On Safari With Karen 22 October 2015

22 October 215

On our last morning of this safari we had a short game drive before exiting the park. We saw a tiny baby giraffe that could barely put its head on its mum's hindquarters. We met a family of white rhino with a very small baby.

And we saw a baby elephant that was still wobbly on its feet, so adorable.

But our highlight was seeing a second leopard of this safari. It caught us by surprise. We heard reedbuck alarm calling and scouted around when it suddenly crossed the road in front of us. After crossing it stood still for a second and while the reedbucks were still going crazy on our right he walked away to our left. Nicely camouflaged we had on and off sightings of him. However the moment another reedbuck in the high grass broke cover and ran away, the leopard instantly paid attention. It stopped in its tracks and watched the reedbuck go, which gave us an excellent opportunity for some facial shots. He had no interest in the reedbuck though, as after a few seconds he walked on again. But it was a great end of this safari!

Other interesting sightings included kudu, lots of zebras, giraffes, elephants, white rhinos, buffalos, klipspringers, impalas, waterbucks, reedbucks, common grey duikers and warthogs.

Nhongo Helping Hand Campaign

Often people in Need, cross our path for a reason and hence why we at Nhongo Safaris decided to start a internal campaign where we can help people as a company.

We not trying to create a welfare fund but rather assist regular people with life's obstacles that seem too Large for them to over come on their own.

Our first Helping Hand is a young Man Rupert Caldwell that suffered a massive car accident, involving him and a truck on 02 June 2015. Doctors gave him very little chance of survival, let alone any type of recovery.

As a fighter, Rupert has pulled through and undergone many grueling hours of operations and intense Rehabilitation.

Due to the massive medical bills, the family wasn't in the position to purchase the much needed Rehabilitation chair he needs with the broken Hip that's not healing.

We decided to offer a free Private Overnight Safari for 2 in Kruger National Park as a prize and people took to the challenge. This proved a massive success and all the much needed funds were raised to purchase the specialized chair.

Although a small gesture from our side, it has a massive impact on Ruperts life, as soon he will be able to sit in a chair that can assist in the Rehabilitation process he so badly needs.

We at Nhongo are just thankful we are able to HELP people in times of need and thought it well to share this with you guys out there.

Regards

The Nhongo Team

On Safari With Karen 21 October 2015

21 October 2015

So far we had two lion sightings this safari and both were nice, but not 100% great.

As both times we had to look through bushes and around trees, we were longing for a better view of some nice lions and today we were rewarded.

After a third mediocre lion sighting we ended up at an amazing sighting of a mating pair. They were in an open area quite close to the road so there was a nice view for everyone at the sighting. Upon arrival the lions were sleeping but we had time and patience so we hang around a while. When the lady was ready she went up to her mate and made him get up too. They shortly mated and it looked like it was more of a compulsory affair than that they actually had fun. Possibly this was the end of their honeymoon period and the male was just tired by now. However the guests had great enjoyment in watching the affair go down, even though it was subdued. It resulted in some great pictures and a video!

Our second highlight was spending our siesta time at Transport Dam. We couldn't check-in in our new camp till two pm, so after lunch we drove to the dam and enjoyed a bit of national geographic live. 

There were elephants swimming in the dam which looked like fun, and then two exited the water close by to have some bushy snacks. The last one in the water got a visit from a hippo that might have wanted to impress the elephant but when he got within two meters he made a big splash and the hippo dashed away. 

Also there were waterbucks hanging around, Warthogs and zebras came, had a drink and went. We watched Egyptian geese get frantic about something, a pied wagtail taking a bath, an African jacana walking by and a fish eagle flew over too.

And three kudu bulls came for a drink too, only to be chased away by an angry elephant. We have no idea what the kudus had done to him as he was eating the bushes on the other side when they arrived, but he purposefully walked around and then ran after the kudus. A very unfair fight it was!!

Other interesting sightings included reptiles like a tree agama, rainbow skink, side-striped skink, giant plated lizard, leopard tortoise, water monitor and a crocodile.

Also we saw a reedbuck, steenbok, lots more zebras, giraffes, a herd of elephants, buffalos, hyenas three times (once when a hyena came out of its layer in the heat of the day, did a poo and went back into its layer to sleep!), bushbucks, impalas, and a new animal: blue wildebeest.

Birds included green woodhoopoes, hadeda ibis, goliath heron, cattle egret, grey heron, brown snake eagle, bateleurs, black stork, three banded plover, helmeted guineafowls, purple crested turacos, grey go-away birds, magpie shrikes and two giant kingfishers. 

On Safari With Gert 20 October 2015

20 October 2015

Today we left for a different camp and after loading luggage we set off, aiming to maximize our chances, by spending most off the day driving alongside the river.

Early on we encountered 1 hyena on the prowl, we watched it for a few minutes, sniffing around along the road before heading out of sight into the bush. After that, it was fairly quiet sightings wise for an hour or so, until we were alerted to the presence of a pride of lions, about 8km onto a nearby dirt road.

We turned that direction hoping to find them and did so, finding 4 large black-manned males and 5 females, lying mostly in the open as there was some wispy cloud cover. Some of them were lying bellies up and judging by the size, it looked like they had recently eaten. As we sat watching, the sun came through in earnest and we saw them get up one by one and slowly walk deeper into the bush, looking for shady spots.

Leaving the sighting we tried making up some time as, by that time we were running quite late for breakfast; however we spotted a leopard coming up from the riverbed, on her way to cross the road. We stopped and gave her enough space to not feel nervous about our presence. She stood on the road verge for some time looking around, making sure that the coast was clear, before casually crossing the road in front of our vehicle, a magnificent adult female, who I thought must have cubs in the vicinity, as she had swollen mammary glands and was very alert and purposeful in her movements. We watched until we lost sight of her along the pathway she was travelling.

Late in the day we also had a sighting of a pack of Wild dogs sleeping under a shady tree in a clearing as it turned out being a very successful day indeed for predator sightings!

On Safari With Curtis 21 October 2015

21 October 2015

The final morning of this tour and one final drive to round things off.

Our highlight of this drive was a lovely herd of elephants we found close to the road.

We watched as they crossed the road in a solid herd protecting a young calf from any potential threats.

Once safely across they resumed their chore of eating.

We also had final sightings of Impala, kudu, leopard, hyena, white rhino, buffalo, giraffe, warthog, bushbuck, wildebeest, baboon, vervets, hippo and zebra.

Then time to say farewell to Fred and Sylvia who carry on their South African adventure along the garden route.