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Hi every one!

tomorrow this time myself and Betelgeuse will (if everything goes according to plan) be in Kruger!

Our itinerary is :
25th - Berg and Dal
26th to 1st July - Lower Sabie.

We will try to keep you updated!

Kind regards

Madeleen and Su-Mari.

Hi to all!
Thanks for your comments and good wishes!
We arrived yesterday and haven't begun our peaceful, relaxing, quiet time in the bush that included midday siestas - we went on a sunset drive at Berg en Dal with Obakeng and on a morning drive with Lourens, then spent half of the day socializing in the camp (usually, we leave the camp as soon as the gates open)!! We left for Lower Sabie muuuch later than planned! The animals seem to be more active around wet water holes.

Some of yesterdays' sighting:
Nice bird display behaviour: yellow throated longclaw; bateleur
Gabar goshawk trying it's luck at catching Natal francolin
Pale chanting goshawk
Tawny eagles
Lots of birds...
A young lion "couple"
Lots of ellies
A handful of white rhino
Klipspringer
Spotted hyaena
Plenty common duiker


Some of todays's sightings:
Lots of birds...
Dwarf mongooses
Black bellied korhaan calling
Malachite kingfisher
Dabchicks
Bathing ellies from the rhino trail at Berg en Dal
White rhino
Spotted hyaena
Plenty kudus
Buffaloes

Etc - will be more specific later & will post photographs as soon as we get back.

Best regards!
Betelgeuse & Mads

Hi every one

Thanks to Anne-marie, Illie and Jackal for the comments! Jackal it was surely alot of fun, fun, fun!!

We are safely back from our wonderful week in Kruger. Not that we want to be back!!

Sorry we did not keep you more updated on our sightings but it was a busy week! Between socialising, drives and sightings we did not touch ground!

I did not get as many pictures as I would have wanted of all the nice things, for a number of reasons: bad light, too far, etc.... But we will tell you about them!! And there are amazing stories!

Believe it or not! After all the other leopard and wild dog sightings in my previous trips we could not find one!! I am sure Lourens had ALL the leopard sightings at Berg and Dal

And YES!! Mgoddard we found the cheetah mother and 3 cubs!! But no good photos unfortunately.. She is very shy.. They crossed the road in front of us and then went to lie down in very tall grass. They have moved a bit. They are now about 10km south of the Duke waterhole turn off on the S28.

But our best sighting was probably this:



In the middle of the day on the tarr road. But you will have to wait for the full story... And believe me THERE IS MUCH MORE!!

As soon as my life is sorted out at work I will start with the trip report. Betelgeuse please add when I do forget something!!

Trip report to follow soon!!

Day 1:
I was studying for exams when I got a telephone call from Mads: “I booked accommodation in Kruger National Park and you’re coming along with me!”

I couldn’t believe it – we’re going on holiday in Kruger – yippee!!

My excitement had to take a back seat when I realized that I will be writing some re-exams; and that I had to write the last subject a day before our trip! Needless to say that I had a rough time focusing on studying…

As soon as I finished writing exams, my thoughts wandered to the Kruger landscapes – the smells, sounds and to how the soil feels beneath your feet…I couldn’t help but smile…

We left Pretoria early Wednesday morning at 3:30 instead of the planned 1:30. There was fog along large portions of the road around the Highveld area (Witbank, Middelburg, Belfast; Machadodorp) which forced us to travel slower on the highway. The roadworks and amount of large trucks on the roads kept us wide awake! We turned northwards from Nelspruit to enter the Park at Phabeni gate around 8:30. We scrolled down the windows and soaked in the Park’s atmosphere.

As we drove along the tar road we spotted a herd of impala, then blue wildebeest and zebras in the distance. We stopped to watch some birds and were blessed to witness the display behaviour of the yellow throated longclaw! A while later we spotted some francolin sitting in a fallen tree’s branches and paused to look at them for a short while…the next moment a Gabar goshawk came swooping down from across the road and tried to catch a francolin! He wasn’t successful and tried again but in vain, the francolin was unreachable through the branches.

There were crocodiles, hippos and various plovers at the Nyamundwa dam. We found some kudu sunning themselves next to the road.


We had front row seats to the bateleur courtship display; unfortunately we couldn't take pictures when they entangled their talons in flight.

We took the S65 and encountered lots of aminals (yes, I know the true spelling of animals!) At the waterhole we spotted impalas, wildebeest, giraffe and ellies! A forktailed drongo was kind enough to pose for a photograph.




At Transport dam we saw waterbuck, impala, zebras and water monitors (leguaans) sunning themselves on the rocks.

The H3 road to Berg-en-dal camp delivered elephants, white rhinos, various antelopes such as this klipspringer, zebras and various birds including bateleurs.



We saw two lions (a young lion and lioness) lying in the grass a short distance before Berg-en-dal camp on the left side of the tar road. We were too tired to stay long and had to go and unpack before the sunset drive with Obakeng…

We departed from Berg-en-dal at 17:30. Some white rhino appeared from the bushes to the right before we found the 2 lions from earlier. The pair was still lazying about in the grass, not caring about our photographic intentions! We found more rhino and ellies at the Matjulu waterhole.


Other animals seen on the drive included pearl spotted owl, serval (not a good sighting), lesser bush baby, large-spotted genet, common duikers, steenbok and other antelope species. Obakeng is very knowledgeable and made the drive very interesting by sharing lots of information. Well done Obakeng!

Hallo all formites,

thanks for all the nice comments from Illie, JenB, Meandering Mouse, Anne-marie, Stephan & Junita and Nightjar. I promise the serval story.....later.

Day 2:

We started off on a morning drive guided by Lourens. The stars shone brightly on us when we left camp, but it was COLD as well. (dress very warm for a drive or walk now in winter!!) I don’t know what happened to all the “big and hairies”, but Lourens must have forgotten to take his leopard whistle along on the drive!
What a sunrise!!


Nevertheless, Lourens’ efforts to highlight smaller creatures and some plants ensured that we still had a nice drive. Animals spotted included dwarf mongoose,a pearl spotted owlet, a hippo, giraffe, a bearded woodpecker, ellies (many of them), lilac breasted rollers, kudu, loads of black crowned tchagras and 2 impalas! O yes…and then Lourens attempted to lure the communal nest spiders out of their home, but the spiders decided to press the snooze button!\


Thanks Lourens for the drive!!

Back at BnD we had such a good time with new found friends, that we left camp only in the afternoon! The road to Lower Sabie didn’t deliver anything spectacular except for two sightings of ground hornbill groups. At least we got to see our 1st buffaloes as well.






We arrived at camp feeling very tired…Betelgeuse’s bright light was dimmed to emit little more light than a white dwarf!! In fact, at that stage I felt like a black hole – she passed out in the passenger seat with her head on the camera’s bean bag that was straddled across the open car door window before reaching Lower Sabie!!

We like this forum-thing; you get to meet such cool forum members (aka formites)! Mads and I had coffee and cake with Stephan and Junita later that evening while discussing sightings, roads to travel and silly Park visitors that don’t obey Park rules!

We slept like a log that night!

Day 3 will include the Serval story…..This was the day that was definitely the highlight of the trip! To be continued…..

Day 3:
We slept so good …. That I only woke up at 06:20. We overslept!! That was a quick wake up and packed the car for the day… At 07:00 we were out of camp!

We decided to drive a piece of the H4-1 as the lions were roaring the whole time since we woke up from that 2 different directions...

Buffaloes were the first animals spotted this morning!

We encountered 2 males walking parallel with the tar road (difficult to see) and ROARING!!! WOW!! I just love that sound!! After they disappeared we turned around and had coffee and rusks at Sunset dam.


This Pied Wagtail at Sunset dam was also still cold!!


We drove over the bridge and took the S128 And about 1 km down the road found another 2 males and guess what? ....ROARING again!! (Watch the steam from his mouth while roaring!)


After some idiot decided to do some off road driving and his children decided to sit on the bakkie’s windows (even on the lion’s side). We were only 3 cars there!!! Even me in my small car could see very well! The lion went deeper into the bush... and gone!! I could KILL!

About 2 km further we found these vultures. One of them were tagged and they definitely had courtship behaviour. We stayed with them for more than half an hour!



We took the S129 and as we got closer to the tar road I could see cars standing not far from the junction! 3 Cheetah Brothers! Unfortunately I could not take many photos of them, because of the traffic jam! But here are some.


We decided to do the Muntshe loop S122. We found a big herd of Zebra and a group of 6 white rhinos on this road.


Betelgeuse and myself decided that an afternoon nap was on the cards!! Let’s take the tar road back to Lower Sabie. It was 11:30 and quite hot. We were driving 3 km from Mlondozi dam turn off, when I suddenly shouted baby cheetah!! Get the camera!!

Then I saw…. Actually it was a serval!!!! We were the only car around and the cat kept on walking for about 300m in the road. (I have seen serval only twice (in the day) before in KNP; 1st sighting it was overcast on the junction of the Timbavati Picnic site and 2nd time very late in the afternoon on S100!

WOW! We could not believe our eyes!! It went into the grass and started shaking something we could not see as the grass were too high!! We decided to go forward to see if we cannot get a clearer picture of the serval.




We were still looking when Betelgeuse shouted!! Snake! Stop! It was a puffadder (in winter) underneath my car!! But it decided to go back into the grass!



We moved back to our first position… but now could not see anything!! We decided to wait there a bit… the afternoon nap forgotten!! Another car came past and asked what we see. We told them what we saw, but by then the cat was not visible at all. We started chit chatting and the next minute the serval’s head popped up. There he is! I said. By then there were quite a few cars…

Suddenly the serval came walking towards us again… when he suddenly went for something we could not see in the grass next to the road…..


Yes you guessed right!! He went for the puffadder!! We watched him “trampelling” the puffadder! . From the one side of the road to the other!! After about 5 minutes he killed the snake and took it away to eat it.



Watch my video clip if you want to see the action! Sorry I was shaken of excitement!!
http://tinypic.com/yourstuff.php?type=videos (this is my first attempt to post a video clip! Let me know if it is not working.)

It was not bothered by the cars, hooters, etc. We were still sitting there in amazement, when a car stopped next to us, and asked “Hi! Who are you on the forum?” It was Binkybozo! Other forum members!! How cool! At that time we could not see the cat as he was lying flat in tall grass. They really wanted to see the serval, for they have never seen! While chit chatting, the head popped up again!!! So at least they saw the cat!! Sorry! Binkybozo that we could not meet again!

We were on cloud nine!!! Our trip was made!!

Speaking to Martie (MJ - Lower Sabie sightings) she told me that she has seen this “tame” serval in the same area before…. So look out for him!! He is gorgeous!!

Now it was NO afternoon nap!! So we took the S29 and found quite a few ellies on it!


This ellie was standing sleeping, with his tusks wedged around a small tree. Half way we turned back and went to drive the S28, but nothing like this morning!!



Wow!! WOW! WOW! What a cat day! That is all I can say!! From the time we arrived at camp, till the next morning when we left camp, the lions roared close to camp the whole night!!! What a ending for a wonderful day!!

Hi there everybody!
Betelgeuse and Mads are feeling like red giants (from frustration) - we're experiencing soooo much "technical difficulties" in posting this video clip! We've tried posting it on YouTube as well, but haven't been successful yet.
We don't know whether it is because of its size or what..?

Anyway...we'll keep working to solve the problem.

Billyf: yeah, and the bird is sunning itself showing it's white primaries!

BTW/FYI/Passing comment on ground hornbills: these birds nest in trees, actually in dead trees. Something more about these birds that not many people know: They're quite aggresive and have been known to shatter farm house windows by pecking at their reflections. I found that out the hard way - they signatured my car!
Some KNP ground hornbills pecked at my car that is green metallic in colour to such an extent that there are several dents in the side panels/doors! I still think they're cool birds, though!

To:
nightjar
Freda, arks, anne-marie, Toddelelfe - thanks for you kind words
Pumbaa: Thx! Jip, you never know what you're going to find and where. We had been very lucky!

Two spotted cats on one day. That was the first time I witnessed a kill - it was such an incredible experience! Servals and puffadders rock!

I'll post again on Tue...

Hi to all,

I hope it is sorted now!

Here is the link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUBtccQE04o

Hi all!

To: Mgoddard, rusky, john n poppy, Toddelelfe, annalie, G@mespotter, AFRICAT, Freda, billyf, Pumbaa, anne-marie, arks and all other readers – thank you! We're glad that you're enjoying this so much!

Day 4
This is the morning that we got up and got ourselves ready to leave camp when the gates opened! We took the S28 and found a flock of red billed hornbills foraging in a rhino midden.

Further along the road we were delighted to see a kori bustard followed by a group of ground hornbills! It was a quiet day ito sightings, but we didn’t mind – we needed a cat nap!

We returned to camp and caught up with much needed sleep before our sunset drive.

The Lower Sabie sunset drive had been guided by Eliab and Bridgemont that evening. Next to the Skukuza tar road we encountered a pride of lions!


What followed had all of us scratching our heads – a sex confused nyala!? It was alone with a bull and walks in front of the bull; it’s the same size as the bull; has horns; has a greyish neck and is a darker reddish-brown than other nyala ewes but the coat isn’t as dark brown and the hair not as long as a typical mature bull…
We’ve read under the “animals” heading, that other forumites have spotted this unusual specimen previously. According to a Park guide, the vet says it is a female with horns. Here’s a picture:



Other animals sighted on the drive (but of which we couldn’t take photographs) include:
white-tailed mongoose; civet; large spotted genet; leopard eyes only and only for 2 seconds!
elephants; white rhinos; hippopotami; bush baby; impalas; kudus; bushbuck & loads of common duikers! A pleasant drive with specials like white-tailed mongoose, civet and a nyala “cow” – thanks Eliab & Bridgemont!

Hi to all,

I think this serval sighting is better than 10 ... or 20 leopard sightings!!
I enjoy those distinctive markings on the seval. It is SOOOO pretty!

Anne-marie,we really did not have all the normal sightings, but had extraodinary sightings!!

Mgoddard I will surely try and send it for veldfocus!

Martie -a guide at Lower Sabie (she do Lower Sabie sightings under Kruger National Park on the forum) told us after our discussion about the Nyala, that a vetenarian apparently told them that it was definately a female.

Here is a few more photos of day 4:






Enjoy the rest of your day!

Hi to all formites,

thanks to Naomi C, Billyf and Rusty for your remarks. This was the first time in all the years I have been coming to Kruger that I encountered such a phenomenon (Nyala female with horns)

What made the serval sighting so much more amazing is that we saw this puff adder in WINTER. !!

Day 5
We left 6:00 Lower Sabie to visit friends at Berg en Dal for lunch. The H4-1 was very quiet. We then took the H3 to Berg and Dal and except for a little bit of normal game, we only saw these young hyenas at their den just passed Afsaal.



At least we saw 2 White Rhino, our first big herd of Buffalo (it seems they are scattered) en these ellies close to BnDal.



After Lunch we took S25 and found this Double banded Sand grouse female in the road.


Then our luck turned… We had to be back for the sunset drive 16:00…. On the H4-2 we found a giraffe carcass quite deep in. Just visible through binocs. I could see 5 lions close to the carcass and a lot of vultures! Just as I wanted to leave (due to a tight time schedule!) I saw an ellie walking towards the lions. He was in must… So we sat a bit longer. ..

When he got the smell of the lions, he started chasing them in all directions, then even the vultures were chased by the ellie!! (unfortunately I was too late with the camera, to capture any of this!) The lions came back after a while!! But this was what the lion thought of it….


The lions’s ego was definitely dented and they also chased the vultures. Somebody must get the blame!!!

A few km’s later, we saw this African Barred Owlet. A nice sighting!


Now we were late!! We took the S82 and found a side – striped jackal on this road! (sorry no photo).

16:00 we were at the game drive vehicle. Martie (MJ) took us out tonight!! She is a wonderful guide, so passionate about her work and the bush!


We had a fantastic drive, this is what she had to say about our drive!!

This was sunset on the drive...


We had a fantastic drive, this is what she had to say about our drive!!


All I can say is: Even an elephant sounds small in the dark. And if you want to see a leopard ...the spots dissappear! Dont worry... Martie was not nasty to me... I should have known better and she knew that!!

We came back to have vetkoek and mince…. At our “tea party”…or was it sherry?... (Maybe some of the sherry beforehand would have helped to keep the spots! )

Lions roaring around camp throughout the night!...Is this heaven?

To be continued!

What made the serval sighting so much more amazing is that we saw this puff adder in WINTER. !!

Mads I was told a few years ago that puffadders do not hibernate, not sure how true this is

Great report and nice pics again

Hallo Everybody!!

Thanks Anne-marie, Annalie, Billyf and Katydownunder for comenting and watching. I plead quilty! At Last!! I am sorry it took so long, but every thing that could go wrong in a very busy week has!!! So here is the last part of our trip report!

Day 6:
This was our last full day in Kruger.

We left Lower Sabie on a morning drive with Martie. It was a chilli morning but the best time to be in the bush! See Martie’s report of the drive: MJ - Lower Sabie Sightings

We went in the direction of Muntshe Mountains (H10) for the drive. The first animal to see was the African Wild Cat. (sorry too dark no photos!!) We saw a lot of Duiker and Steenbok!!

Bird Sightings we had a lot! Such as this immature Martial Eagle even before sunrise!


More birds were Yellowthroated Longclaw,. Lappetfaced Vulture and Fish Eagles (displaying some mating behaviour)

Close to Rietpan waterhole we found this White Rhino bull.


As we turned on the Muntshe loop (S122) the excitement started! Not even 1 km down the road we found 2 honey badgers! But they ran like crazy!! (Sorry no photos)

Then we found this black shouldered Kite with a kill… It looked like a small bird.


….Then 3 Common Reedbuck…


During the trip we found Blue Wildebeest, Zebra,

Ellies and more Rhino… Can you believe it… only 2 impala!!

Although no Big Cats a very interesting morning drive!!! …with amazing sightings!

After we arrived back, we had breakfast in camp, then we decided to drive towards Croc Bridge.

The drive started with the normal game, Impalas, Wildebeest, Zebra, Waterbuck, Giraffe,


Warthog, etc.


We turned on the S28 and started to drive towards Lower Sabie again. At Mac’s Borehole we found this huge herds of game, such as this Impala herd.


The next moment we saw a Cheetah crossing the road in a distance… before the camera was ready 3 cheetah cubs also crossed the road!! Unfortunately they ran into tall grass and we could not get a good photo!!


About 3 km before the tar road, Betelgeuse shouted STOP!!! I could hear the Guineafowls going mad!! The next minute a huge bird swept in front of my car (he was trying to catch a guinea fowl)... It was a Martial Eagle! He went to sit in a tree not far from us. I think we cost him his meal!


On the road towards Lower Sabie we found this Slender Mongoose and Fish Eagle.





We turned over the bridge north again and found this Jacana and Egyptian Geese at the bridge.

We also saw huge Tiger Fish at the bridge!! There were about 10 of them!

We decided to go towards Tshokwane. At Nkumbe Lookout Point we decided that we have to turn around due to time… On our way back we found these 2 on the Nkumbe hills.


We took the S128 and then the Salitje Road the S30. The roads were very quiet… but we found this bush buck next to the river.


On the high water bridge we found lots of vultures bathing and cleaning themselves. All sorts, White – headed, White backed, Lappet faced, etc.

About 2 km from Nkuhlu we found a traffic jam. Could not see the lions very good, so no photos. The lions were eating what looked like a kudu. We worked through the traffic jam and carried on. The sun was losing its rays for the last time in Kruger for this time (well so I thought) ,



but we still had 1 special sighting left! About 2 km from Lower Sabie, we saw a car standing next to the road, it was after sun set and the light was fading… I saw a figure on the other side of the river. It was a rhino, at first glance I thought white rhino for it was eating grass…I looked through the binocs and then saw BLACK RHINO eating GRASS. (definitely!!!) Then we saw there were 2!!! Speaking to Martie (guide) 2 days earlier she told me there are 2 black rhinos that that come and eat in front of the camp In the flood lights at nights, so I think this is the same two… Surely they did not read the books!!! (They eat grass – actually I think forbs, and 2 together!!!??? )

Well what a day!! The lions roared our warewell message throughout the night!! WOW!!


Day 7:
The next morning we drove the H4-1 as the gates opened.. looking for that elusive leopard!! But the game capture team came from the front… so the road was very quiet. We found this Guineafowls still waking up.


We went to pack up and drove via Mpondo dam. At Mpondo dam we found a White rhino and all normal game. We found en route a Pale Chanting Goshawk trying to catch birds. Also normal game at Renosterkoppiesdam.

I waited for Betelgeuse at Skukuza for she had a meeting with one of the officials. I had picnic with friends, we met at Berg and Dal on the 2nd day. We fried up a storm! and the day visitor’s picnic area. I also drove the Marula loop, but my luck ran out… I do not moan…

I found these Ellies and Croc at the low water bridge.



We were escorted to Kruger Gate after gate closing time from Skukuza due to Betelgeuse’s meeting. We found 2 hippo’s and about 10 hyenas on the way out.

And so another WONDERFUL, AWESOME, trip comes to an end!!!

….. Untill we met again!!

Thank you to all who read this report and virtually joined us on the trip!

I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and all the sightings we had and I got to see a kill!

On my way down to Crocodile Bridge from Letaba via Lower Sabie (Tuesday 22 July) we saw:
Herd of buffaloes (Between Letaba and Olifants camp)
Ellies
White rhinos (in the South)
Several steenbok, blue wildebeest, zebra, impala, kudu, giraffe, hippos, crocodiles
A common duiker, waterbuck, vervet monkeys, chacma baboons
Bateleur, vultures, yellow throated longclaw, saddle billed stork messing around with a barbel/catfish, yellow billed stork & immature? etc.

The most memorable sighting: 4 cheetah on a termite mound approximately 5km North of LS camp on the tar road approaching Muntshe/Mlondozi. Although the cheetahs were 300m from the tar road, we could see them well as the vegetation had burnt. My father was my travelling partner - he hadn't been to KNP in almost 40 years, and he enjoyed it very much!