Browns in Kruger October 2018

[Bushcraft]

I'm sure the next episode we will see lion feeding on crocodile

I wish

[Bushcraft]

2nd Talamati to Skukuza continued

The initial stalking lioness was still hiding out, but the new addition to the stalk was moving as we moved so we quickly realised she was using our car to hide out. Each time I reversed a little further she moved forward until she was peeking around the back of my bakkie.

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The peeking aunty suddenly jumped the gun and took off towards the waterhole which caused chaos to erupt in our car and the Brown brains went tilt again.

The Cow started shouting

“She’s going! Watch your car! The wildebeest are going to run straight into us! Watch it!”

Although my bakkie is only a 2015 model, I have just got it, so my camera went flying and I starting faffing about the car, but the wildebeest took off with massive pace straight at us and there wasn’t time to move, so I just held my breath and fortunately the wildebeest herd just missed the car by inches.

Unfortunately for the lions they also missed and I missed the pics of them missing, but the Cow was stoked because she got it all on video and she didn’t have to sit through the kill which she doesn’t enjoy. I was pissed off though

“That stupid lioness peeking around our car just had to wait 5 seconds more and it was a done deal”

The rats over the years have seen 2 leopard and 1 cheetah kill and those didn’t cause much of a stir besides excitement, but 2 years ago they witnessed 2 male lions take out a buffalo fairly close to us and that caused some issues, so maybe the fact these lions missed was for the better, however I suppose it’s over a lot quicker with a wildebeest compared to a buffalo.

The 2 stalking lioness were now staring at each other and us as if they were trying to work out whose fault it was.

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[Bushcraft]

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Some ellies arrived for a drink and the lions went to park off again, so we moved on to Muzandzeni picnic site.

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The long drops at Muzandzeni don’t bother me but the clan are never keen and Albert refuses ever since I told her a “long drop war story” years ago, so she stayed in the car.

Halfway to the long drop a ballsy teenage dude who looked around 13 years old arrived and started chatting up Hawkeyes and then even offered to guard the long drop door while she went. I found the look on her face priceless, especially after she mentioned lions down the road as he dropped her like a hot potato and chased his parents into their car.

We decided on the Sweni road again as the route out and about halfway down we found lions chasing impala around deep in the bush, but it was a mission trying to follow the action through all the bush and they were moving deeper in, so after a few attempted pics we moved on.

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The upper section of the H1-3 was relatively quiet, but around 4km from Tshokwane there’s a fairly new loop which allows one to look down on the dry riverbed and there were at least 10 cars parked in the loop, but there was space so we drove in to check what was happening.

We initially spotted a jackal upsetting some impala, then lions in the shade just off to the side, then another jackal in the loop and then a lion appeared with the remains of a kill from behind the lions in the shade which was probably the reason for frantic jackal activity.

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[Bushcraft]

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We parked off watching for a while as there was plenty activity including 1 lioness, in the front of the pic below, who tried to stalk more impala, but she was spotted.

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The crowd continued to grow, so we decided to move on before it became unpleasant in the dirt loop.
To be continued

[Bushcraft]

2nd Talamati to Skukuza continued

This was definitely a “lion morning” because just down the road from the lions in the riverbed there were 3 young adult male lions parking off, so we switched off to check them out for a while.

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Minutes later, as luck would have it, they got up and started towards us and crossed the road in front of us. Check the porcupine quills in the butt of the male lion on the right in the pic directly below.

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[Alf]

Wow what an experience

[Bushcraft]

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We stopped at Tshokwane for a break and to check the sighting board, but it was rather busy so we didn’t hang around too long.

The H1-2 produced the normal gang and we stopped for pics of a large ellie and some giraffe in the road.

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We took the S84 leopard cub dirt loop again which was more about wishful thinking than anything else, but we found Penny and Bobby, who were also looking for the cub, instead. They informed us that they had heard about a leopard parking off on the H1-1 around 10km from Skukuza, so we decided to follow them down that direction before going to camp.

The drive down to the leopard spot was quiet and it was the hottest day we had experienced to date on the trip, so I was starting to take strain as it had been a long morning already.

There was a fair gang of around 8 cars at the leopard spot and the leopard wasn’t immediately visible. We slowly edged forward and eventually asked a guy who seemed to be able to see it and he explained to follow a tree that was growing diagonally and we found him by looking through his window, but through a massive amount of twigs and grass so the camera wouldn’t focus.

The Cow wanted me to turn and wait for a better spot but sitting still in the sun at 43 degrees wasn’t an option for me, so I waited until Bobby looked forward and signalled that we were moving on.

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[Bushcraft]

I was now stressed because we couldn’t turn and get through the jam, so we had to continue on the H1-1 and up the S65 which was long and quiet, but as we hit the S1 we chatted about Penny’s plan of doing the S4/S3/H11 back to Skukuza and decided to do the route since we were there and abandon the evening drive.

The S4 produced some buffalo and at the intersection of the S3/S4 we met a couple who told us about lion on a giraffe kill 2km down the S3, so we went to check it out, but the kill was also amongst bushes and it was another crowded sighting, so we snapped some pics while back from the crowd and then turned and headed for camp.

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It was about 3pm went we finally arrived at Skukuza and fortunately the 2pm book in crowd had finished, so the Cow got us our keys fairly quickly and after unpacking we simply fired up the aircons and lay around to cool off.

Later in the evening it had cooled down enough to venture outside again, so I got our first Skukuza fire going while we took bets as to who would win between the 2 locals on the veranda, but surprisingly the gecko didn’t attack.

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To be continued

[Bushcraft]

Wow what an experience

It was awesome Alf

[Richprins]

Pathetic, not having leopard in this episode. I'm not watching anymore...