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Here are my pics of this coalition. Not as good as Gunners as they were very very sleepy at the time and totally inactive.

Here are 5 of them. The 6th one was lying away on the left of these 5 and I could not get him in the shot.


DSC_1588 (Medium) by Richard Gillatt, on Flickr

The one with the blue eye.


DSC_1626.1JPG (Medium) by Richard Gillatt, on Flickr

If someone can kind of join the two pics below - one to the left of the tree and the other to the right of the tree - we might see all 6 together except that the one in the middle has moved.


DSC_1621 (Medium) by Richard Gillatt, on Flickr


DSC_1601 (Medium) by Richard Gillatt, on Flickr

Lets hope that this is not the last we see of these 6 guys.

We saw these two males also about 2kms from Croc Bridge near the tar road on 8 January 2011. The one seems to have TB and the other was limping. Apparently there were also females nearby but we did not see them.
By now I suppose they are no longer the CB pride males.

A few pictures taken on 27 April 2010 on the S28 about 1km from Nthandanyati. We found a male and female lying under a tree early morning. We then noticed that someting in the tree has there attention and saw the lioness in the tree.

Look carefully





The lioness became even more stressed and was peeking towards Nthandanyati's side.


We then noticed another 2 males coming from Nthandanyati's side. One of them was blue eye





The one initially laying under the tree was not happy. Another 2 appeared from the back of the road. We then also noticed a sixth one laying a few metres behind the tree.





The 2 coming from Nthandanyati's side and the 2 arriving from the back seemed like a coalition as the 4 immediatly joined.





There was a total of 6. One under the tree with lioness, another a few metres behind the tree and the other 4 were then lying down very close by. The lioness in the tree were terified. We had to leave and did not see what happened, but according to Scary Cat, she got out later that afternoon and escaped.

I don't know if anybody could use these photies to compare them. Sorry about the quality

This is a collection of our Lower Sabie pics in 2006. I know it's old but I still love it!

We decided yesterday around mid morning that Lower Sabie might be a good place for lunch, so headed off down the mighty Sabie river for a quick trip to paradise. After a scrumptious pie we decided to take the "long" way home and returned via the Salitje road.
Right next to the road and in the heat of the day we found



I could not believe there was nobody else in sight

the doggies kept looking down the riverbed, and soon enought they got up



Had a good stretch



And trotted off down the riverbed



Talk about right place at the right time !!!

1976 - First ever ever cheetah sighting near Paul Kruger Gate!!



1979 - First ever ever lion sighting - enjoying the shade near Pretoriouskop!!



1979 - Lioness chasing a baboon and both ran in front of us through the reeds near Lower Sabie!!
(Sadly no time for a photo!!)

2002 - Lions and wild dog sharing a waterhole on H1-4.
(Sadly too far away for a photo!)

2009 - Lion and cheetah sightings just as we were due to leave the park on S28 within a couple of minutes of each other. We had been in the park a week, and had given up hope that we would see either as time went on!!





2010 - First lilac breasted roller and grey heron sightings, since becoming interested in birding.





2010 - 20 lions in one sighting, though photos taken separately, and only a selection!!







Loads more but you'd soon get bored!!!!
If you're not already!!

Last year in September, I was on a mission to find Leopard!

I was very fortunate to have 7 sightings in 12 days. This one tho', was my best and most special 'boy'.
I saw him on the S89, Ngotso Weir road, on the way to Olifants. There was only one other car there, with me, at the time too.

Hi Everyone

I know there is a thread on the Forum about unusual sightings, but I feel my special experience could somehow justify its own thread.

Having grown up on the front stoep of the Kruger (Phalaborwa), its only natural that I have had more trips into the Park than I can remember. All I can say is that each and everyone was a real special occasion, a real treat, even if the midsummer heat was a bit of a problem in the 60's and 70's - air-cons in cars were unheard of back then!

It was a Sunday in the early 70's, and my old man thought it would be a good idea to take a drive to Olifants camp for lunch. My mum had to work, and did not come with us.

After a pretty uneventful couple of hours on the road to Letaba, my dad turned into the S69 loop. As we approached the first dip through the river, we noticed a car parked in the river bed. Driving slowly up to the car, we all had a good look around, but saw nothing. My dad then asked the driver of the other car what he had seen, and we were told to be patient as the object of interest would be back soon.

Sure enough, about 3 minutes later a youngish (teenager?) baboon came down from the opposite river bank, and plonked himself down on the rocks about 10m from the two cars. He then made a great spectacle of showing us his prize, a very small leopard cub. He "mothered" it as best he could, but obviously the cub was not at all happy and make this pretty obvious to everyone within hearing distance.

The baboon was pretty nervous (I would also be If I had stolen a leopard's kid) and after about 10 minutes he decided that the show was over. He simply turned around and went back to the river bank to the safety of his troop. We stayed on for some considerable time, but that was it - he didn't come back for a curtain call.

My dad took a number of photos, but due to the special nature of the sighting he got the exposure totally wrong - with the old telephoto lenses, one had to open the aperture to get enough light into the viewfinder to focus, and then close it again to the correct value before pressing the shutter. Of course my dad in his nervousness forgot to close the aperture ring, and the shots were all overexposed by some 3 to 4 stops.

I've scanned the prints of the old photos I've got - had to doctor them a bit to correct the effects of overexposure and the discoloured aging photo paper.

ENJOY!





BTW - the driver of the other car also made a number of good quality photographs and sold them to a local magazine if I remember correctly - possibly even made it into the Custos magazine of the time.

Cheers till next time
Fankie

Sorry to disappoint you Roxy, Elsa and Flutterby .........and all other curious Mites - no happy end here.

The baboon took the cub with him when he disappeared into the vegetation with his troop. Suppose that's the way nature works.

Glad to have been able to share the sighting with you all

Cheers
Fankie

I went to Balule for the night on Saturday, and had some awesome sightings.

On Friday afternoon at Ngotso dam I was convinced I was going to see my first ever lion kill.

First these wildebeest walked no more than 5m from this lioness who had been stalking them for ages.



Then she decided to go after the zebra instead:







But once again gave up before she was even detected.
Unfortunately i had to leave to get back to Balule, so have no idea if she was successfull once darkness fell.

This was a really cool sighting on Sunday. There were more than 20 of these baby crocodiles laying next to the water.

Last one for today. While driving along the S41 on Sunday we saw a juvenile Bateleur that had caught a scrub hare. He had just sat down on the road to start his feast when suddenly loads of vultures desended onto him. He did not even get one taste. It was incredible - in less than 2 minutes there were about 10 vultures on the scrub hare and the poor Bateleur had to watch from a nearby tree.

yip they were.
i counted 17.
it was so cute the one was trying to catch a dragon fly.

Hi Everybody

Thanks for all the positive comments - my take on the whole situation is still that the bobbo was doing what comes naturally - eliminating a future threat to himself and his troop. Sounds a bit callous, but that's nature for you.

BTW - Heard from another Mite that its not as uncommon as one thinks - something similar was seen and reported along the Sabie River Road not so long ago. I was just extremely fortunate to have been able to witness it way back then.

Hi Bennie

Sent you a PM to help remember - my grey matter is also of the opinion that your name (even if shortened) rings a bell - your Avatar is another positive ..

Cheers to all from Heidiland

Hi FGJJN
I hope this can be considered as a "whoow" event.
It happened when I was young in the mid 60's.
We arrived at Skukuza to find lots people lined up along the fence overlooking the Sabie river.
My sister and i ran up to see what everyone was looking at and only saw a few impala way up the bank on the other side of the river.
Then we head people saying that a leopard was in the reeds on the left hand side on the opposite river bank.
After a long wait the impala very skittish moved down to drink.
By this time there must have been about 40+ people looking at the river bank.
By now a few impala had made it to the water to drink.
All of a sudden the leopard was out the reeds and made its kill and then dragged the impala back into the reeds out of site.
I remember people crying "o no shame" others going "whoow" and a few even clapping.

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