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I have a new favourite road. During Dec 2006 I drove this road three times. Twice saw the big five and the other time 4 out of 5. Got 4 leopards on this road, two in one trip about 2km from each other. The one leopard had two attempts at catching some food which made for great photos watching the famous leopard crawl.

Had an awesome leopard experience in April last year on this road as well. Beautiful scenery and a nice change to the busy Sabie River road. Will definitely be on my list in July...

Have only travelled this road once and had 2 male and 2 female lions lying by the side of the road in the middle of the day. My main memory was the smell of these guys and I realised just why they have to hunt downwind. Definitely the road less travelled and a good route to avoid the crowds on a busy day in the south.

I agree, the S21 is a great road for avoiding the crowds considering how convenient it is for two of the most popular camps. Drove it in mid-December and only encountered 2 cars along its 24 kms. It was the only time we had lions to ourselves (for quite some time too) - at the Nhlotini waterhole.

We did find that a lot of Christmas visitors are not keen on taking the gravel roads (fortunately!), especially long ones like the S21.

Have travelled this road many times and have seen lions frequently and cheetah once. Plenty of rhinos and our only sighting of a black mamba was on this road.

Here is the cats we saw on the S21:

Cat Photos

Where is the S21?

The S21 is about 28 km's down the H4-1 from Skukuza. You turn right onto it, it is also called the Nwatimhiri road. it evetually joins the renosterkoppies road and then the H3 that runs to B-n-D

Always a 'must do' road for us when we are in the south.

Best drive along there for us had lions on a Kudu kill 20m from the road east of Nhlotini waterhole and then at the waterhole a small breeding herd of ellies were keeping 3 dagga boys and some zebra from having a drink.

Great pics jakoventer!

Anyone got any recent pics of this unnamed waterhole just before the turn-off on the H4-1??

@ Liam: I don't have a resent pic, but if i remember correctly it didn't had that much water now in December 2007 and no hippo... could be wrong though, just going on my memory.....

Drove this road a few times: In June 2007 saw general game and leopard, the leopard was just after the unnamed waterhole to the H4-1. In December 2007, Ellies, general game and hyena... But i also love it for it's scenery and because it's less travelled.

I can't find a name for it on any of my very numerous maps Liam, just listed as a waterhole.
I do remember a couple of years back it was covered in that very bright green algae, the one that seems to cause problems with the animals health.
It looks a lot better in your pic tho Liam so they must have
sorted it out.
2 years ago we came across a huge Black Mamba sunning itself, which almost stretched across the entire width of the road.

Yeah It looked like a place that could offer some great animal sightings. Maybe they should name it and then it will be a lot easier to identify!

The unnamed waterhole still has some of the green algae but not as bad as it was a couple of years ago.



Other than that we didn't have too productive a drive there this time. Altho it was in the middle of a very hot day.

Found the other pic I was looking for of the waterhole with no name on the S21.
Seems the green algae is building up again.