Browns in Kruger July 2016

[Flutterby]

So, as has been discussed at great length elsewhere, it's the OSV's that create the chaos, not the Apps!

Great civet sighting!

A live singer in the morning...how odd!

[Bushcraft]

Thanks for checking out this episode and commenting Alf, Lisbeth, RP and Flutts

[Bushcraft]

11th Skukuza

We woke to another cold windy day, so I was starting to question RP’s weather update and couldn’t get enough signal to check myself, which is the first time MTN has been so useless in the Skukuza area and this remained the case for the rest of our trip.

There was no plan for the morning and I was feeling rather lazy, so we left camp much later than normal and decided to take a slow cruise to Lower Sabie, grab a muffin at the Mugg and Bean before heading back to camp.

The trip to Nkuhlu produced the normal gang, but we only stopped for an ellie herd which was coming down for a drink at the H12 Bridge and a fish eagle that was having breakfast.





After Nkuhlu we stopped for what seemed to be a constipated ellie, which probably isn’t funny, but we all cracked up at the ellies antics. Unfortunately I missed the “squat” and only captured it on the way up.



Then we had another laugh at a “randy” teenage water buck who was trying to come right, but lacked in all the leg departments so couldn’t reach.



The Lubyelubye area produced a few lion scattered around, but there wasn’t much happening so we moved on after a few minutes.





Lower Sabie Mugg and Bean didn’t have their act together this particular morning so that rats developed large pelicans as there were no muffins; therefore we decided to cruise back to camp for bacon and eggs.

The way back produced the same sightings, but we did find a “new” lioness having a snooze just past the causeway and then a few eagle owls parking off, but the one was a teenager who was “dancing” and moaning for something which gave the rats a laugh.





The plan for the next day was to meet RP for lunch up at Nhlanguleni picnic site, so we knew it was going to be a long day, hence decided to spend a long time today in camp and just relax, so after an earlier than normal breakfast we went on a patrol around camp which enabled the Cow to get a few pics of the locals.





To be continued

[Bushcraft]

11th Skukuza continued

Surprisingly the rats started hassling that they were bored in camp and wanted to do something different and as Albert had been nagging to go to Mathekenyane we headed that way for our afternoon drive.

De Laporte waterhole produced a few of the normal gang, so we parked off there for half an hour.







The weather was still dodgy when we arrived at Mathekenyane but that didn’t seem to bother the clan as the selfie stick came out and the posing started. This is all new to me so decided to just go along with the flow.





We then moved on to Transport Dam, but there wasn’t much happening, so turned and headed back towards Skukuza.





We still had around an hour before gate closing when we arrived at Skukuza, so popped in at the loo and then went out again. The rats had been nagging to visit the “civet area” again as it reminded them of some racoon on the movie “Over the Hedge”, so we headed that way and amazingly the civet was cruising around again in the same spot.





When back in camp the Cow made some chicken wrap thing which hid the strange taste of the chicken while I made a wood fire to relax around, but Hawkeyes and Bushpig had a strange plot on the go.

“Dad, we want to walk around camp”

“Ok, but I’m not going right now”

“No, no, just the Bushpig and I.”

I found this very strange.

“Ok, be careful”

15 minutes later they cruised past our unit again, but this time there were 4 teenage boys following about 30m behind them and my 2 rats didn’t even acknowledge us at the fire and just continued walking on.

The 4 teenagers then decided to stop in front of our unit and have a discussion about my daughters, which triggered an instinctive urge to attack, but the Cow had been watching me and stepped in just in time.

“Don’t you embarrass your daughters!”

The penny then dropped for me “They on the hunt, both parties!!” but the Cow just laughed at me, which got me more excited about the situation.

On the second loop the gap had closed to a few meters which had me biting my tongue again.

This continued for a few more loops around the camp until the boys realized the girls stayed at our unit and then got skrik and disappeared.

“Dad!! You made them nervous”

I suppose teenagers’ socializing in Kruger is better than elsewhere, but the Cow grinning nonstop at me wasn’t making me feel better.

While this had been going on Albert, who shares my fascination with fire, was busy with an experiment on an onion and I hadn’t twigged what was going on, so when I has handed it to look at it looked like a cooked onion, therefore I said “Thanks” and popped it in my mouth, however it tasted very “crunchy” and not wanting to discourage I said “Nice”

Albert then burst out laughing “That’s the old onion you used to clean the grid with”, which rounded my evening off.

To be continued

[Flutterby]

A slightly quieter morning than usual for the Browns, but still some nice sightings.

[Lisbeth]

A strange civet It has certainly been fed on that road

Your girls are taking the Mickey out of you

[PJL]

Some more great sightings in my catch-up of your episodes. That civet is great to see, but like you say someone must be feeding it

Speed dating in Kruger... that's a new one for sure

[Alf]

If that was me you would see it on the front page of the news paper.............

Dad chasing teenage kids around in camp with a wheel spanner shouting "stay away from my daughter"

[Pumbaa]

I guess still wonderful sightings, Bushcraft,

especially the civet and even twice - I am still about to find my first one

and the rest of what you saw saw not that bad either with lions again, leopard and, and, and - Love the shot of the ellies in the riverbed and the owl

We always do stay in the Lion Cottage when staying in Skukuza but in February the area is the time we spend in camp always realtively quiet - Can definitely not complain here as I am normally also a person who loves it quiet....During school holidays I would avoid that area for sure...

[Richprins]

haha....you are getting old, BC....moaning about the hairstyles of OSV tourists now....getting caught by easy tricks, fighting with other pensioners, sitting on the stoep chasing boyfriends away....all you need is a shotgun!