Stories from Tar Roads and From Spots

[Pumbaa]

That's a lot of giraffes

The year of the Woodland Kingfishers

I love the spoonbills with their red and white colours like the Danish and Swiss flags

Lovely birdies and a great shot of the golden orb



Almost departure time!

Indeed almost departure time Yes Danish and Swiss flag colours

[Pumbaa]

Wow, what a great variety of general game , as well as a leopard sighting! The leopard does look rather, um, uh...unhandsome - too many spots on his face! As always, agree with nan, love your birds. The kingfisher pics are very impressive .

We were so happy about that masses of kingfishers to be watched It was more than lovely

[Pumbaa]

There a quite a few giraffe together - impressive

Fabulous bird photos again My favourites are the spoonbill in flight and the Melba finch

Cute zebra posing too.

We were impressed indeed by that masses of giraffes at the waterhole - It was a fantastic sighting

[Pumbaa]

Such beautiful scenes, Pumbaa!

The weather looks nice!

Love all the birdies, and the woodlands' behaviour is spectacular, never seen that!

And great giraffe sightings!

Plenty of water, don't think I've ever been to that hide!

Ratelpan is a lovely hide and normally not filled with people - Same is close to the road so a short glimpse there is always worth

[Pumbaa]

Soon we then made a short detour to the Olifants highwater bridge where we left the car and looked a bit around.



The water level was still high but dropped already drastically after the previous heavy rains although the river was still strongly flowing.



We then drove back and turned into the S89 were we stopped at the previous Ngotso weir



and also along that road lots of causeways had to be crossed and the streams were still carrying a lot of water.





The rest of our drive until we then reached the Balule causeway was quiet and also this causeway had only been cleared not long time ago. At least same was crossable and we soon stopped for a dragonfly



and a greenshank



who was so nicely posing at a not so strongly flowing part.

[Pumbaa]

We also noticed pied wagtails there but they were still too busy



so we returned to the greenshank



but finally also the sandpiper was willing to be photographed.



It was then still a bit time left when we entered camp so we paid a visit to the shop and had a nice ice cream break at the look out point and then it was already about time to check in. This year we decided to book a bungalow on the other river view side facing the sunrise in the morning and we got the key to No. 106. The view was indeed breath taking but we had a large tree in front of our verandah so the view from there was a bit limited, however, as it was hot during the two days we stayed there we never mind as so it was bearable with the slightly cooler breeze blowing and from the parking area the view was fantastic.

After we moved in we had to be cautious as a couple of baboons were hanging around and checked out everything you had in hand whilst relaxing on the verandah but as we always put everything inside they soon lost interest and we were entertained by lots of red winged starlings



who were resting in the big tree in front of our bungalow



and some even visited us on our verandah.



The river was flowing strongly and an elephant bull had a nice drink down in the riverbed but we were too late with the camera and same was already gone



but marabou storks were flying around



and it was a fantastic time we spend there although not much else could be seen at least animalwise.



The area there was very rocky



but the view priceless.



to be continued……..

[Mel]

Love the greenshank photos And the landscape shots are beautiful

Sooo... are you going soon?

[Lisbeth]

Great shots of the greenshank

The scenery is fantastic

[Pumbaa]

Love the greenshank photos And the landscape shots are beautiful

Sooo... are you going soon?

It everything will go well we will be at Malelane next Thursday

[Pumbaa]

Great shots of the greenshank

The scenery is fantastic

Luckily there was a smaller pond where we can watch the green shank as normally the river was flowing strongly