Browns in Kruger July 2015

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Bushcraft
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Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

Hey Guys,

It’s time to start our July 2015 TT.

This was the 1st trip to KNP this year for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert.

It was once again the school holidays, so the usual booking mission started 11 months in advance and we ended up giving up on the day bookings opened. We eventually managed to piece a trip together by following the online availability over a few months, but it again wasn’t what we wanted, however at least we got in.

The trip ended up as below:

9th Jozini Dam
10th, 11th and 12th Skukuza
13th Tamboti
14th Satara
15th and 16th Skukuza
17th Biyamiti
18th Mpila Imfolozi

We were meant to stay at Jozini Dam on the 10th also, but at the last minute the Cow managed to squeeze a BE3 out at Skukuza, so we ducked into Kruger a day earlier than initially planned.

I’m finding it rather difficult to summarize the trip as it seemed to have a little of everything, however no major fireworks. We had a “cat” everyday in the park, but as is often the case, many “sightings” weren’t the best, with just a spot or ear visible.

We battled a little in the rhino department, which may have something to do with the area we were staying in, etc, however we did find rhino every day except 1 day, but we did notice they were missing in many areas where we had found them previously over the years which is a worry.

Bushpig started this trip as our queen spotter and it looked as if her lucky spotting streak was going to continue, however that nose dived a little during the trip with the other rats applying pressure. I think we would have missed plenty sightings without the rat’s beady eyes and I hope that this continues in future trips.

Hawkeyes is emerging in the photograph department and I feel that we are going to have to upgrade her camera shortly, as her little “hand me down super-zoom” doesn’t really cut it. I may end up handing my kit over and just do the “driver” thing.

There were no medical issues this trip besides my normal stomach drama which “pops up” at strange times and it did just that big time on this trip. At one stage during the first few days I thought we were going to have to leave the park as morning drives for me turned into a “tracking the nearest toilet” affair.

We got to meet Heksie on the road for a brief chat and then RP and Gump pulled into Skukuza for the 15th and 16th, which was cool.

I’m going to omit 95% of the rhino sightings as most locations are obvious, although I don’t really think it makes a difference as I doubt there’s a poaching gang waiting to read KNP TT’s.

In summary, I’m under time pressures due to work load so I’m going to spit this out fairly quickly, but I hope all ride the wave, hang around during the boring times and still enjoy the TT.

To be continued


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Bushcraft
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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

9th Home to Jozini Dam

The rats were already on school holidays so there was no stress in that department and the original plan was for me to work half day before ducking up to Jozini after lunch on the 9th, but as the Cow had wangled a BE3 at Skukuza for the 10th I decided to do some diplomatic tap dancing around the boss on the 8th to get the 9th off, which worked, so we hit the road at around 10am as we could only book in at Jozini after 2pm.

We immediately noticed on arrival that the Jozini area was dryer than we have ever seen it and there wasn’t much on the way to the camp besides the odd wartie and impala.

We arrived at our unit just after 2:30pm, which is a much earlier than the usual arrival time for us, so the clan had time to park off and I quickly swallowed of few dops to unwind from the drive.

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The regular warties also pulled in to check us out, but the one stroppy mother wartie took a dislike to us immediately and charged the veranda a few times, which set me off with “Voetsak!!”, however the wartie didn’t understand my lingo and soon had backup from other warties. Their behaviour makes me think people feed them which is sad.

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The wartie excitement soon faded and I was getting bored, so decided to pressure the clan into action “Time for a bush walk to the hide”.

This went down rather well with Bushpig and Albert; however Hawkeyes and the Cow were looking for every excuse under the sun, but eventually my nagging worked and they decided to join us on the walk.

The walk to the hide produced a few more warties, nyala females, fowls and a legavaan which gave us all a skrik, but the hide was rather disappointing, so I ended up taking family pics and telling the younger rats war stories about the massive warties who sleep under the hide.

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As you can see in the last pic above I had sneaked around the hide to get the shot, which one probably shouldn’t do, so I was on edge, hence nearly jumped out of my skin when branches suddenly broke behind me as I had visions of a charging elephant, but fortunately it was only a nyala male.

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I was soon bored of the nyala and had run out of dop so suggested that we returned to the unit for a refill. On the return walk we found a little nyala drinking out of a pond and she was very calm.

As you can see the Cow is in her usual irritating “tiger” dress which she superstitiously wears at the start of every Kruger trip.

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I quickly swallowed another dop to calm my hamster symptoms, but it didn’t work, so I started to hassle the clan again

“Ok, time for a drive to the dam”

There was plenty of general game hanging around the main dam, but a long way off as the water level was very low and grazing was now available in areas which are normally under water.

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I then decided to drive down the long “boat slipway” to see if I could get closer, which got the Cow excited

“What do you think you are doing?”

“What does it look like; I’m driving to the water”

“The slipway ended back there, you are going to get stuck!”

“I have a 4 cross 4!”

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

9th Home to Jozini Dam continued

The Cow turned out to be correct and I realized if I continued forward I may have to call the owners for a tractor to pull us out.

“I can’t turn because then we will sink into the marsh”

The Cow was now hitting the normal nervous ostrich symptoms

“I don’t want to look!”

I ended up reversing slowly back along the same tracks to get out while my ear got chewed by the Cow. “I told you, watch what you are doing, more to the left, you never listen!”

Back on more solid ground I found another road which we hadn’t been down before

“What’s down there, let’s go look”

There were further evil looks from the Cow, but no comments, so I sneaked forward down the previously unexplored road.

First up were 2 reedbuck, which got me chirping “Take a pic, they are going to run, move it” but we only had my camera in the car which the Cow doesn’t know how to use “Your camera is rubbish, what’s it doing now”

“It’s not rocket science, push the button!!”

“It’s not focusing! Don’t talk to me like that!”

After our first mild usual camera scrap we ended up with blurred reedbuck

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Next up and under more peaceful circumstances we found giraffe, zebra, a kingfisher and more nyala

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The big exploration soon faded as we realized that the road joined up with the main road into camp, so I decided as it was getting late to head back to the other hide for a quick look and then return to start the fire.

The other hide produced a nervous duiker and nothing much else.

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Our entire drive only covered 3km, so there isn’t much area to explore around camp, however there’s another road which seems to travel along the dam, but we always run out of time as we only use Jozini as a stopover on the way to Kruger.

I quickly got another dop as a fire is always a pink ticket for a beer and soon had our traditional first night wood fire raging.

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Bushpig, the Cow and Albert also pulled in to the boma, but Hawkeyes had some teenage grooming to do, however soon also joined in.

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Ribs and chips were on the menu for supper, but the 2 plate thing in the kitchen wasn’t functioning properly which caused the chips to end up like deep fried mash potato, but based on the Cow’s mood in the kitchen and fear of the mildly hot oil, I refrained due to safety concerns from commenting too much.

The rib part worked out well though.

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The rats were soon getting ready for bed, but they were still overexcited about Kruger, so the mood gradually changed from fun, to tolerance and finally a greasing.

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The Cow went for a bath and I was alone for the first time to do my usual “lights off sit by the fire thing”, so my teeth were hanging out, but I soon ran out of wood and the hanging teeth turned into chattering ones, therefore I ducked off to face a shower under the stars.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

10th Jozini Dam to Skukuza

We left Jozini Dam at around 6:30am to make sure we were at the border at 7am which is when it opens.

The border post “politics” always irritates me big time and in places the road in Swaziland is suspect, but we were soon through and on the home stretch to Komatipoort.

I always apply pressure to the clan when shopping as I hate it and when Kruger is waiting around the corner the pressure increases, so we were soon done and through Croc Bridge gate just after 11:30am

Our first night was at Skukuza, so I didn’t want to stuff around too much way down south, therefore we decided to duck straight up the H4-2 towards Lower Sabie.

There wasn’t much happening on the H4-2 besides the normal locals; however we did stop for a few ellies and the Vurhami crocodiles

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Nobody needed the bog, so we continued on past Lower Sabie to Sunset Dam.

We have learnt over the years to stay off the H4-1 between 10am and 4pm as the traffic between those hours makes for an unpleasant experience and today was no different.

Sunset Dam was collided with cars, so I was cruising slowly along on the other side of the road to stay out the way and to try and find a spot to pull in, but the frustration and blood pressure was rising, therefore when Bushpig quietly said “Reverse Dad, I spotted something in the riverbed” it wasn’t initially received that well by me

“What is something? A bird, a cat, a dog, etc, specifics! When you see something, say what you think it is!”

After my huff, I started reversing and Bushpig squealed “There!” which nearly had me chirping about specifics again as “There” means nothing, but I spotted it.

“Leopard in riverbed, CAMERAS!”

This caused even more confusion as others in the car were still looking for it, but we eventually managed a semi blurred pic through twigs just before the leopard disappeared into the reeds.

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I was amazed as there was hectic traffic and around 40 cars at Sunset Dam, but no movement, so nobody else spotted it. I think it’s natural to look at the dam and not the riverbed opposite the dam. I have seen this at Nsemani Dam many times when there are lion and leopard on the other side of the dam wall, but many miss it because they are looking at the dam.

We hung around another 10 minutes in case the leopard reappeared but a spot opened up next to the dam so we cruised over to snap a pic of a few giraffe drinking.

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Around 8km further a monster traffic jam loomed, so we knew it was leopard or lion, but after waiting 20 minutes without moving I didn’t care what it was, so started signalling the crowd for a gap as we were just going to drive through.

It ended up being 2 leopards sleeping and the Cow managed to snap 2 “proof pics” as we drove through. As it was leopard we contemplated turning around and waiting in the massive queue again, but after a conference decided it was better for the health to continue on.

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A few km later the first boon gang made an appearance and the SBS local was still hanging out at N’watimhiri “Dam” which was nearly dry and probably is dry now.

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The Cow spotted the first lion of the trip after Nkuhlu and it was down to luck in the timing as they were hiding in the reeds eating something but 1 lioness decided to cruise out for a leak just as we drove past.

We only spotted the others in the reeds minutes later when she returned to the reeds on the left of the pic.

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Just outside Skukuza we spotted another leopard in a tree about 50m off the road, but the leopard was moving, so I immediately started shrieking “It’s moving, take pics, wake up!!”, but as I stopped the car the leopard bailed out the tree, which set me off on a massive tantrum

“#$&^%. Who got pics?” There was no answer, which got me more excited “I’m driving, can’t you lot wake up!”

This got the Cow going and it resulted in our first and normal Kruger scrap

“Who’s YOU LOT! You need to talk to people properly!”

I knew that I had over stepped the mark so decided to limit my responses and talking until the pelicans in the car had reduced slightly.

Going through the pics later I did manage a blurred proof pic though

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To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

Lisbeth wrote: Nervous intestine!
Nope, Crohns disease 0:


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

10th Jozini Dam to Skukuza continued

We had a few km to go until Skukuza but the vibe in the car wasn’t great due to my previous leopard blow up. The rats were quietly looking out the windows and the Cow was doing her normal “side window looking into the distance thing”

I have learnt that when she has the huff with me she won’t look at me or even straight at the road in case she picks me up in her field of vision, so I slowly cruised along until I spotted the head starting to turn

“It’s frustrating to find 4 leopards in 4 hours and they were all rubbish sightings”

The Cow grunted a response, so sound was back and I was half out the dog box.

I definitely lose the plot at leopard sightings and get very over excited. I know I’m doing it and have done it many, many times, but I still battle to control my outbursts.

We only arrived at Skukuza at 3:30pm and there were no queues at reception so we were soon on our way to our unit.

It was after 4:20pm before all the unpacking was complete and we still sat around for another 20 minutes to unwind, etc, so we had limited time for and evening drive, especially since the gates close at 5:30pm in July, therefore decided to just take a small cruise down to De Laporte.

First up was a Bateleur next to the road which I stopped for to improve my points with the Cow.

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A strange sight was waiting for us at De Laporte and at first we didn’t know what was potting, but soon figured out that a giraffe had fallen into the waterhole and couldn’t get out.

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The ox peckers had also worked out that this giraffe was in shock and wasn’t moving around much, so they were all over its pip.

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We weren’t sure what to make of the situation, but someone had obviously phoned Skukuza as minutes later a SANParks vehicle arrived. We couldn’t see due to the number of cars arriving, but it looked as if they darted the giraffe and used the car to pull it out of the water.

The general feedback was that the giraffe was ok and it would sleep off the drugs.

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Some ellies had also arrived in this time frame but didn’t venture near the waterhole with all the commotion going on, so we drove 100m up the road to check them out before turning and heading back for camp.

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The rats were keen to check out the local Skukuza bush babies, so after I started the fire we went on a family expedition and found 3 but only photographed 1

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Our first “braai” ended up sausages heated on the fire which became hotdogs, but we were all stuffed from the long day in the car, so by 9pm we were all in bed.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

Post by Bushcraft »

11th Skukuza

The weather changed overnight and we woke to drizzle and a cold wind, so it took major effort to get out of bed and on the road early, but we were eventually out of camp at around 6:30am

The plan was to head down to Lower Sabie and back, but my stomach issues had started (I still blame a pie from Komatipoort Spar, but who knows as others also chowed pies and had no issues), so a few return trips to camp were required and then I was more interested in the time it would take to get to Nkuhlu.

First up was the morning hyena gang cruising around, then some kudu and a lioness hiding deep in the bush.

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My beads of sweat had disappeared by the time we reached Nkuhlu so we just continued on.

N’watimhiri, which was just a small green puddle, produced some buffalo and the local SBS, but nothing much else appeared until Sunset Dam where we found a fish eagle hanging around and giraffe drinking.

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We then decided to do around 5km of the H4-2 and just before we were going to turn around some lion popped up.

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Hawkeyes has a thing for the H10 Bridge near Lower Sabie, so we decided to head across and turn before ducking back towards Skukuza.

A few of the bridge area locals were relaxing in the sun which had now come out and another non local had decided to take a walk on the bridge.

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It was now around 9:30am and the faulty day visitor crowd were starting to pull in, so we decided to kick it back towards Skukuza.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

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11th Skukuza continued

The H12 Bridge always entertains with hippo action, so we switched off there for awhile to absorb the atmosphere. A mother hippo had to help her junior out the water and this got the rats rather excited.

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While parking off I listened in on another conversation and heard “lion kill on the H1-2”, so we headed off that way.

The “lion kill” turned out to be 4 male lions sleeping with a dead buffalo stashed under a bush, so we didn’t hang around long.

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The only other thing we stopped for on the way back to camp was a Tawny next to the road.

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The communal kitchen breakfast/lunch thing ended up major frustrating because I took it for granted that we would have usable utensils, which wasn’t the case, so the bacon and eggs ended up getting cooked in a pot as the Cow wouldn’t let me raid our neighbours unit for a frying pan.

After chow I felt justified in having a dop and the Cow got excited about some bird which I think is a helmet shrike, but please help out here as I’m no good at this bird identification thing and there are many more coming up which are going to be a guess.

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At around 3pm we decided to head down towards Nkuhlu and then return to camp via the H1-2 with the hope that the “lion kill” had more action.

About 1km from Skukuza we drove into chaos on the road, but nobody seemed to have a clue what was happening, therefore I scouted for anyone using a camera and there was only 1 car aiming a camera out the window, so we cruised over and asked what the commotion was about.

It was a leopard up a tree, but in thick bush and the only spot one could see it from was where this chap was parked, so we snapped a proof pic through his window, thanked him and continued on.

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It was then rather quiet all the way until Nkuhlu with only the odd normal local appearing but as we arrived at Nkuhlu things started hotting up.

Someone had seen a lioness in the bush directly opposite the Nkuhlu north entrance and there were around 5 cars all checking if they could find her again.

My clan picked her up in seconds and she was walking south in the bush opposite the entrances, but now the frustration started as the cars in front of us hadn’t seen her and they refused to move. This obviously didn’t fit in with my patient character

“Why doesn’t this twit just move? They must be blind!”

A little gap opened up and we shot through just in time to catch her coming out onto the road about 20m past the Nkuhlu south entrance and seconds later another joined her.

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The temperament of the lions suddenly changed and they went into hunting mode, which got me major excited because they were heading straight for Nkuhlu. My excitement then turned into a near cylinder head explosion because the clueless gang had finally woken up and had piled in behind me, so I couldn’t reverse to get the action.

“Reverse you chop!”

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The Cow stepped in to turn down my blood pressure

“He’s not going to move, so just get what you can!”

The lioness was definitely stalking the local Nkuhlu bush buck and I couldn’t help but wonder if people in the car park had any idea of what was happening. In the pic below you can see the 1 lioness and Nkuhlu in the background

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Suddenly the lioness we could see started running straight at Nkuhlu.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

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11th Skukuza continued

As the 1 lioness ran into Nkuhlu the baboons immediately started going wild and we could see bush buck and boons running all over the place, but lost sight of the lioness.

The slowed up person behind us still hadn’t moved, so we couldn’t reverse to get a better view, which only increased the frustration.

Eventually we spotted a lioness cruising down to the riverbed, so assumed the hunt was unsuccessful.

There were a few big eyes in the Nkuhlu car park, but the crowd had reached the point of being irritating, so we cruised on a little to get out of the madness and that turned out to be a good decision as just up the road we found this.

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Another leopard and it was close to the road, but once again it was in thick bush, so we didn’t hang around very long. The crowd was also beginning to grow and I was keen to still do the H1-2 back to camp, therefore we turned and headed for the H12 Bridge.

On the way to the H12 Bridge I stopped for some birds for the Cow just in case I had said something at the Nkuhlu lion sighting that offended and points had to be made up.

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We also found a few ellies and all the normal locals, but didn’t stop for long until we reached the place of the lion kill.

The 1 male had woken up and was having a chow

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As we drove off a 2nd male woke up, so I stopped again for a quick pic, but the rest of the clan had lost a little interest and were photographing trees and other things, so I continued on towards camp.

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In all our KNP trips I have never downloaded pics before and found 300 selfies from the clan. Kids pulling funny faces, tonsils even appeared a few times and for some reason they think by pushing their lips out and making their face look like a ducks bum it makes them look better in the pic. Kids of today have some strange ideas.

The rest of the drive didn’t produce much until just before Skukuza where the local scallywag made an appearance

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I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease around 12 years ago, but have had it under control for about 3 years; however things went really south for me this particular evening, so it’s got to rate as one of my worst nights ever in KNP, because I couldn’t really eat or drink anything, which created a morbid vibe for everyone.

I didn’t tell the clan this, but I wasn’t sure if we were even going to be able to stay in the park, because I have never had an attack this bad.

To be continued


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Re: Browns in Kruger July 2015

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12th Skukuza

I didn’t sleep much the previous evening and I was still very “green”, so things didn’t happen very fast this particular morning; however this day will take 4 episodes to post as it turned into a fairly good day sighting wise.

We were sick of driving the H4-1, but I had to plan for toilet stops and Nkuhlu was the best option, so I swallowed half a box of cement tablets and we hit the road.

A round 5km into our morning drive I realized I was in trouble again, so started watching the Garmin countdown to Nkuhlu and stopping for anything was definitely out of the question as I was sitting on 50km/h.

I didn’t think I was going to make it at one stage, so started plotting for a safe spot to drop my draws, but it was the H4-1, full of traffic, lion and leopard, so nothing suitable came to mind.

I think even the boon locals got a fright at the speed I jumped out the car and ran at Nkuhlu, but at that stage I didn’t care who was around.

5 minutes later I sheepishly wobbled out the loo with the hope that I hadn’t drawn too much attention, bailed in the car and quickly left towards Lower Sabie.

Things felt a little more stable stomach wise now, so we could settle into our normal viewing speed and start to look for wildlife; however I still felt completely “out of it”

The locals where all out, but it wasn’t until around 11km from Lower Sabie were the excitement levels increased.

3 cars were stopped next to the side of the road and a leopard was cruising in and out of the bush. It seemed to have a small kill on the ground as it would run up, grab something and then quickly move back down the bank and out of sight, which resulted in plenty drama in our car as it caught us by surprise each time and we kept fluffing photo opportunities. This happened about 4 times and then the leopard never returned.

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This is where I need to learn patience, as one is never sure with a leopard.

“Let’s duck, it’s gone and everybody else has also moved on”

The Cow however wanted to sit and wait which is very difficult for me.

After another 10 minutes the leopard still hadn’t returned and the rats in the back were starting to mess around, which was driving me nuts, so I started for Lower Sabie again.

Around 200m later Albert and Hawkeyes got into a scrap, so I stopped to turn and grease them, but as I stopped Albert, who was glaring at Hawkeyes, suddenly looked very confused and then shrieked

“LEOPARD!”

She had seen a leopard just off the side of the road out of Hawkeye’s window.

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Chaos erupted in our car as we finally had a leopard close and to ourselves, but we still stuffed up most of the pics.

I tried to signal another approaching car so that they could also see the leopard, but they weren’t paying attention until it was too late as the leopard started moving again and disappeared down into the riverbed.

My stomach was still “under control” so we didn’t stop at Lower Sabie and decided to do our routine visit to Mlondozi picnic spot. Mlondozi has lost some of its appeal for me personally over the years as it just gets too busy, but it’s a stop we always have to make when in the south.

Just outside Lower Sabie a martial was parking off in a tree and then the boon gang caused some entertainment on the H10 Bridge

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The road to Mlondozi produced a few ellies, a gymnogene which was attacking something in the bark of a tree and a tiny little pearl spotted owlet next to the road.

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By the time we pulled into Mlondozi car park all were under pressure for the loo, so I charged off ahead of the pack to the male ablutions while the clan took their usual time to get to the female side.

I had just settled in and got comfortable when the screaming started from the female section, which put me in a major dilemma and I nearly ran out the loo without pants. The screaming continued though which increased my panic which only resulted in me tripping over my pants as I tried to put them on. Thank goodness there was nobody else in the ablutions.

I pulled in at the female section rather flustered expecting a giant snake or something, but it turned out to only be bats flying around

“You are drips! What are you screaming for?”

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To be continued


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