White Rhino having a bath in the Kruger National Park

Kruger floods Jan 2013

On Safari with Mark 17 January 2013

17th January  -  Morning drive

Route:  Albaseni - shabeni loop - circle road - nkambeni

A very quiet morning was experienced this morning with 2 herds of elephant  on shabeni loop. Great sightings of some Kudu bulls and a troop of chackma  baboons playing on the rocks.  We returned to camp for lunch and also to  check on our sick man.  We departed once again in the afternoon for a drive,  still with one guest being man down with gastro. The Route driven was napi - H3 - S112 - S114 - napi - back to nkambeni. The first half of napi was quiet going north and coming back down south with  very little seen. On the H3 just before the S112 junction we picked up a mating set of lions.  We spent a good 30min with them. At Renoster koppies we picked up the  3 lionesses that were hunting late  yesterday afternoon. They must  of been successful as all of them were  panting heavily, with very full bellies. Brilliant rhino sighting with a crash all lying in a mud bath.

What a night was had by us all!  Mark ended up calling the ambulance and our  guest was taken to Medi Clinic in Nelspruit to be placed on a drip.  From  mid-night they said he could be discharged, but this is Africa with the  Kruger being on lockdown for the night so no getting in or out!  Fortunately  the hospital gave them a bed for the night and we were able to arrange a  transfer for them back to Nkambeni at 07h00am this morning.  Mark and his  other guests have departed on a morning drive and will return later to keep  you updated on sightings and the state of our patient who is now resting  comfortably with his wife at the camp.

More Great Photo's by Ronesh Parbhoo In The Kruger National Park



Beautiful Male lion



Elephant Eating



Giraffe with a African sunset



South Africa: Skukuza, Kruger National Park

Merry Christmas And Happy New Year

We look forward to bringing you new updates, news as well as wildlife photo's and video's in the year 2013 until then enjoy ur holidays and keep safe!

Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (Chapter 22)( Page 5 ) The Old Crocodile

Then the whole world seemed to burst into indescribable turmoil; shouts and yells burst out on all sides; the kaffirs rushed down to the banks-- the men armed with sticks and assegais, and the women and children with nothing more formidable than their voices; the crocodile was alive--very much alive--and in the water; the waggon-boys, headed by Jim, were all round me and all yelling out together what should or should not be done, and what would happen if we did or did not do it.  It was Babel and Bedlam let loose. With the first plunge the crocodile disappeared, but it came up again ten yards away thrashing the water into foam and going up stream like a paddle-boat gone reeling roaring mad--if one can imagine such a thing! I had another shot at him the instant he reappeared, but one could neither see nor hear where it struck; and again and again I fired whenever he showed up for a second.  He appeared to be shot through the lungs; at any rate the kaffirs on the other bank, who were then quite close enough to see, said that it was so.  The waggon-boys had run down the bank out on to the first sand spit and I followed them, shouting to the kaffirs opposite to get out of the line of fire, as I could no longer shoot without risk of hitting them. The crocodile after his first straight dash up stream had tacked about in all directions during the next few minutes, disappearing for short spells and plunging out again in unexpected places.  One of these sudden reappearances brought him once more abreast, and quite near to us, and Jim with a fierce yell and with his assegai held high in his right hand dashed into the water, going through the shallows in wild leaps.  I called to him to come back but against his yells and the excited shouts of the ever-increasing crowd my voice could not live; and Jim, mad with excitement, went on.  Twenty yards out, where increasing depth steadied him, he turned for a moment and seeing himself alone in the water called to me with eager confidence, "Come on, Baas." It had never occurred to me that any one would be such an idiot as to go into water after a wounded crocodile.  There was no need to finish off this one, for it was bound to die, and no one wanted the meat or skin. Who, then, would be so mad as to think of such a thing?  Five minutes earlier I would have answered very confidently for myself; but there are times when one cannot afford to be sensible.  There was a world of unconscious irony in Jim's choice of words "_Come_ on!" and "_Baas_!" The boy giving the lead to his master was too much for me; and in I went! I cannot say that there was much enjoyment in it for the first few moments--not until the excitement took hold and all else was forgotten. The first thing that struck me was that in the deep water my rifle was worth no more than a walking-stick, and not nearly as useful as an assegai; but what drove this and many other thoughts from my mind in a second was the appearance of Jock on the stage and his sudden jump into the leading place. In the first confusion he had passed unnoticed, probably at my heels as usual, but the instant I answered Jim's challenge by jumping into the water he gave one whimpering yelp of excitement and plunged in too; and in a few seconds he had outdistanced us all and was leading straight for the crocodile.  I shouted to him, of course in vain--he heard nothing; and Jim and I plunged and struggled along to head the dog off. As the crocodile came up Jock went straight for him--his eyes gleaming, his shoulders up, his nose out, his neck stretched to the utmost in his eagerness--and he ploughed along straining every muscle to catch up. When the crocodile went under he slackened and looked anxiously about, but each fresh rise was greeted by the whimpering yelps of intense suppressed excitement as he fairly hoisted himself out of the water with the vigour of his swimming. The water was now breast-high for us, and we were far out in the stream, beyond the sand spit where the crocodile had lain, when the kaffirs on the bank got their first chance and a flight of assegais went at the enemy as he rose.  Several struck and two remained in him; he rose again a few yards from Jim, and that sportsman let fly one that struck well home.  Jock, who had been toiling close behind for some time and gaining slowly, was not five yards off then; the floundering and lashing of the crocodile were bewildering, but on he went as grimly and eagerly as ever.  I fired again--not more than eight yards away--but the water was then up to my arms, and it was impossible to pick a vital part; the brain and neck were the only spots to finish him, but one could see nothing beyond a  great upheaval of water and clouds of spray and blood-stained foam. The crocodile turned from the shot and dived up stream, heading straight for Jock: the din of yelling voices stopped instantly as the huge open-mouthed thing plunged towards the dog; and for one sick horrified moment I stood and watched--helpless.

Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick ( Chapter 18 )( Page 3 )Snowball and Tsetse

To the credit of Snowball stand certain things, however, and it is but justice to say that, when once in the ranks, he played his part well; and it is due to him to say that during one hard season a camp of waggons with their complement of men had to be kept in meat, and it was Snowball who carried--for short and long distances, through dry rough country, at all times of day and night, hot, thirsty and tired, and without a breakdown or a day's sickness--a bag that totalled many thousands of pounds in weight, and the man who made the bag.
"That wall-eyed brute of yours" was launched at me in bitterness of spirit on many occasions when Snowball led the normally well-behaved ones astray; and it is curious to note how strength of character or clear purpose will establish leadership among animals, as among men. Rooiland the restless, when dissatisfied with the grass or in want of
water, would cast about up wind for a few minutes and then with his hot eyeballs staring and nostrils well distended choose his line, going resolutely along and only pausing from time to time to give a low moan for signal and allow the straggling string of unquestioning followers to catch up.  When Rooiland had `trek fever' there was no rest for herd boys.  So too with old Snowball: he led the well-behaved astray and they followed him blindly.  Had Snowball been a schoolboy, a wise headmaster would have expelled him--for the general good and discipline of the school. On one long horseback journey through Swaziland to the coast, where few white men and no horses had yet been seen, we learned to know Snowball
and Tsetse well, and found out what a horse can do when put to it.  It was a curious experience on that trip to see whole villages flee in terror at the first sight of the new strange animals--one brown and one white: in some places not even the grown men would approach, but too proud to show fear, they stood their ground, their bronze faces blanching visibly and setting hard as we rode up; the women fled with half-stifled cries of alarm; and once, when we came unexpectedly upon a party of naked urchins playing on the banks of a stream, the whole pack set off full cry for the water and, jumping in like a school of alarmed frogs, disappeared.  Infinitely amused by the stampede we rode up to see what had become of them, but the silence was absolute, and for a while they seemed to have vanished altogether; then a tell-tale ripple gave the clue, and under the banks among the ferns and exposed roots we picked out little black faces half submerged and pairs of frightened eyes staring at us from all sides.  They were not to be reassured, either: the only effect produced by our laughing comments and friendly overtures being that the head which deemed itself pointedly addressed would disappear completely and remain so long out of sight as to make us feel quite smothery and criminally responsible. It is in the rivers that a man feels the importance of a good horse with a stout heart, and his dependence on it.  There were no roads, and not even known tracks, there; and when we reached the Black Umbelusi we
picked a place where there was little current and apparently an easy way out on the opposite side.  It was much deeper than it looked; however, we were prepared, and thirty yards of swimming did not trouble us; yet it certainly was a surprise to us when the horses swam right up to the other bank without finding bottom and, turning aside, began to swim up stream.  Looking down into the clear depths we saw that there was a sheer wall of rock to within a few inches of the surface.  Now, a horse with a man on his back swims low--only the head and half the neck showing above water--and by what instinct or means the horses realised the position I do not know, but, with little hesitation and apparently of one accord, they got back a yard or two from the ledge and, raising first one fore foot and then the other, literally climbed out--exactly as a man or a dog does out of a swimming bath--hoisting their riders out with them without apparent difficulty.  That was something which we had
not thought possible, and to satisfy ourselves we dismounted and tried the depth; but the ten foot reeds failed to reach bottom. When it came to crossing the Crocodile River we chose the widest spot in the hope that it would be shallow and free of rocks.  We fired some
shots into the river to scare the crocodiles, and started to cross; but to our surprise Tsetse, the strong-nerved and reliable, who always had the post of honour in front, absolutely refused to enter. The water of the Crocodile is at its best of amber clearness and we
could not see bottom, but the sloping grassy bank promised well enough and no hint reached us of what the horses knew quite well.  All we had was on our horses--food, blankets, billy, rifles and ammunition.  We were off on a long trip and, to vary or supplement the game diet,
carried a small packet of tea, a little sugar, flour, and salt, and some beads with which to trade for native fowls and thick milk; the guns had to do the rest.  Thus there were certain things we could not afford to wet, and these we used to wrap up in a mackintosh and carry high when it came to swimming, but this crossing looked so easy that it seemed sufficient to raise the packs instead of carrying part of them.