Wet and Wild Kruger floods trip February 2023

[RogerFraser]

The river has got very wide Lots of noisy water

The lioness does not look very well Why did they have to disturb her?

Pretty butterfly

was very to disturb her

Was an experiance to see the river stretch the whole way across .

An eventful morning, Rog!

Nice lion sighting, and naughty OSVs or not...

very

[RogerFraser]

On the way back we found a nice Saddle bill


An ellie with a nice set of Tusks


Managed to get a Woodie that stayed for its pic


The smaller rivers were starting to get slightly lower




Some were enjoying the weather


A Raptor we did not identify


and a double decker Hammerhead


A snake eagle


We got back to camp for the night to make dinner and prepared for the trip to Orpen the following day .

[Lisbeth]

Nice tusks, but you cannot say the same about the ears

Nicely posing woodie

Lovely landscapes

I think that the raptor is a common buzzard.

Pretty impala lily

[Pumbaa]

Thanks Roger,

I so remember very well those full rivers one day they dropped and the other day they were again fuller than before

Really great bird sightings you had

[Richprins]

Jolly good, Rog!

Nice birdies, and interesting how quickly the rivers drop?

A good recon mission for the day.

[RogerFraser]

Nice tusks, but you cannot say the same about the ears

Nicely posing woodie

Lovely landscapes

I think that the raptor is a common buzzard.

Pretty impala lily

for the ID Lisbeth

Jolly good, Rog!

Nice birdies, and interesting how quickly the rivers drop?

A good recon mission for the day.

was a good clear day

Thanks Roger,

I so remember very well those full rivers one day they dropped and the other day they were again fuller than before

Really great bird sightings you had

the water changed daily

[RogerFraser]

The next morning we awoke to clear sky over Malelane it had rained during the night .We packed quickly and left for the drive .As we drove SO checked online WARNING Sever weather alerts for Kruger Then the report on the radio heavy rain over Central kruger

We found some Giraffe on the main road not far after the Malelane road turnoff


And as we pulled off it started to rain . Within the space of a km it had gone from rain to pouring cats and dogs water running across the road .We carried on driving focusing on getting past the section of road near Delaport dam where we knew the road had been closed .As we were driving a SANParks range vehicle came past us then stopped then carried on we kept catching up to them then we realised why - they were assessing the rivers and roads to decide if they should close them down

We decided to get ahead of the ranger vehicle and at their next stop to check on the rivers we took a gap and pulled in front of them sticking to the speed limit but as it was pouring we did not expect to see anything much on the roads .


But we were wrong as we approached close to the H1-1 intersection we were met by a massive bull who had other ideas of us getting anywhere quickly and soon had us backtracking bad weather or not


We did manage to get clear of the area of road closures and did not see anything else .Our next point of call was Tshokwane where we found all facilities closed to ironically a lack of water . We carried on and stopped in at Satara where we had a Pizza at the restaurant .

We left Satara and turned down the H-7 the weather was clear now and we came across this monitor close to Nsemani


The Timbavati was flowing strongly but we managed to find a darter on the side tributary


As we got close to Orpen we found a mini traffic jam with some lazing Lions again the same place as last time we were at Orpen


They were out cold and not leaving the shade anytime soon'


We left them with the plan of checking in them coming back out later in the afternoon when they would hopefully be more active

[Pumbaa]

Thanks Roger,

nice lazy lions and also love the huge monitor - Remember very well those torrential rains but also the sunshine a couple of hours later and the many water on the roads and the road close to DeLaPorte Luckily around Orpen it was finally dry

[Richprins]

Fascinating, Rog!

And quite a difference in weather from Skuks to Satara!

The darter is a night heron, I think?

Great leguaan shot!

There was no water at Tshokwane last yer when we were there either!

Lions!

[Lisbeth]

It sure rained violently

The elephant looks rather calm, but you never know..... Once I met one quietly eating at the roadside, like yours, but each time I tried to go past he moved into the middle of road. It continued like that for quite a while and I am sure that he had great fun

It's not easy to see what kind of heron it is, but I'd go for green-backed if it wasn't for that strange red spot

Great pic of the monitor