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Klystron, Jock, Tawny, Martial and myself, whew!! are all more or less packed, ready for our departure bright and early tomorrow morning.
Everyone is very excited and looking forward to our 2 weeks of heaven on earth.
I will be sending in our trip reports as we find them and Penny has very kindly offered to post them for us.
So hold on to your hats!!!
Till we "speak again"

Delayed message just in from Elsa and family re their Kruger trip:
Saturday -
Hi, just in from the park, very nice day, elephant, rhino, huge herd buffalo, hippo and 2 Kori bustards, plenty warthog, kudu etc but unfortunately no cats yet. Very hot in the Park - today 31 degrees at 2 p.m.

and then
Sunday - Phone call from Elsa -

They have just returned from a rather uneventful nightdrive from Croc Bridge gate - could hear lions calling but apparently never found them. It is still very hot but Elsa says it was a bit cold on the night drive vehicle. Lovely day at the timeshare watching hippo, waterbuck and birds.

Back into the Park tomorrow morning they are going to try the S25 and then head via the Malelane Road out the Numbi gate as they have to fetch family who are joining them from KMIA at Nelspruit.

Will post tomorrow once they are back at the timeshare. Lets hope the cats play ball tomorrow!

Just in from Elsa -

Went into the Park today and saw ellies, one causing a roadblock, buffs, lots of bushbuck, ostrich but still no elusive cats.
Frustrating to say the least but we will get them yet. We had the little one with us so not able to go long distances. Met up with Katja at Nkhulu and had lunch with her - sh is a super person. Still good weather with a max of 27 degrees!

Message just in from Elsa -

She and Klystron are baby-sitting today so are staying at Ngwenya but Jock and company are going into the Park. Good sightings yesterday from their verandah of elephant, buffalo and two male hippos having a major territorial fight. Lots of blood and after talking to her this morning she says that the bleeding hippo is showing signs of tiring and she reckons there could be a fatality. Interesting theory for those of you that know Ngwenya - Elsa and Klystron conjecturing that this is the hippo that was resident in the main dam at the timeshare and is now trying to join the pod that is resident there resulting in this battle.

Elsa will let me know tonight what the sightings are today and then tomorrow they have to do the airport trip again but are going to go through the Park to maximise the day. I will keep you all posted!

Just when we thought that all the lions in Kruger had gone to a pussy cat convention in another Park Elsa reported the following:

Jock and Co. back from the Park and saw 4 lions, 2 male and 2 females on the S25. Then an aggressive male elephante chased down the road for more than 2 km. 2 more lionesses fresh from a kill. Saw Scops owl at Afsaal and a further perl spotted owl. Many ellies just outside Croc Bridge Gate.

Well done to all of you.

I wonder if that is the same elephant that chased us 6 weeks ago and we had to phone in to Biyamiti for help?

Today is the airport again for Elsa and family and also moving downriver to their other timeshare which is right in front of the hippo pool!

Latest news -

Fairly quiet day in the park today, saw nice breeding herd of elephants, buffalo, stacks of giaffe and kudu and surprising few zebra this whole trip so far. Visited the Selati Restaurant at Skukuza. Will be meeting Wildtuinman at Croc Bridge!

Latest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leopard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to Jock's sharp eyes an excellent sighting.

Also today they met up with WTM. At the moment out at the restaurant having dinner for their wedding anniversary.

Just received an sms from Elsa:

Trip report for yesterday - a fairly quiet run up to Lake Panic, a darter eating a large fish, a hippo right in front feeding her young calf plus lots of other interesting sights there. The weather had turned fairly cold with a strong wind blowing. Then a wonderful sighting, best so far, a leopard hunting impala. Crossed the road 5 times in total. Plenty of breeding herds of elephant all over. Met up with WTM at Croc bridge.

Lets hope the last few days are as fruitful as yesterdays. They are home on Friday!

And an addendum to that message!

Jock very sad to e leaving as her trip is over and the 4 weeks has flown by - she sends her best wishes to all - end of message.

Lovely meeting Jock - hope she has a safe trip back! That means that Elsa and company are having to do the airport trip AGAIN today - hope they see something in the Park that makes it worthwhile!

Hi everyone

One very sad Jockelina reporting. Not only did I have to say good bye to my family, but to Kruger as well. My heart has stayed in that bush, that is for sure.

Anyways, I have tomorrow off so will do my report then. Sorry about the delay but will need some sleep soon and I am sure if I attempt to write it now, I will talk nonsense.

Message just in from Elsa:

Yesterday after dropping Jock off at the airport, with heavy hearts, we went into the Park at Malelane gate for a short trip to try and lift our spirits. Drove up as far as Afsaal and saw zebra and rhino and on the way back 2 young hyaena, still very nervous and wary of cars. Message in from Jock today - she arrived safely back in Sydney and is having serious withdrawal symptoms for the Park already.

Eng of message!

Part 1 of my report

Wow, I can't believe four weeks is up and I find myself back in Australia again after spending a wonderful time with the family and a great 9 days by Kruger.

After a long trip up through Swaziland from Durban we finally arrived at our timeshare. Our first sighting was a hippo in the Crocodile River along with Egyptian geese. That was all we could see before the sunset into the Kruger, a sight that always takes my breath away.

Everyone slept really well except myself so I was up early in the morning and sat in the hide staring into Kruger while the sun shed light on the park again. While dreaming of the animals in Kruger I spotted a cutthroat finch, scarlet-chested sunbird and a village indigobird. Finally we were off and I entered true paradise. The park was not as green as I had expected and although there is lots of grass, most of it has fallen flat so it helped with finding animals.

We drove up the H4-2 to Lower Sabie and found elephant, vultures, hippo, impala, yellow billed hornbills etc. The elephants we saw were standing so still it took us several minutes to decide if the elephants were in fact elephants, and not rocks. Our "breakfast" was more like brunch so I decided to have a pie, chips and gravy. Klystron had curry and the others joined me with pies. Unfortunately the pies were cold and so was the curry so we reported it to the restaurant and were very happy with the way they reacted. She rushed off into the kitchen to inform the cook so hopefully we saved some other poor souls from eating cold pie and gravy.

We then sat and had ice cream while watching the comings and goings at my favourite place on earth, Sunset Dam. I just love that dam, there is always something to see and today was no different with plenty crocodiles, hippo, and various water birds. We then made our way up the H10 and then coming down the S29. These roads were extremely quiet and all we could find were kudu, hornbills and starlings. Just when we were giving up hope two Kori Bustards were spotted a little way off the road.

We all want to meet Duke so decided to try and find him, unsuccessfully but we did find about 200 buffalo with some very small babies crossing the S28. After watching them we moved 50m down the road and found two rhino which also crossed the road behind us. Other then impala, warthog etc we left the park feeling happy and totally relaxed.


A good braai with amarula was in order when we returned to the chalet. We decided to stay at camp on Sunday so I did some bird watching. It was great just to relax and I was amazed how time flew past. While eating lunch at the restaurant we watched some waterbuck wonder down from
the bush and have a drink in the Crocodile River. The fish eagle called every now and again to ensure a very special time was had. We then went for a night drive, which left from Crocodile Bridge. Although we did not see any cats we did see a Pearl Spotted Owl, Bushbabies, Elephant, Giraffe, several Large-Spotted Genets, and an African Civet. We were amazed to see how many Spotted Thick Knees we saw on the road and they did not move very quickly. We must have seen at least twenty on them on the road throughout our drive.



Monday saw the first of four trips to the airport start. Martial, Tawny and myself set off through Kruger with the plan of going out the Phabeni or Numbi Gate. Klystron and Elsa stayed in camp, as space in the car was limited considering we were picking up my sister and her son. The trip up the H4-2 did not disappoint us and although we did not see any “big” animals we found plenty things to keep us entertained. A stop at the Sunset Dam found a very small hippo with its mum. We also found a beautiful Purple Crested Lourie and then we came across an elephant happy eating a tree on the side of the road. All appeared normal and we enjoyed his company when suddenly we became annoyed with our presence. About fifty meters up the road more elephant appeared with a baby, which explained his attitude change. We gave them plenty space and although he flashed his trunk at us a few times, we managed to stay out of trouble. Once they were over the road we proceeded only to find more elephant and several charged. We got passed them quickly (although not quick enough for Tawny who was very nervous) but was amazed to see they still wanted to charge us. The reason for their bad manners walked over the road with several youngsters walking on either side of this new addition to the elephant family. We warned a few people we passed that they had a few aggressive elephants to face before getting to Lower Sabie

Part 2

We had enjoyed our trip up the H4-2 so much we ended up not having enough time to make it to Phabeni Gate so we decided to leave through the Paul Kruger Gate. The very friendly guard happy informed us that we had just missed a large pride of lion which had spent a few hours near the gate (don’t you hate that).

On Tuesday I went into the park with Elsa, Klystron, my sister and her five-year-old son. Because we had a small kid in the car we decided to stay on the H4-2 so we could stop at Lower Sabie for him to stretch his legs. The trip up to Lower Sabie once again had good viewing with elephant, impala, vervet monkeys, warthog, giraffe etc. After a hot chocolate stop at Lower Sabie we made our way to Nkuhlu Picnic Site to meet Katja. We had a lovely time chatting while eating a toasted sandwich. She is a lovely person and it was great to meet up with another forumite. The monkeys were badly behaved and I am afraid they are getting very cheeky and that can only mean one thing. My nephew had a few pancakes and was determined not to let the monkey have one crumb and shoved those pancakes into his mouth so fast his cheeks were bulging. At one stage a monkey stole a container off a table above us near the shop and we were amazed how he opened the container before going through its contents. He did not like the tea bags he found but had to be quick to keep possession of the sugar and powered milk.


We then headed up the H4-2 and made our way across to the S30 to see what we could find there. Elephant we spotted over the river as well as dwarf mongoose, giraffe, red billed wood hoopoe, African grey hornbill, ostrich, steenbok, giraffe etc. It was then another stop at Lower Sabie before heading down the H4-2 to Crocodile Bridge. Although we did see many animals we were disappointed as a five year old wanted to see “Simba” which we could not find. It was a long day for him but he did well amusing himself and singing us songs.


Wednesday was rest day and we all stayed in the camp and we were entertained by many birds and two hippos that were in the middle of a territorial fight. Apparently they had started up on Sunday but things seem to have reached a critical stage. The one hippo was bigger then the other and he was certainly winning the battle. It started off early in the morning in front of our chalet and then moved on to in front of the restaurant and viewing deck. The smaller hippo was very tied late in the afternoon and was covered in bite marks. Several times we saw large amounts of blood when the other hippo bit into him. Although it is something that is not often seen, I felt very sorry for the little hippo. We think he might be the hippo that used to live in a dam on the property but lost his dam when a small fence was put up after an elephant kept on coming into camp and playing with the cars. Until Sunday when I left, we did not see the small hippo again so I am not sure what has happened to him. Judging from his injuries, if he survived, he will be one very sore hippo.



Klystron has better pictures of the hippo fight and I am sure he will post some in the trip report.

Part 3

Thursday was another day in Kruger and this time I went in with Martial and Tawny. Penny kept on sending us reports saying the S25 was the hot spot so we decided to give it a try. Shortly after entering the Gate at Crocodile Bridge we came across a juvenile elephant chasing a warthog around. Once the warthog moved off he went about his business and others came onto the road. Once again a small baby was spotted so we kept our distance to ensure our safety and keep Tawny relaxed (although we did not manage that). Suddenly a big bull walked past us and took on another bull elephant from the heard. They proceeded to have a tussle in the middle of the road with a small elephant watching. What we did not notice but I have picked up in the pictures is this baby stayed and was coping the big elephants movements. After the tussle the one elephant went down on his hindlegs. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on so by the time I had it open he had stood up again. I should imagine it was a submissive gesture but if anyone has info on why he did that, I would love to know.



What a good start! We set off down the S25 (ever hopeful we would spot Stephen doing his school run but we missed him), and shortly after the hippo pool turn off we spotted four lions. Two large males and two females. The males were closer to us and were marking their tree while the females lay on the road about 50 meters up the road. The males then lay down on the road and we were able to sit and watch them for about ten minutes. Only one other vehicle arrived during that time so we had the males all to ourselves.


Suddenly one of the females jumped up and disappeared in the bush and a few moments later an elephant appeared over the hill. The moment the lions saw him they ran off showing they have great respect for these massive animals.



The elephant looked a little disappointed so he turned his attention on us. He ran at us, sending us reversing down the road at high speed. He did not seem to want to give up the chase and poor Tawny was not a happy camper so we hide from him hoping he would lose interest and go off the road. A jeep jockey came around the corner so we stopped him and I told him we had been watching lion when an elephant chased us. Well, all he heard was lion and took off up the hill we were hiding behind. He got to the top of the hill and met the elephant head-on. Reverse lights came on quickly and once again the elephant charged, now he had two cars going backwards. By this stage Tawny wanted us to turn around and do another road but Martial and I wanted to see if we could find the lions again so we gave him space, hoping he would lose interest. No such luck, the buggar chased us for 2km before he finally gave up and disappeared into the bush.



After that bit of excitement we proceeded in an attempt to find the lion again. The jeep jockey took off like a bat out of hell but we found him not really knowing were to look. We showed him the area were they were and they did see them again but they were deep in the bush and it was not a very good sighting so we moved off. Another 10km further (opposite Marloth Park) we found another two lion, this time some girls having a drink in the river after feeding. They moved off as soon as they had finished drinking and lay down deep in the bush. We are not sure if they had a kill there but they were covered in blood so the chances are good. (Because I have four pictures on this post I will post the picture of the lioness on the next post)

We stopped at the Gardenia Hide and found some crocodiles chasing each other, water thick-knee, Egyptian geese and a few other water birds. We joined up on the S118 on the way to the H3 and found some more elephant and buffalo in the riverbed. The road on the left of the H3 towards Afsaal had just been burnt but we did not find anything. Lunch at Afsaal and we were able to spot the resident African Scops-Owl. We had a pancake each after lunch but I do feel the price difference is criminal. At Nkuhlu we paid R3 for a pancake, at Afsaal we paid R7.50. Why? They were the same size. I do feel this should be looked into and I will report this as I feel this is a total rip off. When I saw the R7.50 I thought they must serve several pancakes but when Martial brought them back and I saw only one, I did not enjoy this very expensive pancake.

Kruger must have felt we had enough excitement for one day and the rest of the day was very disappointing with very little to see, not even impala. We continued up the H3 towards Skukuza and then took the S113 before going onto the S26.

Part 4

Let me start off with the promised picture of the lioness.



Elsa, Klystron, my sister, my nephew and myself headed up the H4-2 on Friday on the second trip to the airport. Once again we did not want to go on roads were we could stop for Nicky. This day has to go down as one of the most disappointing days I have ever had in the park. We saw very little, it was as if the animals had just disappeard. We drove up to Skukuza, doing the little loops in the hope of finding a lioness that was reported to us by Penny. We managed to see some elephant, buffalo and then on the S1 to the Phabeni Gate we saw quiet a few kudu herds and some zebra. All in all, the zebra sightings throughout our trip were few and far between. Most days we only saw one sighting and we even had one day when we did not spot a zebra. I do not know if they have moved further north for the winter and would be interested if other forumites have found his.

Saturday and my last day in the park before flying back to Australia. We met WTM at the Crocodile Bridge, dragging him out of his bed!!!!! Apparently W@H had a lot to do with his late night. Once again it was great to meet another forumite and put a face to the name. Elsa wanted to show me Lake Panic so we made our way up the H4-2 (yet again) and once again, the animals were no where to be seen. Not even elephant showed themselves so we made good time due to no stops.

Lake Panic is stunning and I have found another part of Kruger that I just love. We sat in the hide for an hour or so and had plenty to keep us entertained. A large African Darter caught a fish and took a while to swallow this fish which was a little bigger then his throat. African Jacana, Black Crake, White faced whistling ducks and pied kingfisher were all about and feeding off the dam. A hippo then appeared and behind her appeared a really small hippo. She lay down in front of the hide and nursed her little one, which was a delight to see. The weather was pretty nasty with a very cold wind so we did not stay as long as we would have liked.



I purchased a buffalo pie for my lunch while the others had cheese and biscuits. A huge soccer match was happening around Skukuza and the noise level chased us out of the camp and we decided to stop on the Sand River Bridge and eat our lunch. It was very pleasant and we had a lovely time listening to the birds (although we could also hear some very noisy soccer fans at the picnic sight). After lunch we continued up the H1-2 and as I passed a no entry road I spotted something standing in the road. I was not sure what is was as it looked like hyena but certainly a strange one. When we reverse, we saw that it was a leopard but he look off the moment he realized he had been spotted. We drove up the no entry road in the hope we could see him again. A Sanparks worker came up behind us hooting several times. We tied to indicate that we were looking for something but he kept hooting. He drove along side us and when we said we had seen a leopard he drove off. At this point I was thinking we would never see the leopard again but we turned around and switched off the engine in the hope he would show himself again. After a few minutes he appeared again and ran across the road going from right to left. We slowly moved forward and saw him disappear into the bush but heading towards the H1-2 so we parked again and waited. Our wait was rewarded when first some impala came flying out of the bush followed a few minutes later by the leopard. He sat in the long grass on the side of the road for a few minutes before running across the road into a burnt out section.



We turned around again and found the impala looking very concerned but standing on the side of road so we decide to park again and see what would happen. Suddenly we spotted the leopard again and this time he was using our car in an attempt to get closer to the impala who had settled down because the leopard was now down wind from them. We were preparing ourselves for a special treat when another tourist came along the road. We tried to get him to stop but he just drove (most properly thinking we were mad looking at some impala). Unfortunately as he drove next to us the leopard ran across the road yet again ruining the chance of a kill. We stayed put as the impala had moved into the road and when another car came he stopped realizing we were watching something special. We waited a few minutes and suddenly got a brief glimpse of the leopard again but he was up wind and the impala took off into the bush. Wow, we could not believe what a great sighting we had but a little disappointed it was spoiled. That has to go down as one of the best sightings I have ever seen in Kruger. As a whole the day was very quiet, but the leopard sighting left us all on high spirits and that night we all went to dinner at the restaurant to celebrate Elsa and Klystron’s 39th wedding anniversary.

We decided not to go into the park on Sunday as my flight was just after lunch and we would not make it in time so we had a big breakfast and enjoyed the view from our chalet. I left with a very heavy heart but many great memories. Kruger is the best place in the world and I am already looking forward to my next trip next year.

It was great meeting another two forumites and a very special thank you to Penny for posting our sightings and all the info you sent us. I would also like to thank Jumbo for sending us those cashew nuts. She kindly dropped some off at reception for us and I must say we enjoyed them with our drinks every night while sitting on the veranda watching the sun set into Kruger.