Central & North KNP with Pooky & Family *

[pooky]

Day 9 3rd April 2012.

This was a very quiet day except for the ever present elephants in the river bed.

We first went down to Red Rocks. It was very dry and all causeways were bone dry.
Even birds were scarce. The autumn colours of the trees were pretty.
We then went up to Babalala picnic area, where there was a small flock of
ostriches.


Purple roller



Back towards camp and we found lots of ellies.
This one tusker was coming up out of the river bed.



This, I think, is the same big old tusker we saw yesterday. Don't know if he has a name?





Then a family herd of ellies came down to dig for water. There were alot of babies.
The interaction between them all was wonderful to watch. This just made SO even more determined
that the Kanniedood road was off limits Ei









A small eye in a big face :D

[pooky]

Day 10 4th April 2012.

We got an early start so that we could get up to Pafuri before it was too
late in the day. The road was relatively quiet. A few buffalo and other
general game. Then this handsome jackal was catching the early morning sun





At Pafuri picnic sight there was no Frank - he was at Punda gate striking with the other
rangers - his niece was holding the fort for him! There weren't too many birds
around. Some kurrichane thrushes were looking for scraps on the ground





Juv. kurrichane thrush.



A croc cruising down the river.



Crooks corner was also quiet except for all the crocs. We counted 47 just from the parking
area. In the shallow water of the Limpopo were the smaller crocs with the big
fellows in the Luvuvhu river. It was teaming with crocs - the poor animals must
have really had a hard time getting water





Crooks corner looking up stream



and down stream



Not a very good pic - this dusky lark was quite a long way away.



Young nyala



A lovely nyala ram.



A challenging look from this nyala ram with his females in the back ground



Meves starling





On the Luvuvhu bridge a wire-tailed swallow.



There is more on this day - but I will post that later - I am having a bit of a problem with
some of the colour in certain pics One of the highlights of the trip is still to come

[pooky]

4th April 2012. continued
We went to the Luvuvhu bridge. A tranquil looking river with plenty of danger lurking
in its depths



A very alert kudu cow.



On the way back to Shingwedze we stopped at Klopperfontein dam. Just a couple of
egyptian geese were there. We then took the S60 towards Punda Maria. Wow
what a terrible road. The corrugations were like craters and even the heavy vehicle we
were in was being shaken to bits. We saw 5 or 6 oldish bakkies loaded up and/or
towing trailers on their way to the border (we think) One old bakkie was in the middle of the
road with a broken half shaft. We reported this at Punda.

Back on the H1-7 we saw, for us, one of the highlights of this trip. A herd of 7 roan.
I have only ever seen one roan before. What a lovely sight.













and then they started to move off.


one last look!



Giraffe further down the road.



Chestnutbaqcked sparrowlark



Then a female redbacked shrike


and male redbacked shrike

[pooky]

Day 11 5th April 2912.

Our last full day in the park

The lions were roaring very close by during the night. Lovely sound
There was no sign of them this morning though.

This ellie looked as if he had found a nice mud puddle


A large herd of buffalo crossed the road in front of us.



We found a hyaena den next to the road. We didn't seen any pups just two adults.





A juv. marshall posing beautifully for us.



Then a whitebacked vulture peering down at us.



On the way to pioneer dam we came across this beautifully marked small tortoise moving away
in a big hurry.



A female Southern Grey-headed sparrow.



A goliath heron hide behind some water grass from a big croc.



At the pioneer dam hide we saw this greenbacked heron





The gate at the hide didn't close properly and there was a gap of about a foot. The hinge was broken

On the way back to camp we found this ellie having a lovely scratch against a tree.

[pooky]

Day 12 6th April 2012.

Unfortunately pack up time had arrived and it was a long way
back so we were up early to pack,.

The lions had serenaded us beautifully during the night.
As we left the camp this is what we saw in the river bed. A mating pair of lions.




An ellie in the mopani scrub



and the last ellie of this trip.



Very little else was seen.

As we exited at Punda Maria gate the strikers were toyi-toying. They had set up camp
with woman preparing food and doing washing. It was a bit of an eyesore


A few observations about Shingwedzi. The campsite - as always - was super - ablutions
in reasonably good condition. They don't have the volume of traffic which I am sure helps.
The shop was fairly well stocked. The ice machine was out of order but there was ice for sale.

Satara had plenty of signs indicating 'no bicycles/skateboards etc' There was no such sign
in Shingwedzi. Our neighbours children all had bikes, but the day before Easter they were
told they could no longer ride their bikes. They weren't happy at all and said they normally stay
at Berg 'n Dal where bikes are allowed all the time. Why is there no consistancy regarding camp
rules. or signs indicating that bikes are not allowed if that is the case?