Browns in Kruger October 2022

[Pumbaa]

Amazing lion sightings now, Bushcraft

I also felt extreme sorry for the honey bader in camp - I guess if everything is packed away properly outside as well as the waste and no fridge can be raided where is the problem? We also do love to see animals in camp

Also great storytelling and great luck with the porcupine at the fence in Skukuza

[Bushcraft]

Lisbeth,

How are you doing, hope all is good

Yes, going at pace, but life is so busy with work commitments as a contractor, so I have to finish this before I start a new project mid/end next week as then I'm back to 12 to 14 hour work days

I have another short Imfolozi TT to get through also

[Bushcraft]

RP, that S30 rock Luckily insurance covered the cost

We could have linked up if I knew you were at Marloth. It was roasting for most of our trip, you should be accustomed to that heat

[Bushcraft]

Pumbaa, I think Sanaprks has no choice but to remove animals within camps, especially if people complain, which I believe was the case with the badger at Talamati I just don't see it as a long term solution as another badger will enter in the future. Education of guests when booking in at reception may be a better option

[Bushcraft]

5th October Skukuza

The plan this morning was to be ready and waiting in the camp gate queue to check if the wild dogs were still hanging around the H1-2 low water bridge before the crowds gathered.

At 5:35am we were at the low water bridge and an adult dog was on the bridge to greet us.

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The adult dog instantly bailed off the bridge, so we slowly moved over the bridge while checking both sides out and as we went past some reeds that were blocking our view a curled-up bundle of wild dog pups appeared. They were so close to us that I couldn’t fit them in 1 pic with the 500mm lens that I had on.

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[Bushcraft]

Minutes later the adults arrived and chaos erupted as the juniors knew that chow had arrived and they instantly started hassling the adults to regurgitate breakfast.

There were dogs and shrieking pups running everywhere and at one stage we thought that they were going to end up against our car.

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[Bushcraft]

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We have witnessed this regurgitation/feeding story a few times before, but what made this amazing for us was that they were literally right next us. There were 16 adults and 17 pups, so it was a large pack also.

Once the feeding chaos was over, we took some quick pics of the adults and moved on over the bridge so that the other people behind us could also have a chance.

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[Bushcraft]

We didn’t really want to do the section of the H1-2 to the H12 bridge, but realised that there was no chance of getting back across the low water bridge because the Skukuza traffic had arrived, so we reluctantly continued up the H1-2, across the H12 bridge and back onto the H4-1 towards Nkuhlu.

Only the odd local popped up all the way to Lower Sabie, so although we stopped, we didn’t take pics, except for a pic of a leopard kill in a tree just outside Lower Sabie and we only took a pic because we were trying to ID what the animal was and I’m still not sure. There was no leopard around though.

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We stopped at Lower Sabie for a leg stretch and to check out the sighting board, but it seemed rather quiet.

We had a negotiation in the car park and eventually decided to check out the newly rebuilt Ntandanyathi hide on the upper section of the S28 as we hadn’t seen it since the rebuild.

I took the H4-2/S130/S137 route to the S28 with a stop at Duke’s waterhole but it was dry with no animals around, so we were soon at the S137/S28 intersection and as I turned left, I hit the brakes and quietly said

“Leopard”

I couldn’t believe our luck because it was now 9:30am on the busy S28 and a leopard was parking off on the side of the road with no other cars around.

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I slowly pulled to the side of the road and switched off.

The leopard initially seemed rather nervous and then relaxed so we were stoked to be able to spend some time with her, but 5 minutes later I spotted an Audi speeding up the S28 behind us.

“S*@t, here comes another car!”

I expected the car to approach us slowly as the leopard was clearly visible to anyone paying attention, but the car wasn’t slowing down, so I put my hand out the window to signal to them to slow down, but they continued at the same speed, therefore my waving became frantic.

The driver only noticed my waving when they were right next to us and then slammed on the brakes and skidded to a stop.

Through clenched teeth I chirped “HEY, there’s leopard right there!”, but I was seriously battling to not swear them.

It was too late though and the leopard was now on the move.

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[Bushcraft]

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We watched the leopard plot some impala in the distance, however the impala picked up on the leopard and started snorting, so the leopard ducked into dense bush and out of sight.

The driver of the Audi then thanked us for the sighting. I was about to tell him to piss off because he had ruined the sighting and that a blind man would have picked up on the leopard, but realised that they were clueless, so just indicated a thumbs up to him as I didn’t trust myself to speak to him, but the Cow was mumbling “d*@kh@#*d” under her breath.

The newly build Ntandanyathi hide was an improvement on the old hide, but there wasn’t anything on the go so we decided to head back to Skukuza.

We dodged a few faulty elephant herds on the way back and stopped for the usual road side locals, but only took a pic of a Gymnogene as it was a new model for the trip.

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[Bushcraft]

Once back at Skukuza we cooked a late breakfast/lunch since we now had a kitchen and enjoyed our chow under the lapa.

We then took at walk around camp to check out the train station, the camping section and then found a new ice cream kiosk across from Cattle Baron, so each chose something and returned to the lapa to eat our selection.

It had been a long morning drive so for the afternoon drive we chose to take the short H11/S1/S4/S3 loop and 1st up, just outside Skukuza, was a tortoise crossing the road.

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