On Safari With Robbie: 12 February 2015

12 February 2015

This morning my guests went on their bushwalk before we headed out on our drive.

The drive had many highlights we came across the three cheetah I had seen three days ago, this time however they were trying to take down a female impala with no success in the end. 

Other sightings include a pride of 7 lions close to the road, superb white rhino sightings, buffalo, hippo, elephant as well as 35 bird species.

Most of all we enjoyed the magnificent scenery and unexpectedness of this pronominal place!

On Safari With Robbie: 11 February 2015

11 February 2015

We began our safari from Skukuza Airport and travelled towards camp.

In rather hot conditions we still managed to see herds of impala, kudu and giraffe. At transport dam a major sighting occurred where we found a huge herd of elephant swimming and playing as well as a 200 head strong buffalo herd drinking opposite the elephants then out of nowhere 8 giraffes walked out also on their way to the dam for a drink.

It was a fantastic sighting!

On Safari With Karen: 12 February 2015

12 February 2015

This morning we had an early start and were rewarded with many sightings of giraffe. Small groups were spread out all along the route, with every size of giraffe thinkable. All were munching on the fresh dewy leaves. As it is one of their favorite animals, this as a definite highlight!

Other interesting sightings in the morning: baboons, two cheetahs, speke's hinged tortoise, impalas, warthogs, waterbuck, a glimpse of a sleeping leopard, a kori bustard, white-backed vultures, white rhinos, wildebeest, zebras, red-crested korhaan and many more giraffes.

When it cooled down in the afternoon we set off again. The afternoon drive gave us many elephant sightings, but the best sighting was a tiny chameleon on the road. He was crossing, but when we stopped he turned to investigate the car and actually climbed on the tyre! When he disappeared on the inside though, we could not leave without knowing for sure he was safe. After waiting 10 minutes to see where he got to, there was nothing else for it and I had to, completely against regulations, leave the car. On my back underneath the car I found the little bugger, but he refused to come off the tyre! When he eventually dropped off he ran towards the front tyre and hid in there! Now I had to crawl all under the car and try to convince the chameleon to walk onto my hand. He did so in the end and he was released safely on the side of the road, where I got hissed at by a now very angry chameleon. That's what you get for thanks for not running him over!

Other interesting sightings in the afternoon: buffalos, secretary bird, an elephant herd drinking and spraying with water, lots of hippos, some out of the water, crocodiles, fish eagle, lilac-breasted rollers, European rollers, warthog, mocking cliff-chat, a lone giraffe, zebras, many golden orb spiders, impalas and baboons.

On Safari With Karen: 11 February 2015

11 February 2015 

As the guests were up more than 26 hours yesterday, they asked for a bit of a lie-in on their first morning. Therefor we only left after breakfast. It was already starting to get hot, which caused long stretches of no animals. However our first highlight was halfway during our drive from Skukuza to Lower Sabie: a cheetah. We had gotten a tip from another guide and followed his directions. When we arrived at the sighting she was sitting up, and with binoculars we had a pretty good view of her. After a while she laid down to rest, but popped up again a little later. As all of us had seen her we then decided to leave the sighting to others.

Other interesting sightings: several elephants, including a herd with baby, crocodiles, hippos, yellow-billed storks, fish eagle, giraffe mum with baby, golden orb spiders, carmine bee eaters, buffalos, European rollers, a water monitor, kudus and lots of impalas.

The second highlight was the sunset drive today. As it cooled down considerably the guests were lucky to see not only lions, but also giraffe, zebra, a glimpse of a leopard and a very rare sighting of an African wild cat.

On Safari With Karen: 10 February 2015

10 February 2015

As a new tour started today, our first highlight was the first animal we saw: an elephant bull eating marulas. We were barely 5 minutes in the park and there he was standing as if waiting for us. The first animal you see is always exciting, that it was this magnificent bull made it even better.

Our second highlight was at Nyamundwa Dam. While we were watching three hippos climbed on the shores to start grazing. All the while a baby hippo was playing pretending to be a dolphin in the shallow waters next to its mum. A great sighting.

We also saw a fish eagle, a buffalo mud wallowing, our first herd of impalas, Egyptian geese, a rare saddle-billed stork, a grey heron and white-breasted cormorants here.

Other interesting sightings: herd of buffalos, zebras, blue wildebeest, magnificent kudu bulls, kudu females, a steenbok, a warthog, Dideric's cuckoo and more elephants.

On Safari With Robbie from 7 February 2015

7 February 2015

We arrived in Kruger at 3pm and traveled around the Pretoriuskop area before heading to camp. We spotted numerous herds of elephant, a lone buffalo bull, kudu, impala, baboons, vervet monkeys and lots of giraffe!

8 February 2015

This mornings drive brought an abundance of Zebra, elephant and buffalo sightings as well as a bataleur eagle taking a dwarf mongoose off the road in front of us!

The afternoon drive started out with relatively good visuals of Giraffe , Elephant and then a classic herd of Buffalo moving at a pace, swiftly across the road and then disappearing almost with out visual into thick bush!

Later on we came across 2 distant but beautiful male Lions, which were intermittently dozing in a tiny amount of shade at 3pm in the day!

Approaching sundown our best sighting of the trip occurred when I spotted a male Leopard crossing the road! Thinking it had disappeared we were surprised to see that once it had crossed the road it had decided to lie down and clean its paws 1m off the road! It was truly a majestic male which suddenly became mobile next to us for about a km and then lay down again ! It was a fantastic sighting!

To end off the day we got a super white Rhino that completed our big 5 sightings.

9 February 2015

Todays extreme conditions made it difficult for us however we did manage to spot elephant, buffalo and white rhino.

We saw 33 new bird species and watched a dung beetle roll dung for over 20 minutes! The smaller sightings enthused my guests which was awesome! We exit camp early tomorrow!

10 February 2015

On this morning I couldn’t have asked for better. We found the 2 mammals we were looking for. Namely Cheetah and Hyena! The Cheetah was out of this world as we followed them on the hunt for 2km ! Initially there were only 2 but they called the other one! It was an amazing  moment seeing the called Cheetah coming down the road towards us and then greeting his brothers in a happy frenzy! We watched these 3 spectacular cats for 1 hour ... Playing , grooming and then taking a rest on a termite mound!

On safari With Karen: 9 February 2015

9 February 2015

Today was already the last day of this tour. We started off with a really quiet morning and were happy with sightings of red-collared widowbird, lilac-breasted roller, European roller, magpie shrike, guineafowls and plenty of other birds to keep us interested in nature. Especially since the guests were really into the birds, it was a good drive even with the mammals being scarce.

After our quick break we definitely had a highlight of a massive group of impalas, wildebeest and zebras as well as a lone kori bustard walking by at the same time.

The favorite animal of one of my guests was a zebra, so he had the time of his life when two babies in the group were drinking from the mother. It was also a great sighting to see them together as well as seeing wildebeest since that was a new mammal for us.

Other interesting sightings: elephants, white rhino, herd of buffalo, giraffe, plenty more zebras, steenbok, kudus, common grey duikers, Schmeichel's blind snake, and another new animal: tree squirrels eating the marula nuts from elephant dung.

On Safari With Karen: 8 February 2015

8 February 2015

This morning the guests went on a bushwalk and even though it rained during their walk, it was thoroughly enjoyed. Amongst all other stuff they encountered a group of daggaboys. They actually stumbled upon them and were so close they had to back up. However, the buffalos seemed interested they kept following them when they retreated so in the end they decided on leaving them entirely, but the back-up walked behind them looking over his shoulder a couple of times just in case.

In the afternoon it had cleared up. We went on a short game drive and just at the end we were surprised by two white rhinos calmly walking in the middle of the road. We followed them at their pace a short distance away until they stopped to graze. We pulled up alongside them, and they didn't mind us at all. We stayed with them until one of them got restless and we gave them back their peace and quiet.

Other interesting sightings: waterbuck, lilac-breasted rollers, white-fronted bee eater, sleeping lion, grass snake, plenty elephants, woodlands kingfisher, baboons (still known as bunny-killers, we can't seem to get by that), brown snake eagle, red-billed hornbill, hippos, impalas and zebras.

On Safari With Karen: 7 February 2015

7 February 2015

On our full day game drive we had once again many highlights, but the best one was when we were enjoying the view on top of Mathekanyan. We were suddenly visited by a small troop of baboons that came walking up the hill and started munching on seeds in a little patch of grass in the middle. Apparently they disturbed a scrub hare as it suddenly bolted out of the grass. Well, you might have heard it, but in Kruger: whatever you do, you don't run. Only food runs in Kruger. Guess the scrub hare was to scared to remember and the big male baboon grabbed the opportunity. He chased the scrub hare around the rock and then a swipe, two squeals and a growl and it was over. Astonished about this sighting we watched him tear the scrub hare in pieces and have a lovely meal. Only then we realized we were actually still standing outside the car... But the baboon didn't seem to mind as long as we kept our distance. When the rest of his troop came to investigated he took the pieces and ran away, unwilling to share his surprise winnings.

Prior to this sightings we already had come across lions. Twice to be exact, but the first sighting was one of the best. At Transport Dam three young males were hanging out in the shade. As the shade of the next bush was better they got up one by one and moved. But then this big bull elephant comes striding over the dam wall to have a cool drink of water. The lions got up and scamper while the elephant drinks its fill. When he has had enough he walks off, the three lions actually return and have a drink of water themselves. And then went back to the shady spot to have a lie down again as if nothing happened.

Other interesting sightings were numerous: a third lion sighting, elephant herds crossing, a dung beetle rolling a dung ball, lilac-breasted and European roller, nyalas, woodlands kingfishers, yellow-billed kite, impalas, impressive kudu bulls, Speke's hinged tortoise as well as leopard tortoise, water monitor, giraffes, a tree full of carmine bee eaters, more baboons (now known as bunny killers), warthogs, vervet monkeys, crocodile, spider-hunting wasp, dwarf mongoose, bateleur, white-backed and hooded vultures, hippopotamus, and plenty of additional birds.

On Safari With Karen: 6 February 2015

6 February 2015 

Today was a new safari and the guests' first drive was a Sundowner safari.

Their sunset was amazing, and had all the fabulous aspects of the Kruger Park. The sky turned brilliant orange as the sun set, dancing its last rays over the water where the hippos were yawning to show off their strength. The hippos were waking up, adding some lovely bush sounds to the amazing picture.

And even though it was only their first drive, there were already many highlights. But the best thing was meeting this tiny little baby elephant and its mother that was protecting it from harm. She was shielding the baby from the big bad car, and shoving it underneath her so nothing can touch it. If they wanted to come close to the little one, they had to pass her first.

Other animals seen: spotted eagle owl (another highlight as owls is one of the guests most favorite animal), zebras, giraffe, impalas, waterbuck, and last but not least a big bull elephant in must that stopped them from returning to the lodge for quite some time.

On Safari With Curtis: 8 February 2015

8 February 2015

We woke, on this our final day, to dark rain filled clouds which were releasing plenty of rain as we left camp. This, unfortunately did affect the sightings early on but we were spoilt with one particular sighting.

As we drove past the entry of a dirt road we found two large black manned lions walking towards us. We watched as they walked off the dirt road onto the tar and continued to walk along the road. We turned and followed them, the two of them were so confident that they allowed us to move along side them as they walked down the road. So close to them were we that we could clearly see the scars and war wounds that these two have encountered over the years.

Occasionally each of them would stop and scrape the ground with their back paws and scent marking the grass along the road. We spent about fifteen minutes with just our vehicle at the sighting before other vehicles started to turn up and this was our cue to let others enjoy this amazing experience.

Our second highlight of the Day was our first rhino of this tour. Not only did this complete the Big 5, more importantly it allowed the guests have a good look at a creature which has become a important symbol of the struggles of fighting poachers nowadays.

Other sights this last day were giraffe and calf, hyena, a herd of buffalo, elephant, and a couple more rhino.

On Safari With Curtis: 7 February 2015

7 January 2015

Last nights drive was a great success with plenty of general game as well as civet and genet to add to the list of animals seen.

This morning got off to a flyer as only fifteen minutes we got our highlight of the day.

Four lions laying slap bang in the middle of the road, so relaxed were they that we were able to drive right up next to them. We sat watching them for about fifteen minutes when we heard hyenas calling close by. This immediately made the lions sit up and take note. We watched for a few minutes more before chancing it and trying to find the hyenas. Just a couple of hundred meters from the lions we found four hyena. Three right next to the road and the fourth more shy and hidden in the trees.

After watching for a while we returned to the lions spending another twenty minutes with them all to ourselves.

Our second highlight of the day was a troupe of vervets also relaxing on the road. Being early and still cool the youngsters were having great fun playing and wrestling with each other while the adults were busy feeding.

Other animals of note seen today were elephants, buffalo, 2 leopard sightings, another 2 hyena sightings, Bushbuck, wildebeest, giraffe, plenty of hippo, marsh terrapins and a tiny chameleon crossing the road.

Birds included marabou stork, yellow billed stork, African spoonbill, grey heron and a trio of hornbills including the Yellow-billed, red-billed and the southern ground hornbill.