Flavour of the Month April 2015: S-21 Nwatimhiri Road

[Richprins]

From a 2010 BC trip:

We decided to try our little unnamed dam a few km down the S21, but halfway to the dam we spotted our BMW mate on the side of the road and he was frantically waving his hands at us. I jumped on the walkie talkie to Supernova “Leopard, leopard in the tree”. The reason for the excitement was not just the leopard, but also that fact that a herd of impala were approaching the tree.





While we were sitting watching him, the impala decided to graze under his tree. He watched them so intently and they didn’t even have a clue that he was there. In the below sequence you can see how he stalked them from the safety of the tree.





My teeth were chattering with excitement, but the lazy leopard decided it wasn’t worth the risk and lay down to have a snooze.




In the photo below one can see the leopard in the tree and the impala grazing totally oblivious to the fact that they were so close to potential death.




We spent more than 30 minutes with the leopard and eventually the Garmin was shouting for us to return, so we waited until the last minute and left for camp.

The drive back to camp was a quite one, with just the usual suspects along the way, but it had been another awesome big 5 day.

[Richprins]

From a 2015 Bushcraft trip:

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=6134&start=10

Another guy from the opposite direction pulled up next to us a few minutes later, checked the dogs out and then told us about cheetah 4km down the S21, from the H4-1,which got me interested in travelling past Renosterkoppies.

After a small conference we decided that it was too early for the “wild dog greeting ritual” and as we were only 2km from the S21 turnoff we should take a chance and go and see if the cheetah were still around.

The bonus about the S21 is that it’s fairly quiet when compared to other roads in the south, so even though the cheetahs were still parked off and close to the road, there was no traffic jam.



The one cheetah suddenly jumped up and seemed interested in hunting something, so I thought our timing was perfect, but he soon lost interest





The smaller cheetah didn’t seem interested in moving at all.



We were now getting rather confused and maybe the “cheetah experts” can help out here. This was 2 males and I understand males form coalitions, especially brothers, but as can be seen in the pic below there’s a big age difference between these 2 males, so we couldn’t work out how they linked up.



Hawkeyes and Bushpig are very aware now about the “birds and the bees” so when the larger cheetah male started licking, in their eyes kissing the other cheetah male, our car erupted

“Man lady cheetah, gross!!”

“Dad, what’s up with that?”

I understand “re-enforcing bonds” but I was now stuttering to control my laughter and come up with an explanation, so decided it would be safer to just shut my mouth with the hope the “Man ladies” stopped

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
31 Dec 2018

05:45
3 huge male lion Walking down the road
S21, 2km west of H4-2
Followed them for about 1km before they veered off into river bed
Tinged by Liezel

[Richprins]

By Pumbaa is summer 2015:

Not far on that road on the left hand side a large waterhole is always inviting for a quick stop and today we had incredible luck here as so far we only spotted there a couple of birds but today a lone hyaena was lying comfortably close to the water



observing especially all the people in the cars quite extensively and got more and more attentive



as also a noisy troop of baboons arrived and wanted to quench their thirst as well



and needless to say that this procedure took quite a while as the baboons only drank in groups whilst the other were playing and observing the area, others meanwhile pushed along and with all the noise and all the restlessness around the hyaena stood up, however, did not run away.



After the baboons were gone the hyaena returned to the place where it was the minute before lying and settled again but for us spectators the show only started as now also a huge elephant bull appeared on the scene



nearing quite quickly the waterhole, sniffing a bit with his trunk around and finally found the right place to take a large mouthful or better to say trunkful of water



and after he drank enough the water splashing started and all the passengers in the cars which meanwhile piled up at the waterhole got a bit nervous as he was steadily coming closer





eying us exactly and suspiciously



and after also putting a bit flavour of the bush on he disappeared between the thick vegetation and could no longer be seen. At least it must have been one of the friendlier guys as he did not get disturbed in any way by all the cars.

viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5578&start=30

[Richprins]

The show, however, was not yet over as also a warthog was grassing peacefully close to where the hyaena was lying



but the warthog did not pay attention to the presence of the hyaena and kept on feeding and it was more that the hyaena got more nervous about the presence of the warthog.



We again had a fantastic time in watching animals by only standing at a waterhole instead of heading hectically forward on the roads to find as much animals as possible as some other people always do.



Whilst comparing later at home pictures from this waterhole we took this year especially with the ones we took in 2010 were only a mud hole was left we got again a bit more relaxed as this year although it was far drier than the previous three extremely wet years this waterhole was still extremely filled up and it did not look that dark again as we suspected so far.



We were about to leave when a car arrived and told us something about a wild dog sighting only half "k" away and as this was anyway the direction in which we wanted to drive we hit the road in no minute and found nearly just around the next corner a pack of wild dog resting under a couple of bushes



WoW what luck we had again as we already noticed yesterday a pin on the sighting board showing a wild dog sighting on this road and in fact we did not expect to still find them today as well at nearly the same spot as we also do not trust that much in these pins.



However, the more we were happy that we once again found them as also in the previous years the doggies did not let us down.



The sightings at the waterhole we just came from made already worth to have driven that road but this was for sure a more than fantastic bonus and as the doggies were in no way restless we parked the car, put the bean bag in the right position and started to fire away and watching sleeping buddies and awake beauties.

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
20h20 hours ago

11:40
Wild dogs stationary
“Cooling of so not moving”
S21, near Mhlupheka water hole
Near Lower Sabie
5/5
Tinged by Jason

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
Mar 1

17:20
13 lions, 8 cubs
S21, 2,4km E of S114
Near Skukuza
Tinged by Dave

[Lisbeth]

[Alf]

That’s a big pride

[Richprins]

Kruger Sightings
‏Verified account @LatestKruger
Jun 22

07:35
1 Male lion, 4 lionesses with 6 cubs crossed the road
S21, 8km from H4-1
Near Lower Sabie
Vis 5/5
“4th lion sighting of the day! Unbelievable.”
Tinged by Deon