Flavour of the Month Nov 2011: Sunset Dam

[Richprins]

Pelicans by BluTuna in 2013!:


https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 3&start=90

Sunset dam produced some Pelicans


a picture containing 9 species! (Hippo, Crocodile, Yellowbilled Stork, Openbilled Stork, Spoonbill, Water Thicknee, Pelicans, Gyppo and Grey Heron)


and young Hippos honing their skills

[Richprins]

Some 2014 pics from steamtrainfan:


https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... 9&start=10

12 May 2014 - Part 2/2.


This little fellow was at Sunset Dam sitting in the late afternoon sun.



This guy was making his contribution to increasing the boon population. We found it interesting to note where he placed his feet.



Joan got this shot of a Yellow-billed Stork in flight.



Finally for today a boon silhouetted against the setting sun.

[Richprins]

We started our afternoon drive by popping in at Sunset Dam where we sat for a while enjoying the tranquillity.

It was pretty quiet until some ellies came down for an afternoon drink sending some lazy crocodiles diving for cover.



A few more photos of the ellies enjoying their drink.

[Richprins]

Got some more info about the technicalities of the dam:

The idea of "emergency water" was not necessarily just for drought. It is also for when floods wash the camps' pumpstations in the rivers away. Then there is a month or so's water slightly uphill from the camp just in case, like Lake Panic too.

Sunset was scraped out as there was government money left over after the tarring of the H4-2, and heavy equipment on site.

So the road was made a "dam" there, and a huge pump installed at the weir in the Sabie a bit downstream from the camp which has its outlet out of sight at the far western end of the dam. (The shack you see at the weir on the H4-2 is for that old pump).

The small inlet you see near the parking is actually a secondary one, simply the overflow from the camp's own internal reservoirs that are fed by pumps next to the camp in the river, if that makes sense? It is now the only inlet as the aforementioned big pump has been abandoned for using an astronomical amount of electricity.

After the dam was filled it slowly became apparent that the pressure was too much for the base of the tar road, the surface of which began to crack.

So holes were drilled all along that stretch of road, pipes sunk and cement pumped in, to effectively "concrete" the "dam wall".

Some of the pipes still stick out in the parking.

Leachy, you must help here, that is how I remember the story!

[leachy]

yip....

there is still some evidence of the top of some of those pipes that protrude upwards in the "parking" area.

and yip.....

that inlet is supposed to keep pumping water into the dam.....

and yes, i believe the oom said that, that water comes via the reservoir and not directly from the river

[Richprins]

[Lisbeth]

Info!

[Richprins]

A heron on a submerged hippo:

phpBB [video]

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
18h18 hours ago

13:41
2 Elephants and some giraffe also drinking at the dam now
"Taken with cellphone through the binocular lens."
H4-1, Sunset Dam
Near Lower Sabie
Vis 4/5
Tinged by Barry





Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
18h18 hours ago

13:38
5 Buffalo drinking
H4-1, Sunset Dam
Near Lower Sabie
Vis 5/5
Tinged by Barry

[Richprins]

A 2015 pooky sequence:

https://www.africawild-forum.com/viewto ... =46&t=5939

Later in the afternoon we again went to Sunset dam. There were plenty of cars there and we wondered what they were
looking at.
First up a pair of water thick-knees



Then we spotted the 2 young lions on the far side. At first the impala never saw them and were walking closer and closer
until one ram looked straight at the lion before taking off with the lions half heartedly giving chase.







Thirsty business chasing impala, but watch out for the crocodile



A young impala in the late afternoon light.



These young baboons were playing in the bushes next to the car.



and an even younger one casually riding on mum's back



This is what the sky looked like across the river. The fire had flared up again or been restarted. There was a sign up at
Lower Sabie to say this was an intentional fire. It certainly looked very dramatic.