A kinda, uhm, weird trip to KTP (Oct 2012) *

[Mel]

We watched him coming down, sniffing the trees, marking, making his way up again just in order to pose…



…and coming back down again into the road

[Mel]

His mind was firmly set on passing us and he came closer

[Mel]

He pretended not to be bothered by our presence at all and I don’t often roll up the window when lions walk by, but this one had a collar and I was sure he didn’t wear it just for fun. Although back then I didn’t know that it was for tracking purposes as he and his made had been leaving the park to visit the cattle farmers nearby.

Well, his attitude changed and he gave us the look


No more photos after that as he had reached the back of the car. And turned around and had a go at us!!! Luckily, SO had kept the engine running all the while and we made a run for it… with a lion tailgating us. But once our car had got a grip again we were off and watched a confused lion from the distance...

[Mel]

By now it was REALLY getting late and Spots told me that no more long stops were on the cards. Still I was allowed to take a photo of a tawny sitting in a tree close by

[Mel]

And I clicked away like a maniac when the meerkats were sitting equally close to the road

[Mel]

Our trip ended with a BANG! Definitely the best sighting of an eland we had on this trip and probably the last one for a long time as the elands hadn’t been around for quite some years and it’s likely that they won’t be there anymore the next time we visit. Or the time after that. Or the time after that. Well, you get my drift.



The end.

[Mel]

Day 12
01/11/2012 Urikaruus

Bookings opening day! We got up at 4.00 am and while sitting in the dark and having a coffee, a brownie came to drink at the waterhole. This was very special despite the many brown hyena sighting we had had before: A brownie at Uri is rather rare. In fact, I haven’t seen people reporting them in the sightings books that you find in each of the 4 units.

I completely overlooked that I even got a proof photo albeit blurred.

[Mel]

Now that Lis is back from SA I can finally add these from my last trip: