steenbok and surprisingly no impalas on this stretch!

After a short break at Lower Sabie we drove slowly back to Skukuza. We encountered more baboons as well as vervet monkeys with small fluffy babies, hippos playing in the water and at 1 sighting even grazing out of the water, buffalo, warthog and this last bit we saw once again lots of impalas!

It has been a glorious but hot day. Let's see what tomorrow will bring!

 

12 February 2014

The past couple of days were scorching hot so we decided to have the earliest possible start today and beat the heat. We loaded our bags and set off to follow in Marks tracks who had spotted some lions on the road. We showed up just in time to get a glimpse of them while they were walking into the bush. They scared some rhinos that were close-by which in turn ran off.

Continuing down the road to Paul Kruger gate we spotted the ever present impalas, zebras, giraffe, kudus, leopard tortoises and a steenbok.

We turned onto the dirt road Riverlink and it turned quiet for a while until we spotted a couple of big bull elephants. The smallest one hadn't had his coffee yet and was grumpy because in the time we were watching we saw him engaging in 4 scuffles. The first one he definitely picked the fight, challenging his opponent. After a couple of pushes and shoves he packed up and they started feeding again. Until a new elephant arrived on the seen. He instantly went for him and picked a fight with this elephant that was just a bit smaller. The first opponent notice and decided to end it by taking over the fight himself again. And last but not least then both opponents teamed up against him and pushed him backwards down the road. It was an excellent sighting!

We then got a tip about cheetahs that were walking down a road nearby so we decided to give it a try. We were again just in time ( very lucky) to see a cheetah mother with her two cubs walking through the medium high grass not far from the road.

By then we started getting hungry so slowly made our way to the golfclub for breakfast. We had to stop a couple of times for small leopard tortoises crossing the road, waiting for them to reach safety on the other side. While chewing we saw the hippos play and warthogs interfering with golfers.

Then it was time for our drive down on Napi towards Numbi gate and Nkambeni Safari Camp, our new home for the rest of this safari. As the temperature had risen a lot it was a pretty quiet drive with impalas, zebras, wildebeest, kudus, a very fat warthog, vervet monkeys playing in trees, and a small family of elephants of a mother with her young calf and a new baby that crossed the road just in front of us. When we almost were at the end of our drive we were lucky to see a rhino lying in the shade close to the road!

After a long break which consists of trying out the pool and the bar, the guests will go on their sunset safari. Let's hope they keep on being lucky!

 

Keep watching for more!!

The Hawks Make Nine Arrests For Rhino-Related Crimes

The Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks in Limpopo has arrested nine suspects during a two-day operation related to environmental crimes, particularly the trade in rhino horn.

The police, who were acting on information received, arrested five suspected rhino poachers at Bela Bela yesterday afternoon, 11 February 2014, for being in possession of... a rhino horn. The suspects were arrested during what was supposed to be a rhino horn transaction between the suspects and an undercover buyer.

The seized horn appears to have been poached from an adult rhino a few months ago. The five suspects are aged between 23 and 34. They are South Africans from the Mabula Village and Eersterust in Hammanskraal North, Pretoria. During the arrest, the police seized an uncut diamond, which was later tested to be a fake, and the suspects’ getaway vehicle.

They are due to appear in the Bela Bela Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 13 February 2014, on charges of the illegal possession of a rhino horn.

This arrest happened a few hours after the Hawks were summoned to a rhino poaching crime scene at the Zonderwater Farm in Lephalale where two rhinos had been shot; one dehorned and the other wounded.

Rangers at the farm accosted individuals suspiciously making their rounds at the farm at about 16:30 on Monday, 10 February 2014. The police were immediately summoned to the area. A set of rhino horns, a high-calibre hunting rifle with four rounds of ammunition, a saw and a getaway car were seized.

The suspects, 31-year-old Kenny Sibiya, 42-year-old Butini Ndlovu, 48-year-old Richard Sibuyani, both from Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga and 30-year-old Sam Nnone from the Dark City Village in Lephalale, are facing charges of rhino poaching, being in possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.

They appeared in the Lephalale Magistrates’ Court today and their case has been postponed to 28 March 2014 for a formal bail application while they remain in custody.

Earlier this year, three suspected rhino poachers, 39-year-old Jaime Mashavane, 40-year-old Thomas Chauke and 32-year-old Moses Mathobo, were arrested at the Shambala Game Reserve in Vaalwater, Limpopo. A hunting rifle and an axe were seized. The suspects are still in custody.

“We remain committed and determined to confront rhino poaching from all angles. We will continue to surprise them in the thick bushes where they are operating from,” said the Head of the Hawks in Limpopo, Major General Dibero Molatjana.

Issued by:
The South African Police Service

On Safari With Mark From 10 February 2014

10 February 2014

Route: Phabeni gate - Doispan - S65 - Skukuza - Kruger gate - Skukuza

General animals seen: kudu, warthog, impala, chackma baboon - vervet monkeys - zebra - giraffe and common duiker

Great sightings of different elephant herds on doispan today. A single bull very close to the road approximately 500m past 3 finger rock.

While watching this a college of mine informed me of action on the S65. Approximately 6.5kms from doispan we found 3 cheetha (1 female and 2 cubs) that had just killed an impala. All 3 busy eating with the ever watchful eyes on the white backed and lappet faced vultures. Although a distant sighting, it was still good to see the interaction between cheetah and vultures.

On Kruger gate road approximately 200m before the doispan junction we saw a herd of Cape buffalo. Guest got good photos of this herd however still a bit distant.

Out on the road tomorrow to see what nature has to offer.

 

11 February 2014

Route: Tshokwane tar - H10 - Elloff - Skukuza

General animals seen: impala, kudu, giraffe, steenbok, warthog, Nile crocodile, hippos, bush buck, vervet monkeys and chackma baboon

Approximately 1.3kms past Marola exit we found 17 wild dog running in the road. They spotted a male impala and the chase was on. Unfortunately the impala was to far for them and they gave up very quickly and carried on running next to us. The guests enjoyed the sighting for 30min and we decided to move on to allow other safari vehicles in our group a chance to show their guests the same.

Approximately 3kms down the road a female lion walked out onto the tar ahead of us and casually strolled past our vehicle as we gave her space to move. Great to see what condition she's in and guest got good photos of this to.

General sightings of herds of elephant was seen throughout the day. With some great distant shots on the H10 of females spraying their body's with mud.

2 different sightings of secretary birds along the same route.

The other unusual sighting for the day was a flock of ostriches (1male and 5 female) just minding their own business walking along and eating anything of interest.

Buffalo's spotted on the lower  bridge just lazing in the shallow water.

On our way back to camp we came across a male black rhino and once again could spend time with it as it was relaxed with our presence.

Overall, this was a great days game viewing with all clients happy at this stage with what the bush had to offer.

Onto Nkambeni tented camp tomorrow.

Keep watching for more!!!

On Safari With Karen From 9 February 2014

9 February 2014

After picking up the guests at KMIA we headed towards Phabeni gate to enter the Kruger Park. On our way we were already spoiled with a sighting of impalas that roam the airport, a huge water monitor that risked its life crossing the main road and vervet monkeys in the trees next to the road.

Once we entered the park we continued our journey on a more leisurely pace and saw impalas almost straight away. Then we were very lucky to spot a leopard lounging in a tree just kilometres from the gate and not far from the road. He seemed uncomfortable so we waited a while for him to move but apparently he disagreed and didn't move.

We tore ourselves away from the sleepy leopard to see an elephant feeding on the other side of the road, just a couple of 100 metres further.

Another stop gave us an amazing sighting of 2 white rhinos sleeping in the riverbed, and what was lying in the overflow riverbed on the other side of the road? Two buffalo! We hadn't driven 2 kilometres and we saw 4 of the big 5!

It was a bit more spread out after that, but we spotted blue wildebeest, zebras, warthog, more buffalo and a couple more elephants. We also paid attention to the colourful birds like the lilac breasted roller, woolly necked storks, woodlands kingfisher.

At one of the sightings we got a tip about wild dogs on Watergat, so we drove down to take a look and found them flat out in the grass. We waited for over an hour but more then a flick of a tail, a twitch of an ear and the occasional head raise we couldn't see them properly. Guess our luck was coming to an end so we decided to head to Skukuza, our camp for tonight.

What an amazing lucky start to this safari! Well worth skipping our lunch for. Now let's hope we'll get a nice look at those wild dogs tomorrow as we are going to try and find them again.

 

10 February 2014

This morning we left bright and early as the sun came up. Before we were even out of the gate we spotted Vervet monkeys on the top of the roof sunning themselves to start their day. Just outside the gate of Skukuza we saw our first giraffe, kudu and honeybadger all in the same spot. The kudu got a fright and hid in the bush, the honeybadger looked up and then continued crossing the road and disappeared but the giraffe was curious and watch us while we were watching him.

We drove a loop around the river and came across a large family of baboons playing in the road, impalas with a late born young, bushbuck, more kudus, hippos, a bateleurs couple, pied kingfishers, three kinds of bee eaters, marabou storks, and big webs of golden orb spiders.

After our breakfast at the golfclub the hippos in the dam came close for their photo shoot. The purple crested turaco and woodlands kingfisher joined in and when all the fun was over we climbed back on the vehicle and continue down watergat.

We spotted zebras with very young babies, steenbok, elephants, buffalo, common grey duiker, a well hidden male waterbuck and had a giraffe crossing the road in front of us.

We returned to Skukuza for a little break as it started to get very hot.

In the afternoon we went for a little bumble out in the park and soon enough we saw the vervet monkeys inside the camp again. Disturbingly a youngish male was trying to mate with a little baby so we decided to continue. We had multiple baboon sightings, more vervet monkeys, warthogs, a fish eagle that had caught a fish, a lovely kudu bull and a leopard tortoise.

Tomorrow we go on the road again, bright and early!

 

Keep watching for more!