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Welcome to the follow up and next chapter of my Guiding Career.

From where I started in the North at Letaba, moved down to Olifants and then to BnD, and now back in the Northern side of the Park again, I would like to welcome all of you and hope you will enjoy sharing my new adventures with me.

Here at Phalaborwa Gate we only work with guests from outside the Park and offer the Game Drives, Walks and Bush Braais.

The evening Drives are what they call the Night Drive, which is actually like the Sunset Drives in the other camps from 17:00-20:00 or 16:30-19:30 (depends on the season).

I started off on Wednesday night with a Night Drive and took the S131 Gravel road to Ngwenyeni waterhole and to see all the Mopane Trees it felt like I am home again!!!

Surprisingly our first animal wasn't Impala, but a Serval!!! He disappeared quickly between the grass and not far from there we got 3 Giraffes. They enjoyed the green leaves of a Knobt Thorn tree and had a lovely Sunset just before the Ngwenyeni waterhole.

We found 2 Elephant Bulls testing each others strength at the waterhole and eventually walked down the road. We proceeded the drive to the H14 tar road and turned left to Nandzana waterhole and found some Zebras crossing the road, but with a very small foal, aahhh too cute!!! At Nandzana waterhole we got 2 Verraux's Eagle Owls and had our Sundowner there and showed the 4 guests the stars.

On our way back on the H14 and H9 tar roads we spotted a Buffalo, 2 Chameleons, Puffadder, a few Steenbokkies and a Genet. Not too bad for the first drive around here!!!!

Last night I decided to stay on the H9, main tar road to Letaba and turned onto a No Entry that comes out behind Sable Dam and found a nice big herd of Elephants and at Sable Dam a Bull in musth that charged us a little bit.
Further along the road we got Double Banded Sandgrouse and Impalas. While watching the Impalas 2 Pearl Spotted Owls started calling and managed to call the 1 in and had a nice view of him.

Our Sundowner we had on the Sable Dam gravel road (S51) and went up to Masorini. While being there we heard some Black Backed Jackals calling from the waterhole and on our way back on the H9 we found 1 Jackal, some Spotted Eagle Owls, a African Wild Cat and a Sharpe's Grysbok and another few Elephant Bulls. Sjoe the roads are full of Bronze Winged Coursers and now and then some Thickknees

I am glad that my perception was wrong, and we do not only find Mopane Trees on the drives.

Wishing you a lovely day and weekend

Greetings from Phalaborwa Gate,

My first walk went very smooth yesterday. We had 1 guest from Loerie Lodge and 4 from Sable Dam and walked from Sable Dam back to Phalaborwa Gate. It was just over 10km's in total!!!

Completely different than Olifants and BnD, and need to be more alert all the time. We started off by walking over the dam wall and saw a Crocodile swimming closer to us, hoping to get something to eat, but luckily everyone already washed their hands in the hide's bathroom...
After the Crocodile and Egyptian Geese sightings we went looking for the Lions which the guests heard roaring through the night. We found some fresh Buffalo, Elephant and Lion tracks and only found Hooded and White Backed Vultures with some Impalas.

Unfortunately couldn't see the cats and made our way into a Western direction to the Gate and followed some fresh Elephant tracks and found the young bull with a big surprise, moved around him so that the wind was in our favour and he moved off without knowing we were there. We had our break on a small hill and had a beautiful view over the bush and after our break bumped into another Elephant Bull and quickly got the guests out of the area.
The Giraffes were surprised to see us and ran away very quickly.

This morning I did the drop off for the Olifants Back Pack Trail and found lots of Elephants on my way back.

That will be it for now until next time...

The Website Community Choice Award is given to SANParks employees who are nominated and voted for by the members on the public forum hosted on the SANParks website.

For his interaction on the forum, informative pictures and posts, as well as his excellent guiding abilities in the Kruger National Park, the website forum members have once again voted for:

Lourens Botha.


From me to you:

To all the forumites,

It was such a great honor and privilege to hear the announcement that I received the Website Community Choice Award for the 2nd year in a row!!!!

I would like to thank you all for your support in the past year and making this dream come true !!!!!!!

What a great way to start my birthday celebration!!!

Thank you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday afternoon's trip into the park did not yield too much activity. Hopefully this afternoon will be better, if the weather holds out.

I did however have to wait for about five minutes for these guys to cross the road before going any further...



I am not an insect boff, so could one of you identify these ants for me please.

And then a bit later this Dikkop also made me wait until he had given way.

Sprocky,

I can't see the picture, my Intranet is blocking all the pictures out, but as it was explained about the ants, it sounds like the Matabele Hissing ants, they are mainly active on cold cloudy days and at night. They specialise on Termites.

As I say I can't see the picture to confirm, but as it was explained, that is my answer...

The White Rhino’s fighting,

and the mother with her calf on the walk at Nandzana on Friday morning the 3rd of July.


The 1 Lion at the Zebra carcass which Sprocky informed me about.


Thats all from me. Enjoy!

Sunday's short trip

Here are two shots of the ellie encounter.

Here he is still quite happy



And here he is playing traffic cop...

Another road block on the way back to the gate yesterday

Hi everyone

Lourens asked me to post these for him....


This Sunrise was from Sable Dam on my Morning Safari of Thursday.


The Monitor Lizzard we got on a rock next to the Ngwenyeni spruit.



These Dwarf Mongooses were sitting at their Termite Mount on 1 of my Bush Braai’s.



The 3 Elephant shots were from our Full Day Walk.

Here are a few of the pics from this mornings kill...

Hi Everyone,

Here comes the few photos Lourens asked me to post. Enjoy!

A Sunset Picture I have taken.



The Elephant was on a Morning Drive so is the picture of the Buffaloes.



The African Fish Eagle was on one of my drop off’s for the Olifants River Backpack Trail.



The Baboon, Zebras, Kudus, Elephants taking a bath in Sable Dam was on my Full Day Game Drive last month.

And some more.....

These are the 2 male Lions of our local pride and which killed the Buffalo behind Sable Dam.



The Buffalo on our walk from Reenvoel dam after tracking the Lions and found Elephants drinking water at the dam.



A picture of a African Wild Cat on 1 of my Night Drives.

And would you know.... some more LOL

Along the Olifants River…




The Sunrise on our Morning Drive from Letaba Rest Camp.


The 3 Male Lions we found on the same drive.