On Safari With Karen From 26 February 2014

26 February 2014

This morning it was cloudy but dry so we set off right after breakfast and saw some buffalo deep in the bush shortly after leaving camp. We drove along Napi and spotted a nice elephant bull not far off the road. He was busy demolishing a silver cluster leaf tree, so we stayed and watch. He gave a couple of big pushes and we heard the tree groan, but the tree managed to hold on and only lose a couple of branches to mister elephant who happily chewed on them.

Along the way we spotted a couple more bull elephants, one of which really close to the road next to us and at a different sighting one in front of us on the road dictating our pace. It took a while but we also saw our first impala of this tour along the way, later followed by lots and lots of them.

Around a bend in the road we suddenly saw some oncoming traffic with a pack of wild dogs right in front of them. One walked by us really closely and the rest decided to take a nap in the middle of the road. The pack was snoozing so spread out they formed a road block, but a nice one to watch as wild dogs are a pretty rare carnivore and not often seen. Unfortunately another car wasn't as patient and "pushed" the wild dogs off the road into the high grass ending the sighting for us.

Just before we stopped for coffee at Skukuza we spend some time watching zebras graze and alarm calling. We also saw baboons playing in a tree and a couple walking past our vehicle.

After the coffee we followed a call from Curtis down to a side road of Doispane as he had found lions. We were in luck as even though we were far away, the lions stayed in the same spot snoozing and we had a great sighting of 3 lionesses. There were more of them hiding in the bush but they never came to our sight. Nonetheless it was very much enjoyed.

On the way back to the lodge over Doispane and Albassini we saw more impalas, zebras and elephant but also leopard tortoises of all shapes and sizes, vervet monkeys, whitebacked vultures in trees and flying, a brown snake eagle, dwarf mongoose and kudus.

Just before turning back onto the tar we saw a dark chanting goshawk having a bath in a puddle. He dipped his head twice, then his bum and then shook the feathers. He had a whole rhythm going as we watched for a while. Dip, dip, bum and shake.

We returned to Numbi to pick up some new guests and then went to Nkambeni for lunch. There we were surprised by a nice elephant bull feeding right on the fence line of the lodge, close to the dam. This was a nice start to the safari for the new guests!

In the afternoon our numbers had grown to 6 people who were on their first safari. And as some of them were only here for one night, we decided to see if we could find the lions again so all of us would have seen them. So we started off towards Albassini, and then would follow Doispane and return the same way.

We just left camp and then got straight away distracted by a white rhino on the side of the road. It was a lovely sight to see him graze.

On Albassini we had a slender mongoose crossing the road and saw our (first for some) impalas, kudus and an elephant crossing the road.We saw two rhinos out in the open close to the road which gave us some lovely photo opportunities. They were followed by a lot of cattle egrets.

We heard then that the lions were still around so excitedly we drove towards the indicated new spot. On the way we passed another great sighting of a crash of 5 white rhinos together. All 5 of them were looking at us. We continued towards the lions. They were there alright. All 6 females and 1 youngster were lying out in the open in a drainage line for all of us to look at. They were not moving an inch in the 10min we sat with them, but that was unfortunately all the time we had.

We turned around and on the way back to the tar we were once again greeted by the 5 white rhino, which, in contrary to the lions, had moved a bit further away from the road and just like us were a little less interested this time around. Novelty had worn of quickly after all those rhino sightings! On Doispane we then had a nervous moment when an elephant bull in must was waiting on the road just around the corner. We gave him some space and we bit our nails when he came walking down towards us in a typical big musty bull swagger. He stopped about 20m away from the car and then had doubts to either threaten us, play with us or just leave us be. We waited in silence and luckily he decided we weren't worth the trouble and moved on the side of the road and past us where he then started feeding.

Some of us took a deep steadying breath and we continued down towards Albassini. We found the same two rhino from earlier but this time we didn't even stop (so spoiled already, and running out of time). We did however stop for our first sighting of giraffes of the day. Apparently one of the females was in heat and the male followed her closely from behind. At one point he tried to mount her, but she wanted none of that and broke away. We watched a while longer, the guys rooting for the guy to make his move, the girls feeling sorry for the girl who looked half his size and so breakable under his weight. But nothing happened after the one attempt while we were there.

Then we drove back to the lodge after having a very good day of game drives today!!

 

27 February 2014

As we had a very lucky day yesterday we would take it easy this morning and just enjoy the environment and all the wildlife that crossed our path. We drove Napi until Transport Dam. Soon we came across our first animal of the day: an elephant bull, feeding. We came across a lot of them today but we also saw a mother elephant and her youngster crossing the road in front of us which made it special.

We saw 3 white backed vultures preening themselves in a tree and zebras, but except for some nice birds like a lilac breasted roller, green pigeon and white fronted as well as carmine bee eaters Napi was pretty quiet today.

Until we turned onto the road towards Transport Dam. The road itself was in a pretty bad shape, but the humps and bumps were worth it soon we came across giraffes quiet close to the road, as well as zebra and waterbuck. Down at Transport Dam we saw the hippos in the water popping up and down, a nice male waterbuck, woolly necked stork, Egyptian geese, whistling ducks and another elephant.

After enjoying the sight for a while we returned to Napi. On our way to Pretoriuskop for our coffee break we saw two tawny eagles hopping about in a tree. Some smaller birds nearby were screaming at them so they might have been eyeing some prey, but except for hopping up and down branches nothing happened.

We also saw female kudus and a little bit further two brilliant kudu males with their big horns entangled in bushes while feeding off its leaves. We stopped for a dung beetle rolling its ball into the high grass trying to navigate the easy way up the hill. And a large family of dwarf mongoose came to say hi on the road. The little babies were not yet acquainted with cars as they were hypnotized by our tyres and one by one they came closer to investigate. Two of them even dared to touch the tyre until and adult called alarm and swiftly they all disappeared in the grass once more.

Just before reaching Pretoriuskop we had a two way crossing in front of us. Giraffes crossed from right to left and behind them a herd of elephants crossed from left to right. The elephant straightaway disappeared from view but the giraffes hang around on the side of the road, all watching the car. Who's on safari?

After a short break we didn't have much time left. On the short stretch to Numbi Gate however we finally spotted our first impala of the day! And we followed a large family of baboons for a while. The big leaders sat lazing in the shade as it was getting hot, while the little ones played around and stopped at all the marula trees on the way to eat some of the fruit.

At Numbi we unfortunately had to say goodbye to Sairah, Tayba, Feeza and Tanya (gosh I hope I spelled it right), who had only joined us for one night. We hope to see you back some day!

In the afternoon we took a slow drive along Fayi Loop. We saw spoor and fresh dung of various animals, but none of them came into sight. We continued driving to Shithave Dam where we sat admiring the beautiful nature, white fronted bee eaters dipping into the water to drink and wash themselves, and 2 hippos popped up their heads. After a while we also saw a new animal: a smallish crocodile drifting on the opposite side.

On the way back to the lodge we saw some vervet monkeys playing in the trees, kudus, a herd of impalas and more waterbucks. To top it all off a small herd of elephant crossed the road to the lodge in front of us.

 

Keep watching for more!!

On Safari With Curtis From 25 February 2014

25 February 2014

The final day of the tour for four of my guests and after breakfast and packing we set off on their final drive. We headed up Napi which turned out to be very quiet seeing a couple of Elephants, Kudu and Impala before seeing Waterbuck and Hippo at Transport dam. We then headed down Watergat spotting more Impala and Kudu when we came across a lovely sighting of three Cheetah lying out in the open. We spent plenty of time at the sighting with luckily not many vehicles so we were able to get a very nice position to view them. At once stage a couple of Male Impala wondered past on the other side of the vehicle and suddenly the cheetah were all on full alert. One of the Cheetah got up and gave chase but soon gave up. An half-hearted attempt but still fun to watch, they then settled back down in the shade and we left them to it. We headed to Skukuza for morning coffee spotting Vervet Monkeys on the way.

Heading back home we found more Impala, Kudu and Elephant before we reached the lodge. Here we said goodbye to Susie, Erling, Johann and Frank who left to fly back to Denmark.

The afternoon drive was a very quiet drive as we came across Impala, Kudu, Giraffe and Elephant, however just as it seemed that it was going to be one of those drives we spotted walking towards us on the road a female Leopard. We slowed and let her pass us by and then turned to follow her for about five minutes before she walked into the bush and disappeared from sight. The guests were absolutely delighted with this encounter and were still talking about it as we reached the lodge.

 

26 February 2014

Today was the final day of this tour and so with breakfast eaten and Luggage packed we set off on our drive, heading up to Shabeni we spotted Buffalo and Kudu around the loop. Carrying on down Albasini turned out to be fairly quiet although we did see Impala and Zebra.

At the end of Albasini I decided to take a gamble and headed down river road, a road which can be very quiet and is rarely used by the guides, however today turned out to be the exception to that rule. A quiet start as we spotted Impala first and then we stopped as two Hamerkops were busy building their nest, as they did a large male Baboon jumped down from the trees, we tried to find him in the thick bush but to no avail.

We carried on and turned a corner to find a pack of wild dogs lying in the middle of the road, 8 in total, we watched them for quite some time as they played and interacted with each other. It was only when they started building up a bit of confidence and came up to the vehicle having a sniff and trying to bite the bull bars and then the wheels I decided it was time to move on.

We carried on up the road spotting plenty of birds such as the Burchell's Coucal, Yellow-Billed Hornbill and a Tawny Eagle when driving around a corner we suddenly found ourselves looking at 7 lions, again standing in the middle of the road, we followed them for a few metres before they settled down for a rest. Then to make things interesting a troupe of Baboons appeared at the far end of the road. On spotting the Lions the Alarm Calls started sounding, but instead of running away three large males started to walk closer to the lions. The Lions paid little attention to the fuss and continued to sleep as the Baboons crept forward, although they make sure they didn't wander to close. We also had a little Bushbuck wander past at the end of the road. Eventually the Lions moved slightly into the bush and the Baboons wandered away. With so few cars at the sighting we were able to witness this sighting for over an hour before we left it.

We carried on up Doispane back to Phabeni gate, spotting Elephant, Impala and Kudu, before leaving KNP to transfer the guests onto their Citybug shuttle. Thank you Sarah and Cheryl for your company, I'm glad you enjoyed the wonderful sightings we had over the last few days, I know I did.

 

Keep watching for more!!

 

 

South African National Parks Donates Playground Equipment To Pre-School

The Kruger National Park (KNP)’s Managing Executive, Abe Sibiya officially handed over a jungle gym to the Pre-School learners of Takheleni Primary School at Matsulu Village on Friday, 21 February 2014.

“This handover is part of SANParks Corporate Social Investment (CSI) initiatives. Our support for neighbouring communit...ies includes providing infrastructure and related resources in areas of education, youth development, health and other identified needs hence we are giving this playing equipment today to the children of Takheleni. Pre-School. In addition, our People and Conservation Department run programmes such as Environmental Education and Kids in Parks where school children from previously disadvantaged background are given free access to the parks and learn more about nature conservation. ” said The KNP Managing Executive, Mr Abe Sibiya.

“1% Community Levy is charged on all reservations for accommodation and activities in order to fund projects that support the surrounding communities in so as to improve their lives by creating health and education facilities. We also assist in creating water and sanitation projects in communities neighbouring our parks”, concluded Sibiya.

At the same event, SANParks officials also had a sod turning event for the a Kitchen Block which is also part of the donation to Takhelani Pre-School of which the construction is going to start soon in this current year.

In 2012, SANParks launched its new vision which says “Connecting to Society” as a strategy to reach out to communities and ultimately, contribute to the government’s mandate towards social development. Just last year in 2013, SANParks donated an Administration block at Dumisani High School, a village outside Kruger Gate and a Computer Laboratory at Masiza High School in Phalaborwa.

Issued by:
South African National Parks Kruger National Park Communications

On Safari With Curtis From 22 February 2014

22 February 2014

A new tour today with the guests arriving in Nelspruit at midday, a bit of lunch and we get on the road heading for phabeni gate. After getting our permit for the day we head down Doispane spotting a solitary Elephant in the river bed and then a Cape Buffalo a little further down. Continuing we spotted Zebra, Wildebeest and Impala all in the same spot and then 3 White Rhino hiding by the road in thick bush. Leaving them we came to a little gathering of cars, as we pull up we had to look hard but finally found a Leopard sitting in the tree. The sighting was quite far away but with good binoculars and a good camera it was still a nice sighting and a Leopard is still a Leopard however far it is!!!!!!!

Continuing down the road we found plenty more Elephants and Impala and following a tip off headed to where Lions had been spotted, however luck wasn't with us this time as the Lions had moved off and were nowhere to be seen, however we were lucky enough to spot a crash of 6 White Rhino briefly before they moved into the bush.

We also spotted a Dwarf Mongoose on the side of the road as we turned and headed to our lodge. On the way back we also came across Kudu, a big herd of Impala crossing the road as well as the Zebra and Wildebeest we saw earlier. We were also able to stop again at the Leopard sighting and he had moved to another branch and so we could get some clearer photos of him.

At the dam we found 3 Hippo out of the water having an early dinner as well as Hippos in the water having a disagreement with each other. Before we got to the lodge we found more Impala, a Slender Mongoose run across the road and more Kudu.

 

23 February 2014

A early start, leaving the lodge at 06:00 we took a slow drive around Shabeni spotting Buffalo, Kudu and Vervet monkeys playing around at the top of the trees. Along Napi we found Impala, Kudu, Elephant and had several brief sightings of Dwarf and Slender Mongoose before they hurried back into the tall grass. We then heard a tip off about Lions on the S114 and started to make our way their stopping at sightings of Elephants, Impala, Kudu and finally a nice of Dwarf Mongoose who was happy to stay out on the road for us all to look at.

When we finally got to the Lion sighting we found 5 females and a young male resting after a big feed on the Buffalo they had brought down earlier. After a bit of patience we were rewarded as some of the lions got up and moved while others couldn't be bothered and stayed hidden in the bush.

On the way back we spotted Warthog and Giraffe as well as Impala, Kudu and more Elephants before we got to Numbi gate to pick up 2 more guests before we drove to our lodge. Even on the short drive to the lodge we came across Elephant and Rhino.

After lunch we headed off on our afternoon drive and found Impala, Kudu, Rhino and Elephant before turning onto Doispane, heading to the Dam we also found Zebra and Wildebeest and the ever present Hippos in the water. Turning back to head home we saw Elephants, Giraffe, Zebra and Kudu and also found a solitary African Wild Dog trotting down the road. We followed him for a while and then left him to continue on his own as we headed back to the lodge.

 

24 February 2014

A bit of a quiet day for me but not for the guests as they had an early start to go on their bushwalk, accompanied by two armed rangers from Nkambeni they set off on what is a wonderful experience. Impala, Zebra and Wildebeest were seen on the walk, in regards of mammals, but a bushwalk is about being out in the wild on foot enjoying the tranquillity and the smaller things, like the spiders and insects as well as investigating the spoor and scat of different species. The guests came back very happy with their experience.

After breakfast and some rest I took them to Hazyview where they enjoyed a little bit of shopping and some very good food washed down by a cocktail or two!!!

Back to the lodge, time for a swim and topping up the tan before they set off on their Sundowner safari, the sun is shining nicely today so they should see a wonderful sunset. I will report further on what happened on the drive tomorrow.

 

Keep watching for more updates!