On Safari With Kara From 1 November 2016

1 November 2016

After picking up and the checking my guests from France and Finland into our camp.

We set off on our first afternoon game drive. It could not have gone better.

Our highlight was the male leopard that was climbing down a hill and then crossed the road right in front of us in the road.

Soon after we had a big herd of elephants crossing the road and a few kilometers later buffalos blocking our way.

Ending our drive with a family of zebras heading to their resting place.

2 November 2016

Our morning drive went even better than the first finding a male lion fast asleep on his back warming his belly in the soft sun.

Later there were 2 beautiful big male rhinos grazing along the road with oxpeckers on their backs.

My day was made after I got my 2nd pair of black cuckooshrike's jumping around and a grey headed gull sipping water.

We had twice the chance to spend a lot of time with a clan of hyenas with babies sniffing the car and suckling from the mom.

On our way out there was a Male Sable antelope crossing the road.

On Safari With Kara From 17 October 2016

17 October 2016

This 1 day safari was not only a new one for my guests but it was the first time for me to see this area of the park and to have such a big group of fun Netherlanders and got to conduct my game drive in both Dutch and English.

We started our safari from Phalaborwa gate after I picked them up at their lodge.

Our highlights of this day was starting out with some wild dogs on a mission next to the road hoping to make a early morning kill...

Later we spent time with Journeys and Journeys of giraffes. Focusing on the raptors we saw a few from a Whalbergs eagles to a Tawny eagle, Martial eagle and a Yellow billed kites scavenging. And the best and very rare to see 2 Secretary birds.

18 October 2016

The following day I was happy to take the same group of enthusiastic guests on a drive heading from phalaborwa to letaba camp.

Patiently waiting in the road after we spotted a big herd of buffalos in the distance, we could see them crossing the road by the hundreds. Counting close to a thousand.

Finally we came across a lioness lying on a sand bank only to discover her teenage cubs eating the last of a buffalo they caught.

Our last animal as we exited the park was a few dassies climbing trees on a hill getting to the fruit.

On Safari With Kara

My first 6 day Safari adventure was a very fun filled experience accompanied by my two guests from Hong Kong China.

Day 1

We started off from hazyview and headed to phabeni gate Kruger to start our first game drive making our way to Skukuza camp. We were greeted by quite a hand full of animals. The two sightings which was our highlights was a elephant bull swimming and playing in a dam which we got to watch for a long time then later we came across a sleeping rhino.

Day 2

We had early start and headed towards Lower sabie. The surprise of 6 ground hornbills walking in the road and a youngster complaining for food made my day.

From there it only got better when we got a herd of giraffes browsing along the road for a while then giving us the African salute and moving away.

Day 3

Today we had a nice route from Skukuza to our new camp which was Berg en Dal. The best thing about this route was the female leopard we got that was having a early morning sip of water before the heat kicked in. Following her we noticed another male leopard and there after they started mating which is a rare find here in Kruger. Along this route we noticed the environment change on the animals seeing a lot of red elephants, warthogs and rhinos after they rolled in the red soil.

Day 4

Starting early again we had a moment with a big herd of elephants, while the adults were eating the babies were sleeping and so happy dreaming in the moms shade. My guests had really hoped for wild dogs and this was the day we found 18 wild dogs sleeping right next to the road a few pups and adults. Faces smeared with blood after a successful morning hunt.

Day 5

Being a girl who loves birds and having guests who also appreciated every type of bird, we founds loads of different species. From a tawny eagle fighting off a white backed vulture while eating insides from a wild dog kill to a goliath heron catching fish in the crocodile river and my first broad billed roller for the season resting in a dead tree next to the sabie river.

Before heading back we got 3 female lionesses trying to hunt impalas in a open clearing which gave us a good view.

Day 6

Having had so many good sighting everything from here was a bonus as we could not expect anything else but nature kept on giving.

One spot there was on both sides of the road just spotted hyenas wherever you looked. Moms with babies suckling and cleaning themselves. A few fighting over ranking in the clan and other digging a hole to lay in.

Ending our safari with a zebra crossing just before the gate.

On Safari With Robbie From 8 October 2016

8 October 2016

Our short pm safari this afternoon was totally dominated by Elephant!!

What was amazing to us was watching 3 Elephant bulls feeding on Sycamore leaves in a dry river bed!!

Out of the blue and further down the dry riverbed came a younger bull with quite an attitude with a mission of stealing the fresh leaves!!

However he was soon put in his place by the older males and was literally leaves free for 15 minutes until they kindly allowed him to share some!!

Great birding and general game spotting was also achieved!

Tomorrow its a 5am start!

9 October 2016

Today due to early rising by Thomas and Sonja we were first in at Phabeni gate at 05-20 am!!

We were truly rewarded with what was in the end the top sighting of the day.. a huge Hippo bull that approached us from his night out feeding!!

To see this massive mammal when it is on the " trot" so to speak is something special!!!

The big male literally stopped to observe us for a couple minutes then increased its pace, crossing the road at an ever increasing pace towards its safe region of water nearby!!

The rest of the morning was full of sightings of Lion, Elephant. Buffalo, W.Rhino and plenty general game!!

Tonight guests enjoy a night drive.

On Safari With Mark From 6 October 2016

6 October 2016

This morning we set off back to Kruger after spending some quality time at the rehabilitation center and both clients understanding what we doing for each species here in SA.

We had a full day ahead as we drive south searching for different animals.

Our 2 highlights happened to be in the late afternoon whereby we found a male leopard that had just caught a bushbuck and had started opening it up to remove the entrails. We sat watching this for approximately 30min and as time was an issue we had to move on. This after he had dragged the antelope closer to the base of a marola tree. I was pretty sure that it would drag it up into the tree but unfortunately we couldn't stay any longer.

The second highlight was on our return to camp, we found a herd of Sable. This was fantastic and guests could get great photos of the last sunshine on their bodies. With the soft lights it was a really "Out of Africa" experience and I'm sure many memories of this great trip will be remembered.

7 October 2016

Unfortunately only enough time for 1 highlight as we had to drop the guests for their travels back to JHB.

This didn't stop me for looking for the 3 male Cheetah . Imagine my surprise when the road I was traveling on had the 3 brothers and since Cristina had arrived it was one animal she desperately wanted to see. This was a fantastic way to end the safari and although they were a bit far from the road, we still achieved what we wanted to do.

So with proud title holders of the magnificent 7 it was time to return them to JHB for flights back to Switzerland.