Day 3 & 4A short note first, holding thumbs for all the staff, nature-lovers and animals in the Kruger right now. The water levels are massive, and given the fact that rivers in our neighbouring countries are also breaking banks and going berserk, there’s still a lot of water headed towards our paradise. Shingwedzi is not looking good, amongst many other places, and I must admit to being quite heart-sore at the thought that this wonderful camp has sustained major damage (and poor EcoJunkie has just finished putting up new posters there too)
Bright and early we left out the eastern gate and headed along the S50 towards Kanniedood Dam. We kept on bumping into Daron, his brother and the entourage too, and saw these first along a few of the many loops. It was a dreary day, so the light wasn’t too great although I’m not going to blame that for my limited photography skills. Perhaps due to the weather, sightings were in relatively short supply, and I am therefore combining days 3 & 4 into one post
…
The dam was looking much fuller than had been previously reported before we got there, but this pic doesn’t quite have the zing to it than one of the dam at this moment in time would have had.
About 2 kms past the dam wall, something told me to go down another one of the tiny loops, and Jax suddenly got very excited. “STOP, LION!!”, she energetically yelled. He and his brother were on the other side of the river, and I’m afraid this is the best I could do at the zoom level I had to use to make him look like a cat, and not a slightly brown pebble. I also had to contort myself somewhat as the kitty was on Jax’ side of the car, and I gave myself a rather hard thump on my left knee against the seatbelt latch. How I didn’t start making rather colourful sailor noises, I’ll never know … (The bruise that came up was even more colourful)
They were both doing what kitties do best … sleeping. After about 5 minutes of this frenetic leonine activity, we moved on and found these few.
This handsome lad at Grootvlei
And this gorgeous, fluffy thing
Near Mooiplaas this magnificent lad
And this meditating teenager
We popped into Mopani to stretch our legs and get some biltong and stuff (vital energy-giving padkos, most important) and then headed down to Letaba. We arrived MUCH too early to check in, so I gave the Krugermobile some padkos too, and we headed out again. North up the H1-6, and took the S62 up to Engelhard lookout. The road was quite dodgy, but we persevered, and I’m glad we did.
On one of the few loops off down to the dam
Found this plaque most intriguing
Grubby fish eagle having a bath
Then from Matambeni hide, the cutest thing !!
Poor little bugger battled to get out of the water too. We headed back to Letaba after that, and were STILL too early. It was warming up a lot at this stage. To kill time and refresh our sweaty selves, we headed to the restaurant for a cold one or 5.
Day 3 & 4 continued shortly …
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The simple rule to follow with all animals is one of respect.Trip reports
Nov/Dec 201221-22 Sept 2013 - Olifants with river view
23-24 Sept 2013 - Letaba perimeter
25-27 Sept 2013 - Tamboti
28-29 Sept 2013 - Mopani with lake view
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I must have got lost in cyberspace. 
and I did tell you that I found your report most entertaining. I am going to repeat that.
and there's no better place in the world to go on honeymoon than their! Stunning pics hope you manage to capture a leopard on camara this time lol as for those stink muis honde come to ermelo and then you'll see the entire nation of them around every corner of this town its like a full blown invasion and boy do they love my car eish met baie ys!
Thank you for sharing
