Africa Wild

Tuesday July 6th

For our first full day in the park we were up early and planned to head down to Lower Sabie and back for our morning drive. It was very dark at 6am and we started out on a bit of a night drive! We soon learned that early mornings weren’t really the best for game viewing due to the cold temperatures which seemed to keep the animals out of sight.

Barely 500m from camp we found the source of some of the sounds from the previous night with a clan of about 6 hyena



We continued on in the dark with the kids using their torches to look for anything along the way. Past the H12 bridge we came across our first cats of the trip in the form of a lion couple who were just walking off the road as we arrived. The bush was pretty dense so it wasn’t the best sighting - particularly in the dim morning light - but it was nice to find our first lions



There had been a buffalo kill a bit further along the H4-1 and although lion had been on the kill the previous day, it was now deserted except for some vultures and hyenas looking on from a distance.





Just past Nkuhlu there were more lion starting to thaw out in the morning sun.





We did a bit of a loop around the S79 causeway finding a burchell’s coucal, back up the tar road where there were some hyena snoozing next to the road and then on to check out Mhlupheka on the S21 where there was a very old looking elephant.









As we went back down the tar towards Lower Sabie past the hyenas, one of their youngsters popped out and gave us a great show doing its best to get some cuddles with mom.

Great oxpecker photos!

What an embarrassment of riches regarding great crisp pics, Peej!

Interesting it was so dark in the mornings, it can be a bonus with nocturnal aminals, but rare!

Nice hyena shots indeed, and good to get some lion under the belt!

Spotless camping setup as always!

What a great drive . Really enjoy the days when you get out of camp in the dark to discover sightings with the sunrise

Love the Hyenas and that youngster is a cutie .

Klipspringer wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 12:55 pm Great oxpecker photos!

Thanks Klipspringer
We saw plenty of them around but I completely forgot to look out for yellow-billed versions... we've seen them quite far south on previous trips

Richprins wrote: ↑Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:48 pm What an embarrassment of riches regarding great crisp pics, Peej!

Interesting it was so dark in the mornings, it can be a bonus with nocturnal aminals, but rare!

Nice hyena shots indeed, and good to get some lion under the belt!

Spotless camping setup as always!

Very kind words RP
We were hoping for some nocturnal animals first thing but generally it was only hyena. Everything else seemed to be hiding away due to the cold

RogerFraser wrote: ↑Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:57 am What a great drive . Really enjoy the days when you get out of camp in the dark to discover sightings with the sunrise

Love the Hyenas and that youngster is a cutie .

We normally enjoy the early starts as well Roger, but this trip we often saw very little first thing... then with a bit of warmth from 8 onwards more animals started appearing

Tuesday July 6th contd...

Moving on from the hyenas we headed south with our plan to take a break at Lower Sabie, but then we came across this huge roadblock who had no intention of leaving the road



He was a very big chap with large tusks… a shame that one appeared to have broken off a bit at some point



Some were already needing the bathroom, so after waiting behind him for 10 minutes we decided to divert back up to Nkuhlu as he didn’t seem to have any intention of leaving the road. As we turned around this nice group of kudu made their way over the road.



Along the S79 causeway we had a saddle-billed stork next to the low level bridge





As I’m sure you’re all aware, Nkuhlu has had something of a makeover fairly recently. The place is looking great and it was very nicely kept. It never felt busy which is amazing during school holidays - here it is packed out at 9am







The kids were hungry (they always are) so we grabbed some toasties for them and enjoyed watching a giant kingfisher eyeing out the fish in the Sabie below.

Tuesday July 6th contd...

Once we had enjoyed a nice break at Nkuhlu we continued on down to Lower Sabie, although with the back-and-forth it made for quite a massive morning drive and we probably should have just gone straight back to camp. Anyway, along the tar road at the waterhole near Nwatimhiri there was a hippo and huge croc





Some buffalo were enjoying the Nwatimhiri riverbed along with a large number of giraffe









We pulled in for a brief stop at Lower Sabie before returning to Skukuza for lunch. There wasn’t a huge amount seen along the way… a bushbuck just outside Lower Sabie, some young hippo playing at Sunset dam and a green wood hoopoe

Nkulu looks great! Very neat and orderly

You're too fast for me. Can't keep up with your pace

Of course all of your photos are amazing but I enjoyed the hyena sighting and the saddle-billed most.
I love the colours on the stork. Very pretty.

The coucal still looks very

Cute little hyena and a nice sequence with mommy

I love the pics of the giraffes, spread out all over the place

Pretty bushbuck

The close up of the stork shows how bright the colours are

Nkuhlu looks very different from when I saw it last time.......luckily They even have the buffalo pie on the menu again

Lovely stuff, Peej!

Interestingly, I saw on Wild earth that nyala are pushing out bushbuck in the south/central districts...they don't really belong there!

My favourite is the giraffe group shot.

And Nkuhlu looks marvelous under new management!