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Good question! There were many special sightings and I had a long and hard thought about this! Many sighting came to mind but one of them was very special indeed!

It was during our trip in January 2009 and we stayed in Skukuza for 4 nights. The heat was almost unbearable and I remember on one day, I think it was a Friday, the temperature shot up to 42 degrees!!

I can handle heat but on that Friday it was extra humid as well. I was sitting in the car with the windows opened and like a true seasoned visitor the aircon was off! I was sweating profusely and due to the humidity I was soaked in sweat and at the brink of dehydration!

The next moment....and wait for it....my loving SO (Elzet) exited the Parks Shop with 12 cold beers under her one arm and a bag of ice in her other hand! That was a very special sighting for me!!

It's late in the Afternoon. We've been driving a long loop continuously outside Mopani. On one particular afternoon, we observed cars stopped on the road waiting for a Herd of Buffalo to cross. About 500 metres before that, there's a turn off, down a little quirky cul de sac.

Down we go, with the Buffalo all around us, but not terribly worried. We get to a nice vantage point and start photographing the Buffalo and the Elephant / Buffalo sharing a water hole across the way a little.

Sao is trying to tell us something . . Leo Leo Leopard!!!!

Here's what she'd seen..... Right in the middle of 500+ Buffalo, clearly spooked. And there were two of them!!

Stunning story Did the buffs react in any way on the leopards?
Did they chase or ignore them?

The Leopard were extremely cautious, knowing the dire situation they were in.
They were quite close to us at one point, deciding on tactics to get out of there.

Here's another reason this is a good spot.

In Sept 2009 I was in the kruger for 8 days and we saw the big 5 like 12 times.

I'm not boasting here....we were so blessed and thougt to just share this with everyone,so that u can see that the animals are there.But there is a price to be paid and in our case we had to drive 3100km in that 8 days to see that all.We only took the DVD camera with,so there is hours of DVD but no photos to back me on this.
This below is only a tip that had worked for us !!!![/color]
We landmark our Kruger map with all the leopard sightings that we saw and in April 2010 we got 3 of the leopards in the same spots.
The Ngotso dam area between Satara and Olifants are very popular to see leopards and also the Sable dam near Phalaborwa gate. The second brige from Satara to Thokwane is also a good leopard spot.
The Phalaborwa to Letaba road you can find wild dogs and also on the Orpen road from Satara.
We've got the big 5 on the S100 in one morning !!

[[b][b][color=#FF0000]b][color=#0040FF]We were so blessed !!!!!!!![/color][/b][/b][/b]I don't like the Kruger I LOVE it !!!!!!!!!

Yea...we had leopard ,lion,ellie,rino and buffalo each 12 times.

Like I've said....we were very blessed !!!!

We were recently in the KNP, and I must say we were truly blessed. Three sitings of Cheetah, Sable about 15 in the herd (which we havent seen for about 25years, Roan also about 15. We saw an elephant with big tusks and it doesnt have a collar on, I am going to make a still of it and maybe you can collar it before the poachers get their dirty hands on it!!!!! We also saw two scop owls outside the shop at Shingwedsi, and it was broad daylight people were using flash photos I couldnt believe it!!! Regards Greta Bartlett

Our trip to Kruger has ended But was beautiful With not one, not two, but 3 leopard spottings. One of which was on the road! Prior to this we had only ever seen one leopard in the wild, and believe it or not two of them were in the same day add to that lion, ellies, buff and of course rhino. Another lion sighting and we would have had the big 5 x2 That's what happens when you drive literally from one end of KNP to the other and you're in a hurry to make the gate and set up camp before it gets too dark. (Shingwedzi to Berg-en-dal)

We have come back with questions though and we are hoping that someone on the forum would be able to answer...

First of all, on Friday 15th of Oct we came across an impala kill (?) on the main road (H1-3) between Satara and Tshokwane. (About 25 km from the southernmost baobab) We weren't able to get a very good view, but from what we could see, the kill was near the road, hanging upside down in a very small dead tree. There were lion in the vacinity, but how did the impala land up in the tree We have our suspicions, but would like to confirm.

The other one is regarding a report on 702 regarding a rhino that was injured in a routine veld fire. When we first arrived at Berg-en-dal on the Wed 13th, we saw a rhino lying alongside the H3 near Afsaal. We saw the same rhino on Thursday morning and wondered if it may have been sick as it had not moved around much. On Friday morning we saw in the distance a frenzy of hyena and vultures, but no rhino and concluded that the rhino had been ill and became easy prey although we could not confirm this. This weekend my sister in law was telling us about the injured rhino and we are now just curious to know it this was the same animal

I'd suggest that a leopard killed and then dragged the impala up the tree to keep it away from the lions and hyenas.

Thanks for all the help on where to go and what places to see around Shingwedzi camp. And yes it was quiet and we got to see 4 of the big 5. Saw the most beautiful male lions about 6km north of babalala and then when we looked to our left there where 2 rhinos .
The trip to red rocks was just as amazing we saw a hyena next to the road with her pup and then 2 silver backed jackal's. The cutest though were the tortoises and dung beatles. The kids loved that!!! Also the Saddlebilled Storks were feeding in the river
We also so 2 male lions again, in the riverbed 500m from the causeway turn off. It really was amazing.
However the worst bit to me was the day visitors that stream into the camp and are extremely rowdy, they have absolutely NO respect for the animals and drive like maniacs. We watched as they drove through impala's, the little lambs had to dodge and run off the road damn quickly because nobody bothered stopping and waiting for them to cross!!! And the worst is they drive so fast that they drove over a chameleon and 2 tortoises. I suppose that is what happens when you have a bunch of people in a taxi or bus and their coolerboxes are filled to the brim with whatever alcoholic beverage the shop sells

We saw one in the river bed towards the bridge

For me a great sighting is even greater if captured in a beautiful photo and I have had many wonderful sightings in Kruger which I will never forget - it is truly paradise. Only a small amount of photo's that is worth bragging about though - here are some of the better ones from our 2008 visit.

Attention w1tw0lf and company!!!

The following pictures are a series of shots taken on the 10th of January 2011 on the H4-2 tar road, just about 2km outside the Crocodile Bridge Camp between the S25 and S28 sand roads in Kruger National Park. We left camp in the early part of the morning and didn’t have to drive too long before we seen the yellow eyes of Lions!

At first we thought it was a Pride, but as dawn broke its light we realised something extraordinary and unusual. We counted 2 male Lions, then a 3rd head lifted up from the tall grass and soon another 2! We couldn’t believe our luck, 5 male Lions together! But then from nowhere a 6th male Lion lifted his head! A coalition of 6 Male Lions sitting not more than 20 meters from us, this was something special!
We sat with them for about 45 minutes before they decided to move on. It looked like these brutes were on a serious mission, perhaps a pride take-over? The only other sighting that I know of where there were more than 6 Male Lions seen together, was the famous Mapogo coalition of the Sabie Sands.

To all the sceptics out there, here is the hard evidence in pictures!





The Lion with the skew face seemed like the dominant Male of the coalition, as he was the only one roaring.

A shot of all 6 together


One Male decided to get up and stretch...

Then sit back down...

The reflection in their eyes is distinctive

All posing together

Looks like the Boys are rallying together for battle...


Coming towards the road...

Crossing over...


The first 3 males crossed...





Then the remaining 3 followed suit including the Lion with 1 eye...



The last Lion looked like a Barbary Lion with his Huge mane...




Thank You!