SANParks.org Forums

Hey Heksie, so glad about all the SPOTS! and sooooo very happy you found my woodpeckers!

Big YES, a "kuier" is due! maybe over the weekend?

Awesome sightings Heksie .
Unbelievable spottie sigthings and stunning birdie sightings, especially the Fish eagle .
Thanks for sharing .

I am sitting here with my head hung low in shame ...

I know it has been AGES and I do feel awful.

I've had a few PMs and SMS/BBMs to see if I'm still alive which I am, though I may end up in jail soon for murdering some of the contractors who are working in my house - they are SOOOOOOOOOO slow and driving me NUTS!

Catching up and seeing Heksie's photos and all the mites' comments has made me adamant that when I get home tonight no matter what state my house is (or isn't) in, I am going to go thru my fotos and also post a few that go with the ones Heksie has posted so far.

Catch you later.

Hey Wendy, welcome HOME, yes this is HOME where you'll find all your friends, old and new!

Doesn't matter how long it's been, mites are always happy to meet here, I just LOVE it!

Heksie,

Super sightings of all the birdies...how awesome to have got such a super kiekie of the Kittlitts Plover.

What more can I can about my relatives....they are so.... ..Thanks for the video.

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Photobucket just will not work for me tonight. I spent an hour and a half uploading photos for my TR (and even gave up on one of the photos that just wouldn't load). I have now spent another half hour trying to upload photos for this thread but am going to give up now and will try again tomorrow (or maybe shut my laptop down then restart to see if it makes a difference now) ... photos coming up soon I hope.

HALLELUJAH!!! Had to upload photos one by one and really don't like the new Photobucket. Anyway, here goes ...

I have a smile on my face as I am typing this … what a great time I had with Heksie … if only someone had sponsored us for every time we laughed!

So, we met at Satara on 25 November. I was travelling from Phalabowra where I’d spent a couple of nights with Crested Val and Dungie and although I didn’t get into the park till 6:45am that morning, I was the first to arrive at Satara (seeing Heksie’s photo of the beautiful leopard she saw on the way, I’m not surprised she arrived later than me!). I couldn’t believe how empty it was in Satara camp – for the first time EVER, I got a spot at the fence (there were loads of fence spots that were free!).

I’d just finished setting up my stuff when Heksie in her “Have you seen a Brownie” car arrived. It took a minute for her to “throw” her tent up – a little longer for us to set her gazebo up. Here’s a pic of our campsite at Satara:-



There were a few spots of rain as we were putting the gazebo up but wouldn’t you know it, as soon as it was up, the rain stopped!

We sat and had a couple of KPAs (Kruger Park Appeltisers, aka Savannas!) and a lovely Diderick’s Cuckoo came to say hello …



Did anyone pledge any money for a cuckoo???

We decided to go on an afternoon drive … I just couldn’t help stopping and taking photos of the baby impies









It was on that afternoon drive that we spotted Heksie’s first “Kruger spottie”

Your campsite looks very nice WendyA! And what a beautiful Cuckoo to welcome you!

The baby Impies are just adorable! Glad Heksie could see her first Cheetah in Kruger!

Hi Wendy, Yes agree with Hilda, your camp site right next to the fence, Awesome!

Love the cuckoo! I will add that to my woodpecker pledge!

Love the baby impies too!

Hi Super Mongoose! Thanks for your message. Yes, it's good to be back HOME but I'd forgotten how addictive this forum is!!! Stand by for a bit more about the fundraiser with Heksie ...

Hi Hilda! It was a great campsite and we made a lekker braai too ... even our neighbours who were enticed by the delicious smells wafting their way came over to see what we were cooking! The baby impies were adorable ... loads more of them coming up in my TR Proper but I couldn't resist posting a couple of photos on this thread as well! It was great that Heksie finally got to see a cheetah in Kruger ... and not only one but SIX in total!!! More coming up now ...

Hi again Super Mongoose! Thanks so much for adding the cuckoo to your woodpecker pledge!!!

Is there a list of what pledges were made and by who so we can keep track of who owes what???

Heksie was brilliant at taking kiekies of all the mites we met … it is great seeing her photos! Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Flying Cheetah who she met when she entered the park at Phabeni Gate on her way up to meet me at Satara; nor did I get to meet Imberbe and his SO. I had a YR tied to both my wing mirrors – in fact the one attached to the driver’s wing mirror was more of a fluorescent yellow flower thingie like the Hawaiian dancers wear around their neck so I don’t know how Imberbe missed me … that said, Heksie was just behind me and her car was a real eye-catcher with her huge yellow “have you seen a brownie?” bonnet cover!



As Heksie mentioned, we were VERY lucky on our last morning with the Kruger spotties!

I’d had 2 weeks in Kruger (and had been up with the birds most mornings) so I decided that I wasn’t going to rush on my last morning. As Heksie told you (and showed you), she had a beautiful cheetah sighting that morning whilst I was back at camp packing up and drinking my MMCs! I did, however, “get my bum in my car” as Heksie so gracefully put it, and drove to the spot where she was having the most amazing cheetah sighting … as you can see from the pic she posted, the slender spottie was lying right in the road! When I got there, it had got up and was walking away. I caught a glimpse and decided that I wasn’t going to stick around or join Heksie on her quest to see if the leopard we’d seen the day before was further down the road. How hard could I kick myself now … not only did she get to see the one leopard, but what an amazing and beautiful sighting she had with the TWO of them lying in the tree!

Then again, if I had joined her, we would have seen the leopards together, returned to Lower Sabie so she could have a wee and I could finish packing up, then we probably would have just gone straight down the H4-2 out of the park and missed the beautiful slender spotties that will raise LOTS more money for our beloved rhinos!!!

Heksie’s photo shows all 5 of them … I wasn’t lucky enough to get a group shot but got lots of individual ones and some with a couple of them together …









We were lucky with the other kitties in the park too …

On our first morning at Satara we went on a sunrise drive that had kindly been organised for us. We were both wondering whether it had been such a good idea to get up so early and go on this freezing cold drive (no lie, November and it was COLD!!!) when we could have been back at camp with lekker MMCs! But then we came across this …





A pride consisting of a number of females and lots of young ones … I don’t think we managed to count them all.

They were with the leftovers of a wildebeest kill they’d obviously made during the night. One solitary wildebeest remained, looking on to what we decided was its deceased partner’s or sibling’s leftovers …

Hey Wendy, yes super addictive indeed!

PetraJ kept a list of the pledges and I think the last list is around page 8 or 9 on this thread!

You had some super Cheetah and Lion sightings WendyA!