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Morning Drive Continued

We arrived back at “our” leopard just a few seconds before he got up and headed for thicker bush, but it was then that we noticed why he was spending so much time out in the open riverbed. He had a very bad limp, but he seemed ok when he went up the bank and into the bush.



Next up were a couple of waterbuck and stacks of giraffe.





There seemed to be far more general game all over the place, especially when compared to what we had found in the Lower Sabie area, but maybe it just seemed that way because we could see further due to the more open landscape. Next we found an ostrich, a secretary bird and then a kori bustard.





Suddenly a jackal appeared out of nowhere and it caused a ruckus in my car as the kori bustard wet itself and took off across the grass with the smaller jackal in pursuit. After a few seconds the jackal had second thoughts and backed off.



Just before the S90 meets the H1-4 an oncoming car waved us down. The driver excitedly told us that a pride of about 16 lion had just crossed the tar and were heading our direction.

We eventually spotted them about 200m away and they were all lying down and too far for a picture, but the SO managed to get them on the video camera with its superior zoom. It looked as if they had settled in the shade for the day, so we continued on.

We only arrived at Timbavati picnic site at about 10:30am, so the legs were again crossed and stomachs were growling.



The drive back to Satara was fairly quiet, but I stopped at the sighting board and managed to get another pic of the local Bushbaby having a snooze.



A first for us in KNP coming later

Afternoon Drive: H1-4 to the S127 turnoff and back

It had been another long morning, so we relaxed in camp until just after 4pm and chose a short drive to round the day off.

There was plenty of general game just outside camp at the small waterhole just in front of Stanley guest house. I couldn’t help feeling envious of the Stanley guests as we have spent 1 night there and it rocks. A few kudu ended up coming close enough for a pic.



Now, I think that many mites have made up animal wish lists, etc and there were 2 individuals, a serval and a pangolin that I have never seen in the wild, but one of them was casually walking in the middle of the tar road and this is one that nobody in our group had ever seen in KNP.



I could hear Supernova and Melly coming from the walkie talkie and at the same time Hawkeyes shouted in my ear “Aardvark”, which caused me to swerve all over the road, but we managed a few more pics before he disappeared in the grass.





We all so stoked at finally finding a pangolin and ended up chugging along for the next couple of km talking more about it than looking for animals, but we eventually stopped to take a few pics of another lone elephant.



There were 2 cars stopped up ahead just before the S127 turnoff and as we slowly approached the SO shouted “lion”, so I slammed on brakes, but couldn’t see a thing looking into the setting sun.

After the entire clan spent 5 minutes looking down the SO’s pointed finger, we eventually all could see her.



She was very interested in a herd of zebra that were walking towards her from about 100m away and this got the excitement going in both cars as we thought it was a done deal.

The zebra continued until they were about 50m from her, stopped, started grazing, and the lioness lay down disappearing in the grass.

We sat, sat and sat. I got bored and started photographing ground hornbills that were approaching from the other side of the road.



Eventually a large lone zebra started to approach the bush containing the lion and we all sat with cameras ready for the action, but the zebra was now 5m from the bush and still there was no action.

The zebra eventually must have nearly tramped on the lion, because it suddenly did a panicked u-turn and returned to the herd, but amazingly the lion seemed to get a bigger fright than the zebra. She must have been snoozing and woke up finding a zebra looking down at her.

Supernova announced on the walkie talkie “What a wet of a lion” and we all agreed.

The commotion caused another lioness and later a large cub to come out of hiding and walk over to join the “wet” in the bush.



We waited until the Garmin said that we better start heading back to camp for Melly’s spaghetti bolognaise.

April 28th Satara

Morning Drive: H1-4/S127/Timbavati/S127/H1-4/S90 (5km)/back to Satara

This day can only be described as the day of the lion.

The above is what the drive ended up, but the original plan was to drive up to where we had seen the lions the day before and then head back down the S90, S41 and then the S100 to camp.

The first 15 km of the H1-4 were relatively quiet, but about 2km before the planned u-turn spot we saw 3 cars on the side of the road. The walkie talkie went “Lion on the right”, so Supernova and I headed to the right of the stopped cars and started taking pics of the lion. The rules state that one should park on the side of sighting, so I couldn’t understand why the other cars were far on the left.



After a few minutes Supernova shouted on the walkie talkie “Lion on the left and they are eating something”. No wonder the other cars were on the left and ignoring the lion on the right



A mother and a large cub were having a feast.





Supernova and Melly had a descent spot where they could see between 2 cars, but we had to look through another cars window to check, so I cruised around the gang and found a different view.

5 minutes later the mother got up, walked past us, and disappeared into the bush next to the road about 30 meters from us, but the cub continued to feast.



A few minutes later the cub realized that mom had left and nervously got up, looked around, and then followed the same route as mom, disappearing into the bush.

We sat around for another 20 minutes looking at the wildebeest carcass, but the lions didn’t seem to want to return and the scavengers were taking their time to arrive.

Every now and then a jackal popped up out of the bush in the distance, but they wouldn’t approach with the lions hiding in the bush.

We were patiently waiting when something caught my eye in my side mirror. There was movement in the bush 30 meters behind us where the lions had disappeared, so I put the car in reverse and slowly started moving in that direction.

The SO and rats all started chirping “What are you doing? Where are you going? You are going to lose our spot, Dad!!!” I ignored the outburst and continued to reverse.

We stopped 30m away from the crowd and I switched the car off.

Then the SO started “Have you gone crazy!!” I was now unsure of the decision, so lost my cool “Shut up and keep quiet!!!!” A few seconds later there was movement again, but this time about 4 meters from the car window. Mother lion was crawling quietly through the long grass towards us.



She got comfortable with us and then started eating grass





We sat quietly with her for about 10 minutes and then the cub gained some confidence and came out of the bush to join mom.



The crowd picked up on the fact that we had some action and started arriving, which caused mom and junior to retreat back into the bush.

To be continued

Hey Bushcraft;

Got a small video clip for those who want to see "our" Pangolin in action. The footage is a little wobbly as the car was moving at the time.....



Supernova

Did you have doubt

Agreed, but I will lone you Bushpiggy for 2 hours and then compare notes

Here's Bushpiggy below - She can't wait to meet you

Morning Drive Continued

The lions had disappeared into the bush again and after another 20 minutes it looked as if they intended to stay hidden, so we decided to head on up to Timbavati for a loo break and a smoke.

The first few km of the S127 produced a couple of ostriches and then, much to the SO’s horror, some large elephants that were fairly close to the road.





By the time we returned to the wildebeest kill a couple of attractive scavengers had arrived.



This rascal also showed up, but was still too nervous to approach the kill.



We managed to get a better view of the wildebeest as many had moved on, but too my surprise the rats didn’t appreciate it “Gross Dad!!”, “It’s disgusting”, “Where’s it’s lips?” , “I’m glad that I’m not a lion!!”, “What’s the vulture doing?”, etc.



While we were waiting for more vultures, etc to arrive Supernova managed to snap a pic of this bird.



I have tried to find the model in the SO’s bird book, but no luck, so please can the experts help out with this one.

20 minutes later there were still only 2 vultures at the scene of the crime, so I suggested to Supernova that we move on for a short drive down the S90 and see if we could find the large lion pride from the day before and then come back to check if the action had increased at the kill.

The first km of the S90 produced a steenbok and waterbuck close to the road.





At the Mavumbye waterhole we found a massive herd of buffalo.



We spent about 10 minutes with them and then decided to drive a few more km before turning around and heading back to the wildebeest kill.

200m later we found these guys surveying the scenery with interest.



To be continued

Morning Drive Continued

The kings seemed fairly wide awake and attentive for this time of the day.

We also noticed that they had no shade and the sun was starting to come out, so we decided to sit, wait and watch. Strangely all the other cars except one left.

After about 15 minutes another lion started roaring in the distance, which got our attention and the 2 kings. Much to our surprise the other car left and continued down the road.

A minute later the one king got up and started off with purpose in the direction that the roaring had come from. I immediately got over excited and started off in the same direction, but forgot that there were 2 lion.



The first one was heading straight towards us, which increased the excitement and all the rats were talking at once, but about 15 meters from us he started to run, which caused photographic chaos in our car.



As he crossed in front of us we only managed blurred half lion/side mirror pics, but I also stalled the car pressing the wrong peddles, which added to the scene chaos. Suddenly the SO shouted “The second one is coming”



He also ran across the road, but stopped a few meters from our cars and posed for a few pictures, which caused an enormous fight in the back seat, as Bushpiggy and Hawkeyes were both fighting for a spot at the window to take a pic and Albert, who sits in the middle and is too young for a camera, got caught in the middle of the rugby scrum.



Bushpiggy, much to our surprise, managed the pic below with an old 3 MP hand me down camera. Hawkeyes has a slightly better camera, but blamed Bushpiggy’s big head for ruining her pics.



The first guy had disappeared so we followed the 2nd chap for about 1km down the road, but he eventually figured out where his brother had gone and disappeared into the bush after him, but stopped first for some tree climbing, nail sharpening and territory marking.



We then decided to head back to the wildebeest kill, but strangely even the vultures had left and the lions hadn’t returned.

We were all hungry, so decided to head back to Satara for breakfast.

Back in camp the all the rats and The Cow spotted some mongoose in front of our units and all went on a leopard crawl photo mission.



Hawkeyes had fun stalking francolins that were having a sand bath, but Bushpiggy soon charged in and ruined that sighting, which resulted in tears and another squabble.



After lunch Supernova and I took the kids on a long walk around camp and explored the camping section for future cheaper trips, but soon realized that the rat’s legs were running out of steam, so headed back to our units.

What we did notice in the camping section of Satara is that all walks of life visit KNP and a major concern for me would be noisy neighbours and many campers seemed to fit that profile and that would destroy our KNP experience, so we left the camping section rather unsure if it’s something that we wanted to try in the future. Our two families have camped many times on the coast and at inland dams, but after a few nights of rave music and shouting until 4am, our motivation for camping is in reverse. Maybe KNP campers are more respectful of others, so I intend to explore many camping sections at night during our August trip.

Afternoon Drive to Follow

Afternoon Drive: H6/S41/S90/H1-4

This was a long drive for us to do in the afternoon and we had doubts that it was doable, but decided to reassess at the S100/S41 intersection.

The H6, although we have found honey badger on it once before, has never been one of our successful drives and this afternoons probably rates as one of the worst, as the southern section had just been burnt and there was almost no life all the way to the S41.

Halfway to the S41/S100 intersection Hawkeyes shouted “I spotted ears back there”, so I stopped and got on the walkie talkie to Supernova, who was behind us, and relayed the message, but the SO and I thought that it was just the imagine running wild again, but Supernova said “We have a lion”.



There were plenty of vultures all around, so we assumed that there must be a kill somewhere in the long grass. After 10 minutes the lion was still parking off and the clock was ticking, so we decided to move on.

The S41/Gudzani low water bridge had the usual hippo gang hanging around in the stagnant water.



The next sighting still has us rolling with laughter when we watch the trip video and I will quote directly from the commentary.

Halfway up the S41 to the S90 we crossed another low water bridge and as we drove up the hill on the other side a large elephant was standing on the side of the road, so I stopped to take a pic. The next minute, its ears went back and it started forward, so I started to reverse slowly.

Supernova came across the walkie talkie “Why are you reversing? Ha-ha”. My response was “Would you like to be in front now?”

The SO is terrified of elephants and the last time this happened she dropped the video camera, started crying and tried to dig to Australia through the passenger foot well.

I was sure that he would just cruise off into the bush, but he seemed to get more upset and accelerate towards us, so the speed of reverse increased.

Then the SO started “He’s flapping, reverse!!!”



I was trying to reverse over the narrow bridge, so wasn’t even looking at the elephant, but the next high pitched string of shrieks got me to speed up “He’s coming, He’s coming!!!”



Then the flood gates opened up “He’s chasing us, He’s chassssssing us”. We all realized now that this guy meant business, so we were both motoring backwards down the road.

I still wasn’t looking at the elephant, as I was trying to remain on the road at this speed in reverse, but Bushpiggy got me more excited when she started shouting “He’s running, he’s running”



As soon as he crossed the bridge he calmed down, looked at us one more time and then wandered off into the bush. We think that he just wanted to cross the bridge and we were in his way.

A little further on we found plenty of general game including this young impala having tea.



The S90 produced a large number of elephants, but due to the fact that the SO’s eyes were still on storks we stopped a long way from them and waited for a gap to get past.

Next up we found a couple of Kori Bustards and as we joined the H1-4 a large number of buffalo.





A few km up the H1-4 we found our lions from the morning, including the inquisitive cub.





A few beers and a braai ended an eventful day, but we were all a little sad to be leaving Satara.

Hey Bushcraft;

Play with sound on





Supernova

I may have picture but no sound for the weekend, but check this out

Play with sound on

April 29th Satara to Skukuza

Morning Drive: H1-4 (15km)/Satara/H1-3/S33 Vutomi Dam/Tshokwane/H1-2/Skukuza

The plan was to take a slow drive down to Skukuza on the H1-3, but the clan all nagged us to go up the H1-4 and check out the wildebeest kill from the day before first. We gave in under the pressure and agreed to go and have a quick look.

Our first sighting for the morning was this giraffe next to the road.



The entire way up I was moaning about the time and the fact that it would all be over, but as we neared the area I shut up rather quickly.

The first thing that I noticed, besides the 2 other cars that were on the side of the road, was the large pack of hyena that were shrieking up and down the side of the road and it looked like something that you see on Animal Planet, so I started to accelerate ahead of Supernova towards them.



Suddenly the SO was shouting “What are you doing!!!” Confused I said “Following the hyena!!” The response was “You just drove right past the lions!!!”

A quick reverse produced this



Overnight the lions had dragged the kill closer to the road and they were now only a few meters away.



The shock of seeing lions fighting and eating that close kept the rats quiet for about a minute and then the frantic fight started for the window seat, which caused another blown head gasket in the front, but they soon realized that if they were quiet they could hear the lions eating, growling, etc



After about 15 minutes the hyena started to push the boundaries again and 1 lioness took major exception to this, jumped up, walked halfway to them and started twitching her tail aggressively, but the hyena completely ignored her.



The remaining 2 lions on the kill seemed very interested in the occupants of 1 of the cars and totally ignored the hyena, but I was glad that they weren’t looking at our rats like that.



The stroppy lioness decided that it was time to teach the hyena a lesson and started to slowly stalk them, which definitely caused them to start to pay more attention.



To be continued

Bushcraft, you must have been really happy that the kids convinced you to go back to the kill. Lovely, lovely pics Oh by the way, Micetta might be right

Morning Drive Continued

Suddenly the lioness took off after them, which resulted in shrieks from the hyena and howling laughter in the car. Our youngest “Albert” shouted “Why is the lion playing catches with the hyena”, but the rest of us realized how lucky we were to witness this interaction.





The lioness gave up eventually and collapsed in the grass for a rest, but the hyena had regrouped and launched a counter offensive.



The lion took off after them again, but soon gave up and lay down again. The hyena got the message and started to move off, but it soon became apparent that they had changed their tactics and were now sneaking around the cars to try a different angle of attack.



While everyone was distracted by the game of tag, junior had snuck in unnoticed to have some chow.



The stroppy hyena chasing lion soon returned to the kill and junior took off and then slowly snuck back in for more chow, but was very wary of stroppy who kept lifting her lips and growling.



The hyena gave up their tactical angle of attack and decided to relax and wait it out, but the hypoactive jackal kept on running around.
The slightly slowed up hyena often never spotted the jackal until they were fairly close and then jumped each time in fright, which resulted in more howls of laughter from the rats.



The 1 jackal in particular had major guts and got to within a few meters of the lions at one stage.



It was now about 7:45am and we had spent more than an hour watching this interaction.

The sun was getting up, the crowd was growing, the lions were starting to move off and we were supposed to be driving to Skukuza, so reluctantly we decided to head back to Satara for a loo break and then continue down to Skukuza.

To be continued

Morning Drive Continued

I was a little stressed as it was getting late and put everyone under pressure to hurry up in the public loo at Satara, which caused a few pelican faces, but in a few minutes we were back on the road.

2 km before the S126 turn off, where cell signal disappears, my phone rang and it was Satara reception and they stated that The Cow’s purse had been found by the cleaning staff. It took me a few seconds to realize what was going on and then the gasket went again, which resulted in a rapid u-turn, much to Supernova’s confusion, and we were on our way back to Satara.

The purse contained more than R1000 in cash, bank cards and our ID documents, so we were a little concerned, but due to the great work by the Satara staff, all was returned. We tried to find the cleaning lady who had handed it in at reception, but she was somewhere in the camping section by the time we collected the purse and reception for some reason wouldn’t release her name.

All I can say is “Hats off to Satara cleaning staff”

I mailed Satara management when we got home and they assured me that the correct person would receive credit for this honest act.

Finally we were on our way to Skukuza

Just outside Satara at the little bridge where a leopard had been a few days before, we spotted a car stopped on the bridge in the distance and as we got closer to the bridge we could see that the driver was waving and pointing at something.

It looked like he was pointing under the bridge, but on the other side of the road, so I immediately assumed that there was a leopard under the bridge and accelerated towards that angle, but now the pointing and waving became frantic and the passenger joined in, so confused I stopped.

Now they were pointing at the front of my car, so more confused I shouted out the window “What’s up”. The driver shouted back “Reverse and look on the road in front of your car”.

I was shocked to see that my leopard had turned into a leguaan, but this one was on Bushpiggy’s wish list, so she was stoked.



Next up were some buffalo



When we arrived at Marheya waterhole there were a few cars parked on the side of the road and a closer look produced lions sleeping in the bush next to the waterhole. Supernova was lucky enough to capture the male as he sat up for a quick look around.





The next 15km of the H1-3 were relatively quiet, so at the S33 turnoff we decided to go and check out Vutomi dam as we heard rumours at Satara that there had been 3 large male lions hanging around the dam.

Our first sighting was this elephant that had just had a mud bath, but he didn’t like our company so we moved off.



The road to the dam was fairly quiet, but there were no other cars, so we could relax and enjoy the peace of the bush. The dam had a few of the usual suspects hanging around, but no elusive male lions, so we decided to do a u-turn and head back to Tshokwane for a loo and smoke break.

Halfway back down the S33 we found a giraffe on the side of the road, so we stopped to watch him for awhile. Suddenly something caught my eye walking down the middle of the road a long way off, so I asked the SO “What’s that in the road”. We were quiet for a few seconds and then she shouted “Leopard” The leopard spotted us at about the same time and ducked off into the bush.

We accelerated up to where the leopard had been, slowed and carefully studied the bush. Suddenly, maybe because I also got a fright, it was my turn to shout “Leopard”. A little female was lying in a bush right next to us.



She wasn’t much bigger than leopard cubs that we have seen over the years and the SO must have also thought this, because she told the rats to keep an eye open out the other windows just in case there was a mother around.

She was extremely nervous and as I moved my car to get a better angle she took off deeper into the bush, which caused screams of horror from the rats, but about a minute later she slowly came back out.



She stood very still and just stared at us for about 2 minutes and it almost looked as if she wanted to either eat one of the rats or play with them.



Just before the S33 rejoins the H1-3 we spotted this owl. I think that it’s a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl.



Our plan was to buy chow at Tshokwane, but by the time we arrived the queues were 20 people deep in the shop, so much to the rat’s horror we postponed chow time until we reached Skukuza, but Supernova and I had to bribe the rats with chips, biltong and sweets before they accepted the delay for food.
The H1-2 produced a few of the usual suspects, but it was nearing midday, so we didn’t expect to find any action, but as we arrived at Mantimahle Dam we found the crowd and lions.



They were in thick bush and again there were just too many people, so after a quick pic we moved on.

The low water bridge just before the H1-4 produced a junior croc.



It was about 1pm when we finally arrived at Skukuza and thought that we would try our luck at an early book in, but came short, so headed off to Selati restaurant to watch the end of the royal wedding and grab a hamburger. Surprisingly Selati was quiet, that’s until the rats arrived.

To be continued

Afternoon Drive: H4-1/Nkuhlu/H1-2/Skukuza

We decided to go on a short leopard mission this afternoon and the H4-1 has produced for us many times in the past, so it was the chosen route, but unfortunately it again was unusually quiet and Nkuhlu arrived quickly without success.

The bonus for me was that it was late and the Nkuhlu crowds had all left, but the local gangsters had moved in.





Supernova and I checked out the sighting board, but with so few magnets it was hardly worthwhile. It had been a long day, so we decided to head back for a braai.

The drive back produced a few elephant and our first road kill, which looked like a vine snake. This was the only road kill that we found on this trip, which is a good change from previous trips.



Supernova managed to test his new camera’s flash on the low water bridge just outside Skukuza. I tried each time mister hippo put his head up but all my flash did was blind everyone in the car.



It’s always nice being back at the fence for an evening braai and even though no hyena came past while we were braaiing, Supernova managed to get pics of a bush baby that was sneaking around above our braai. (I think that Supernova pays special attention to bush babies above the braai area, because he became a victim of one’s ablutions last year)





To be continued