On Safari With Karen From 21 April 2014

21 April 2014

After picking up the guests in Nelspruit we drove through the plantations to the starting point of our safari: Nkambeni Safari Camp. Upon arrival the guests had little time to relax after checking in, as they went straight on their first game drive, the sundowner safari. They were lucky as they saw buffalos on Shabeni rock, impalas, a spotted eagle owl, a herd of elephants that was reluctant to let them pass and a white rhino close to the road. Upon return they were treated to a dinner next to the campfire in the boma with some cultural entertainment.

 

22 April 2014

After a good night sleep we set out after breakfast on our first morning drive. On camp road we spotted a herd of impalas and a little further two male impalas were fighting over those females. A young male impala watched and learned but didn't want any part of it.

On the Numbi tar road we were then surprised by a slender mongoose that instead of sprinting across the road, what they normally do when they see a car, froze on the side of the road like a statue, but out in the open so we could have a really good look.

We then drove down Voortrekker Road, which was a nice scenery, but a wrong choice for seeing animals. We saw some whitebacked vultures in a tree, the rarer white headed vulture and a herd of elephants in the distance. Two elephants were having a sparring match which included throwing sand at each other, which was fun to watch.

We took a break at Afsaal, before driving the H3 up to Skukuza. Only a few 100 meters from Afsaal we found five ground hornbills up in a marula tree. As this bird is very endangered and rare to see, it was great to watch them in full sight. A Coue was preening each other and the rest was preening themselves too.

We then stop for a bull elephant feeding close to the road and while watching this fella a white rhino mother with her young calf appeared in the background. We watched both for a while until the elephant disappeared down to the water stream and the rhino and her baby walked off behind the bushes. A little further on we saw a subadult bateleur eagle flying and then suddenly he landed on the road in front of us. Apparently he spotted a nice snack on the road and started eating, not minding our car at all. He flew off once another car arrived at the sighting.

Before we arrived at the Skukuza Golfclub we also saw a warthog come out of the grass straight at us, but then crossing the road behind us, a very old male giraffe showing us the length of his tongue and two bull buffalos doing what they do best, lie in the mud. While most of us started with lunch, Allen was having a go around the golfclub with his wife Susan as his caddy. They took about an hour to do all nine holes and we cheered them on from our table in the shade as we saw them running across. We saw warthogs grazing and impeding Allen's game. The hippos were playing in the water, popping up and submerging. There was a tiny baby hippo, we saw the male yawning, and we saw a hippo get hit on the head by a golf ball after which all the hippos suddenly popped up their heads as if they were looking for the culprit. And while eating our lunch a crocodile came floating by lazily as well.

On the way back we went down Napi where we saw the same two buffalo bulls, a small journey of giraffe with a very young baby giraffe, a herd of elephants that was crossing the road and a bateleur eagle flying. At Transport Dam we saw more hippos, waterbok, red-billed buffalo weavers, cape glossy starlings, a grey heron and an African jacana.

Another journey of giraffe surprised us just when we turned back onto the tar road, this one bigger than before and we had an amazing white rhino sighting. Spotting just one in the bush we were amazed it turned out to be five adults and a baby. The baby was making sounds that made us chuckle and then suddenly a male rhino showed up on the right side of the road. He started snorting, having heard the other rhinos, which then decided to cross. Amongst the five was a subadult male, close to adulthood, and the territorial male had some trouble accepting his presence. He was instantly aggressive to this subadult male who got a very submissive posture, but some pushing and shoving had to be done right in front of us in the middle of the road. He then decided he let him go to the other side and it calmed down a bit. When the baby then again started making noises the territorial male wanted to come close to the baby, but the mother didn't allow it. The territorial male then cooled this hostile attention of the female back onto the subadult male and we saw some more pushing (hardly any shoving this time though). After sitting with this show for quite some time the rhinos decided it was over and they left in single file. The territorial male followed, so he probably could keep an eye on them while in his territory.

The last kilometres back to camp we also had a nice sighting of a puff adder on the road, guineafowls running in front of the car, a waterbuck male hanging around with kudu females and just before Nkambeni the herd of impalas.

 

23 April 2014

This morning we set out on safari and saw the usual impala herd just outside the gate. We also saw a buffalo in the high grass just on the side of the road, but as soon as he saw us he made a break for it. Apparently morning photos are not his best shot!

We decided to go up Albassini and shortly after turning onto the road we saw two male waterbucks fighting. The moment we stopped though, we distracted the winning male, who stood fierce and watching us, so the losing male actually tried to sneak away. Once discovered the other male started the chase.

We also saw two male elephants feeding, both on Albassini as well as on Doispane, a troop of baboons coming out of a tree and crossing the road in front of us, giraffe, grey louries, magpie shrikes, an African harrier hawk and white backed vultures.

We then got a call on the radio from mark about lions down at Klipspringer Koppies. We were quite far away, but as it wasn't that hot we decided to make our way down Watergat to see if we could get lucky. On Watergat road we saw lots of impalas, but nothing else stopped us from getting to the lion sighting in time to see three females lying on the rocks. One of them actually got up, walked around and lay back down. Astonishingly, on the other side of the Koppies we saw a klipspringer that was keeping watch in the other direction. We didn't have the heart to tell him the lion were already up on the rock behind him! However, with the lions back asleep, we didn't hang around and continued our drive to Skukuza for a quick break.

After the break we drove down Doispane to meet Curtis at Phabeni Gate, on the way spotting more elephants and 2 lots of zebras. We then had to say goodbye to Allen and Susan, who were at the end of their holiday. It was a great pleasure driving with you in the KNP! Sad we continued our way back down Albassini, spotting nothing but an elephant bull in must and a couple of banded mongoose running across the road. We returned to Nkambeni for some well deserved pool time and relaxing.

In the afternoon we had a short but very good drive. We drove up to Napi Boulders and then returned, stopping on the way at Shitlhave Dam. We saw impalas, kudus, a young bull elephant up close, two separate white rhino sightings and a waterbuck. On our way to Shithave Dam we heard from a member of the public that there were two leopards, so we sped up and indeed, they were sitting on the dam wall. They kept on moving and lying down, so we got some great sightings and photos. One of them actually crawled quite close to us, even though there were many cars around us. We got some great photos there!!

 

24 April 2014

Today was our last game drive of this tour so this morning we started our game drive at daybreak. It was a cold and misty morning so we were unable to see very far around the car. Close by however we saw the impalas on camp road.

We drove around the Loop spotting more impalas, kudus and two lots of two white rhinos. We drove around (well, mostly around) a lot of fresh buffalo poo on the road and were keeping an eye out. Shortly after we turned onto Shabeni Link a buffalo was scouting us out while standing in the middle of the road. We halted and watched her. Once she decided we were ok she continued walking and out of the high grass came more and more buffalos to cross the road. Some very young calves, an injured calf that with a very protective mother, some very massive bulls. Buffalos of all ages came by and quickly we lost count. The last lot came stampeding out of the grass and wondering what would have caused that we waited a little longer then the last buffalo to pass, but nothing happened. No rustling sounds either so we continued our way.

On Shabeni Link it was very quiet afterwards. We drove down Albassini back to Numbi Gate, spotting a lot more impalas and some waterbuck, but then the drive was over. Having to catch a plane we drove down to Nelspruit for the early transfer, where I said goodbye to Jim, Mindy, Dean and Kelly. Thanks for all the laughs, you guys were awesome! Hope you do come back for the nine day safari!

 

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Industry Collaboration Raises Nearly R3 Million For SANParks Rhino Conservation

Bavaria Breweries and South Africa’s Big 5 retailers have stepped up to the plate and delivered on their commitment to support SANParks’ rhino conservation strategy through the Adopt So Our Rhino Don’t Die fundraising campaign. A cheque for almost R3 million was handed over to South African National Parks (SANParks) a...nd will be held in a ring-fenced account for strict utilization by SANParks rhino anti-poaching programmes and interventions.

As the enabler of the Adopt So Our Rhino Don’t Die campaign, Bavaria Brewery initiated the historic fundraising collaboration between Woolworths, Spar, Massmart, Pick ‘n Pay and divisions of the Shoprite Checkers Group. As front-runners to the consumer, each retailer created the adoption ‘route’ for the public. From every purchase of any six-pack of Bavaria 0.0% regular or fruit flavoured malt drinks, both the retailers and Bavaria Brewery matched a massive margin sacrifice to fund the consumer’s adoption certificate cost and raise funds for the campaign.

SANParks Acting CEO Abe Sibiya, said, “I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to Bavaria Brewery and to each of the participating retailers for their commitment to SANParks, which marks a formidable partnership in the fight against rhino poaching. The donation received will go towards vital ground and air detection and tracking equipment, elite canine capability and specially trained ranger teams, and improved intelligence gathering and observation and surveillance systems”.

Roger ter Horst, Market Development Manager of Bavaria Brewery Netherlands, concluded, “As a historic first-time retail collaboration, we are thrilled that the campaign has been a huge success with almost R3 million raised over a short period of 4 months. The risk we took to enter a new market, deploy our product’s reach and sacrifice margin profit to raise awareness about saving the rhino has paid off. We are proud to align ourselves with industry partners who share our belief that conservation and preserving the rhino heritage is not only a global priority, but our responsibility as industry leaders”.

Issued by:
South African National Parks

South Africa And Mozambique Reach Deal To Fight Rhino Poaching

South Africa signed an anti-poaching agreement on Thursday with Mozambique, a major transit route for rhino horn trafficked to Asia.

Mozambique is a prime source of illegal hunters hired and armed by transnational crime syndicates to cross the border into South Africa to kill rhino.

The Kruger National Park shares a long border wit...h Mozambique and has borne the brunt of rhino poaching in recent years.

So far this year a total 293 rhino have been killed in South Africa with nearly half of the attacks in the Kruger Park, despite the deployment of troops to protect them.

The agreement "entails us working together with Mozambique to eradicate rhino poaching... so that Mozambique is not used as a transit country", Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa told AFP.

The two countries agreed to share intelligence and jointly develop anti-poaching technology and education programmes.

Status symbol

Rhino horns are prized as a status symbol in Asia and mistakenly thought to possess medicinal properties to cure cancers and hangovers, even though they are composed of the same material as fingernails.

The poachers kill the rhino with semi-automatic rifles, hack off the horns for shipment to Asia and cross back into Mozambique, leaving the bodies to rot.

Mozambique early this month approved a law that will impose heavy penalties of up to 12 years on anybody convicted of rhino poaching.

"Previous laws did not penalise poaching, but we think this law will discourage Mozambicans who are involved in poaching," Mozambique's Tourism Minister Carvalho Muaria said at a ceremony to sign the agreement inside the Kruger National Park.

At least 46 Mozambicans, five of them policemen, have been arrested inside their own country this year alone for poaching.

Mozambique has also started relocating 1 250 families that were housed inside the Limpopo game park, which borders Kruger, and erected hundreds of kilometres of fence between the two areas.

South Africa is home to around 80% of the world's rhino population, estimated at more than 25 000.

Most live in the vast Kruger Park.

Legalising rhino trade

In 2007 only 13 rhino were reported poached in South Africa, but since then the numbers have increased exponentially every year.

South Africa has hinted it is now considering legalising the rhino horn trade in an attempt to limit illegal demand, allowing the sale of horns from rhino that have died of natural causes.

"Experts are working on structure to look at the stockpiles that we have and not bennefitting anybody, yet people are killing rhino for these horns that we have elsewhere," said Molewa.

It is a "proposal moving towards possible trade", she said, adding it could be one of the solutions to end the rhino slaughter.

"We do think that it could... just taking it from the lessons we have learnt from ivory. We did an ivory once-off sale" and elephant poaching has not been a problem since.

"We hope we'll be able to win this war," said Molewa.

By:
Agence France-Presse (AFP)

On Safari With Curtis From 17 April 2014

17 April 2014

This morning was the last of the tour and we had time for one last drive. We found Impala and Giraffe and then a White rhino, the resident male was standing in a drainage line so we had a great view of this wonderful animal. We drove around and spotted the Buffalo which are often seen up on the rocks but this time they had company in the shape of two White Rhino. We also found two Klipspringers on the rocks. I then got a message from Karen about a sighting at Cheetah pan so we made our way there. When we got there we found a Cheetah sat on atermite mount  sunning himself in the morning sun, we spent quite a while watching him before we moved on. Along Doispane we saw an African Fish eagle and a Slender mongoose before we got near to the dam. There we saw Impala, Wildebeest and Zebra. As we drove back to Phabeni we noticed a couple of Giraffe in the distance. Sadly it was now time to transfer Robert and Jill to Kmia for their flight to Port Elizabeth. Thanks to all my guests on this tour, we have had so many wonderful sightings in the last few days and I'm sure everyone has enjoyed it as much as me!

 

 

18 April 2014

 

I collected 8 new guests ready and eager for their Kruger experience. After settling in at the lodge it was straight onto their sunset drive. Everyone enjoyed the evening as they had perfect weather, a lovely sunset and got to see White Rhino, Owls, Impala and Buffalo.

 

 

19 April 2014

 

This morning we set out aiming to carry on the good work from last night. Even on camp road we spotted alone Giraffe we moved on down Napi and found plenty of Impala, Kudu and a nice group of Waterbuck. Later on we had stopped at an Elephant sighting when I heard about a Cheetah sighting not too far away. I made my way there and found him lying under an Acacia tree. We waited a while and he eventually popped up his head and sat up and had a look around. My guests had to be quick to get some photos before he lay back down in the tall grass. We also heard about some Wild dog further down the road but when we got there they were lying in the bush with no sign off them, also the traffic had built up so I decided to head for a coffee break.

After the break we headed back to the wild dogs and were in luck as two of them had moved right next to the road and in full visual, the traffic had also left so we were able to spend a good amount of time with them. Heading down to Afsaal for lunch was fairly quiet until we spotted an Elephant next to the road, after closer inspection we could see that it was a whole family and so we waited for them to come closer which they did do. They took their time but eventually crossed the road in front of us. At lunch I heard about another sighting and went straight there after lunch. We found two female Lions by the side of the road both sleeping, every now and again one of them popped her head up and then our patience was rewarded when she stood up and moved closer to her companion. As we headed back to the lodge we found more Giraffe, Zebra, Wildebeest, Buffalo and a quick glance as a large Warthog ran out in front of us. We also got to see a Common Duiker before it ran off into the bush.

A good start to this tour with, hopefully, more to come tomorrow.

 

20 April 2014

 

As soon as we left the lodge this morning we bumped straight into the territorial white rhino male who was happily dozing in a sandy donga. We also got three giraffe soon after. Onto Napi and again it was fairly quiet at times but we did see plenty of Kudu and Impala. Further along we found a couple of elephant sightings and a large herd of Buffalo, unfortunately the heavy bush stopped us having a good look. We took a detour down to transport dam and found the hippos in the water and a medium sized croc floating close by. There were also Kudu and Waterbuck at the dam as well a family of Zebra who crossed over in front of us. After the dam we came upon a couple of Hyena playing with a kudu horn but they soon disappeared into the bush. Not much down Watergat except for the odd impala, kudu and lots of yellow-billed hornbill and cape glossy starlings. We headed down to the golf club for a drink and stretch of the legs and sat and watched the hippos in the water and the warthog running across the 9th hole.

After the break we headed down Doispane where we came across a herd of elephants, most had already crossed the road but a few still had and we got some pictures when they did. We also saw Vervet monkeys sitting up in a marula tree grooming one another. As we carried on we saw plenty more Impala, kudu and zebra as well hippos and Saddle-billed stork at Nyamundwa dam. We also had a brief glimpse of a large male baboon before he disappeared into the grass, we looked around for others but no luck.

 

This afternoon we set off with down Albasini and found hippos, at mestel dam, along with terrapins resting on their back, we found the resident buffalos on the rocks at shabeni as well as klipspringers. We then drove down circle where we found a large bull elephant coming towards us. With nowhere to go we stood our ground as he walked closer to us, he wasn't very happy with us as a roadblock and made his feeling clear with a few headshakes and scraping his trunk along the road but he finally moved off. We then came to a lovely sighting of dwarf mongooses who were playing and scurrying around the road, taking no notice of us they kept on running across the road and then running past the vehicle with a few having a cheeky look up at us. Then we caught glimpse of a slender mongoose at the same place who was abruptly chased off by three of the dwarf mongooses.

 

 

21 April 2014

 

It was the final day of the tour for four of my guests and after a couple of very long exciting days they decided to have a sleep in and we said goodbye to them at Numbi gate. Myself and my remaining four guests went out for the day and it turned out to be a great day. The day was an elephant day as we had sighting after sighting of Elephants. Big solitary bulls, bachelor groups and the family herds. One particular family herd sighting stood out, we found a family of about 10 standing right next to each other under the cover of Acacia bushes. We managed to creep right up to them without disturbing or upsetting them, turned off the engine and watched their interactions. While some dozed in the midday heat others were busy giving themselves, and others, a dust bath. Every now and again the matriarch would lift her trunk to check us out but never concerned herself with us. We were able to watch this beautiful sighting for more than 15 minutes. During the rest of the day we found plenty of good sightings of Rhino, buffalo, impala, kudu, warthog, giraffe, waterbuck, zebra, wild dog and honey badger as well as birds such as the lilac-breasted roller, yellow-billed hornbill, Southern -ground hornbill and the saddle-billed storks, which seem to be following me around recently.

However the day belonged to the elephants!!!!

 

On Safari With Karen From 17 April 2014

17 April 2014

This morning we left for a full day game drive. We drove up Albassini where we spotted impalas, kudus and zebras as well as an elephant in the background before we reached Mestel Dam. At the dam the hippos were playing in the water and we saw a nice fish eagle. Continuing on Albassini a member of the public told us about a cheetah further up the road and we were in luck. At a little waterhole named Cheetah Pan, a cheetah was resting on a mount of dirt next to it. For a while we were the only car there and watched him stretch, yawn and turn over. Even when other cars showed up, he had no interest in getting up, so after watching him for about 45min we decided to leave.

Down on Doispane we spotted impala rams that were going after the ladies, a couple of wildebeest, leopard tortoises, giant plated lizard and some smaller cousins, more zebras and a lone buffalo walking down staff village road.

After a break at Skukuza we decided to follow the river to hopefully see some herds of elephants. We were not disappointed. We drove down to Lower Sabie seeing many elephants drinking from, swimming in and crossing the water of the Sabie river. We also saw some buffalo bulls, hippos, terrapins and crocodiles along the way, especially at Sunset Dam.

After a nice lunch we drove back along the river, again spotting herds of elephants, elephant bulls, giraffes, hippos. We heard about lions and leopards possibly down the S114 so we took a little detour. We didn't see either but got surprised by three cheetahs that suddenly walked in front of us onto the road. We stopped for pictures and a video and shortly they were back off the road in the high grass! We were so lucky!! Furthermore we saw a dwarf mongoose chasing a slender mongoose across the road, a steenbok, and many yellow billed hornbills, red billed hornbills and grey louries.

It was nearing the end of the day so we drove home via Napi. Luck hadn't run out yet as we passed the hyena den near Transport Dam and saw 5 young hyenas playing outside the den! Wondering where their babysitter was we continued spotting a buffalo herd in the distance, a lovely waterbuck male, and some more elephant bulls. One of those was in heavy must, so we smelled him before we even saw him.

 

18 April 2014

This morning we escaped the busy Easter Kruger traffic by leaving a little later than normal. It was a pretty quiet morning drive up Albassini, down Shabeni and then the tar road to Shithave Dam. We had stopped at Mestel Dam and saw the hippos play and a pied kingfisher fish. We had seen some impalas and waterbuck along the way. At Shithave Dam we saw a crocodile sunning themselves and lots of waterbuck. A lone strong male kept watch on the dam wall while a herd of females and two youngsters lay down in the grass and a herd of bachelor males were trying out each other's strength. We felt sorry for one of the males as one of his horns had grown downwards and by the looks of it back into his skull at the rotation point of the lower jaw. But it seemed it didn't stop him sparring with the other males.

We had a quick break at Pretoriuskop and then drove back to Nkambeni Lodge via Circle Road. We came across some dwarf mongoose, two giraffes, lots of butterflies and just before the end of the tar road we had the tail end of a herd of buffalo cross in front of us. On the way back to camp we spooked a nice water monitor that was sunning himself so much he fell from his sunning spot into the water... Oops, sorry!

In the afternoon we went out again after the heat of the day had subsided. Now joined by three new guests our first sighting was a snake on camp road. Still on camp road we also came across some more waterbuck. On the way down the Numbi tar road a lone buffalo walked in the middle of the road towards us, spotted us and dashed into the high grass out of sight. We turned onto Napi spotting our first impalas of the afternoon.  As we got word it was all quiet on Napi, we turned onto Fayi Loop. Along with stretches of quiet we saw an elephant bull, more waterbuck, pretty waterlillies and a nice sighting of 4 giraffes.

Around Shabeni and Albassini it was void of animals. However the hippos at Mestel Dam were waking up, showing us 3/4 of their bodies, and the fish eagle had returned. We then saw a herd of female impala having a moment of jumping madness, which was great fun to watch.

 

19 April 2014

Today was our last day of the five-day safari of Alex and Owen as well as the end if the quickie safari of Joe, Michael and Werner. We started off with a nice giraffe, silhouetted against the sunrise. We also saw a white rhino close to the road which hung around for a bit so we could take some nice photos.

We then drove down Napi which was fairly quiet. We did come across a large dazzle of zebras on Napi Boulders, most likely two groups that met along the way. We then encountered two other white rhino sightings on our travels.

Following the very fresh signs of elephant (dung and chewed branches left in the middle of the road) we saw a glimpse of the culprit. A klipspringer stood like a statue on Klipsrpinger Koppies, just before we turned onto a quiet H3.

Continuing on we then saw a nice family of white rhino, Mum, possibly Dad and a very young rhino. This got us some cute pictures! We heard on the radio about a cheetah and we were in luck. At Renoster Koppies Waterhole a cheetah was indeed lying in the shade. We did see her while she had her head up, but mostly she was lying down flat. Continuing up the S114 we got another tip about some wild dogs, at Stevenson Hamilton Memorial. We turned into the road and immediately knew where as it was quite a build-up of cars. We decided to follow the stream past the sighting and then turn around and join the line on the other side. Trying not to impede others and manoeuvring around the cars stationary on the best viewing points, we were in luck that just when we got close one of the wild dogs stood up in plain view! He wiggled around a bit and then dropped down again in the shade. We decided to leave the wild dog sighting to have a short break at Skukuza.

After the break it had become a boiling hot day. We made our way back to Phabeni Gate via Doispane spotting impala males misbehaving, a very pretty kudubull, buffalo bulls lounging in the water, more zebras, a bateleur and a tawny eagle, lilac breasted rollers, a display of two yellow-billed hornbills and some more giraffes. Then it was time to say goodbye to the KNP. To all my guests, it was great having you on my truck this week! Maybe we'll meet again one day!!

 

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