Browns in Kruger April 2013*

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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by Bushcraft »

31th March Lower Sabie to Biyamiti

We all woke with cheesy faces, because the rabbit had arrived, Bushpig’s presents were out and we were going to Biyamiti.

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The “rabbit” had got drilled in the sun, so many of the eggs were flat like pancakes, which caused major confusion for Bushpig and Albert, but it still tasted like chocolate, so they soon got over it.

The present opening was taking longer than expected, so I was starting to pace, but kept my mouth shut as it was Bushpig’s day and she was super stoked with her new binoculars which she had been waiting for.

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The plan today was to head up to Skukuza and then down the H3 to Afsaal for Bushpig’s favourite chow, pancakes, before going on to Biyamiti. I would normally have ducked across the S21, which has developed into a road that I love, but it was still closed.

We still managed to pack the car and get out of camp at around 6am, which surprised me as I had written off the early morning in my mind.

The first unusual sighting for the morning was a blind snake in the road

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The rest of the H4-1 produced only the normal gang, so we decided to duck past the S83 loop to see if the lions from yesterday were still around and they were, although sleeping, so not much excitement, but we still stopped for a few minutes on the causeway to take some pics.

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A few minutes later I spotted another yellow ribbon and recognised the occupants. It was Wendy and Heksie, but after my last yellow ribbon sour crowd meeting I wasn’t sure what to do. They then decided to drive slowly forward on the little causeway and pass right next to my window and I couldn’t help myself “Howzit Heksie and Wendy”

Heksie seemed confused initially and wanted to know where my yellow ribbon was, but I just pointed at the green ribbon on the Cow’s mirror and did that explanation. They both seemed really cool and we are at Lower Sabie together for the same 3 nights in July, so hopefully can chat more then.

The rest of the drive to Skukuza didn’t produce much, but just before Skukuza Hawkeyes started chirping in the back “Do you want to go to Talamati tonight”, which confused me big time “LO wants to know, I have a message on my phone”

Poplap and Theuns were leaving a day early and their unit for which they had already paid was a 6 sleeper and they were offering it to us for the night, which was majorly kind of them.

We were moving up to Talamati the next day anyway, so this would mean less moving, so we were keen.

A few calls to Poplap, as we kept getting cut off, and things were set up.

We had to pull a small con on Bushpig, because she would miss out on her Afsaal pancakes, but she soon was in agreement.

There was just one thing on the sighting board in front of me that was tempting, wild dogs had been seen in almost the same place for 2 days, so I suggested “Let’s take a drive to the H1-1/H3 intersection and then head back towards the H12 Bridge and up to Talamati?” All agreed and we were off.

Just past De Laporte’s we found them.

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They were running in and out of our field of vision for about 15 minutes and it was a mission to snap a pic each time as they would suddenly appear. We counted about 11 of them in that time, but may have counted the same dog twice.

I thought initially that they were just playing, but the Cow had another theory.

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Suddenly the Cow switched to Afrikaans “Weet jy wat hulle probeer doen”, which took me about as long to write as it took to understand and then the penny dropped, but I couldn’t get a clear shot for a pic.

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Calmly the Cow continued with the video camera “Hy het haar”, which got me excited “Well I don’t have her, I can’t get a pic!!”

To be continued


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by Bushcraft »

31th March Lower Sabie to Biyamiti continued

I got rather excited at trying to capture the wild dog pics and blurted out a few potentially offending chirps, but the Cow had a cheesy about the mating, so I escaped the normal “picture and no sound pelican face” that follows for hours after one of my tantrums, which confused me, but as I had escaped detection, my teeth were also hanging out and we headed back towards Skukuza with plenty of chatter in the car.

We stopped back at Skukuza, because it had been awhile and all needed the loo again.

The H4-1 down to the H12 Bridge produced a few buffalo and ellies hiding out.

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By the time we got to the H12 Bridge the rats were wailing for food as it was nearly 11am, so I reluctantly decided to continue on to Nkuhlu and buy a toasted sarmie.

Nkuhlu was a mad house as it was Easter Sunday, so my hair was standing up in minutes, therefore gave strict instructions to order sharp and get out of there, but to my utter amazement the kitchen was closed for stock take. Talk about planning, you close on one of your busiest days of the year.

We sat in the car park confused on what to do next as it was now close to lunch time, all were hungry and Talamati was a long way away, so we changed plans and decided to continue on to Lower Sabie for a toasted sarmie and then stick to our original Biyamiti booking.

Lower Sabie was another mistake as the queues were 20 deep at the takeaway, so we purchased some rolls and chips at the shop and ate chip rolls in the car park.

It felt like a weight had been lifted when we finally turned onto the H5/S108/S25 as traffic quietened down and it all seemed more peaceful.

The S25 Bridge that crosses the Biyamiti River is an awesome spot and produced a tortoise, legavaans, a couple of kingfisher and tilapia.

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We arrived a little early for Biyamiti, so decided to cruise past the camp to the view point a few km from camp. It’s one of my favourite spots in Kruger and could sit there for hours, especially since most times we are the only people there.

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Biyamiti camp for some time now has been my favourite camp in Kruger. It doesn’t always produce good sightings, although we have seen the big 5 on the private road before, but the peace is hard to beat, so I now started to finally relax.

We unpacked quickly, Albert and I went on the ritual patrol around camp while the Cow and Hawkeyes helped Bushpig get a few more of her birthday presents sorted out.

When Albert and I returned to our unit, the Cow’s teeth were hanging out because they had found a baby tortoise cruising around.

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I settled in with a G&T and with the help of Bushpig and Albert started building our fire castle for an easy braai start after the evening drive.

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To be continued


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

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31th March Lower Sabie to Biyamiti continued

We were having a great time exploring around camp, so only left for our afternoon drive after 4pm.

We really enjoyed the S25 Bridge over the Biyamiti River on our drive in, so decided to head back that direction and spend some time enjoying the little things that hang around the bridge.

Just outside camp we found this chap, who’s a rather large dude for the Biyamiti area.

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The roads around Biyamiti are special and the view from the bridge, which is just after the Biyamiti private road exit, even better.

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The bridge locals who were there earlier were still hanging around, but a giraffe had arrived and was eyeing the scene from behind some bush and a Green Back Heron was a new addition to the gang at water level.

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We turned after the bridge and headed back up the S139 private road and an awesome local was hanging out waiting for us. The Puff Adder didn’t appreciate our arrival and soon ducked into the grass.

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Next up was a Bateleur which initially posed nicely but then also seemed to suffer from constipation.

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We arrived back at the camp turning with about 40 minutes to spare so decided to continue on the S139 for a few more km as we were all enjoying the fact that we had only seen one other car since we left camp and felt alone and at peace for the first time since the wild dogs on our day of arrival.

We only found another legavaan before turning back to camp.

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We also found a few rhino during the course of the afternoon, which was a relief for me.

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There was total silence in camp when I went to light the fire, which was an awesome change from Lower Sabie, so I had a massive cheesy.

A few minutes’ later lion started roaring, the fire was raging and I said to the Cow “You can’t beat this”, so we all pulled chairs off the veranda to set ourselves up around the fire and switched the lights off.

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I tried to do my normal blanket and chair story in the dark after the kids crashed, but I was completely stuffed and only lasted a few minutes before wobbling off to bed.

To be continued


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BunnyHugger
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by BunnyHugger »

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/53408 ... dog-on-s83

These guys have been active up around the S83 (Maroela loop) H12 and the area.

We were lucky enough to see them earlier this month.


Hawkeyes
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by Hawkeyes »

Loving our TT dad ^Q^


The Cow
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by The Cow »

Hello BC 0/0 - can't wait for the next episode, I know what's coming O/\ O\/ O/\ O\/


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

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1st April Biyamiti to Talamati

We woke wishing that we had another night at Biyamiti, but it was time to move up to Talamati, so we reluctantly started packing for the long drive up.

It had been 4 nights in Kruger and still no leopard, which always causes stress for us, so I was on a mission today to check every tree as the grass and bush was so thick he would have to be on the road or in a tree to find him.

We left camp just after 6am and headed towards the H4-2.

At the S139/S25 intersection the Cow insisted that we turned right and head down the S25 for a few kms, because I had mentioned the previous evening that the roaring lions that we could hear in the distance may have been on the S25.

I wasn’t keen as I had mistimed my morning ablutions and was plotting Croc Bridge at max permitted speed, but spotted the pelican coming, so said “2km and we turn”

Well at exactly 2km we found these guys and there were no cars in sight. The Cow’s teeth were hanging out big time “You see, you see, you need to listen more!!”

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I was now faced with a major problem, because there’s no way Croc Bridge was on the cards now, so I concentrated on the lions with the hope that the familiar beads of sweat on the forehead would evaporate.

The collared lioness in the distance started roaring which again set the already excited Cow off “She’s calling cubs, quiet”.

After 2 minutes the roaring stopped, so I decided to move a little closer, which got the lions very interested in us.

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The Cow then got excited with me “STOP, you are upsetting them”, so I stopped and switched off again. We sat watching them for about another 20 minutes with no other car around, which is what made it even more awesome.

Bushpig then had a sneezing attack, which again caused some interest for the junior lions.

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Another car arrived shortly thereafter and then another, so the lions got restless and moved just off the road into the grass. We had spent half an hour with them alone, so decided to give the new arrivals the view and turned to head back towards Croc Bridge

I was feeling better, so there was no stress to hurry along to Croc Bridge and we stopped on the S25 Biyamiti Bridge again to check out all the locals.

A few km from the Bridge another blind snake was cruising in the road.

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At the S108/S25 junction we decided to still continue on to Croc Bridge rather than taking the shorter route north, which was another good decision because a few km later as we came around the corner these chaps were walking towards us and again no cars in sight.

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Check out the size of the lioness on the far right. She’s one of the biggest I have ever seen in KNP.

To be continued


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by Bushcraft »

1st April Biyamiti to Talamati continued

8 lions were walking down the road towards us and as we had just left another pride it caught us by complete surprise, so the camera drama erupted “Pass your camera, change my lens, your camera is a piece of @#&$”, “I want to video!! Why are you moving forward, STOP!!”, “Turn around!!”, “Why I don’t want a pic of their bums!!”

Eventually sanity prevailed and the pics started.

A massive lioness was running the show and they stopped each time she stopped, as did my reversing mission. This continued for about 1km and still no other cars.

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Eventually the main aunty decided it was a cool spot to stop and have a snooze in the road, but 2 juniors continued towards us.

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The 1 junior came and sat of few meters from my window and amazingly the other junior went to lie down on the Cow’s side, but only a few cm from our front tyre and took up position looking straight at the Cow, who initially got a “skrik” and started fiddling with the window.

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The junior on the Cow’s side was very curious and made himself comfortable, which relaxed the Cow and she was able to take some cool close ups.

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After the Cow and I had snapped about a hundred different pics of eyes, feet and tail, we just put the cameras down and enjoyed the sighting.

The rats were hanging their teeth out big time at the junior lion next to the car and after 5 minutes named him “Poopie”.

Poopie was still checking us out 10 minutes later and the rest of the pride were just sleeping in the road in front of the car and there were still no other cars at the sighting, which I found totally awesome.

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5 minutes later the main aunty decided it was time to move and the march continued as did my reverse mission.

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After another 200m or so I spotted 2 cars in my mirror arriving behind us, so I moved over to let the lions past us, but they moved into an open patch of ground next to us and lay down, so we took a few more pics and ducked to give others a gap with them.

To be continued


Hawkeyes
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by Hawkeyes »

That lion pride was awesome ^Q^ and Poopie was very friendly


The Cow
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Re: Browns in Kruger April 2013

Post by The Cow »

O/\ What an amazing morning it was O/\ Thank you for 'listening' to me ^Q^


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