The Big Cat Diary and a Couple of Lifers

[Alf]

The lions did what lions do best

[nan]

love the piggies, Kingfisher, majestic Kudu and of course the Heron

[Pumbaa]

Has taken me a few days to read your TT, and thoroughly enjoyed every second!

I was making a list of my favorite shots, but when I got to the bottom of my 8x11 sheet of paper way back on page 19, I realized my list was WAY too long to enumerate here. So let me just say what truly magnificent shots you captured throughout this trip, and I look forward to my daily dose from now on. Excellent, excellent work here.

Welcome on board, ExFmem, for sure it was a memorable trip

[Pumbaa]

Nice piggies with friends

The kudu bulls are always nice to see

and lions!

That piggies with friends is one of my favourites

[Pumbaa]

The lions did what lions do best

In fact but you cannot believe the traffic jam they caused

[Pumbaa]

love the piggies, Kingfisher, majestic Kudu and of course the Heron

Never saw that much Kudus are thiy year, nan

[Pumbaa]

although we wondered how many people in their cars were looking at lions who did nothing.....



Whilst he was now deep in dream land she got more and more active and at least we now could get some “action” shots of her whilst



she was grooming or yawning.





All in all we spend a very relaxing hour watching the lions what they do best and got our shots so we decided to carry on. As Transport dam is located extreme close to the turnoff into the S65 we drove that short detour and on the way to the dam we spotted a red-crested korhaan which was complaining heavily about the disturbance.



The water level at the dam was extreme low but we had not expected anything else but at least was enough water left to attract water birds such as this saddle-billed stork



or that grey heron.



We could see a couple of very well camouflaged water dikkops and also herds of zebras and later impalas arrived to quench their thirst.



For sure a couple of hippos could be seen as well and after quite a while we continued our drive although had to stop for some Carmine bee eaters.



The S65 was then also extreme quiet besides the area around N’waswitshaka waterhole this area was packed with animals and all animals in that area must have visited that waterhole at the same time but before we could even park at the waterhole itself we had to stop for a couple of giraffes who just came from a drink and wanted to cross the street.

[Pumbaa]

Needless to say that uncountable elephants, more giraffes and impalas could be seen and it was such a wonderful sighting as normally when we so far visited that waterhole same was deserted and we saw nothing. This was in fact the first time we ever saw something there and then even those masses.







The waterhole was occupied by the smaller elephants whereas the bigger adults drank from the basin. We did not know where to look first and therefore nearly overlooked that smaller elephants with attitude who got a bit too close to our car for our liking.



Gladly everything went well



and more elephants arrived from nearly everywhere – We saw lots of different breeding herds with little ones



and even small calves between their legs



and there were a lot of large elephant legs and for us it is always fascinating that the small ones will not be stamped to the gound.



Lots of elephant cows were drinking and they were already huge



but then also an elephant bull arrived and compared to all the cows this was a giant.



to be continued.....

[Lisbeth]

The last bull could be a future tusker

I love all these different animals together at the water hole. The landscape does not look very Krugerish but then again, I have never been there.

The tiny ellies are a joy to look at

The pic of the korhaan is very pretty

[Richprins]

Lovely shots again, Pumbaa!

Ja, those kingfishers are a pest!

That male lion won't sleep much while in mating mode...he is bored and waiting for the wife to wake up and indicate she's ready for more "games"...