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I love this road, I can't believe there's barely two pages on it when others have dozens Do people know what there missing?

In just a few days in early March I was lucky enough to see lions on 4 seperate ocassions. The first sighting was of 4 lioness and a male lounging around Nyamarhi at 11am. It goes to show that the 'nothing in the middle of the day' logic doesn't always hold true. If your in bed or lounging round camp your missing stuff! The same drive we saw 4 white rhino near the S127 turnoff, and they came so close to give great pics, and were calm the whole time

The next day I was first out the gate at Olifants (which took some doing after a few rums and amarulas) and found lionesses hunting impala just the other side of the Ngosto Weir road. This was the first time I've been lucky enough to witness lions hunting first hand and my heart was racing. When the closest lioness was just 10 metres away another car arrived, and I was praying they wouldn't ruin the hunt. I could see them looking at me trying to work out what I was watching, so I intently watched the impala!!! Not to be rude but the hunt was in the final stages, and after watching quietly and patiently for over 30 minutes, I wasn't going to yell across to them what was going on.

My cunning ruse worked, as they clearly weren't impressed with my 'impala' sighting
and drove off. Another 5 minutes later and the attack was going to happen any second........and then a bird of some kind raised an alarm call and off went the impala. Still what an experience, and the lioness raised her head and looked right at me as if to say "easy come easy go". I then had the privilige of watching all 5 lioness come out of the long grass, up onto the road and past my car as casual as you like. And I had it all to myself, what a treat

But still it got better. In the afternoon I saw probably the same group of lioness lounging around on the H1-5 on the way back to Olifants. This time though I saw one with a tracking collar, anybody know anything about it?

Finally to top it off, the next morning I was first out again and was lucky enough to find a pride of at least 13 lions At first I found a big male on the road just north of Ngosto North. I wound down the window to get a good pic, and started hearing a strange noise. CUBS!!!! All in all there were 3 adult males, 3 females and 7 cubs. It was an incredible experience to watch them (and listen). It took a good 30 minutes before the volume of traffic was sufficient to drive them away from the road but being first out had paid off.

So yes I love this road! Also had 3 hyenas drinking at Ngotso Dam and having a standoff with a wildebeest. Amazing road, amazing couple of days. I'll post some pics on here in the next week or so for all to enjoy.

Sharky74

Had my only ever cheetah sighting on this road. (Mother with three cubs)
Only criticism I can think of is the road can become very long in the heat of the day, perhaps a get out point (other than on the bridge) won't be a bad idea to stretch the legs a bit

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Agreed, Bennievis!

Maybe at Ngotso dam?

Richprins,
Ngotso Dam is about halfway - and what a view from the road!

I can't believe I haven't posted in here before.

I love this road. It was the first road we ever did a "proper" game drive along (we didn't count the drive to Satara as we were too worried about getting there as we had no map). We drove up to Olifants and back, still looking for a map, but this time we had the binoculars and camera out.

We stopped at Ngotso dam and I saw my first ever elephant herd. It was a dream come true and I cried my eyes out I was so happy. And hooked on Kruger for life. A lady on her own told us about a lion sighting nearby and on the way back we came across a hyena den with 2 of the cutest pups I have ever seen. Not bad for 2 complete novices. And I mean complete novices.

Over the past years we've seen so much along this road, most notably hyenas, but also ostrich, kori bustard, elephants, elephants and more elephants.

Seems like the only place to see ostrich
Saw lions three times on this road and probably travelled it three times in the trip
Once the whole way to Olifants, another time turning after 7km to the s90, and the other time turning at the s127.

Also so a MASSIVE herd of buffalo there. 700 strong. Not to mention as Saraf said the constant Ellie sightings and we never fail to see Rhino on this road.
I have seen cheetah pinned up on this road. Wish I could see them
Also heard it is good for leopard ... but it does not look like leopard territory

Saraf

Another outstanding aspect of this route is the different forms of vegetation found between Olifants and Satara, making for an ever changing scenery which attracts different wildlife according to the vegetation and climate.

* Mopani shrub veld, (Olifants)
* Olifants Rugged Veld (to the south)
* Stunted Knob Thorn (just to the north of Satara)
* Knob Thorn/Maroela Veld on Basalt (Satara)

yes beenievis perfect veld for them

Also seen Kori bustard on the s100 and H6. Seen secretary birds on s41.
Although Ostrich only on H1-4.
Thanks for telling us about the vegitation type!!

There are sections on this road where the grass is bleeched white in colour. Why is this

Late December last year, we were following 2 lionesses along the H1-4, just 500m north of the s39 intersection..... A few lions were fairly far in the bush.... We decide to continue down the road, and found the 2 lionesses on the road. After being with them for 25 minutes, we sticked to 1 lioness, she seemed quite restless. By now, we were the only car there. As I'm usually getting bored quickly, I decided to drive down to the s39 intersection, see what's there and then come back. Guess what?! Saw a familty of warthog, dad on the one side of the road, and mom with 3 piglets on the other....

Drove back to the lioness, and she proceeded to walk in the direction of the piglets. Poor fella's didn;t see her, and needless to say they had no chance.... After a short crawl, the lioness laid still for 20 seconds, whereafter see raced towards the absentminded warthies. And so another piglet lost it's life....! The acceleration speed of a lion is amazing, but somehow I felt for the littly buddy.

My first mammal kill in Kruger....



Stalking.....




















The Kill








And that on the middle of the day, with 3 cars around, with a clear view...... Just lucky

Wow G@mespotter Awesome sighting and pics

Great sighting and photos G@mespotter.

I saw this Male Leopard in a tree right next to the road at the Nyamarhi spring.