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A belated Happy New Year to everyone

Apologies for taking so long to add to my TR it has been a busy start to the new year.





Thanks Barry The monitor was special. I'd have to say that if people returned their plates then the birds would have nothing to attract them.



Hilda I was surprised that the woodpecker was actually in the picnic and gave me the time to get the picture considering the number of people around.

After the giraffe we decided to take the S120 and the Matjulu loop road around to Berg en Dal rather than head there down the tarmac. I’m sure someone on the forum will put me right but the top of the S120 must be one of the highest places in the park accessible by car. We did not see another car on the whole road and only found these buffalo/egrets thanks to the two egrets standing out in the grass.



The sightings to the camp gate were limited to a few cars but it was late afternoon and was relatively warm. After check-in we relaxed and checked out the camp/dam area finding this female bushbuck and her young one in the shade below the dam viewing area.



Whilst the rest of the family headed back to the huts to put their feet up I ventured down the rhino trail to see what could be seen. This elephant was the first animal to be seen, initially he was hidden by the overhanging branches but he soon moved out into the late afternoon sun. He’d obviously been for a late afternoon bath in the dam, opposite the fence corner he turned up into the trees.
Around the corner I soon found another elephant tearing branches off a small tree, some waterbuck were keeping it company (the sun was too low to get the elephant)





Further up the path near the poorly repaired section, where the stream in flood has damaged the fence, a family of dwarf mongoose joined me on my stroll.



We’d book a night drive for that evening and to say the least it was packed full of animals. We’d not gone 20metres out of the gate before we stopped for the buffalo bull coming around the camp fence corner. We did get close enough to some elephants to get a photo but we abandoned the picture taking after this one. There were two superb sightings to recount; one of three hyena heading down a non-public road but the best one was a bull elephant bathing in the river by the Malelane gate bridge it’s not only humans that enjoy a bath ‘Superb’



We finally saw a leopard off the Matjulu Bridge, an older leopard with a limp on his back leg; he was eating dung according to our driver. On the Matjulu loop we saw two female rhino and young crossing the road. Our driver then impressed us 100% when he found a chameleon on a tree branch and shortly after a bush baby jumping through the trees. We also saw 2 honey badgers, a solitary hippo, what could have been a civet and numerous buffalo but no lion even though they were in the area. I’ll be booking another night drive or two come May/June this year when the SO and I return for a 10 day visit, it was fantastic apart from the large temperature drops in the stream beds on the loop road.
The last short day will soon follow, I’ve some good TR’s to catch up on

Wonderful sightings on your night drive

What a adorable little bushbuck So timid

The rhino trail is always nice to experience and have a break from the driving..

Nice TR Welsh Boy,

Thanks

John

Great giraffe sequence from the previous episode

and now the tender moment between bushbuck mum and little one - Cute

WoW -That ellie is nearly invisible only the eye and the tusks could be identified

Welshboy, how sweet and beautiful to see this intimate picture of the little bushbuck and child

They are such shy creatures, a rare capture.

It is awesome to actually see how caring animals could be towards each other

Night Drives

Wow I've got to say you were blessed to the full extreme on your trip to see a wild dog a few minutes in is something some of us can only dream of, I haven't seen the dogs since the last sighting with my gran in 1998 just before she died, as for rhino's you had good sightings, I had the honour in December 2011 to come across a herd of 32 rhino's it has got to be a sighting I will never forget! Im glad that you and yours had a great time and I hope that your stay their this year will be as illustrious as the one you just had ...Good Luck

Thank you for another great episode and wonderful pics.

First for me to see such a small bushbuck...absolutely adorable.

Another great day in Kruger with lots of great sightings .
Thanks for sharing .

Cute Bushbuck mon and baby Welshboy!

Beautiful Waterbuck and the cutest Dwarf Mongoose, all seen from inside camp!

You can hardly see that big Ellie! What a fruitful night drive!

Well with the UK being under between 5cm to 25cm of snow so I thought I'd warm myself up by posting the 1 page of our last day in the park



Yes John the rhino trail is something I'm looking forward to walking again in around 19 weeks time when we get back to the park.



The last time I saw a wild dog before this was one animal running down a road somewhere in the SW of the park back in 1984. 32 rhino's in one place is one to stick in the memories for a very long time, Im very jealous.

Wednesday morning dawned bright and clear, even though we had finally seen the last animal of the big five the night before I was not letting my family have a lie-in on our last day in the park. We were out of the gate just after it opened and headed for the Matjulu pool area, no sooner had we turned right than we found our first rhino of the day. There was nothing to be seen at the pool, there'd been ellies drinking from the tank on the night drive but it was lifeless this time round. So we headed down the loop to see what we could find and we struck lucky again with these five rhino crossing the road, these were our last rhino of the trip but we certainly couldn't complain (we could only get 3 on film)





We did not find many other animals on the loop so headed back for breakfast via the H3 and on the S110 we came on this sight.













The front of the herd had disappeared into the dip in the ground before we first arrived but they still took around 5 mins to walk past us and herd was still coming over the hill. Eventually the tail-end of the herd appeared on the hillside, there must have been over 600 animals easily; maybe more and it was a very impressive sight. We left them to their stroll and went for breakfast and to pack our bags.

I look forward to trying to find such a large group of buffalos when we return ....in a little more than 19 weeks

john

Great pics of Rhino and magic Buff herd

That is an awesome buffalo herd WOW, stunning pics I remember a few years back people were wondering what had happened to all the buffalo herds of 600+ its good to see them back and in the swing of things again, and the good news with buffalo is where theirs buffalo theirs always lion following close behind NICE!

I simply love those big Buff herds! We were lucky enough to find them several times during the past few years in Kruger.

Awesome Rhinos too! Your pictures are great Welshboy!