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Bush Greetings from Berg en Dal

Paul, that was quite some sighting, with the boomslang coming to cool off after the frog. The message of the snake was indeed passed on to me. I have a policy of removing any snake that poses a danger to our guest. Some of them are however not that easy to remove, but if it is just in a tree, one does not really worry too much, as in most cases they do wonder off after a while. We had a 40 cm python the other day in the camp that nearly became the dinner of a genet. We helped the python out, literally and figurally.

Hi Kim, good to here from you again. You must let me know how you tours are doing.

T&T - saw the post at Biyamiti, we'll book #7 some time and take JD with, get some bush inspiration.

Naomi, indeed we had some rain during the week, only 24 mm, not enough to let the rivers run, but it was good to give the bush a bit of a boost before winter.

The first faze of the camping is almost finished. We opened it for Easter and will finish off the last things after school holidays. We will then tackle the #2 site and work our way down to the #3 sight. It is going to take us another couple of months, but the end product will be so much nicer. We also had a donation of a nr of trees and we will be planting some in the camping as well.

On Friday I had a drive with family, here is a short account:
Matjulu loop, rhino died and lion were feeding. By this morning it was less appetising, but they were still there.
Steilberg - nice heard of elephant. We also had a Colt bouncing over a huge boulder trying to get out of the way of a stinky ellie.
Rhino (a live one) at Afsaal. It actually moved, so it was not the dummy that always lies around there.
Biyamiti loop - lots of buffalo signs – eventually saw three at some distance.
Biyamiti weir - Ingwe (Leopard) in all its glory lying on the rocks. Got beautiful video of him.
Could not resist - turned into the 18k's. Saw lots of buffalo signs and some ellies closer to the camp. This one was particularly entertaining.




S25 - plenty of elephants and one hippo.
The general game came to the party as well, kudu, waterbuck, phumba and family, vultures, brown snake eagle, bateleur, white helmeted shrike.
Just to round it off – we got the doggies on the 12 back to B&D. 11 of them running in the road.

It was a six hour drive, but worth every minute.

Till next time

Hi Stephen,

We will be camping in BnD in August 2007, will the renovations of the no3 camping site be finished by then.

Thanks.

Hi Robs

The time frame for the #3 site has not been put out yet, depending on how smooth the project is running I would like to be finished with the whole camping area by August - but no promises.

Hi Elsa
I am actually on a couple of off days, so I get a chance to play around on the forum a bit. It is good to keep persons informed on the camp and see peoples responses to visits.

Till the next time.

Hi Everyone

Just got back from Easter weekend at Berg & Dal and it was one of my better trips to Kruger.

Stephen, the camp looks stunning, the accommodation was clean and tidy even to Brazilian standards!!! Its fantastic to see your influence on the camp and B&G winning camp of the year is a testimony to your hard work dedication and levels of service to us your guests. I used to be extremely allergic to main camps but B&D is now one of my favourites!! Well done Nella !!!!!!!

On the sightings side, all I can say is it was AWESOME!!! We arrived on Friday morning, had to make our way through the zoo called entrance gates over holidays and then drove up to Afsaal for breakfast. We got ellie, buff, rhino and leopard around Afsaal and then after breakfast we drove to Skukuza.. sometimes I wonder why I do that.. we got lions near Skukuza. So a good 5/5 drive with lots of kudu, zebra, blue wildebees, pumbas and giraffe.

Saturday morning we left camp at 6 and drove to Afsaal and back, returning to B&G via Steilberg and Majulu loop. We saw buff, ellie, rhino and leopard at Majulu waterhole. Again the park is teaming with other game. Not bad 4/5 and I was so happy with another leopard sighting!!

Sunday morning the whole tribe went for an early drive, the plan was to drive to the Baobab tree near Satara and then use to tar road from Tshokwane back to Lower Sabie, then the S25 back to B&D. Huge amount of driving but easily done in 12 hours. The morning started fairly quiet untill we got to the Afsaal road.

Near Renoster pan, we got out first leopard, fantastic sighting for about 5 minutes without any other cars, yupp that's even possible during Easter, then a Nissan hardbody d.cab joined us on the sighting and we spend another 10 minutes with the leopard. Time to move on... we then got ellie and loads of general game, At Afsaal we spend some time looking at the dummie rhino and something caught my eye about 10 m further on.. I drove on and TADA leopard!!! The rest of the traffic jam just drove right past kitty in the tall grass, the nissan hardbody was still with me and asked why am I spending so much time on the rhino..i pointed out the leopard.. this being a family forum I won't quote their language use, I was however asked how lucky one person can get..The next moment a Volvo 4x4 stopped near the leopard and the kids stuck half way out the car...poof see kitty run... I forgot to thank the Volvo driver for his consideration..will do that maybe next time..

We moved on from Afsaal towards Skukuza and crossed the Sabie river over the low water bridge.. the road on was fairly quiet with the odd herd of impala. When we got to the Baobab tree I suggested to the family that we carry on to Satara, it was still early enough and we'll make it back to B&G on time. 3 prides of lions near Satara and hyena on a lion waterbok kill. I then dodged traffic and made our way back to Lower Sabie. ! more pride of lions on the tar road back to Lower Sabie and we stopped counting the ellie and rhino sightings. Eventually got buff near Lower Sabie. Then down the Tar road towards the S25. More lions, ellie, buff and rhino. Saw yet another pride of lions on the S25. On the 12km's to B&D we again got lions and a HUGE traffic jam.

So lions 7 times
Ellie about 30 times
Rhino about 10 times same with buff
and leopard twice that in one day

We left the park early Monday morning and then saw the big 5 again, 1) taxis, 2) buses, 3) unroadworthy bakkies, 4) traffic cops and 5) a couple of okes trying to break the land speed record on the N4.

Cheers and I hope your Easter weekend was as fantastic as mine.

Loads of birds

Martial Eagle
Bateleur
Ground horn-bill
Saddle Bill Stork
Lilac Breasted Roller
Fork Tail Drongo's
Brown Snake Eagle
Egyptian Geese
Obviously lots and lots of starlings and zazu's

and many many more..

See Stephen I can remember a few bird species LOL!!

Hi

Re Camping sections :

Can anybody help with the following question :

Has section 3 only got camping sites along the fence or has section 2 also got sites along the fence, as this is not too clear on the Berg & Dal map.

Thanx

Robs

Hi Robs,

Section 2 also has sites next to the fence, but only a few. In my opinion, the sites in section 3 are beter. Just one tip, be in BnD early, else all the sites are taken when you get there.

Also, section 3 sometimes is a little crowded when the park is busy, as most people goes for the fence

When I visited BnD in February, they where busy leveling/upgrading the camping areas around section 1. I spoke to Stephen Nel, the hospitality manager of BnD, and he informed me that section 2 would also be given the same treatment. I do not know how far they are with the work.

Have a good time at BnD, and I am sure the resident hyena will come visit at night.

Greetings from Berg en Dal

We had some lovely rain in the last two weeks. The bush is looking lovely, even the burnt are towards Malelane. The dam is still rather empty though, not enough rain for flow in the Matjulu.

Robs, there is only about two sites in #2 area that overlooks the fence.

I have seen these doggies just up the road the other day. Lovely to see them play . Difficult to picture though as they are quick. This was part of a pack of 11 dogs.



Till the next time.

Hi Francois

Hope this one is better for you. Saw her Friday about 6km form the camp all on her lonesome. Her mates were making big noice again last night though.



Greetings from the bush

Some time back after arriving at Berg en Dal rest camp, I told my husband I would just take a short drive to the local water hole. Upon arrival there, I was the only person around. It felt quite scary. After about 5 minutes, I couldn't believe my eyes as a leopard walked slowly towards the water, had a drink and walked all around the area and then towards my car. Not having a cell phone, I couldn't even tell my husband to get there quickly. Leopard stayed around for some 10 minutes or so and I was still the only observer. A little later a ranger appeared but didn't stay long (he'd seen it all before). The excitment at watching the leopard mixed with the frustration of being the only person to watch and have nobody to get excited with was quite a mixture of emotions.
When I got back to camp my husband didn't believe a word of it!

Great sighting, Carole
I love that waterhole and have also had some great sightings there.

Greetings from Berg en Dal

I am sitting working at home, just finished my monthly report while being serenaded by this magnificent male lion.



I took this pic of him earlier when coming back from Skukuza earlier today. He was only about 2km from the camp.

I had two sightings of wild dog today as well, one on the way to Skukuza north of Afsaal (5 dogs) and one coming back this afternoon South of Afsaal (10 dogs). I spent some time with the second group – what a privilege.



This tree frog had the great honour of becoming lunch to a Spotted Bush Snake in our laundry over the weekend. It took about half and hour for the snake to swallow the frog. Then I kicked him out (didn’t have a licence to eat in the laundry).



Till the next time

Does someone know how the Rhino guest house looks like ?
we should be staying there for one night in August but I can't find pics

Greetings from Berg en Dal

Elena, here are a couple of pics of Rhino Guest House. The layout is an open plan kitchen to the lounge and dining area. The two main bedrooms have e-suite bathrooms and the other two bedrooms share and extra (separate) bathroom, shower and toilet facility. The House is right on the fence at the front of the camp, we often see elephant and rhino coming past that area. With a bit of luck you might even see our resident leopard as well. The bird life is very good with all the trees around.


Entrance with the double car port.


Front view from the fence of Patio & Braai area.


Lounge area from the open plan kitchen

BB, I was lucky enough to go do some rhino catching on Tuesday, did not take any pics though, I was too busy pushing and shoving to get the rhino into its cage . Even got a chance to fly in our new chopper.

Till the next time.

Good day Elad

Thank you for your feedback on your stay at Berg en Dal. We are busy with a renovation process to correct the smaller problems, like the braai stubs and then a bigger upgrading program which actually involves rebuilding parts of the existing units. We have a bit of a back-log in both these departments, but are getting there quickly now.

As for the monkeys, I have taken the task up of removing the whole troop from the camp by relocation, as they are quite problematic, hopefully we can then enjoy the game in the river bed and at the dam without having to worry about the beggars.

Hope to see you again on your next trip to Kruger