The Great Escape

[Mel]

Hahaha, I had the same thoughts about the terrapin... forgot to get off the hippos back. Hilarious capture

No. 16 (I do that for myself to keep track )

You saying you got a bit better over the time at spotting leos is a serious understatement. I cannot imagine that you didn't find each and any along the routes you drove

Stately nyala. Love them. Love that shaggy fur on them.

[Pumbaa]

Thanks PJL,

those lions had chosen a wonderful spot Also love the warthogs

[Flutterby]

Hi PJL, just caught up with your trip. You had amazing sightings and spectacular cat sightings!! Your leopard and cheetah pics are fantastic!!

[PJL]

The expression of the vervet kid is priceless

Also the passenger who missed the last water stop is hilarious Like some people falling asleep in the bus/train returning from work, who end up at the terminal

"Dead" leopards don't count

The one lion looks miserable

No dead leopards there Lis

Brilliant installment, Peej!

The terrapin!

And a plethora of cats! (You know what a plethora is?)

The first scrawny lion pic is great as there is a difference in lighting on the centre lion?

Yes some interesting lighting in the riverbed RP

More Lions.

We also saw elephants doing similar along the H7 near Orpen preferring to drink from the dugout holes rather than the open water pools .Suspect the pools water is not the cleanest so they prefer the sand filtered water .

That Terrapin is should go in the fumy animal pics competition for sure

Interesting about the sand filtered water Roger... perhaps the cats are fussy as well

Hahaha, I had the same thoughts about the terrapin... forgot to get off the hippos back. Hilarious capture

No. 16 (I do that for myself to keep track )

You saying you got a bit better over the time at spotting leos is a serious understatement. I cannot imagine that you didn't find each and any along the routes you drove

Stately nyala. Love them. Love that shaggy fur on them.

Thanks Mel... No 16 indeed. We weren't lucky enough to spot them all ourselves... a few traffic jams gave some away as is always the case. But we definitely found quite a few more by ourselves than previously!

Thanks PJL,

those lions had chosen a wonderful spot Also love the warthogs

Thanks Pumbaa
Lots of warthog this trip which we found unusual, as previous visits we had hardly seen any

Hi PJL, just caught up with your trip. You had amazing sightings and spectacular cat sightings!! Your leopard and cheetah pics are fantastic!!

Flutts
Thanks - we really did have a great trip for cats this time round

[PJL]

Saturday July 17th contd

After a farewell lunch on the deck at Skukuza we took our last afternoon drive down to Lower Sabie and back. After all the cat excitement of the morning, it was a quieter drive down with just some ground hornbill and a jackal being the sightings of note





At the low level bridge near Lower Sabie there was the usual crocodile and monitor sightings





The drive back up the H4-1 was also fairly quiet until we rounded a corner and spotted something glowing on the rocks in the riverbed



He seemed to be in a bit of a daydream whilst soaking up the last rays of sunshine, and didn’t move or look around at all. We tried a few different places to get a better view, but he was rather hard to see through the bush at the side of the road. Even so, it was a magnificent sighting for the end of our trip









Time was against us, so we couldn’t hang around by the leopard. Further up the road we found a bit of vehicle congestion and discovered that a lion had been on the road. It moved off into the bushes and we got a bad proof pic as it wandered off down towards the river



We had also been fortunate with another sighting of these rarities during the day



As the sun set on our visit we were amazed at the sightings Kruger had thrown our way this time round.



After an enjoyable evening braai we took a night walk down to the deck where there had been all sorts of hyena noises. We managed to find them at one end of the walkway in the torchlight, then on the way back saw a porcupine and lastly had a bushbaby run out of the restaurant!

Packing up the next morning for the long drive back home I was secretly hoping that we might find wild dogs as it was the one animal we seemed to have missed out on this trip. It wasn't to be unfortunately but we certainly weren't complaining after what had been an incredible array of sightings over our 12 days in the park.

Thank you to each one of you who has followed along and/or commented on this TR… I hope you enjoyed it even half as much as we did

[Lisbeth]

Kruger gave you almost everything there is to see and was especially very generous with spotted ones not to mention lions.......and you want doggies too? What an ungrateful spoiled brat you are

Thank you, P. it was a great trip and you got some incredible shots too It makes me want to book a flight right away

[Flutterby]

Another leopard!! How many did you see in total?

[Richprins]

Great farewells, Peej!

have seen a leopard on those same rocks, i'm sure!

So the trip is over...


But what a trip!

Thank you so much for the wonderful report and pics, it really was a Great Escape and reward for your efforts!

[Pumbaa]

Thanks so much, PJL,

for a fantastic trip report and WoW with what a day you said good-bye Brilliant leopard shots and sighting

Love also the monitor, the ground hornbill, the jackal and the rhinos

Until the next time

[PJL]

Another leopard!! How many did you see in total?

17 in total Flutts
15 of them had photographic proof which I thought was a very good ratio