On Safari With Amanda From 10 February 2016

10 February 2016

Two lovely new guests arrived from Germany today, Natalie and Achim.

We arrived in the park mid afternoon, got our permits and headed out, no expectations just a nice relaxing drive ahead.

We drove slowly absorbing the sights and sounds of the bush.

We drove past the picnic spot at pretoriuoskop and there was a lovely bull Elephant chomping away. Further down we saw zebras and sat for a while watching the vervet monkeys frolicking around.

Heading towards pk flat rocks...more elephants always lovely to see! As we drove around the loop, not 3 meters from us was the young female leopard in a silver cluster leaf tree.. amazing.

we sat with her and watched her climb down and cross the rocks where she stayed then moved off into the bushes..

A fantastic start for my guests!

11 February 2016

Early departure on our second day. Driving towards skukuza we saw lovely European rollers along the roadside, we went to shithave dam and there was a big hippo in the water every now and then coming up for a look. 

Breakfast at skukuza and a wander around the shops then we headed back to camp.

On our way an update of another leopard in a tree with an impala kill...and there he was lying exhausted, legs either side of the branch, and beautiful sight.

On our way home we did a quick loop again to see if the female leopard was there, and there she lay not at all bothered by our presence. 

After lunch a quick drive around manugu koppies.. with the golden hour approaching the light was perfect as we watched 3 bull elephants wandering down the road, we had to reverse, they were very relaxed and all walked past us as if we were invisible! 

Manugu koppies looked beautiful with the sun glowing and we headed around for a photo shoot.

Last koppie of the day before gate closing, we sit and marvel at the view, just relaxing and chatting and then drive slowly down the hill, Achim whispers" another leopard in the tree" there lay another leopard!!

Leopards don't like our presence and he soon stretched and climbed down disappearing into the distance.

Another amazing day in the most amazing place on earth!

On Safari With Mark From 9 February 2016

9 February 2016

So after collecting my guests we set off for the Safari. On our trip down, one of my Ladies had been on 3 safaris but no leopard.

After checking in, we set off and drove straight to a phenomenal leopard sighting with 2 youngsters lying on a Rock. After sitting with these 2 for over an hour, we new they had to move, which ultimately rewarded us with a fantastic sighting of a leopard hunting a Banded Mongoose successfully. The drive proved to be great with many different elephant sightings as well as buffalo.

10 February 2016

We headed out of camp on a mission! To find a Rhino but as luck would have it none found for the day. Although no rhino, we had some fantastic sightings and one of the highlights need to be the Secretary Bird walking along side the road looking for its prey.

Brilliant Ellie's on the road with all been totally relaxed and comfortable with our presence. Guests got some great photos of these massive beasts.

Time could be spent with all the general animals such as Zebra, Giraffe, Kudu, warthog and many other more.

We were once again called by a college and informed that the leopards were back and so as we weren't very far away, we responded. We spotted the young female as she moved into tall grass and away on her own.

11 February 2016

Once again we set out on a early morning drive and approximately 10min into the drive, had the most Amazing sighting of White Rhino crossing the rd. 4 adults and 1 calf crossed from North to South.

Our last highlight for this tour was as we were on our way out. This highlight was in the form of VIN Diesel (Largest Male Leopard in South). Spotted lying in a marola tree enjoying himself. He eventually got up and walked into thick bush leaving us with nothing but really good photos and memories.

Off to pick up new guests.

On safari With Amanda 8 February 2016

8 February 2016

A cool cloudy start to the day with a slight promise of rain.

We left early from camp heading to Skukuza for breakfast. 

On the way we saw plenty of elephants, obviously enjoying the cooler temperature and cloud cover. 

Hyenas greeted us lying lazily on the road we watched them for a while until they wandered off over the koppies out of sight. 

Breakfast at skukuza was buffet so we filled ourselves up before heading off.

Although quiet for animals today my guests enjoyed driving around admiring the koppies and seeing the Large Leafed Rock Fig penetrating the granite and watching a young klipspringer suckling from its mother.

As the sun sets my guests prepare for a night drive from camp hoping to see the animals in night mode. 

A lovely cool and refreshing day in the park. 

On Safari With Amanda from 5-7 February 2016

5 February 2016

A new safari and new guests, Stephen and Emily from America, ready for an African experience! 

We met at phabeni gate and drove for a few hours to nkambeni, our home for the next 2 nights.

Along the way we encountered a lovely herd of buffalo, the effects of the drought evident in their condition. We came across a small herd of Elephants drinking from the reservoir tank, the smaller ones too short to reach, but still they tried. Joining them at the waterhole came a bull Rhino... the elephants spotted him and some young ones charged him but he wasn't phased by them and continued drinking!

On arrival at camp my guests had a quick refresh and then headed off on a sunset drive where they found rhinos and elephants again!

6 February 2016

Today we had a lovely breakfast and then set off for our first morning drive. 

We missed a leopard by minutes, but that's how it goes they see us before we see them! 

Not far from the missed leopard we came across 4 wild dogs.. lying in the road, they were not in the best condition but very alert watching the impalas from a distance.

We stayed with them until we lost visual of them and headed off to skukuza for lunch. Lots of zebras and a beautiful giraffe drinking at a waterhole...amazing to watch how he carefully lowers himself to the water, red billed oxpeckers all around him picking off his unwanted guests!.

The heat was building up so we set for camp. European rollers, tawny eagles and of course the Woodlands kingfishers were seen on the roadside. 

Back at camp I suggested my guests relax by the pool, as they enjoyed the pool I noticed the kudu standing staring at something in the bush, they did so for 10/15 mins then moved off, 2 minutes later the leopard walked along the path in front of the guests giving them their first encounter with the elusive leopard! 

Until tomorrow. ..another great day in the Kruger.

7 February 2016

A change of camps today for Steven and Emily who are thoroughly enjoying their safari. 

An early morning drive rewarded us with the four same wild dogs lying flat on the rocks close by to pretoriuoskop camp. They lay for at least half an hour before heading off into the distance. 

Lovely elephants and then we decided to do a loop around shabeni koppies not more than 10 minutes drive we came across 2 very handsome Sable Antelope, always a pleasure to find and they happily allowed us to watch as they ate!

Back to camp and a lovely overcast afternoon ahead of us for a late drive.

We drove around chatting and talking about animals when there in front of us was a huge bull elephant....in musth walking with a purpose towards us and he was not going to stop or move! So we reversed for at least a kilometer to allow him space to reach his destination. We watched as he turned into the bush and then we were allowed to carry on.

klipspringers on the koppies and lots of impala on the way home. 

Another relaxed day in the park and tomorrow is another day!

On Safari With Gert 4 - 5 February 2016

4 February 2016

After an early morning Bush walk for the clients, during which they saw large herds of buffalo, zebra, a few Elephant and many more interesting things, we had a leisurely breakfast and then left on a short morning drive. It was a fairly cool, overcast morning with a faint drizzle falling.

First up, we encountered a large bull Elephant, feeding on fallen Marula fruit. This turned out to be the pattern for the morning, as we came across a few more solitary adult Elephant bulls doing the same, one of them a very large bull with an impressive set of tusks!

We stopped off at a nearby waterhole where we watched a solitary bull Hippopotamus bobbing up and down for a breath every few minutes, while on the bank a few Waterbuck were grazing, one of them a female with a very small baby, no more than a few days old. It lay down in the grass surveying the world around it with mom grazing nearby.

We also found a nice variety of birds at the same waterhole, amongst others, Common Sandpiper, Great Egret, Grey Heron and a pair of African Fish-Eagle. Every time the Eagles changed position, the others would fly up and try their best to keep away from the Eagles while making quite lot of noise in the process. The Eagles would also keep a close eye on the Herons and Egrets and try and chase and steal their food if they managed to catch anything - an occurrence known as klepto-parasitism.

After a break for lunch and a siesta, we headed back out for a late afternoon drive.

The highlight of this was a small family of Kudu, including a virtually newborn calf, it was still a bit unsteady on its legs but very keen to explore, although not straying far from Mom! We also found a large herd of Buffalo, all lying down in a clearing, trying to hide from the wind. We ended the drive with a spectacular orange sky as the sun dipped below the clouds to signal the end of another great day in Africa!

5 February 2016

After an early morning we embarked on our Game Drive - our mission for the day; to find some cats as this would be the last day on Safari for the group. The first hour or so was dominated by solitary Elephant Bulls, but we were also lucky enough to find 2 white Rhino bulls, the first rhino in 3 days! We found good general game such as a large herd of Zebra, Buffalo and Blue Wildebeest. We also went past a known Hyena den and found the entire clan out of the den! This means 14 Hyena out and about, including 7 Cubs of various ages up to about 4 months old... Most of them were lying close to the road with some of the Cubs nursing. Shortly before our mid-morning break we also found a rare breeding herd of Elephant, as for the last few days we have seen only males and no herds!

After our break we headed a bit further into the park and along the river when we received word of a pride of Lion which had just killed a Zebra! We headed that way and found 6 adult males and a female, taking a break from the feeding. There were already a few Hooded Vultures around, but the lions were far from done, with 1 male deciding to drag the carcass out of the view of more Vultures and under the bridge, as the kill was made in a small riverbed... One of the Males had no interest in feeding and was far more interested in courting the female. We sat for about 15 minutes watching their antics and getting a few very good views during that time.

By then it was time to turn around and head back to a nearby camp for lunch. As we entered the lunch spot, we received a call from a colleague, the mercurial Mr Williams, who had just left the same camp. He had found a large male Leopard about 1 km down the road... We responded to the call and were lucky enough to find the leopard lying in an open area; a huge male about 15 meters off the road! As the cars inevitably started to congregate, the leopard got up and slowly walked closer to the road and into the drainage pipe underneath, as this was also in a small riverbed! A truly magnificent specimen and a great view of it! Then it was back to camp for a slightly delayed lunch with mission accomplished!

After lunch on our way back to camp we found a herd of Sable Antelope with a large bull, a few females and some young. A fitting way to end the Safari with these magnificent animals!