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My friend Kwikstertjie and I, decided to take a short trip. Just the 2 off us, leaving our husbands at home to care for the kids. We thought we both deserved a short vacation, no cooking for the family, cleaning after them or being a taxi driver. We thought it would be a great idea for the kids and their dads to spend some quality time together.

There is no better place to go to than KRUGER and attend the Cricket@Skukuza 2012. So we booked our tickets and off we went. 7 Days of pure Kruger bliss. 2 Nights in Olifants, 2 in Lower Sabie and 2 in Skukuza.

We arrived at Phabeni gate on Monday the 5th and took the tar road towards Skukuza. Check in went smoothly and so much faster than before with the new gates. It was 7:30 and hot already. The weather in the Netherlands was about 3˚C when we left and this morning at 7:30 it was already 26˚C. We drove slowly and tried to absorb all the smells and sounds off the bush.

Our first animal was a beautiful Kudu girl. She welcomed us and we stared at each other for a while. I was so amazed at her beauty that I completely forgot to take a picture.

We continued our trip and found some giraffes, monkeys and our very first elephant. I discovered that Kwitstertjie is a bit afraid of ellies, as she told me that there is a 30 meter boundary I should keep at ALL TIMES on this trip.

And then, we found what is so dear to us both. Animals that are so beautiful and precious and that is also in grate danger at the moment. Rhinos. a Mom, dad and baby. This was one of our most remarkable sightings this trip. We enjoyed them so much and I felt blessed to be in their presents. We were lucky enough to be in front off the traffic jam, and had a great sighting of them crossing the road right in front off our car.



But this was also a moment I got very very angry. Just as they crossed the road a minibus taxi stopped next to us, trying to pass the cars behind us. Just as he drove passed us he laughed out very loud and told the people in the taxi, "LOOK 3 OF THEM, they can make us VERY rich hahaha". He was zig zagging thru the cars and then he was gone. It was only a few seconds later that I realized what he said. I got furious and tried to see his number plate. But he was already out
of sight.

We arrived at Skukuza and had our first coffee and rusks. Sitting next to the fence we still couldn't believe that we were actually in Kruger. The beauty we found inside camp were just as pretty.





Kruger was in a bad shape after the floods. The bridges were damaged and it was overwhelming to see how high the water level was.







On our way to Satara we found this little turtle. He/she was the first of 15 turtles we found this trip. The road was so hot, poor thing.





We found some buffalo's, lot's of my favorite antelopes, impala's and these ellies at the Leeupan waterhole.





We passed Tshokwane and it was still closed. It's sad to see the damage.



At Satara we saw our little friend the scops owl again. As beautiful and patient as ever



We just stopped for a few minutes and went towards our final destination, Olifants camp. We arrived and got bungalow number 1. The view was spectacular.







It was very windy and after we unloaded our luggage, we decided to relax on the veranda and prepare our meat on the stove instead of the bbq. We enjoyed our first night extremely and the sound of the river flowing was a great sound to fall asleep with.

The next 2 days we took it very relaxed. We had a hard time adjusting to the weather and we wanted to enjoy the beauty of Olifants camp.

The first day we took the H1-5 towards Letaba. Kwikstertjie haven't seen the elephant museum yet, so we headed there early morning. We didn't see much game on our way there. Only some impala's, monkeys, baboons and this waterbuck.



After visiting the museum we strolled around camp, and did a bit of curio shopping. Kwikstertjie bought the Beat about the bush mammals book and I bought the afrikaans book "Duisend dae langs die sabie" of Hennie van Deventer. We both like to read and it was 'n pretty hard decision to choose one of the many books in the shop.


We took the S46 gravel road back to Olifants and saw this little klipspringer. It was the first time I saw one of them jumping in the road. Such a pretty little antelope.



We saw lots of flowers and I'm not so familiar with flowers. Who knows what kind of flower this is?



We decided to try the braai thing for the first time. We were a bit clumsy at first, but after a short struggle we've got the fire going. Braaiing next to the fence and with a view of the Olifants river is indescribable. Our dinner tasted delicious.



It was full moon and even when it was dark, we could see the river. Just beautiful.



We were very tired and turned in early. The next morning we woke up just before 7:00 and started packing. Lower Sabie, here we come. We had to take a detour via Balule because the H1-5 was still closed. The bridge at Balule was badly damaged.



It's true what they say. Leave camp early and you'll see lots of animals, leave late and you'll see not so much. All the way from Olifants to Lower sabie, we just saw some impala's, a few zebras far in a distance, a African Harrier Hawk and this lone elephant bull.





We arrived at Lower Sabie and got tent number 20. We never stayed in one of those before and were pleasantly surprised to see what a beautiful setting the tents have.







We enjoyed the afternoon on the veranda. The sunset was fantastic, and an elephant came to welcome us.





Just as we lit the fire, the rest of the herd ellies came walking by. I fetched the neighbors, who didn't have a view of the river and we all enjoyed watching them.





We stayed on the veranda till late. The night sounds in Lower Sabie were the best, and with the full moon reflecting in the water we had an amazing evening.

For the first time this trip, we decided to left camp early and go find some predators. We set the alarm clock on 5:00 and left camp at 5:30. We decided to take the S28 towards Crocodile Bridge and leave Kruger for a while to find a pharmacy. I’ve got some sort of heat rash on both my hands and arms, and my itching/burning skin was killing me.

The sunset was beautiful as always



We saw lots of bee-eaters on this trip. This one just caught an insect.



Almost half way on the S28 Kwikstertje suddenly shouted ‘LION’. A big lioness stood right in the middle of the road. She was a sight for sore eyes. We both jumped up and down and it took a few seconds to calm our nerves. She posed for a nice photo and then disappeared into the tall grasses.



She walked towards a small spring and after few minutes she returned with another lioness and 6 small cubs. We were over the moon and made dozens of photos. The cubs were so cute.











After about 10 minutes they disappeared into the bushes so we continued on. We saw quite a few birds of prey on the S28. Tawny eagle, fish eagle, wahlberg’s eagle and lots of vultures









We left Kruger just after 8:00 and did some grocery shopping, stopped at the pharmacy and had some delicious breakfast at the wimpy before we returned to Kruger again. We took the H4-2 back to LS and saw yet another leopard tortoise, a big wardhog family and we decided to stop at the sunset dam before returning to camp to do some laundry.

There were lots of cars, all facing the left side of the dam (where giraffes were drinking water). We stopped at the far right hand side and were looking at a little kingfisher, when something caught my eye in the bushes. It was a cheetah. He walked towards the tar road and while we tried to follow him; I tried to get the attention of some other cars. (Not much fun if were the only once seeing the cheetah) She walked on the road for a while and it looked like she was looking for something, or maybe hunting. It was an amazing sighting. Let the pictures tell the story

We returned to camp all exited. We had to do some washing and decided to stay in camp for the rest of the afternoon. We booked a sunset drive, so we lit the braai at 14:00 and had a lovely boerewors rolls lunch/supper.

The sunset drive was very nice. We had a new driver, (sorry I can't remember his name)

Our first sighting was a martial eagle. This is such a beautiful bird.


The driver took us on a private road. There we found some hyena's just before the sun set.





The driver allowed us to get out of the truck and spend some time close to the hyenas. The cubs played in a distance and it was 'n great experience.



I couldn't decide which one was the most beautiful. The sunset, or the full bright moonlight picture I took on the drive.





We saw buffalo's, elephants and the big five was complete with this lady



The last few meters before turned into Lower Sabie again, The driver started to race towards the sunset dam. Our Sunset drive got a cherry on the cake with the 3 young mail lions, walking towards the dam. What a way to end our drive. They were hunting (according to the ranger) so we just spended a few minutes with them and left them to do their thing.



Adrenalin pumping thru our vanes, we went back to our tent. We had no neighbors and it was dark all around us. We heard all kinds of noises and we were scared to death. So we drank our coffee inside the tent We had a very exiting day and couldn't stop talking about it till late that night.

We got up early this morning. I wanted to be first at the gate. Who knows, maybe we'll be just as lucky today as yesterday. We took the Mlondozi road (S29) and decided to have some coffee at the picnic spot. On our way there we didn't see much other than impalas. We were the first to arrive at the picnic spot. Not even the guard was there yet. So coffee were out.

The view was magnificent as always and a herd of elephants were just passing by.





We returned to camp and saw this giant eagle owl and little pygmy kingfisher on our way.





We packed our luggage and headed towards our last camp Skukuza. We have already seen our first yellow ribbons. Our first was Pardus 1029, black rhino and stolla. Then we saw Davenjan and Spargish. We arranged for PetraJ and Scipio, geocor's family and gompou to meet us at Nkulu for a brunch. Dan + Catmatix also joined us and it was so much fun. We took this picture just before everyone left of Skukuza again.


From left to right: Geo of cor, geocor's LO, Gompou, PetraJ, Scipio, Dan, Geocor's oldest son, roaneric, kwikstertjie and Geocor.

After lunch we've checked into Skukuza and got bungalow number 191, close to the river and restaurant/shop. I had no time to relax, we just unloaded our luggage, before I headed to the cricket fields to practice for the big game.

It was very hot, I was very tired, my rash was killing me, .... so the cricket practice ended just as fast as it started for me. I hit a few balls, and that was it. I went back to camp and took a cold shower. Some forumites went to Granokop to have sundowners at 16:00, so we decided to join them.

a few YR's on the rock...



From left to right: PetraJ, Scipio, Kwikstertjie, Gompou, geocor son Marius, Geocor, Geo of cor, Lord Burchelli,
Lady 459, PetraJ's son, Cheetah2111, Sekhmet, Vlakvarkvrou, roaneric, Dan, Catmatix and in front geocor's son Ettiene



We were back in camp just in time for the Braai that started at 18:00. It was held at the diplomatic camp. Here is some pictures and I will try to put names to the faces as far as I can remember.




From left to right: ?,?, Duke, Hawk (making a video), Spargish, Cheetah2111, ?, Jose, Joep stevens.





From left to right: Dave (of davenjan?), Lord Burchelli and vlakvarkvrou



From left to right: geo of cor, roaneric, kwikstertjie, Petro, Frikkie, Cheetah2111, Baffers (standing up), Gompou, geocor

We woke up early Saturday morning. Practice started at 7:30 and the Cricket game should start at 8:00.

We got up, got dressed in our beautiful cricket shirts and just as we were about to leave, I got a phone call from Scipio.

His words were "3km from the gate on the Pretoriuskop road = Wild dogs" Kwikstertje and I grabbed all our staff and were driving out of the Skukuza gates in record time. I've NEVER seen wild dogs before and I prayed the whole 3km till we got there. Amazingly they were still in the road.

I was so exited, I couldn't even sit still to make some pictures. PetraJ, Scipio and Cheetah2111 were there and JenB and Sparks arrived the same time as we did. My heart bounced and I can not describe how happy I was. Wild dogs ware first on my list for years, but we were never so lucky to see them. Here's some of the 100+ pics I took.




Geocor's little green car got inspection









A Yellow ribbon invasion. Every car in this photo were forum mites...



This is my favorite pic on this whole trip, JenB and Sparks at the wild dogs.


On our way back, we had an amazing sighting. Every second car that we passed towards the cricket field were YR's on their way to the Wild dog sighting. Good news travels fast I guess.

Here is some video's of the previous days

We arrived at the Cricket field just in time to hit a few balls and practice our throwing skills. Our Couch Pardus 1029 gave us some instructions and told us how to play the game to win. So the Angels team were positive....today will be the day.... We will win this year....

This is my first pic. Me and my 2 sisters (and half brother )

From left to right: Cheetah2111, geocor, roaneric, PetraJ, Sekhmet on the right


Scipio in his Grass skirt (Scipio and Duke were challenged to wear grass skirts. If they did, R1000 will be donated to the anti Rhino poaching fund)



The Angels team....Ready as ever....

From left to right: Lesego, Knibbles, Spotted Butterfly ,Gabby, PetraJ, roaneric, Geocor, Sekhmet, Sharifa, Ecojunky and Bushbaby 30

The warthogs joined us on the fields. They were relaxed at first, but when the game started, the one wanted to charge us off his field.




He was so confuses, he didn't no whether he should charge the angels or the ball. So he ran off.

The next view post will only be pictures.


From left to right: Ecojunky, Sekhmet bowling, Scipio, Petro from skukza, one of the groenkloof rhino team members batting and Knibbles catching.


From left to right: Bushbaby30, Duke, roaneric


From left to right: scipio, Gabby, Spotted Butterfly


From left to right, Knibbles catching, Petro batting, bushbaby30 pitching and Duke

From left to right: Bushbaby30 pitching, Duke, Groenkloof rhino member (sorry I don't know all their names )


Groenkloof Rhino's team waiting for their turn to bat.


From left to right: Joep stevens, Dinkey bird, Lucy Nhlapo , a groenkloof rhino team member

2 pretty groenkloof rhino members Ester on the left and Lize on the right



From left to right: ?, Dinkybird, Steven, ?, ?



in front: Dylan, Baffers, in the back: gerharddb and ?

Cheetah2111 and a very concentrating Dinkybird


Lord Burchelli and Lady 459

The silent auction table