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Such a handsome fellow will surely have some female admirers-Quie a few actually-what is more, they were following him with determination, not allowing any distractions. Equally beautiful to behold.

Ok, time to move onto to Pretoriuskop. the lions had disappeared. My apologies, I tried to get some more posted last night, only to discover I had not uploaded to the photobucket account. And it was giving troubles again
Not too far from the lions, a small herd of buffalo on the side of the road.


Another LBJ- A Lark I think,possibly Red Lark.


And one of those enjoyable sightings- A Tawny, I think. Well camouflaged.




A love-lorn forlorn loner

Some vultures feeding on the last remains of a buffalo. Must have happened a good few days before i got there-otherwise it would have been a riot








And another Magnificient Kudu Bull. Those horns are impressive!


This I think is a Greenshanks-another one of those pleasing sightings. A bit far, but I got him/her.

Ok, got it right, having reloaded it. Looks much better.
Lets see if we can finish this day and get onto the last day of my trip.


Returning via the S65, where I saw those Brown headed Parrots. Some squirrels were entertaining






The Saddle billed storks were still at N'waswitshaka waterhole, but not good enough pics. But some handsome wildebeest passed by.




This Darter @ Transport Dam was not impressed with me and showed me just what he thought of me

OK, one more attempt to finish this day.
The ever-alert Drongo at Sunset Dam


And that bird again-




ANd this one, not the best shot, but I was glad to see it- Southern Black Tit I believe.


Today I was able to get a better sunset around Pretoriuskop




And the last sighting of the day-those Guinea Fowls have been camping at Shitlave Dam. I just love these birds, sometimes I just watch them and try to imagine how many dots they must have in all those feathers. But mostly I think about a Casserole




Well, I did still see a family of Ground Hornbills, with a juvenile, except the lighting was so bad, and they were in a hurry for some reason, so never got a decent pic.

To console myself, I played around with my Lion pics-This one is quote good in B/W

Day 6- 14th August.

The last day- . had a good nights rest, and decided this morning I would take it easyish and get the old body a chance to get back to normal wake up time, and also to save some energy for the trip back to Johannesburg which will be at night. I love Kruger so much I will go out of the gate at the last possible minute, so it would be 18:00 when I leave. So only got going around 07:15, the first pic taken at 07:38 and today I was going to do the Voortrekker Road down to Afsaal, a road that has been very profitable. I hoped to see some Sable (which did'nt happen) or Lions. Yep, I was still hungry for Lion.
First pic- you guessed it- a bird. LBJ- which I id as a Neddicky and probably a desperate guess


And then this- I think a banded mongoose. Except it was all alone, and looked quite ill. Or perhaps it was just grabbing a bit of warmth from the sun after a cold night. I thought it was ill, and though it moved from time to time, it was slow movements, not the usual quick movements of this animal. Still-what a wondeful start to a day






And that other irresistable bird.

Another dose-Voortrekker road. Some more magnificent kudu. 3 of them - So blessed to see a lot of Kudu on this trip.




This one's horns are spread much wider than usual.


Man, I admire these horns.


No less impressive was this Pumbaa's tusks. Just for Pumbaa




and then came across this pile of glass-and could'nt stop wondering what this was all about-an acident on a dirt road? When I got back to JHB and browsed the forum, I read about the light aircraft that crashed on this road. This must be the spot.

I'm fascinated with that koppies which you see around Pretoriuskp/voortrekker road.


Impala on the road ahead.


Another Mongoose-warily checking me out from the safety of the grass.




A new leader of the herd has been chosen and doing her/his job very well. By democratic process too! (check out that deep indentation on the head of the female-a sign of age I seem to think)


This new leader was going to lead with some determination


Under the guidance of a Matriarch of course


Cuteness won the day

Ok, this episode for Heksie-I think that is the 2nd one already. She has potent potions-works even in cyber space , not to metnione the fumes. Enjoy!

So, got to Afsaal, obeying the call of nature, and a quick squizz at the sightings board and two lion sightings towards Skuks. The plan was to go to Biyamiti Wier (a favourite spot) as well as Mpondo Dam, another one of those must visit places for me. I was going south, now I changed my mind and headed north instead, in hope of seeing more lions. Well you know what they say about changing your mind in Kruger-don't do it -had a few occasions when I did that only to regret it. Not this time-Boy was I glad I went in search of lions. Because I saw .......


Now this kind of sighting really puts me in a conundrum. Do I go a bit faster in the hope that the animal will hang around? or use the zoom lens? Or both. well I tried both, and as expected it started cantering off-not fast, as it was a good distance away.


But I got a decent enough shot


And in no time it was heading for oblivion.




My second serval sighting in 20 years. I was ecstatic to say the least. A sighting all to myslef, albeit so fleeting. And now that the conundrum subsided, the kruger madness kicks in (otherwise known as adrenalin rush)
"Why thank you Mr Kruger Park-that was very special".
"You are welcome Mr Noel. Do you want lions or Serval."
"Mr Kruger, you do not seem to understand?"
"What's there to understand? "
"I want both".
"You can't have both".
"The problem Mr Kruger is that Servals are there for a few fleetng moments, whereas lions are big, fat, lazy inactive, cats that allow you to a take a few gazillion photos. Now if I could get them both Mr Kruger Park, we'd have balance, beauty, power, grace."
"No! And you will have the of a few forumites."

Good grief, I could'nt believe I was talking to myself like this. So I never got to see lions that morning.

And to make make my morning even more special, a whitey-another magnificent specimen.

Biyamiti was calling-so back to the original plan. A vulture crossed my path


Biyamiti was where I had scheduled to have coffee + breakfast. What a spot for that. one other car there, and I remember thinking "this is the life". Just love being on eye level with the water as you drive over the wier.


And when you are greeted by this-its pure bliss.




Some eagles took off just as I arrived, a pity-that would have been a great sighting. BUt you can't have everything, so I tried some aerial shots.


The Biyamiti monster was still around and was not swept away

The resident Grey Heron was watching the eagles intently


Unlike the Woolly necked stork, who could'nt be bothered.


Hippos were still there too!


Rumbling tummy now much more quiet, it was time to make my way to Mpondo Dam. Somewhere along the way, another sighting to appreciate.


I'm doing well for the Bum shots thread.


Mpondo Dam was filled to the brim-the first time I have seen it so full. There was some good from the floods.

What did Mpondo Dam have to offer- A very handsome buck




And a pair of vultures very interested in a dry ball of elephant dung. What interesting behaviour?






It transpired that this was nothing short of sending each other a message-time to get nesting going. They mated, briefly as asual and I had the Camera focused on that handsome hunk . By the time I changed direction it was all over.

Romance all over-they looked embarrassed




And then took off-I was just a wee bit too slow for this

Decision time! Do I go back, via Biyamiti and the H3 to Skukuza, or the H5, towards Croc Bridge and then via LS? I wanted to be at Lake Panic by 14:00 and spend at least an hour there befire making my way to Numbi Gate. The H5 it was. I'm glad I made that decision-or else I might have missed my favourite bird. Just too beautiful!




And comical too




But just plain beautiful, and I can stare and look and admire for hours on end. Except I had to get on with it.


Nothing much more to see on the H3. But that Bateleur was worth the drive

Once I hit the H4-2 the first sighting was of 4 giraffes feeding off one tree. It's a small tree too. It must have juicy leaves.




And they had some oxpeckers

So onto Sunset Dam-again Its a magnet.
Madam Clean and Miss dirty




Yellow billed storks were abundant


And my good friend Flamingo was back at Sunset Dam-its moving around quite a bit-unless its another bird at Molondozi Dam.




This youngster could'nt be more than a few weeks old