A short but slightly longer weekend in the Kruger (Nov 13)

[Flutterby]

Nice cheetah sighting and lovely pic of the weaver.

[Bush Brat]

Birds Galore!
Plus a Cheetah!
Great installment and pics BT!

[BluTuna]

the 1600 certainly did the trick

The improvement in the image quality of DSLRs at high ISO settings is astonishing, only a short time ago, taking a picture at ISO 1600 would have produced an extremely grainy (noisy) image. I routinely use ISO 800 with my big zoom and the noise is only noticeable if the picture has a plain background such as the sky. Even that is not a problem with RAW image processing - noise can now be removed easily although it does make the picture a bit less sharp.

[BluTuna]

Brilliant stuff, BT!

Crocs use the wet weather to move to new pans etc..but normally at night! So rare, I think!

That snaring is typical along the border areas...but I think the river is a bit full for them to cross now, so old snares just carry on wasting life...

Thanks RP.

I thought that the Croc might be a female looking to lay eggs - when we returned later it had moved under a bush.

Snares.....Grrrrrrr!

[BluTuna]

Love the Spectacled Weaver, so bright! they also don't like sitting still!

Croc running high, very special sighting!

Thanks SM! It takes a lot of effort for a big Croc to do the high walk, so it's not very often seen - we got lucky!

[BluTuna]

wow a Cheetah with cubs... and a running Croc

Yes, cubs, and not very big ones. Pity they kept out of sight and gave only the odd glimpse.

[BluTuna]

Thanks JN, I only just found out that you were also in the southern part of the park that weekend. What a pity, we could have arranged to meet.

Would have been great, also had no idea there other mites around that weekend
The ISO worked well BT , this was the first trip in a long time we had no cheetah but it was a good one none the less

Next time I'll make sure I put my trip on the "Who's in Kruger" thread

Any trip to the Kruger is a good one - No lions for us this time but three Leopards (the other two were fleeting glimpses) and a Cheetah which more than makes up for that.

[BluTuna]

Spectacled Weaver is spectacular

And a galloping croc

Awesome bird pics Blu Tuna and a very handsome kudu

Hey Pooky!

Now it's a galloping Croc Not quite, it was just doing the high walk!

Thanks for the comment!

[BluTuna]

Nice cheetah sighting and lovely pic of the weaver.

Thanks Flutts!

Birds Galore!
Plus a Cheetah!
Great installment and pics BT!

And thanks BB

[BluTuna]

Day 3, Monday 18 November 2013. Ngwenya Lodge -> Lower Sabie, Morning Drive.

Today we had to vacate the unit at Ngwenya and move to Lower sabie. After packing everything in the BluTuna we moved to Croc Bridge where our Canadian guests parked their tiny jammy and joined us for the Full blown, five-star BluTuna game drive experience.

Up the S28 to the hide then across the S137, check out the Leopard Tree and then back to Croc on on the S130 and H4.

There was lots to be seen but not much in camera range. As we had two KNP rookies aboard we spent lots of time pointing out and talking about various animals and birds.

Finally, some elephants close enough.


I couldn't find this one on Aat's site - not sure if he's big enough?




At the hide there was plenty of action. I managed to get these mating Dragonflies (Wandering Gliders I think).




A croc and some Hippos were in the water.



And Nhlowa the Elephant dropped in to quench his thirst and get some beauty treatment.




The residents were not amused!



but Nhlowa ignored their protests and threat displays and continued applying his mudpack - all that was missing were the cucumber eye patches.





But the residents were probably just protecting this youngster.


There was also some bird activity, the Cattle Egrets were flitting about.




To be continued......