Africa Wild

Love your tortoise train and the Little steenbokkie, Vinkie

Always a pleasure to return to BnD - the bungalows are huge and so is the verandah

Berg en Dal part 2

We woke up early ready to go on our Morning Drive….when we arrived at the meeting point another couple joined us, it would only be the four of us doing the drive.

We enjoyed the Sunrise(thanks Lisbeth)




After driving around for some time we finally had a sighting……

Bateleur




This had been a disappointing drive and the driver didn't really seem to mind at all…..

On our way back to the camp it was nearly 8 o’clock suddenly Apex Predator yelled STOP.
She had seen something on the right-hand side of the truck before it disappeared into the high grass…..

A Leopard….we quickly took some photos before it disappeared.






We wonderd if we would see the Leopard again, in the meantime I looked to my left and spotted this nice Lilac Breasted Roller…all puffed up enjoying the early rays of Sunlight.






It didn''t like the fact that we kept taking photos so it turned around.


After a little while we saw a Leopard appear on the rocks…we weren't certain if it was the same Leopard we had seen a few minutes earlier….it looked bigger…












When it came closer we could see that it had an injury on its left thigh……maybe a bad encounter with a warthog?


The Leopard crossed the road and disappeared…..

















This sighting saved the Morning Drive…..or else it would have been a real disappointment.

We returned to camp thanked the driver and went back to our House. Had a quick breakfast(coffee and Rusks) and left to explore the area.

To be continued….

Brilliant, vinkie!

That injury could be anything.

B&D is a great camp...the only one with no maintenance problems in my unit I stayed at last year compared to others. It was a radically designed camp, the second last big one to be built, and a lot of purists moaned about it when built! But awards kept coming in, even for the design!

Also one of the best camps regarding maintenance problems reported before that!

On the H3 we saw this Elephant family, all of a sudden they started trumpeting and running away.
We didn’t see what had scared them.










We drove a little further and spotted a couple of Mongoose….we had learned that if we wanted to take a photo we had to switch of the engine and wait…..








After driving some time that day we also saw some distant Rhinos.


After having seen the Mongoose we drove back to camp and stopped at the Matjulu waterhole saw some common game and tried to spot a Leopard on the surrounding hills, it looked like a perfect habitat for Leopards….




We continued our route uphill and saw a solitary Elephant


....crossed the road and drove to Gardenia Hide, which was crowded with lots of Americans talking loud and having fun…this irritated us ….we managed to take some photos of the birds who lived at the hide.






Blacksmith Lapwing or plover






We followed the old Transport route and spotted this Dagga Boy trying to hide from the sun.




At Afsaal we had a stop to have lunch and some coffee.








After lunch we continued to follow the H3 and saw this animal(possible a Nile of Water monitor) lying quietly on the road…we weren't certain if it was still alive or sunbathing on the warm road.


We spotted some Ellies and a Giraffe on the H2-2








Apex Predator asked “How far is Transport Dam from our current location”?
Well I said not very far shall we take a look?
So we changed course to the North.

When we arrived at Transport Dam we saw lots of nice animals and birds….some of them a little far away for decent photos.


Waterbuck


Monitor


Hippo


Whitebreasted Cormorant?


Fish Eagle


Vulture


African Jacana

After having spend some time at the dam we took the road that lead to the far side near the dam..when we took the road there was a little roadblock of 3 cars.

We saw our second Leopard of the day….due to the grass it seems a bit blurry..












And it lay down to sleep a little more




We drove back to the H1-1, just before the H3 intersection we saw this wonderful Klipspringer.


At one of the Waterholes on the H3 we saw these little Elephants and their mother.





We spotted this raptor we think it’s a Martial Eagle.







We took the S113 for a little while because it was already getting late and had some nice last sightings.














Just before the camp near the S118 intersection we stopped at a bridge and saw a Civet but it disappeared just before we could take a photo, we didn’t manage to focus well due to bad light.








During the day we saw this Rhino


At Camp we did some shopping and had a nice meal.

To be continued….

Berg en Dal to Lower Sabie

Thank you all for your nice comments

Today we would return to Lower Sabie, so we left camp early because we had a long drive ahead of us.
A last photo of Berg en Dal


On our way we met this Raptor

Fresh green grass growing from the burnt soil….


Somewhere on the route we saw this cute little rhino with his/her mother. The little rhino was returning to the road all the time looking at our car, and the mom was chasing her away from the road back into the bushes again.








We met some of our little Mongoose friends again








Some Monkeys


Later that morning on the S23 on the Byamiti loop we came across a roadblock caused by some young Lions lying between the bushes on the burnt soil, which surprised us, we didn’t think that Lions would like the dark and burnt surface(well that’s what the Guide at Satara had told us during the Morning Drive).












A little further on the S113 we spotted some older Lions, which lay just out of reach to get decent photos

We turned onto the H3 and saw this Elephant with one tusk at the waterhole(Kwaggaspan?), the other one seemed to have broken off.




We drove further to Transport Dam hoping to see the Leopard that we had seen the previous day, we did see a lot of Waterbuck….enough food for the Leopard…




On the Road we saw these monkeys in the green grass.




And a huge Giraffe…




We drove the S65 hoping to see a Leopard, seen in the area earlier but we returned empty-handed(later that day we heard that the Leopard had returned to the exact same spot that we had been waiting at, just 15min after we had left).

Ground Hornbill






We took a look from the viewing deck at Skukuza and enjoyed the view




Elephant family




Crocodile


We drove on the H4-1 taking us to Lower Sabie when we spotted this Collared Ground Hornbill




Lots of Elephants(bad picture)


We crossed the Sabie river and turned onto the S30.
Saw a Nyala family






To be continued….

And saw our first Wild Dogs…..what a fantastic sighting…we stayed at the sight for almost two hours hope to see them get up and do the greetings ritual(Bushcraft had told us it was wonderful to see), but the only thing the Wild Dogs did was sleep, turnaround, go to the toilet and sleep a little more.










































Because it was getting a little late we turned the car and drove back to the H4-1 and had to wait for a few minutes because a little Elephant was drinking in the middle of the road….so nice...




When we past Nukulu Picnic Spot we had a little stop, and stopped because a guy was taking photos of something in the tree, we spotted a impala in the tree and spotted a Leopard in the far corner of the tree….you can see the spots and tail on the photo….so we did have the Leopard we wanted to see that day but only on a different location.







At Sunset dam we saw this surfing Hamerkop.






Sorry for the HUGE amount of photos

To be continued….

A few videos taken in the Lower Sabie Area on the 17th of July 2013

Wild Dogs on the S30 17 July 2013 not great quality, sorry

Young Elephant drinking H4-1 17 July 2013

I was going to boycott this TR because you called us monkeys, vinkie!


Later that morning on the S23 on the Byamiti loop we came across a roadblock caused by some young Lions lying between the bushes on the burnt soil, which surprised us, we didn’t think that Lions would like the dark and burnt surface(well that’s what the Guide at Satara had told us during the Morning Drive)

This is strange...lions go where the prey goes, and grazers love the new grass after a fire!

Great sightings!