Lions On The Loose

[PJL]

Yet more manic work taking up all my time so apologies for the delay yet again... nearly there though!

Sat 30th June contd

Once at the H12 bridge our aim was to simply do a route back down the S30/H10 to Lower Sabie. The day was warming up so there wasn't a huge amount going on still, which had me resorting to taking pics of impala for entertainment



We checked out the numerous loops that give views of the Sabie, ensuring that the trees didn't contain any spots and that there weren't any flat cats elsewhere... it was all quiet apart from one loop where we had a very close view of some ground hornbills







This juvenile was very cheeky and appeared to be begging for food



Not much further up the road we came to a bunch of cars near a rocky outcrop. Apparently a leopard had been seen leaving the rocks a while back and was expected to return as there were 2 cubs stashed away somewhere. The cubs were playing hard-to-see so must have been stashed away on the other side of the outcrop, but some friendly people showed us the pics they had taken of them the day before. If only we were staying longer I would have made a plan to wait it out, but time wasn't on our side

We did wait a while, but everyone was getting restless and there was no guarantee when the mother would return so we continued on our way. The only other notable sightings on the S30 were some hippo at another of the loops and a large bull elephant for which we gave plenty of room!

[Pumbaa]

Thanks PJL,

a pity about hte missed leopards but stunning shots of the ground hornbills

[RogerFraser]

Lovely Hornbills

that is a big bull

[Alf]

Yes amazing shots of the hornbills

[Mel]

I'm with the boys - excellent hornbill captures

But I like that pod (?) of hippos there too

[Richprins]

Nice and quiet again, Peej!

Interesting how elephant never have oxpeckers...

I also like the hornbills.

[Flutterby]

Great pics of the hornbills. Pity you didn't see the leopards.

[Lisbeth]

Hippos do lie out in the sun, obviously

A pity about the leopard, especially the cubs

Strange birds the ground hornbills

[Bushcraft]

Nice close up pics of the GHBs

Pity about the leopard timing

[PJL]

Thanks Pumbaa, RogerFraser, Alf, Mel, Richprins, Flutterby, Lisbeth & Bushcraft for the comments

Sat 30th June contd

Last installment for this trip I'm afraid...

We stopped on the H10 bridge to see what was around. It was mainly just the regulars, but a goliath heron was close to one side looking rather intent so I parked off next to it and jokingly said that it would catch something pretty soon



Everyone was looking around to see if there was anything else of interest when there was a splosh which took me by surprise as it had indeed caught a fish... sooner than I had anticipated





Catching the fish was one thing, but getting it into a position to be able to swallow was something else. The heron seemed to have quite a job getting it aligned correctly and the fish wasn't giving up either





Eventually the heron came right and this was the last we saw of the fish before it became a big lump travelling down the herons throat



We pulled in at Lower Sabie for a last afternoon ice cream break and joked about ending off our trip with a kill

There was nothing of note heading south other than the remnants of an earlier cheetah kill which unfortunately hadn't tied in with our timing




The next morning we loitered by the house before packing up to leave. It had been a good trip with some very nice sightings at times. I'm not sure when we'll next be back in Kruger as some other places are 'calling'....