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I visited the park last week and noted two very odd things - absolutely no birds whatsoever at the lower sabi waterhole and all hippos on dry land. At the same time the water was covered with some green alge-type of smear... does anyone know what is going on?

best Kristy

I just got back from a visit in the Kruger. It was my first visit back in quite a while and it was so awesome but I just have a few questions (or worries) regarding the water within the rivers. I spent a night at Shimuwini,an extremely stunning camp, on the Letaba and I noticed the colour of the water was very concerning (polluted looking)... I also noticed the Olifants had an enormous amount of algae, which if I'm not mistaken is associated with an abnormal amount of ecoli in the water?
If anyone can full me in on this would be greatly appreciated?
I personally believe this is what could possibly be that unknown croc killer???

Thanks all.
Robbie:)

This may also be of interest http://www.sanparks.org/about/news/2008/april/dam.php

The quality of the water in a lot of dams/rivers in KNP indeed needs expert attention on a big scale, as they do not look and prove healthy at all.

What concerns me is that government should be part of this investigation, as most of the rubbish flows from outside the park into Kruger. Would a 'cleaning or rinsing' filters in the rivers at the western border of Kruger be too costly or impractical.....I'm just thinking out loud, because once the balace of the water is disturbed, it has a huge negative ripple effect in Kruger

Looking at Sunset Dam, I really think they need to drain it, start fresh and even then pump new water in at a regular base, as we could see impala's who were thirsty dislike the water.

Thanks so much...
Ya and I must agree, there is no doubt this is coming from other area out of Kruger but I just get worried because how do you stop or manage it? I think personally not even the filters will help, of which I don't know their capabilities. I think it needs a look at the whole drainage basin which is huge project and I would think very costly...

to control the problem they might try burning the surrounding areas so the hippos will be encouraged to move because of smaller grazing area or lowering the water level so that hippos wont be able to reside in that particular dam or as a last resort culling..

I was at Sunset Dam over the last weekend and the dam is looking better than it was, follow this link if you have facebook to see a shoking pic of a 'luminous croc':
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3 ... =726525466

Sunset Dam now has only a few tinges of the green left on tiny parts of the water edge. As you can see the dam is 100% full.

That's great to see DB. I was getting very worried in June.

Olifants River - Nov 2008






Letaba River - Nov 2008

Thanks for the pics DB
Its nice to see that there is a fair bit of water around

hows the timbavati looking is there any water in it??

No nothing. Dry as a bone!