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At lunchtime I was urgently in need of a fix so headed to Crocodile Bridge. By 1.30 I was driving through the gate and into the Park. Decided to head up the S28 to Lower Sabie and back down the tar road again.
It was a good choice of route! After the initial impala herds I turned on to the S28 and almost immediately into a large gathering of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and impala. Then a white rhino in the distance, followed by another close to the road. Then a cheetah lying on a bank - good sighting with binoculars. After that ground hornbills, a pair of saddle-bill storks, a juvenile bateleur, a hippo wandering next to the road, and more rhino. There were 3 males who kept jostling each other out of the way so they could get to the best bit of grass - rather comical. A short distance later a leopard near the road on a low dead tree - totally relaxed and only occasionally showing that it did have a head after all! Word obviously got around fast and cars began arriving in droves so I beat a retreat! More ground hornbills, then more zebs and wildebeest, followed by a breeding herd of elephants. And I have left out quite a bit of the 'usual' stuff!
A great few hours and I am glad I went even though I knew it had to be a short trip.....

Great sightings for a trip of a few hours - any pics?

Took a few - but I am restricted to GPRS connection so uploading is difficult and the connection keeps closing down on me, or freezing. It took many tries just to get my avatar uploaded.
If anyone has tips - pass them on!

Great sightings ecojunkie

Ecojunkie, you have no idea how envious I am that you can so easily 'get a fix' - never mind how awesome your sightings were!

I know how privileged I am - and many times I can scarcely believe it! But that is also why I try to leave quickly when there is a good sighting and other cars start to arrive - I have lots of opportunities.

Ecojunkie,

thanks a lot for a fix report. Great sightings you had.

Really enjoyed to hear a bit "live" from KNP for us living 10.000 km far away.

[sniff] Nicely done ecojunkie!

Just leaving again for another fix - taking in friends who have had a tough time recently.... We are heading for Malelane gate, BeD and Afsaal. Hope to have a good report this evening!!!!!

Do you have working mail? If so you can send them to me and I'll post them for you..

Cannot believe it! TWO leopards!!!!! We were just a short way down the road to BeD when my friend screamed 'leopard' - it had jumped out of a tree near the road as she watched! It slowly made its way up the bank and then crossed so close in front of the car I thought it might jump on the bonnet! We had great view as it slowly moved away into bushes on the other side of the road. A coach load of French tourists were in time to see it under a tree before it disappeared completely. We had lunch and headed over the Steilberg road to Afsaal. About half way along another leopard ambled down the road towards us, passed close to the car and crossed behind us. I reversed slowly and we again were able to watch as it made its way into the bushes and disappeared. Incredible - I now have 6 leopards from my last 6 trips (yes, one trip did not have a leopard - but lots of lions instead).

We also had 3 separate elephants, 3 separate rhino sightings - one of 2 adults with a baby who was giving mom a hard time butting her head constantly, but only one giraffe and no zebs or kudus. Wildebeest near Afsaal as usual and the scops owl was on a really low branch, but partially hidden by leaves so not photogenic! Lots of impala of course, and warthog mum with very tiny babies, and two groups of dwarf mongoose.

I have a great photo of the leopard just visible over my bonnet. DQ I will try to email to you to post. I managed to resize, but cannot get them into the post anyway. Grrrr![/img]

Thanks for your "quick fix" reports ecojunkie. I think,
So glad you were able to get the wonderful Leopard sightings for your friends tho, must have made the trip so special for them.

Although , I enjoyed this short report

Ecojunkie, what great trips.

There is no better way to work through a tough time than to go to the bush.
Stunning sightings.

The photos ecojunkie made: