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KNP Day 1

Hi Forumnites,

 this my first trip report so excuse the errors. Was adamant that I want to catch up on my sleep this long weekend. SaF the son in law Rash the son and Aads the daughter kept on calling or rather nagging that I and my better half join them. Decided that we will. Left on Friday the 6th in two cars. Followed Safs and the rascal did not tell me he plans going via Orpen gate. My Princess, the granddaughter refused to sit with us. Oh I forgot convinced the eldest Ash to join us. He drove through on Thursday and jumped in with us. rash and his better half Aysh left from centurion. They left on the Thursday n spent the night in Nelspruit and drove via to Ngwenya early Friday.

Anyway drove in at Orpen and saw the normal game, the kids are all Cat crazy. Saw lovely herd of elephants at dam just before Satara, name of dam escapes me right now. At 16h00 everyone in my car is tired and we head to crocodile bridge gate onto ngwenya. Safs and Azh decided to go and explore the S28 while the rest of us drove on to Ngwenya. And guess what? They had a leopard on the road for 20 mins. I was green with envy. Tired now will have more GREAT sightings of today to report tomorrow.

Day 2

Day 2

Forgot better half is Shaids. Through the grace of GOD we visit the park on average 6 times a year. My habit is to take a morning and evening drive as compulsory. On Saturday only Rash and I went for the morning drive. Drove for a while and had some great sightings. The highlight was 2 lionesses and 2 cubs under a bush. They were in a distant but clear view.returned to the lodge and Rash made a great breakfast of scrambled eggs and his superb mixture.  We had a great breakfast and took a well deserved rest. All but Shaids went for the afternoon drive. Went to the hippo pools but were disappointed that there was no ranger there. Had beautiful viewing. The highlight was when we went back to the place where we saw the lions in the morning.Thruogh the grace of GOD there were 3lionesses on the hunt. Could not see the cubs. Followed the lions and it was getting late.Not too late though. A good Samaritan then told us that the cubs, 9 of them were playing in the riverbed. This could not have come at a better time as the lionesses disappeared into thick bush.  Went to the riverbed, a 1 km away and saw all nine cubs.My princess was thrilled.  We had our fill and had roughly ten minutes to do 13 Kim's back to CB. Guess what happened then? On the road about 8 Kim's from gate the king with his mate and 2cubs on the road. There were about 8 cars and the flash lights were going berserk. We got to the gate 16 minutes late. We got the normal lecture but could you blame us as the king of the KNP wanted attention. If you think this was a great day you ain't heard nothing yet.

DAY 3 Sunday

Most of the gang was tired so it was only me and Safs for the morning drive. Azh (Safs) brother was out with the flu and Rash was still tired. On all our KNP trip the 4of us are as regular as clockwork morning and sunset trippers. Safs phoned at 4 45and as I was having a shower and did not answer he nearly left me behind, can you believe that!
Safs on the last 4 trips,when we stayed at Burchells was obsessed with the s65,s 114 amongst others. All his intuitions turned out to be dry runs (no cats)
This morning he somewhat hesitantly said that his gut feeling was that we take the s28. I just gave that  "smile". Safs in any event mostly gets his way. Believe it or not 15 mins into the drive 6, yes 6 sub adult male lions on the road. We were the only vehicle and had them to ourselves for 10 minutes before they disappeared into the bush. Safs was the one who was smiling now. 15 mins later at the bird hide on s 28, 3 lionesses with cubs. Safs smile only got bigger. 
We then went on to LS. I was starving,we had no eats in the car. Told Safs that we I had to get something to eat. He gave that now confident look and said that he wants to make a quick run to sunset dam, what could I say. At sunset again with that confident tone, said that he wants to go a further 2 Kms down the road. As I indicated, what could I say. A km from the dam a leopard crosses the road. Safs smile looked to big for his face. He then, with chest out finally got me to LS.
Got a muffin and coffee and I started smiling again.Was very disappointed with the restaurant at LS but more about this at a later stage. We were both tired now and decided to return to base. 8 Kms from LS a cheetah. It was sitting but got good visuals.
At the cheetah sighting Safs was informed that there was an earlier sighting of a leopard at dukes. SaF looked at me with that confident smile of hiS and I knew we were on the way to dukes. As luck would have it about 5kms a massive bull elephant on the road, what a sight and what frustration. We eventually got to dukes and the young leopard with in the company of many many cars and humans was on a tree. Spent 20 mins with him and returned to base.
By the way Safs now wants me to call him "sir"

Hi all
I sit here outside the balcony with the stars, the crickets and the sound of the river as my company. I wonder that if nature is so peaceful what will heaven be like!!!
Had a long tiresome day yesterday so I will fill you all in on both day4 and 5.

Day 4 (Monday)
All the males went for the morning drive. Got a glimpse of a massive male lion walking into the bush. Took out the binocs to scan the area. Rash and Ash spotted an impala deeper in the bush who was on edge. Waited for half an hour hoping to see a kill. Only left when the impala dashed of into deeper bush.  Drove to duke water hole hoping to see the leopard again. There were many cars but no leopard. Someone mentioned that  he saw the leopard on a tree stump. The rest of us,and we were many,could not see anything. We left after half an hour. Half a km from duke Ash spotted a lion. It was a great spot as the lion was in fairly thick bush.  The male got up aggressively. Immediately a female got up. We realized it was a mating pair. They walked towards the car. The male had one eye damaged. Looked very scary. You will see what I mean when I download the pics. Returned to base for a nice brunch. Rash and Aysh left back for home.
The afternoon produced no cats but it was nevertheless great. CB has a lot of game. Herds of elephant,buffalo and plenty of the usual. Returned to base and Aads and Shaids prepared a kings supper. Retired early as we were all extremely tired.

Day 5 (Tuesday)
The morning drive took us back to dukes. Mother and cub were seen daily for the last 5to6 days. We were not lucky this morning. They were seen before we got there. Missed lions 3 times. On each of these occasion many cars an upon enquiring as to what the fuss was all about, were told that a lion had just crossed the road. This is the excitement of the KNP. Returned to base earlier than we normally do on morning drives.
The afternoon was a challenge between Azh,  Shaids and myself on one team and SaF,Aads and Ash on the other. We decided to take different routes and the challenge was which team would see cats. Will reveal tomorrow which team won. Keep guessing till then.

Hi Wanderlust
Happy that you will be at Ngwenya in May. Not too long to go. You will be visiting heaven on earth. You must make as many trips into the park as possible. Great game around CB.Ngwenya itself is great. Just sitting on your "stop " and looking into the park over the crocodile river is peaceful.
Have a wonderful time and drive carefully.

Day 6 (Wednesday)
For those of you who guessed that neither of the teams won yesterday you guessed right. No cats. In any event I got up at 5h00 this morning. Decided the night before that I won't be going for the morning drive which shocked the entire family. This was the first time in all my visits to the KNP which spans over 40 years that I made this decision. The reason was simple. SaF and Azh who are ardent golfers wanted to drive to Skukuza to play a round of golf. I could not see myself driving by myself and under pressure thinking that they were finished and I was delayed in picking them up.
I sat on the stoep from 5h00 till 7h00. The cool breeze brushing my face,the night sounds echoing all  around. The sun rays eventually breaking on the crocodile river and night sounds converting to the sound of dawn. Egyptian geese and ducks quaking. This is the life.
SaF phoned from LS at about 8h00 with great joy and excitement in his voice saying that they had seen the big5.
Shaids, Aads,Ash my princess and I had a great day too. Played putt putt, ping pong and the various computer games at the gaming room. Agreed to meet SaF and Azh at the H 5 so that we could do the afternoon drive together. We were teasing SaF and Azh that it was a"boetie boetie" conspiracy that they were seeing the big 5 when we were not with them.
Whether it was guilt or SaF's intuition,he took the route to duke again. That is where they saw the leopard during the morning drive. Just before the duke turnoff there was the leopard on a tree. Ash and SaF spotted the leopard simultaneously. Spent at least 45 mins with it before it jumped off the tree. It was a beautiful end to a wonderful day.

Day 7 (Thursday)
As you can all imagine I write this report with a heavy heart. Tomorrow is back to home sweet home. Don't think that I am ungrateful. I cannot thank GOD Almighty for this wonderful opportunity of bringing us together as a family and the wonderful sightings. We missed SaF and Azh parents who normally accompany us. They too are passionate about the park.
SaF,Azh and I took the morning drive. It was uneventful in that up to 4kms from camp we had seen no cats. The first hero of the day was a good samaritan who was driving towards us waving his hand frantically. He asked whether we had seen any cats and when we said no he directed  us to a pride that was 4 Kms away. Had he not done so we would have turned from the s125 directly back to base. We had lovely sight of the king and his family. As there was cellphone reception we called the rest of the gang as the pride was 4kms from the CB gate and 12 Kms from base. In any event it was only 10h 30.
 At the lion sighting we were told that there was a leopard sighting on the S28 at the LS end with 10/10 visual. Could we miss such an opportunity. We phoned the gang and told them to meet us at the leopard sighting when they were done with the lions.
I am having difficulty concentrating writing this TR. I am sitting on the balcony and SaF is busy braaing and the smell of the flame grilled chops,steaks and other goodies is filling the air.
Getting back to the drive,we arrived at the leopard sighting with only one vehicle there. The leopard was 5/6 meteres from the road,clear visual. The carcass was on a tree that was next to the road. Spent 10 minutes  with this beautiful cat before it went to sit in a bush where visual was difficult. When scores of cars arrived it went deeper into the bush. Visual was only good with a bino. The gang eventually caught up and were grateful to see this graceful creature albeit through a bino. We sat there for approx. 2 hours hoping that it would come feed again. At 14h30 went to LS for a lunch break.
Got back to the leopard which had not moved. Ash,Shaids and I decided to carry on as we were happy with what we saw of the leopard. The rest decided to bare the heat a while longer in the hope that the leopard will come and feed again.
We had a lovely drive. Saw a massive herd of buffalo,some of whom were mating in plain sight. When we got to the intersection ( H4-2) the second hero of the day realized that the leopard sighting was 6kms from the junction. He suggested we go back and see if the was more visible. I planned to go back to base but as it was only  16h50 I followed Ash's advice. We got to the spot and the leopard had finished feeding on the carcass and was busy climbing down the tree. It sat at the base for a while and we had great visual for at least 10mins.
Sadly SaF and his gang had left. They came back but did not have great visual and it was time to head back to base.
Thanks to all of you for your kind words and support. We intend motoring through the park tomorrow before heading for home. Will do my final report at home and promise to do my best to download the pics by the weekend. GOD bless. 

Day 7 (Thursday)
As you can all imagine I write this report with a heavy heart. Tomorrow is back to home sweet home. Don't think that I am ungrateful. I cannot thank GOD Almighty for this wonderful opportunity of bringing us together as a family and the wonderful sightings. We missed SaF and Azh parents who normally accompany us. They too are passionate about the park.
SaF,Azh and I took the morning drive. It was uneventful in that up to 4kms from camp we had seen no cats. The first hero of the day was a good samaritan who was driving towards us waving his hand frantically. He asked whether we had seen any cats and when we said no he directed  us to a pride that was 4 Kms away. Had he not done so we would have turned from the s125 directly back to base. We had lovely sight of the king and his family. As there was cellphone reception we called the rest of the gang as the pride was 4kms from the CB gate and 12 Kms from base. In any event it was only 10h 30.
 At the lion sighting we were told that there was a leopard sighting on the S28 at the LS end with 10/10 visual. Could we miss such an opportunity. We phoned the gang and told them to meet us at the leopard sighting when they were done with the lions.
I am having difficulty concentrating writing this TR. I am sitting on the balcony and SaF is busy braaing and the smell of the flame grilled chops,steaks and other goodies is filling the air.
Getting back to the drive,we arrived at the leopard sighting with only one vehicle there. The leopard was 5/6 meteres from the road,clear visual. The carcass was on a tree that was next to the road. Spent 10 minutes  with this beautiful cat before it went to sit in a bush where visual was difficult. When scores of cars arrived it went deeper into the bush. Visual was only good with a bino. The gang eventually caught up and were grateful to see this graceful creature albeit through a bino. We sat there for approx. 2 hours hoping that it would come feed again. At 14h30 went to LS for a lunch break.
Got back to the leopard which had not moved. Ash,Shaids and I decided to carry on as we were happy with what we saw of the leopard. The rest decided to bare the heat a while longer in the hope that the leopard will come and feed again.
We had a lovely drive. Saw a massive herd of buffalo,some of whom were mating in plain sight. When we got to the intersection ( H4-2) the second hero of the day realized that the leopard sighting was 6kms from the junction. He suggested we go back and see if the was more visible. I planned to go back to base but as it was only  16h50 I followed Ash's advice. We got to the spot and the leopard had finished feeding on the carcass and was busy climbing down the tree. It sat at the base for a while and we had great visual for at least 10mins.
Sadly SaF and his gang had left. They came back but did not have great visual and it was time to head back to base.
Thanks to all of you for your kind words and support. We intend motoring through the park tomorrow before heading for home. Will do my final report at home and promise to do my best to download the pics by the weekend. GOD bless. 

Hi All, the last day, Friday we drove through the park and left via Phabeni. No cats but lots of game and a peaceful and serene drive particularly the LS/Skukuza drive along the Sabie River. Once again thank you for your encouragement and kind words. Once again thanks to GOD Almighty for his kindness and the wonderful opportunity of this outstanding trip. i was born BC ( before computers ) so with the help of ASH downloaded 49 photos that i took which you can view by going to the link mentioned hereunder. GOD bless


http://www.flickr.com/photos/79116556@N ... 930413986/