Brown's in Kruger July 2012 *

[Bushcraft]

staff /official vehicles have a higher speed restriction, i think it is 60kph.

always wondered if they were equipped with sensors that detected the nearby proximity of wildlife on the roads,

if so, i think that some of them might be faulty......



i remember coming across a staff vehicle that had hit and killed an impala near letaba one december morning...

I have also spotted an impala that was hit by an "official" vehicle That bus was doing 90km/h at least I don't think the sensors are faulty, but rather the poeple...........

[Bushcraft]

12th July Skukuza to Skukuza

Today was a strange day, because we had to book out of Skukuza and then back into a different unit at Skukuza at 2pm. Poplap and Theuns were also arriving at some stage during the day and the plan was to link up with them later.

We were fairly lazy with the packing procedure, so only got on the road after 7am and had decided to head down to Mlondozi for breakfast.

The usual guys again showed up, including a few giraffe and ellies, but it was generally very quiet all the way to Lower Sabie.





We all had long faces when we arrived at Lower Sabie, because it had been so quiet and the weather had also changed again and it was cold and overcast.

I was waiting impatiently in the car park, because the Cow and rats were taking forever to get out the car, when I spotted a few people frantically checking their phones, so assumed that it was a sighting update, therefore checked my phone

An update said “Lions on a kill S82, visibility 5/5”, so I shrieked at the Cow and rats to get back in the car and we ducked off down the S82, which is just outside Lower Sabie.

About a km down the dirt the same group from the car park came past me doing about 70km/h in 2 separate cars.

The sighting was a joke because the lions were so far in the bush that one could only make out a shape every few minutes



This didn’t deter people as OSV’s and the update gang arrived in force, so I chose to escape and duck back to Lower Sabie camp for the kids to use the loo, etc.

Just before the tar another update came though about a zebra kill on the S29, so we chose to head in that direction and the same thing happened with cars coming past us at speed on the S29.

We arrived at the “kill” and found chaos. People were out their cars, including a SANParks dude, who was joining in.

We were forced to stop about 30m from the chaos because of the traffic jam and sat with our mouths open in shock.

Suddenly I spotted something running amongst the people on the road and shouted “jackal, take pics” The jackal ignored the people, continued on towards us and Hawkeyes managed to snap a pic as it ran past her window.



A private tour operator arrived with his guests behind us and started shouting at people, including the SANParks dude, to get back in their cars, which all except one family eventually did.

After half an hour I had completely lost my temper so gave up on ever seeing the “kill”, which seemed to be way off in the long grass, so made a plan to get out of the scrum and headed back to Lower Sabie.

On the way back we spotted a Bateleur flying around and then a few ostriches





My hair was standing up like a Hamerkop when we finally arrived at Lower Sabie, because of the crazy events of the morning, so I wasn’t in the mood for a crowded Mlondozi in the howling wind and definitely didn’t have the patience required to put up with a Lower Sabie takeaway, so sat sulking in the car while the Cow and rats went to the loo.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

12th July Skukuza to Skukuza

It was now after 10am and we still had 4 hours to kill before we could book in again at Skukuza, so we decided to leave the Lower Sabie car park and head down to the Ntandanyathi hide on the S28 to waste an hour or so.

As we turned down the little dirt road to the hide I immediately noticed that the car park was full, so started mumbling, but we continued on anyway.

About 30m from the car park we noticed a chap stopped on the side of the road in a strange position, so I asked the Cow “What’s up with this dude, he’s not going to park there surely”

As we got close to him I realized that he was looking intently at a certain spot, so pulled up next to him and he whispered “lion”

This caught us by surprise and I looked at the car park as people were out their cars and walking around, but totally unaware that lions were 40m away.

We still hadn’t seen the lions though, so I asked “Where” and the friendly chap said “I just spotted two heads in the grass, but they immediately lay down”

This got me highly excited as this could develop into an interesting situation, so I repositioned the car and switched off.

Another crowd in the car park had also gotten curious and decided to drive up to us.

About 10 minutes later there was movement, which caught us by surprise, so cameras were getting thrown around the car, but eventually got a pic as they sat and looked around.



The two males sat there looking around for about 15 minutes, which resulted in more becoming aware of them, so the car count started to grow, which seemed to make the one lion rather uneasy as he started getting restless.

Suddenly the one chap got up and started walking down towards the riverbed in the direction of the hide, which caught all by surprise, so I frantically turned the ignition on and charged off to the car park.



We were the first to make the move to the car park and the lions were already level with the car park by that stage, but off to the left and as one is permitted to leave the vehicle, I bailed out and stood next to the car with the camera, but forgot that my lens doesn’t have IS, so started snapping away handheld and stuffed up almost all the pics.



A few seconds later they were in the riverbed and out of sight, so everyone bailed out their cars and ran into the hide, but the lions had decided to move up the riverbed instead of down, so they were out of sight.

People were jammed into the hide like sardines, so I gave the Cow the signal and we moved back to the car park.

The Cow snapped a pic of a fish eagle from the car park while I chatted to another group that had just arrived.



Suddenly the Cow shrieked “There they are”

The lions had crossed over the riverbed and were continuing on, but I didn’t try to take any pics as they were now too far for my setup.

It was now nearly 11am, so we decided to head back to Skukuza and try our luck at booking in.

The drive back produced all the usual gang, a few buffalo and sadly an impala that had been hit by a car and died in the bush next to the road. I’m not sure of the outcome with the motorist as he had moved on before we arrived.





We came short at the reception and still had an hour to kill before we could come back and book in, so decided to move down to the Skukuza deck and relax.

The deck was seriously crowded, which never works for me, but we eventually got a fairly good spot to sit.

A few minutes later two buses arrived full people and it looked like an army approaching, so I was about to give the Cow the “let’s duck” signal when a lady two tables up from us jumped up and started shouting “There, there”.

A second later I shouted “leopard!!” and took off on a 200m sprint to the car to get a camera.

This was one of those few times that I wish that I was wearing shoes, because I think that I stood on just about every thorn and stone on the way to the car, but finally made it back to the deck.

It was mayhem on the deck, so I couldn’t find the family, therefore just continued after the leopard, but had the same panicked I.S problems again with the damn lens.



The leopard seemed to completely ignore the fact that he was cruising past a couple of elephant, stopped to mark his territory, checked out the ellies one last time and disappeared back up into the bush behind the ellies.





I wobbled back to where we had been sitting prior to the leopard’s arrival with my teeth hanging out, but it was short lived as I spotted the Cow jabbering and Hawkeyes sitting there shaking.

It turns out that during the leopard commotion Hawkeyes had ended up looking after the Cow’s handbag, but was separated from all of us and alone. A “lady” had pushed in next to her and asked her “Is this your mother’s bag?” Hawkeyes said yes and continued to watch the leopard. Then the “lady” tried to snatch the bag off her shoulder. Hawkeyes shrieked and hung on, so the “lady” let go and ran off. Hawkeyes took off in the opposite direction.

I was completely shocked and wanted to organize a war party, but Hawkeyes could only remember the colour of the shirt the “lady” was wearing, the race of the “lady”, the fact that it wasn’t staff and no other detail.

We decided to not report the incident, which may have been a mistake, because of the lack of detail and Hawkeyes was already upset, so I didn’t see the point of putting her through more when the “lady” was probably long gone.

I had my personal suspicions that the “lady” had arrived on one of the two “tour” buses though.

I’m still shocked that this type of thing can happen in a place that you least expect it.

We eventually got our units keys just before 3pm, but decided to head to the safari tents to see if Theuns and Poplap had arrived.

They had arrived, so we invaded their space and introduced ourselves.

We immediately shared a few laughs, I bummed a beer, got introduced to the flame rod and the rats made mates with LO.

We setup plans to meet for a braai at our unit after the evening drive.

It was already late by the time we finished unpacking and the Cow was under pressure to get salads ready for the braai, so we did a short drive towards Kruger gate for half an hour and then returned to camp early to get organized.

Theuns, Poplap and LO arrived at about 6pm.

Our meet has already been discussed under the gatherings section, so all I will say is that we had a great time and the rats still SMS LO often.

I never got to see the flame rod in action though.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

13th July Skukuza

I woke up feeling a little rough this morning as I had got into the G&T at our meet, so things progressed rather slowly, but we eventually left camp at about 6:30am.

I was keen to explore south of Lower Sabie as we hadn’t spent much time in that area, so the plan was to head in that direction and see what popped up.

Well, nothing major popped up all the way to Lower Sabie, so we continued on towards the S28 and stopped for every bird along the way, which made the Cow happy.







It was just after 8:30am when we arrived at Ntandanyathi hide and there were only a few cars in the car park, so decided to all enter the hide.

I gave the rats the usual “silence” lecture and we proceeded into the hide, but there was no need for the lecture, because all in the hide were jabbering in excited voices and immediately told us that a leopard had been walking around the hide for the last hour, but it had just disappeared into the bush opposite the hide.

My stress pelican immediately appeared because we had missed out again, so after 5 minutes followed the excited gang into the car park to continue the conversion.

The Cow and rats got back in the car and I continued getting the pelican expanding missed leopard details from a chap in the car park, although noticed that one persistent old timer was still looking up and down the bush line on the opposite bank with his binocs, but thought he was wasting his time.

Check out the tyre tracks in the car park next to the spoor



5 minutes later the old timer shrieked “There it is!!”

The leopard was on the opposite bank and it suddenly took off after a few impala, who scattered all directions.

I charged to the car to grab the camera, but it was all over and the leopard was out of sight before any of us could get a pic.

We stayed another 15 minutes hoping that the leopard would show its self again, but eventually gave up and decided to head back to Lower Sabie to get something to eat.

We bumped into a few of RP’s mates on the way back and it seems that even the teenagers in the south learn early



Just before the H10 Bridge we found a few cars scanning the riverbed and it seems that we had just missed another leopard that had crossed the road, so I was getting seriously despondent at our timing, which seemed to be 10 minutes out at every sighting.

A few minutes later a familiar car arrived, it was Theuns, Poplap and LO, so we had a chat and Theuns was keen to do the S28, so we agreed to head back that direction with them.

Our next joint sighting was a fish eagle that had killed something.



200m into the S28 we bumped into one of the chaps that we had met earlier at Ntandanyathi hide and he waved us down, then proceeded to tell me that 10 minutes after we left two cheetah had arrived at the hide turn off and then started showing us pics that he had taken on his camera.

I wanted to cry.

The cheetah had ducked by the time we arrived, so we continued on, but I think that Theuns had stopped to spend some time with the boons that we had spotted earlier, because I lost them in the rear view mirror.

We continued on slowly south expecting Theuns to pop up at any stage, but found a small traffic jam just south of the S137

A pride of lions with a few teenagers were having a mid morning snooze.





We waited 15 minutes with the lions, but still no Theuns and Poplap, so we turned had headed back up towards Lower Sabie.

We found out later that Theuns had ducked down the S137.

Just past Lower Sabie we found a massive buffalo road bock but eventually got through them after a 30 minute patient wait





Next up were a few hornbills cruising around



The rats were starting to howl for breakfast as it was getting late, so we decided to make tracks back to camp.

To be continued

[Bushcraft]

13th July Skukuza continued

It was getting hot and I was a little grumpy at being held up for half an hour at the buffalo sighting with irritable hungry rats, so I was fairly keen to get back to camp, therefore the next road block wasn’t at the best time.



The aunties in the herd weren’t in the best of moods and this immediately put the Cow in the same mood “Don’t go too close, why are you still moving closer, they are looking at us, stop, can you reverse, I can’t look”

The orders were coming so fast that I couldn’t think, so also started getting excited “Shut it and relax”.



The ellies seemed confused as to what to do, but eventually made up their minds to head our direction, which got the Cow going again “They are coming, reverse!!” a pause and then “PLEASE!!” This set the rats off also and the chorus started, so I slowly started reversing.



The ellies approached us for about 50m and then ducked off into the bush, which calmed things in our car instantly, so we continued on.

The rest of the drive to camp produced all the locals and this brown snake eagle checking out the surroundings



Back in camp we cooked a late breakfast and dumped a few pics on the laptop, but an hour later all was done, so the Cow settled with a book and I got bored again, so chopped wood, went to the shop, checked out the sighting board and again settled in eventually with a G&T.

The peace didn’t last long as the rats were sick of each other’s company and started hassling to visit LO, so I tried phoning Theuns, but no answer, so said “Sorry, no answer”, which didn’t stop them and Bushpig shrieked “Hawkeyes has LO’s number and will phone her”

Silence returned for 15 more minutes and then the gang appeared “LO can come play and you can go and fetch her”, so I loaded the rats in the car and shot up to the safari tents to fetch LO and then back to our unit.

We eventually decided to duck up to Theuns and Poplap just before 4pm and drop off LO as she was doing a sunset drive.

The rats said goodbyes with long lips and we left on our short evening drive.

The plan was to head down the S114 to Renosterkoppies across the S112 and up the H3 to camp.

The drive started with a large bull elephant next to the road just before the S114 turn off, but the Cow was shrieking at me to move on past him, so I won’t post the blurred pic obtained in the process.

We hung out at Renosterkoppies for about 15 minutes, but only warties and impala showed up, so we continued down the S112 towards the H3.

About halfway down the S112 we drove over a rise and the Cow shouted “There’s a leopard kill in the tree” and as I looked I immediately spotted the leopard so shrieked “What about the leopard” and hit brakes.

The Cow squawked “What leopard”, which I initially ignored in my frantic haste to put the car in reverse “It’s in the damn tree”.

We slowly reversed; however battled to find a gap in the bush were it was clearly visible, so I was getting highly excited, but we eventually found a spot.



We sat watching for 5 minutes, but couldn’t see the leopard’s face and as there were no other cars around decided to drive slowly down the road with the hope of finding a better spot, but each spot had a bush or branches in the way, so I announced “Let’s reverse back to our original spot” and all agreed.

As I was about to start reversing two cars came over the rise, so I immediately howled “They are going to take our spot”, so decided to take our car out of reverse and wait and see if I could pull a cunning move.

The first and then the second car drove straight past the main leopard viewing spot, pulled up next to us and asked “What have you seen”. I first checked that I had a free reverse line and then said “leopard”

“Where, where, where” was the response, so I said “follow us” and took off in reverse to the main spot, which caught them by surprise and some frantic reversing took place all over the road.

As we arrived back in the main viewing spot the leopard decided to move and it was so quick that I only managed a few pics.



The leopard jumped down to a lower branch in the tree and now we were in a bad spot, so my cunning move had back fired, but we eventually found a spot where we could see him.



The leopard parked off and checked out his surroundings for about 2 minutes, had a last look at his kill and then bailed out the tree.





I roared off to find a spot where we could see the base of the tree, but the leopard only hung around for another few seconds and then disappeared.

The rest of the drive back to camp was fairly quiet, but we didn’t really care because we were all still on a high from the leopard sighting.

Elzet and Theuns popped in to say goodbye and I started the fire as usual.

I lobbed some more wood on the fire after supper and went to pour another dop, but only made it to the fridge when a shriek from the Cow stopped me “mouse, mouse”

This confused me initially, but eventually spotted it as it ran up the tree.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

14th July Skukuza to Biyamiti

I woke up feeling rather sulky this morning as I realized that this was our last full day in the park and I was also concerned about the fact that we had to leave via Malelane Gate the next morning as the S25 was still closed to Croc Bridge, which meant another hour or so on our trip home, but eventually decided to worry about that the next day.


The plan this morning was to drive down to Lower Sabie for a loo break and then back up towards the S21, across to the S114 and then down to the S139 private road to Biyamiti.

Things were relatively quiet until just after Nkuhlu where we found a few cars slowly reversing up the road, but couldn’t see anything, so I drove slowly up to the first car that was reversing, but left about 30m between us.

Suddenly a large male lion popped out of the bush next to us and chaos erupted in our car “Camera, camera!!”



A few seconds later a lioness joined him and as luck would have it she decided to sit down about 1m off the road next to us.



My teeth were hanging out because just by chance we had ended up in the prime spot, so as the male approached the lioness I started shouting “It going to happen”, which set the rats off “What’s going to happen dad”, which I ignored until Bushpig said “Is he going to bully her again”

I had to bite my lip and say “Yes”



It was an amazing experience to have this going on two meters from our car, so the rats sat quietly with eyes like saucers until it was over and then Bushpig said “Is he finished bullying her, she seems ok”, which we again ignored.



The male seemed confused as to what he should do next and just stood around looking at his surroundings for about a minute and then lay down about two meters from the lioness



About 5 minutes later the lioness got up and moved even closer to us, which caused frantic movements from the Cow as she tried to close the window and an outburst from me because I was trying to take a pic.

The male also got up and walked over, but this seemed to panic a driver that had come up from the Lower Sabie side as he started his car and took off towards the lions and then slammed on brakes, which scattered the lions into the bush.

This set the Cow off big time and she started shrieking at the driver “You are a ............ .. and you have just stuffed up the sighting for everyone and terrified the lions ”.

The outburst caught me by surprise and I was still trying to compose myself when the driver drove off.

The Cow then started on me “You need to chase him and teach him some manners”, which surprised me even more as the Cow is normally the calm one in these situations.

“Chase him and slap his ears”.

I started to laugh at the Cow, which only seemed to make her wilder, so I made a feeble attempt to look up the road for the guy, but he was long gone, so continued on towards Lower Sabie.

The Cow was trying to remember vehicles details for the next few km because she wanted to report the guy, but suddenly went quiet and then howled “lion”

I got such a fright that my head bounced off the roof, so I stopped and then got a greasing for stopping in the wrong place “Not here, over there!!”

I still hadn’t seen the lion so shrieked back “Where!!”

Hawkeyes managed to snap a pic of the lion as he crossed the river.



The lion then walked out into an open space on the opposite river bank, but it was too far for our camera kit, so after attempting a few pics gave up and just watched him as he cruised along.

Next up was a kudu that was keen to have his pic taken and then just before Lower Sabie an ellie who may be a potential tusker







We walked around Lower Sabie deck for a few minutes to stretch the legs and then bailed back in the car to head up to the S21.

To be continued

[Bush Brat]

Lovely photos!!
We had the same experience at LS when a lion came and 'bullied' a lioness right next to our car, my mom even had to change her lens onto the smallest possible one!!
The ellie is beautiful and I am sure he has the potential or is already a big tusker..............have a whole lot of info on big tuskers in Kruger and after I looked through it with my mom it looks like it may be the one you have seen already - 'Muliluane' (know you have seen it before because on the site it says "photographed by Hayden Brown".) ;-

Looking forward to your last installments!!

[Bushcraft]

Think you need to talk to the Rats about the bullies and the bees BC. -O

Great pics.

Shame about the inconsiderate driver though.

Talk to the rats about bees and things Never , that’s the Cow’s job and I would probably tell them the wrong thing anyway

Albert =6, Bushpig=8 and Hawkeyes=11, so I hoping that there’s still time for the younger ones, but kids nowadays know more than adults. Fortunately I’m not the most well behaved individual so they won’t con me

[Bushcraft]

14th July Skukuza to Biyamiti continued

The mating lions that we had spotted earlier had moved halfway between the road and the river, but the sighting had turned into a traffic jam with people hanging out their cars, so we continued on.



Just before the S21 we found a hippo that looked as if he had been in a battle and he was taking major strain to walk, which wasn’t great to witness.



The S21 produced a few locals, but nothing to get excited about, so I was relieved when Renosterkoppies finally appeared, but it also produced only impala and the remains of an old leopard kill



We then decided to do a short stretch down the S112 to see if our leopard from the day before was around, but found a Goshawk instead, which pleased the Cow as she doesn’t have a pic of a dark chanting goshawk, but I had a pelican because there was no sign of the leopard or his kill from the previous day



We were fairly close to the H3 by this stage, so we decided to continue on to Afsaal for breakfast as all were hungry.

Breakfast at Afsaal has always been a good experience for us and today was no exception, so we finally got back in the car at about 12pm and headed across the H2-2 and up the S114 towards Biyamiti weir

The S114 produced a few zebra that had the rats rolling with laughter as the one chap kept pulling faces at us



The local birds that normally hang out at the weir were missing and a new local had arrived since our last visit.



We decided to cruise across the weir and do a u-turn as it was about the correct time now to head down the S139 for the 2pm book in.

As we approached the weir again we spotted that a few had decided it was a great spot for a picnic, which immediately set the rats off in the back and the cameras all came out. I couldn’t help but wonder if they knew that a leopard is often spotted in the same spot.



My teeth always hang out on the S139, because it gives me the feeling that we are alone in the bush, so I generally travel very slowly and savour that feeling, but after 8km of nothing my lip was starting to stretch.

I was about to start moaning about the lack of activity when the Cow shouted “Stop” and then “What’s that floating” and I shrieked “A croc has an impala”





We sat and watched the croc munch away for about 15 minutes and then continued on.

The Cow had been moaning about the mad Biyamiti elephants since we turned onto the S139, so I was secretly hoping for them to make an appearance for some action and they didn’t disappoint.



The Cow immediately got over excited “They are in the road, they are going to charge, reverse”, which I dutifully ignored and slowly moved closer “What are you doing, she’s flapping!!”, so I moved a little closer again and the Cow decided to do the ostrich thing and looked the other way.

I realized that I was now pushing the potential pelican envelop, so stopped.
The ellies checked us out for a few more seconds and then crossed the road peacefully.



Our last sighting before camp was this little chap catching some sun.



To be continued

[Bushcraft]

14th July Skukuza to Biyamiti continued

Biyamiti camp is a special place for me and I actually have no idea why other than the fact it’s so peaceful. When I kick the bucket one day the rats must toss half my ashes in the bush around this camp and the other half in the sea.

We were allocated unit 2, which is fairly close to the staff quarters, so I initially developed a sour face, which was for no reason, because we never heard a sound from the staff.



I didn’t bother unpacking immediately and chose to do a small walk first and was surprised to find that two new locals had moved in and made a mental note to check them out after dark when they go for chow.



After unpacking, we all did another walk around camp and spotted a herd of waterbuck and then some ellies, but didn’t take pics.

I then decided that as it was our last night a massive wood fire was on the cards, so poured a G&T and got busy preparing my wood castle so it was ready for later.

For the evening drive we decided to duck down to Gardenia Hide and then return to camp. I tried to force myself to take things slow and stop for the little things as it was to our last evening drive.

The first sighting was a few ellies just outside camp and then this chap, which I think is a Crowned Lapwing and he was chirping his head off at our presence.



The S25 was relativity quiet until we reached the Mlambane low level bridge which had a small puddle of water next to it.

All the locals seemed to dig this little puddle of water, including a small croc that was cruising around next to the bridge.







We spent about 10 minutes watching the croc exploring the puddle, which was starting to test my patience, but the rats were enthralled, so I kept my mouth shut.

Suddenly I spotted something else approaching and it was one of the “cool” birds in my book, a green backed heron, so I was interested again.



The heron decided that there was something on and charged into the middle of the puddle with his Mohawk up and this cracked the rats up, but the little croc arrived and stuffed the heron entertainment up so we moved on.



Gardenia Hide was quiet and no RP killing ellies arrived, so we decided to continue on to the tar and then duck back to camp for a braai.

About 800m before the tar we found a gang of vultures, so decided to hang around a few minutes just in case



Suddenly the Cow spotted a movement and shouted “There, there” as a male lion cruised into view and then sat down.





We sat watching the lion for a few minutes and wondered if he had a kill somewhere as that would explain all the vultures, but we eventually gave up on trying to work it out and decided to head on back to camp.

The drive back to Biyamiti produced a few ellies and what I think is a tawny eagle





I started the fire castle immediately and then grabbed my torch and went to check out the hippo, which resulted in massive frustration because they were out and about, but my torch was failing as I hadn’t charged it at all on the trip, so decided to pour a G&T instead and savour our final fire in Kruger.

After supper the rats cooked their final marshmallows on a stick, but it had been a long day and Albert only managed to eat one before collapsing on the couch outside.




To be continued