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Hi guys I am back from an UNFORGETABLE trip to KNP..I took some leave from University..

First of all I want to give thanks to my Creator, Lord and Saviour for blessing me with the most AWESOME trip ever.. I hope you guys can agree with me that this was a trip for the record-books.

Hope you enjoi

Lion:

We found Lions three times, once it was a group of nomadic males, second time a pride lying in the grass..The third time we were the second car to arrive at a pride whom has just taken down a large Buffalo bull and saw them feasting for about three days on the carcass..

Elephant:

Not as many as expected.. Luckily got charged only once But saw a huge herd crossing the road with lots of baby's..

Cheetah:

We saw Cheetah twice and was a rare suprize..First time we saw it was stalking a impala but to no avail..The second time we were the first car to arrive at a kill where a mother nd 4 cubs were feeding, we were the only car there for abou a hour and was truly an amazing find..The werent even 2 meters off the road..

Wild dog:

We found them only once but they ran infront of our car for about 20km and we followed them for about 3 hours..At one stage they ran exactly on the road where the lions made the kill so we followed to see the interaction..One wild dog when smelling the meat of the bufallo dashed in that direction but quickly turned around when a large male lion stood up.The lions didnt do much and the wild dogs quickly ran away..Truly an awesome sight--Wild dog and Lion is the same shot..

Leopard:
Unfortunatly we only saw one Leapord and it was a bit far for a photo..But still breathtaking sight

Crocs:

Not as much as usual but a few big ones..

Hyena:

Saw a few lying around and one each night around the fence of the camp.

Buffalo:

Saw alot of Buffalo..One night they completely surrounded our camp..

Rhino:
We saw Rhino twice and both times it was very close to the road,actualy walking across right infront of our car

Well that takes care of the super six:Lion, Leopard,Hyena,Cheetah,Wild dog and Crocodiles

As well as the big 5..

Other animals:Bushbuck,Klipspringer,Impala(of course),Waterbuck,Kudu,Steenbok.Blue wildebeest,Nyala,Tree Squirrel,Lesse-bushbaby,Banded mongoose, Blackbacked jackal,Baboons,African wildcat, Large-spotted genet(in day time) ,Warthog,Hippopotamus,Giraffe,Vervet monkey

BIRDS:Starling, Long-tailed-paradise-whydah,Oxpecker, Southern ground hornbill, Southern yellow-billed and red-billed hornbill, African grey hornbill, Red-backed shrike, Southern carmine bee-eater, Little bee-eater, black flycatcher, Magpie shrike, Emerald-spotted wood-dove, Kori bustard, Lilac-breasted roller, Crested francolin, Swainsons spurfowl, Natal francolin, Bearded woodpecker, Cardinal woodpecker, Burchells coucal, Woodland kingfisher, Giant kingfisher, Crested barbet, Grey go-away-bird,Black crake, Red-billed teal, Comb duck, White-faced duck, Gey heron, Goliath heron, Egyptian goose, Marabou stork,Woolly-necked, Saddle-billed stork, Helmeted guineafowl,Hadedah Ibis, Crowned lapwing, Blacksmith lapwing, Three-banded plover, water thick-knee, Gabar goshawk, Lesser kestrel,Little sparrowhawk,Black-shouldered kite,Bateleur, African hawk-eagle, Wahlbergs eagle, African fish-eagle, Martial eagle, Tawny eagle, Secretarybird,Lappet-faced vulture,Cape vulture,Pearl-spotted owl


I hope you guys found this some good reading and very complete..

I did do all my Forum duties and waved at every single-car I saw and a few older folks came and told me they can genuinly see I am a true nature lover and very polite and I smahed all their thoughts about young-people on vacation alone..
Hi to all my new friends I made!!

Would you guys ming giving my trip a rating out of ten

and if you feel I did a good job maybe a vote for a Kudu please.

Thanx (o and I will try and post some pictures here of my trip over the next couple of days)

{Size edited by DQ}

Thanx to all who sent me birthday wishes yesterday..

Here are some more pics.. I am not a proffesional photographer and took all these pictures with a 1980 Pentax film camera.....

but I am defenitly now hooked on this photography and am going to develop my skills








Watch this space for more pics( I still have a few good ones up my sleave) but looking forward to youre comments

Mafunyane you Lucky Bugger
i was in the park over the weekend as well. When i heard about the Buff kill i wanted to pull my hair out
that same day i chose the S100 over the H7 to Orpen & what a shitty choice i made becuase i hardly saw anything, all the action was happening in Orpen
i heard there were Lions, Wild dog & Cheetah all on the same road near Rabelais Dam.
I drove down to Orpen towards Rabelais dam the next morning, the Lions were long gone & the vultures were closing in again
Guess i was @ the wrong place @ the wrong time
oh well, my trip wasnt bad at all, will submit my report soon

Btw did you have yellow ribbons Mafunyane?

Yup Gunner the s 106 was the road to be on

Here is a better pic of the eagle:




I know this Rhino is out of focus:

and finally the lions:

I finally got my map back so here are the roads where sightings were

Lions:
about 3 km on the s106 in Satara's direction

On the H6 about 4km from H1-3

On H1-4 about 10 km from Satara

Cheetah:
On the H3 from Malelane Gate to Skukuza about 2.8km from Pretoriuskop turn off

On the S106 about 7km from the main road in Satara's direction

Wild-dog:
On the H7 but followed them all the way and they turned off on the s106,ran past the lions and stopped and lied down about 500m from the main road in Satara's direction

Rhino:
500m from afsaal-picic spot

about 8km from Satara on the H7

Leopard:

Around the corner from the Sweni hide on the H6

Elephant:

Big herd on the road about 10km from Skukuza in the Lower Sabie/Satara direction

Spotted Gennet:

On the road to Orpen Gate

Thats all from me for this report, I am going again in June/July and then maybe in September hope I see some of you

No problem

We stayed at Maroela it is a camping site near Orpen..All the info on how to book and so on is on this page if you go and check the availability.

No as I stay in S-A we drove with my friends dad's car but am as there is alot of car rental-services here I am sure you won't have a problem getiing a vehicle-(just book in advance)..In the park any car will basically do because the roads in the park are good and suitable for any vehicle accept if you want to go on one of the 4x4 tracks ofcourse..hope this was abit of a help John n poppy:D