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Hello all

I was in the Kruger National Park in December 2009 for a few days with my fiancee. While driving around we came across lions a few times as well as rhinos, buffalos and elephants, but no leopard. While braaing one evening myself and a friend of mine decided to go for a drive early the next morning. The girls wanted to have a bit of a lie-in so we went by ourselves.

In the space of 2 hours we saw the Big 5 and were delighted with ourselves and are hoping for it to be a record but quessing it propably isn't?

My Irish Fiancee is of opinion that this must have happened before in less than 2 hours. Can you guys out there please share your quickest BIG 5 sighting with us in the KNP.

Thanks

I had it happen to me .I entered at Phabeni and got elephant ,buffalo & white rhino, then saw a kudu staring at something, turned out to be lions...who in turn flushed out a leopard who had been in a ditch next to me. All before 7.30am.

Well I have never seen Leopard in Kruger (shocking I know) so I guess that disqualifies me

Here's hoping for my trip next month.

I remember seeing a post somewhere that Ecojunkie has seen all of the big Five between Melalane & the B & D turnoff.

2X the whole big 5 in one day withing 5 hours last August.

well i don't mean to brag or any thing but in all honesty we saw the big 5 in the space of an hour!! have a couple of witnesses to prove it.

it all started the moment we drove through malalane gate, there were elephant and then about 5min in the park there was a leopard in the tree right next to the road, then there was two male lions next to the road busy munching on a kill just about 500m (literally) down the road , after that we saw buffalo grazing in the grass. the only problem with my big 5 was that our rhino sighting came a little later but not by that much will include pics!!!!



trying to upload the other pics internet is not playing nicely with me!

we saw the big 5, 3 times in one day. 1st one before 7 in the morning only left at 6. 2de before 12. 3de when the gates closed and it whas a black rhino the last time. We drove from Satara to berg en dal that day.

Hi, My SO and his brother and his wife and I went to Kruger, we took them there as they had never been before!!! We entered at CB and travelled towards LS!! where we were staying! First thing we saw were white Rhinos, then Lions at the dam on the left side of the bridge, then dagga boys, then a herd of elephants, then we were driving along, nearing LS and I shouted to SO, to stop and reverse, to be honest, I could not believe my eyes, two leopards!!! Obviously a mating pair, because the male growled at us!!!! Wow what an incredible drive from Croc Bridge to LS!!!! Going to Kruger on 15th Feb for 8 nights, and will attempt to do a TR on my return!!! Hopefully I will manage it!!!!

Phenomenal stuff everyone! I've yet to get to such small numbers. Now, how about the big 7 (including cheetah and wild dog)?

This thread has me ready to go onto my next trip, nice one

I cannot compete. We did, however, once have an experience of seeing a Leopard in a tree just before going into Skukuza for petrol. After filling up with petrol we were stopped by an ellie road block. While waiting for the road block to clear, we saw Lion on the opposite bank of the Sabie river.

We had not driven very far before we saw a couple of old dagga boys in the river escaping the hot sun.. this was all in about half an hour.

Unfortunately, we never saw rhino

We were very fortunate with big 5 sightings on our AAA trip, but I am not sure of the time space. We did see the big 7 on our AAA trip, but not in one day.

That's pretty impressive, MM.
Personally, I seldom know when I've seen the big 5 because I don't concentrate on them. I know that, most trips, I will see them; but I look mainly for other things as well as them. So, unless I note all my sightings, anything was possible in my past!

I have seen lion and leopard many times within an hour. My best run (I think) in recent memory was a leopard walking on a reservoir wall; a cheetah swishing through the long grass; and lions taking on crocodiles at a hippo carcass! All before 10.30 in the morning. I'll have to check to see what else I saw in-between.

2 hours for the Big 5 is a good time in anybody's book!! If memory serves correctly, I think my personal record must be in the region of about 2 and a 1/2 hours. Gets tricky when you try for the "real" Big 5 though, with that I mean Black Rhino, not too many managed this in an hour or two!!

We saw the BIG 5 in approximately 2 hours! It was approximately 4 years ago between 15:00 and 17:00 on the H1-4 between the S127 and Ngotso North!

I would say ours are up there.We were at BnD in September 2009.On our last morning we drove to James waterhole.We got Buff's elephant and a Black Rhino (In our Big 5 the black rhino more important than the white,read books where the black rhino is a big 5 not the white) at James waterhole we saw 2 leopards,mom with a cub.While still standing there hoping to see them again people stopped and said 2km on the S118 there are 3 male lions in the river bed off we went.We left camp at 06:15 and were standing at the lions at 07:05 and I have pics to prove it

You guys ain't talking about Krugerpark....are you???? This must have been a zoo or something... big5spotter is good on computers, he doctored his photos... and the rest of you must have been hallucinating, probably the cause of severe heat, or drinking to much, or smoking illegal thingies.

so called 'big 5' again. Who cares.

Try the real stuff, 6 cats & 2 dogs challenge.

Or find wild dog, serval, black rhino, brown hyena and pangolin, and then let's talk.

I apologise for this tone to overseas viewers, but that is what you are fed. Big 5, big 5, big 5.