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I am still going to write the trip report, but for now I thought I will share these sounds with you... I felt guilty keeping it all to myself

I asked my hubby to record us some sounds while we were in Kruger from 23 Dec - 7 Jan '07. I've put all the sounds on a dvd and play it every night when we are in bed. I sleep so peacefully now . I've cut some sounds out for you so you can also enjoy a little pleasure hearing the bush.

5/1/7 At about 04:40 we came across Giant Eagle owls high up in the tree. It was still very dark so the photo are very bad - but at least you can put the picture with the sound.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2ni1jq8

I've always loved the following sound and never new what bird it was and on our morning walk, Bongani told me that it is the Burchell's Coucal. I was so surprised because I always loved the Coucal as well and to find out that my favourite bird makes my favourite sound was just incredible. I took this photo on the 1st of Jan. He was soaking wet from the rain.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2ik2qs5

The Southern Ground Horn-bills said goodbye to us on the day of our departure. It was still very dark at about 04:32 when we came across 3 of them 'playing drums'. We sat dead-still listening to them and it just took my breath away. We waited for the sun to come up so I could take a photo but by that time 1 flew away.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2qs5on4

I hope you will enjoy the sounds 'amateur recordings' as much as I do. I will post some more for you.

We stayed at Mopanie from the 23rd until the 29 of Dec. When we arived at bungalow no.13 I was so joyfully overwhelmed to find that there is no need for lawnmovers like the other camps, cause our bungalow was surrounded by bosveld, just the way I like it. When we stood on the deck overlooking Pioneer dam I had to catch my breath cause I have never never seen such a big, full dam in Kruger. Wow

All I could think of was 'With such a big dam comes lots of hippo and crocks.' YES..YES...YES

After the evening braai we took our camping chairs and went looking for a lekker spot next to the fence. We found the perfect spot were there was no human sounds and sat there for +/- 3 hours watching the fire-flies and recording the night sounds. It's amazing how the moon reflects on the dam and that we could see for miles into the darkness. Every now and then we switched the dvd cam on night view just to see what the hippos are doing. Yesterday I edited the footage and was shocked to find that out of 2 hours of recording I only had 1min. of hippo conversations . Why is it that they become so shy the moment you press record . We recorded a whole lot of night sounds, but for now put up the sound, sit back and enjoy: The hippo's of Mopanie...

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=44gxxdc

I noticed with a slow connection like mine you have to open the link and leave it to download first before you listen, otherwise it seems like there are breaks in the sound.

Lucky you. I have searched for cd's with animal sounds and just never could find any. That's why I decided to make my own. I actually never had it in my mind to share our recordings, 'to amateur ', but what the heck, I know that anything from the bush are appreciated when you are not there. I just wish that everybody else will join-in with there sounds, we can make a whole archive with ALL the animal and bird sounds. Wont that be lekker!

The same night that we recorded the shy hippo's luck came our way. Hyenas started laughing. The tears actually ran down my face when I heard them, it was incredible especially cause the last time I heard hyena was 2004. http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2hz5r92

CD's available currently .
Animal calls of Africa (Len Gillard and WWF)
Southern African Bird Sounds (Guy Gibbon and SASOL)

After the rain on the 31 and the 1st it was as if the whole Kruger came alive. Every pond was filled with very happy frogs making a hell of a rackit.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=48duc82

And the Woodland kingfisher was louder than ever.

At the end of the recording is the sound of a very tiny bird. He was somewhere inbetween the reeds so I could not identify him. Does anybody know who that beautiful song belongs to?
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=4g6v9s4

Thank you all for the kind words, MUCH appreciated

Early morning, before the sun was up, Craig recorded a Saddle-billed Stork walking in the Shingwedzi river. To add to a perfect sunrise a Fish Eagle called. Does anybody know what type of hornbill is at the end? Unfortunately Craig stopped recording while the hornbill was still singing. On the other hand, he was actually recording the Stork, the sounds was just a bonus.

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=2ni9yk4