Browns in Kruger October 2018

[Flutterby]

At least you got to see the wild dogs!

Great pics of the leopard looking at you!

[Bushcraft]

Thanks Lisbeth, Pumbaa, Alf, RP and Flutts for posting after this episode

@RP, Cattle Baron needs a medal for understanding that Kruger is meant to be a relaxed environment

[Bushcraft]

6th Skukuza to Biyamiti continued

I have to admit that on this particular day we didn’t get the car packing story on the road that early and only left camp just before 7am, so the gates had been open more than an hour already, but we had decided to just take the entire day slow and then to stop at Mugg & Bean for an “on the go” breakfast, before heading slowly down to Biyamiti.

The drive down to Mugg and Bean produced the normal gang including a hyena and lion in the distance.

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Mugg and Bean wasn’t crowded so it was a peaceful barefoot breakfast setup and the rats found the barn owls hiding out which was cool.

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After breakfast it was still a little too early to head down to Biyamiti, so we did our last shop for odds and ends and then decided to park off at Lubyelubye dirt circle for half an hour before heading down.

About 2km before Lubyelubye Albert started chirping in the back “Stop Dad! I think there’s something in the reeds”. I slowly reversed while Albert checked her bush spot out.

“Wait, there!”

None of us could see what she was on about “Where?”

Albert was getting frustrated with us, so pulled her little camera out and took a pic of the spot. She fiddled with the camera and then passed it to me with a big grin

“There……It’s a leopard hiding!”

I was now much more interested, but Albert was going off on a tangent “I found him before all of you spotted it!” and the teeth were hanging out.

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[Bushcraft]

Minutes later the leopard walked out the reeds and into the open riverbed and the rats all started squawking “Is it Sausage!”

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Seconds later an OSV came past and the driver shouted “LION, no Leopard!”

He was instantly on his radio, which didn’t sit well with me, however the leopard was still cruising so we followed along.

The leopard was on a mission down the riverbed and it was difficult trying to anticipate his moves, but it became much more difficult as OSV’s started to arrive and plenty of them.

The OSV gang must have been parking off at Sunset Dam or Lower Sabie because in 15 minutes we were totally surrounded by them. They were cutting us off, pushing in, shouting, etc, so I lost it and charged off up the road to the next open section away from them and just hoped the leopard would continue on his path.

Minutes later he appeared and looked around for a spot to lie down and he had given the OSV gang the slip because they were still faffing around 50m up the road.

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As we picked up the cameras the OSV gang noticed and were charging up the road to us in seconds.

The leopard got up though as the crowd started to increase and I could see he was about to go into some thick bush, so I started up and moved out of the gang to watch from a distance.

The leopard disappeared and it was clear that it had now found a shady hide out spot for the day which was out of sight, so we moved on towards Lubyelubye, but again never made it because about 500m from the rocks the Cow chirped “LEOPARD!”

Another leopard was cruising along but this time on the opposite bank, so we turned and again followed along for around 1km back towards Lower Sabie until he eventually stopped for a drink.

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[Bushcraft]

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After drinking, for what seemed like 10 minutes, he got up and cruised off into the bush, which was fortunate because in this time period we had been completely surrounded by OSV’s and 20 other cars whose occupants had no clue what they were meant to be looking at or following but drove along, overtook, braked, etc anyway and it’s the reason we couldn’t get into a position to get facials of the leopard drinking. It’s been this way, especially on the H4-2/H4-1/H11 for many years now, however it never ends calmly.

We had wasted more than an hour chasing leopard around and I was about to have a “blood pressure moment”, so we decided to just continue on towards the S25.

To be continued

[Lisbeth]

This proves that you do not always have to get up with the birds in order to see a leopard or two But I presume that there are also more OSVs around. They make me nervous too

Albert's moment

[Flutterby]

Great spot by Albert! And another great spot by the Cow!

Something really needs to be done about these OSV's radioing their sightings to other OSV's....that's really not fair!!

[Richprins]

Nice owls there, BC! Gump and I had brekkers at M&B yesterday, very nice!

No sympathy with you about OSV's on that road - it is suicide!

Nice big leppies, though!

[Pumbaa]

What to say spots over spots, Bushcraft,

you have to tell me where to find the barn owls at Mugg & Bean at Lober Sabie…...

[Bushcraft]

This proves that you do not always have to get up with the birds in order to see a leopard or two But I presume that there are also more OSVs around. They make me nervous too

Albert's moment

Yes, we get plenty leopard in the middle of the day It's more about ducking the crowd when in this area as you state