On Safari With Gert 19 February 2016

19 February 2016

After loading luggage and an early breakfast, we set off on a short morning drive.

There was a fair amount off rain overnight and still a bit of drizzle around for the majority of the morning. This meant that the bush was all fresh and revitalized and most of the animals we encountered were quite playful and energetic, especially the young Impala lambs chasing each other around.

With the rain there was a few puddles around and we found a few Leopard Tortoises, coming on to the road verges for some fresh water. It was also a good morning for Elephant sightings and we found a few Bulls at regular intervals, including 2 having a quick sparring session in the road right in front of our vehicle!

At one of the newly filled natural waterholes, we also found 3 large Buffalo bulls lounging on the edge of the water.

The highlight of the morning was at one of the larger waterholes where there was a large breeding herd of Elephant, including 2 very young calves, drinking and playing around on the edge of the water. There was also a very large Waterbuck bull and a few cows with very young calves, a few hippopotamuses and a crocodile in the water, as well as a pair of African Fish Eagle surveying the scene.

A short but sweet Safari during which we had a good variety of sightings, although we were slightly short of luck when it came to the large predators this time around.

On Safari With Amanda 19 February 2016

19 February 2016

A cool start to the day and a slight sprinkling of rain overnight was more than welcome.

We decided to head to skukuza for a shop today as it was nice and cool, lovely photo opportunity with the sun coming up close by ship mountain, stunning scenery around that area.

We were privileged to spot three rhinos along the road, a special sighting of Elephants were also enjoying the cool weather we came across big herds today.

After leaving Skukuza we took a slow drive down watergat and watched a chameleon carefully crossing the road, we only left once we'd seen it reach the other side!

The temperature was increasing so we headed for camp to refresh for an afternoon drive.

With an almost unbearable humidity we set off stopping to get ice cream at pretoriouskop! 

Again we were lucky enough to see a lone Rhino and Elephants galore along with beautiful Zebras.

The sunset brings dark clouds and we can only hope it brings with it much needed rain.

On Safari With Gert From 18 February 2016

18 February 2016

This afternoon, we were joined on Safari by Mariana and Brian.

We entered the park at about 12:30 in fairly hot conditions; not the best for a game drive, but took our chances anyway!

The first animals we found, as is so often the case, was a small herd of Impala consisting of females and young. We found a few more of these, including a few bachelor herds along the way.

We also found a very large Blue Wildebeest bull, trying his best to hide in the shade of a rather flimsy Silver cluster leaf.

We had a quick lunch break at a nearby camp, after which we carried on to our accommodation for the night.

After lunch we found a few different families of Kudu and some small herds of Zebra, one of them accompanied by a couple of large Waterbuck bulls.

The highlights of the afternoon was a breeding herd of elephant quite close to the road, one of the adult females allowing us a very good view, as she was very relaxed and feeding next to us. We also caught a few glimpses of a young calf, just about a year old a little further into the bush.

We were also lucky enough to find 2 female Giraffe, one of which was feeding close to the road enabling us to get a good view of her specialized, feeding methods, before slowly moving off, following her companion further into the bush.

After check in the guests went on a sunset drive during which they were lucky enough to find a female White Rhino accompanied by her very young calf!

On Safari With Amanda From 17 February 2016

17 February 2016

My new guests Ashliegh and Patrick arrived to a hot, humid overcast day in the Kruger.

After a freshen up they headed off on a sunset drive where they came across Elephants, Buffalo and 5 meters from the road...a lovely Cheetah! 

18 February 2016

Today was a fantastic day in the park! After a filling breakfast and a good night's sleep we headed off. 

Today was cloudy but incredibly humid. We headed to manugu koppies and came across very fresh Lion tracks, we spent time following the tracks and could see they headed off into the bush so we continued and found a family of 3 klipspringers enjoy the view!

An update came in of Leopards at flat rocks so we drove off and lazing on the rocks was a young male leopard and his sister was in the tree close by, we sat and watched as the female negotiated the best branches to use to get down, quite comical to watch!.

These Leopards were born at flat rocks and their mother has now mated again as they were born in 2014, so they keep returning to their birthplace waiting for their mother, they are catching a few dwarf mongoose while they are waiting but will eventually realize she's not coming back.

Beautiful Walbergs Eagle, lilac and European rollers were spotted.

After lunch we left for a drive. We headed for shithave dam, en route we saw a big herd of Elephants heading that way so we drove off to meet them. The buffalo were also resting by the dam and took no notice of the elephants as they rushed off to the water...we watched for over an hour as they rolled in the water drank urgently and generally enjoyed the water, beautiful to see.

On our last leg back we watched a Zebra as it rolled in the dust a few times until it joined the rest of the herd.

All in all another fantastic day in the park!