On Safari With Curtis: 6 February 2015

6 February 2015

This morning was an early start from camp and a quiet start before we started to rack up the sightings.

A herd of giraffe was a highlight of the day as we came across three of them, a female and two males who were busy fighting with each other. Maybe trying to show their prowess to the female the two males carried on their funny display of swinging necks just a bit too long enough as the female decided to walk off leaving the boys to it.

Our second highlight was a lion sighting. Initially on arrival there was not much to look at. Four lions sat hidden twenty meters in the bush and although we waited they didn't move much. We decided to leave them and go for some breakfast with the plan of returning afterwards.

This plan worked as on our return we found one of the lions just three meters from the road having a hard time getting a meal out of a leopard tortoise it had caught.
As we waited and listened to the crunching of shell the others all moved closer to the road giving us a great look at them.

Other animals seen included kudu, baboons, vervet monkey, bushbuck, elephants, leopard, more lionesses, warthog, giant land snail, buffalo and a young cobra.

Birds included crested francolins, swansons spurfowl, cape glossy starling, lilac breastfed roller, tawny eagle and blacksmith lapwings.

Tonight it's the night drive so will tell all tomorrow.,

On Safari With Curtis: 5 February 2015

5 February 2015

The start of a new tour and after meeting in Nelspruit we entered the Kruger through Phabeni gate. 

Our first highlight was a small family of elephants. Although they were hidden a little by the thatching grass this was our first elephant sighting of the tour. One of the females also had a very small calf who hadn't got even close to mastering how to use its trunk.

The best sighting, though, happened right at the last moment. After getting a call from Mark we headed down to a wild dog sighting. Just as we arrived they got up and seemed as if they were going to move out of sight deeper into the grass. But we hung around getting a few brief glimpses when suddenly we noticed a couple more who had moved onto the road behind us. We turned the vehicle and were now faced with about seven of the dogs who were now standing in the road.

We spent about ten minutes at this rare sighting before time forced us to leave and we made our way down to Skukuza, our rest camp for the night.

Other animals seen include impala, buffalo, zebra, kudu, waterbuck, hippo, leopard tortoise and a very prickly porcupine who tried to take cover from the rain in the restaurant!!! Unfortunately he had made no reservation and so was turned away!!!

Birds included the grey go away bird, grey heron, black stork, Egyptian geese, woodland kingfisher and many more.

On Safari With Robbie: 30 January 2015

30 January 2015

Our last day on safari was awesome as we observed a lion pride on the hunt for over an hour and a half. 

The bird list toped 65 different species, we were all as happy as could be having had a super safari spotting all the super predators and all the other sightings from chameleons to elephants. 

We decided however that our number one sighting was the African rock python seen on day 3!

What a great safari!!

On Safari with Robbie: 29 January 2015

29 January 2015

This morning was rather quiet but thoroughly enjoyable as we added nyala, bushbuck, wildebeest, waterbuck and baboons to our mammals list whilst our birding list topped 50!

The nyala was most impressive as there was 5 bulls together close to the road. We observed the baboon troop for 45 minutes as they gathered fruits off the sycamore fig tree and played their various games.

What made this afternoon drive so amazing was the patience of my guests! It took us an hour and a half to find our first sighting which was a lone elephant bull. From then on it was pure magic. We got 5 species of kingfishers including the pygmy which is a rarity in itself!

A troop of vervet monkeys were over indulging on a feast of marula fruit which was hilarious to watch.  Buffalo, giraffe and zebras were suddenly everywhere and a rhino pair popped out of nowhere.

The cheetah cat which we were looking for all day was found in Spectacular fashion dragging its fresh impala kill to the safety of the thick bush!

The best was yet to come with an African rock python the length of the road sunning itself no worries style, suddenly when another vehicle arrived it changed direction in mid air then disappeared into a nearby acacia tree. Not often are these large snakes seen never mind at full speed! What an incredible day!!