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I have seen the big guy in august 2004 in the Shingwedzi river, just East of the restcamp!!!!!!
I am just looking for a pic. But it seems I have no nice one
Here is one:


grtz jaapvd.

This was on the s100 close to Satara. He was very relaxed around vehicles, which were much closer to him than I would generally consider to be ellie safety distance. I asked around at Satara and no-one could provide a name, which surprised me. Might well be Shimatsi, although not sure if ellies would cover such a big distance.

True, that is a big distance and Shimatsi is roaming the Shingwedzi area. Interesting.

Can anyone tell me if this great tusker is Mac or Duke? He was spotted on the H10 about 1km from Sabie River bridge in November 2004.

Phelwana

According to Ampie Espag and many others who knew him, Phelwana was a real Musketeer, a gentleman of note.

He would break through Ampie's fence at Kingfisherspruit to get to he fruit trees. Ampie had to fire warning shots @ him to get him out again. After he realised that people from the nearby Maroela camp was fearing for the lives he got a "sweep", what is the english word?, and gave Phelwana a hiding on consecutive visits causing Phelwana to run holes right throught the fence.

One day Phelwana decided that he would only move when he felt like it, he got his last branch from the tree and slowly moved back to the broken fence where he entered. He gently stepped right over the flower box of Ampie's wife without touching anything and wandered off into the veld.

He also loved to prevent cars from coming by on the roads and many of the field staff on bicycles had to ask very nicely to pass him. They had to get off from the bikes and push it past him and only get back on after the past him.

He was unfortunately injured by a heavy calibre gunshot which detroyed his jaw. His condition deteriated to the point where he had to be put down by rangers in 1987.

Earlier a hunter was photographed where he stood infront of Phelwana with an empty rifle as he was afraid that he would not resist to shoot him. The Park was also offered R100 000 by a hunter to shoot Phelwana.

A truely magnificent legend of the Kruger National Park. Great pity that I never got the chance to c him in real life.

Letaba

Who was lucky enough to have met him and his 3 buddies? The size of these ele's was remarkable. They would scale a fence of 1.37m without touching it.

They liked to enter the Letaba restcamp untill the electric fence was erected.

I saw a huge bull in 2002 right next to the fence right in front of our tent. I wonder if it was Letaba?

I was lucky enough to see the Great Letaba. We were staying at the Melville House and one night at around 7pm he ambled up to the fence. He grazed there for a while then tried to bash the fence down. The fence had just been fixed as he had broken through about 4 days prior to us arriving. He gave up after a bit but stayed around for about 1hr. He was really big and it was quite scary. I did take pics but did not think to bring any pics with me when I moved to Canada. I gave all my pics to my brother. I have been nagging him to send them to me.

DinkyBird saw Duke beginning of May.

[edit] and almost forgot ... I saw Mashagadzi near Shingwedzi camp 31 Dec/1 Jan[/edit]

Thanks for the info Jose, have you perhaps got a pic of Mashagadzi? I have seen the Duke before but not Mashagadzi.
Nice to know that people are still running into them!

There are 2 of mine in the Public Sightings gallery (prob page 4 or 5 by now?) but let me see if I have an original size uploaded.
BTW, I may have seen Klopperfontein too (can you believe it, also 31 Dec ) but never got a 100% ID.

Not the original but larger at least than PS gallery:

If he is in his early fifties his tusks could still grow somewhat! What a sight to behold, you sure were one lucky guy. Hope i have some luck when i go up there.

He's named after a waterhole off the S61 PundaM area. I'll tell you when and where to stop. I saw him on the H1-8 near Elandskuil.

From what I was told by Shingwedzi staff he likes to stay close to the camp and is often seen in the riverbed. These pics were taken about 150 m from the camp. Later that evening he could even be seen from the restaurant deck.

Saw this bull twice at Satara, does anybody know him,does he have a name? He was in the beginning stages of musth!!

Can anyone tell me if they have news of Magakadzi (I think that's how you spell his name?), the big elephant bull that lives along the road to the Shingwidzi camp? I last saw him in 2003.