Africa Wild

June 2010

Hi All;

Supernova, Melly, The Cow, kids and I have just returned from KNP after a 6 night stay and are all suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Writing a trip report helps one relive the experience and reduces these symptoms. Although this trip seemed to lack the predator sightings that we saw in August 2009, it was full of unique sightings and still awesome for us.

The trip that we originally tried to book, which was 12 nights for 9 (4 adults and 5 girls aged 4-10), was very different from the trip we went on, due to the soccer world cup and “Match” claims to the 3 major camps in the south. My brother, Garth, stood outside the Northcliff Sanparks offices from 6am on the 1st of July 2009 to try and book the trip that we wanted and by the time he got to an assistant there was nothing available. It’s almost as if bulk bookings had been done prior to the official booking opening date. The dreaded phone call came through that the trip was off.

After a few weeks of sulking and howling kids, I began to surf the availability section on the forum and slowly over a few months, managed to put 6 nights together in the same camps for both families, but moving every day. We had to book 3 guest houses for part of the trip, although a little out of our price range, it’s all that was available, but I must admit once you stay in a guest house it certainly raises the bar for KNP accommodation and I must say it’s going to be hard to go back to a rest hut, but I’m sure that the wallet will prefer the hut.

The trip ended up:
9th June Lower Sabie Keartland Guest House
10th June Biyamiti
11th June Berg-en-Dal Rhino Guest House
12th June Satara
13th June Satara Stanley Guest House
14th June Lower Sabie

June 8th Home to Jozini Dam

Chantal and I decided to pull the kids out of school for breakup day and leave after lunch for a halfway stop over at Nkonkoni camp, which is only 30km from the Swazi/SA border. The resort borders on Jozini dam and is open to all the game in the area.

We still worked half day, so we had the usual panic to pack the car and get to the camp before dark. Garth and Mel were going to meet us at Crocodile Bridge entrance gate the next day at 10:30am.

We arrived at Nkonkoni just before dark and the lady that runs the camp was waiting for us. The first thing that she said was “Did you see the elephants, I was afraid that you would run into them on the way down to camp”. She continued to inform us that there were about 60 that have only been around for 3 weeks and are still a little skittish around people. She then said that she had just seen the bulk of the herd about 300m away in the bush and would we like to see them. In the excitement I don’t think any of us thought of the danger and were off into the bush following her.

After about 30m, and the first patch of paper thorns in my feet, I realized that I had no shoes on and just before I could protest the lady in charge said “Wow you brave to walk here with no shoes”, so I was now compelled to bite my lip and try and walk straight for the remaining distance to the elephants.

We stopped about 50m from them and the reality of the dangers involved hit home, so after 10 seconds we headed back to the vehicle, but at least we had seen the first of the big 5 and we weren’t even in Kruger yet. I must say that if one of those elephants took a step towards me I would have forgotten about the thorns.

The safari tents have a toilet and boma attached, but no fences, so it’s an awesome bush experience for the first night out of the city.

June 9th Jozini Dam to Lower Sabie

Towards the top end of Swaziland one drives through the Hlane Park on an unfenced section of the main road. We were lucky to see 5 giraffe, wildebeest and impala.

Below is a photo of a warning sign that I took last year on the way through. I wonder if any pedestrians utilize this 14km stretch and how they control poaching in the area, as there’s no entry/exit control, just a cattle grid each side.




Finally we arrived at the Crocodile River and were surprised to see how full it was at this time of year. The catchment areas must have had good rain this year. The new bridge construction is coming along; I just hope that they complete it before the next rainy season.

Our first animals, much to my surprise, were not impala, rather a wildebeest herd and a rhino sleeping in the background.




Then came the impala




There were many herds of elephant on the way to Lower Sabie. I can’t remember ever seeing so many elephant on this stretch of road before and couldn’t help wondering if something had changed. The one thing that stood out was how thick and green the bush was for June.




Next were the giraffe




We arrived at Lower Sabie too early for the 2pm book in, so decided to have lunch on the deck and start to absorb the Kruger atmosphere. The hot dogs ordered for the kids ended up arriving as chips and were accompanied by a confused waitress who could only make hand signals, but one tends to have massive patience levels in KNP, so the chips had to do.

The usual hippos lay sun tanning in front of the deck.




The sighting board showed lions a few km down the road, so we decided to give it a try because we still couldn’t book in, but a secretary bird, which I find fairly difficult to find in the park, and a warthog waited for us instead.





It was 2pm now, so we headed back to Lower Sabie for our first guest house experience.

Keartland guest house is amazing with awesome views and I must admit that I felt like a kid in Disneyland and spent half an hour just exploring the place.







The afternoon drive started later than normal due to the late book in time and the plan was a short drive to Nkuhlu and back again. Our first sighting was a juvenile Marabou Stork (I think anyway) and the local Baboon family.





Then just before Nkuhlu our first KNP traffic jam. It was a leopard in a tree with an impala kill. The bush was thick and it was difficult to get a good view, but eventually the traffic cleared enough for us to get some form of a view.







Time was running out for camp closing time so after 10 minutes we had to do a u-turn and head back to camp. Meegan howled all the way to Sunset dam as she never got a good angle on the leopard and my middle one Kristen, who had a good view, couldn’t help rubbing it in.

It was almost dark, with 10 minutes to spare, by the time we stopped at Sunset dam next to the local sundowner gang. Garth pulled up next to a couple that calmly said “Have you seen the 2 leopards drinking” It took some time to locate them in the fading light and we could only find one that was visible for a few seconds before he/she moved off into the bush, but still our 2nd leopard for the day.

The first braai of every KNP trip is special for me, but unfortunately tonight things changed a little. The staff quarters are about 100m behind the guest house and I think that a local soccer match was on TV (World cup hadn’t started yet). At 10:30pm the screaming and shouting became too much and I phoned the duty manager, who informed me that they were watching soccer, but would tell everyone to keep it down. I was impressed with the fact that he phoned back twice to confirm that the situation would be resolved and was 10 minutes later. Thanks Duty Manager.

June 10th Lower Sabie to Biyamiti

Morning Drive: H4-1/S30/S29/Mlondozi/S29/H4-2/H5/S25/S139

We decided to go to Mlondozi for breakfast, rather than coming back and trying to cook breakfast at Keartland, so by 6:15am cars were packed and we were on our way.
After a brief stop at Sunset Dam to view the locals we found this pair of fish eagles




A few km before Nkuhlu we found a hyena in the road, but as soon as he saw the cars he was off at full sprint. I never know what to do in a situation like this, do you follow him and scare him more, or do you just sit back and watch him run off. We decided to follow at a distance that hopefully he would feel safe and would stop running, but each time he stopped and saw the cars he took off again. Eventually a car came from the other direction and that scared him into the bush.




The usual suspects made the odd appearance up to the H12 Bridge, but generally fairly quiet, so we decided to travel up to the Skukuza T-junction and come back to the S30. We have a little dirt road loop there that’s always been successful for us just outside Skukuza.

Just past the H12 we found the rarest thing in KNP, another car with a yellow ribbon. Chantal had bought yellow ribbons for both cars and had proudly tied them to the cars.

I pulled up next to the fellow “formite” and put my best cheesy on, but was told to move along by the wave of a hand. He must have been having a bad day, or we were interrupting something that we couldn’t see. Oh well, we will have to find another more socialable yellow ribbon.

About 50m into the dirt road loop I looked towards the Sabie River and walking in the grass just off the road was a leopard heading down to the river. I slammed on brakes and jumped on the walkie talkie to Garth who was behind me.

The window of view for leopard moving on the ground in thick bush is so small and by the time everyone was in position the leopard had disappeared. The only other person that had seen it was Chantal as it disappeared down to the river. We spent 20 minutes, amongst other cars that had now become curious, driving slowly up and down the short dirt road loop trying to find the leopard, as we knew that it would drink and then return to the thicker bush.

Waiting for something to happen in the bush with small kids in the car is a nightmare, as their patience span in a stationary car is a lot shorter and tempers begin to get frayed. I think that everyone thought that I was mad when I suggested one more slow drive down the road. Halfway down the dirt road loop is a storm water drain which looked like a perfect spot for a leopard to hide, so we stopped there and spent a few seconds looking up and down the drain, but as I gave up, put the car in first and looked forward, standing in the middle of the road, 10m in front of us, was the leopard. At about the same time that I saw the leopard my youngest, 4 year old Madison started shouting “Look at the cute kitty” Chantal had given up and switched the cameras off and put them at her feet, so the usual shrieking for cameras started and the leopard started to move off the road. Between Garth and I we only managed the 2 photos below.





On the way back to the S30 we found the odd elephant herd and a warthog that ran along the side of the road and much to our surprise disappeared under it. He must have had a hole in the long grass leading under the road.





The first part of the S30 was quiet except for a herd of waterbuck




Just before the S30/S29 intersection we saw something running in the road ahead of us. Garth and Mel were ahead of me and had a better view, but from my position it looked like a small fat bear running down the road. I obviously new that it wasn’t a bear, but what was it? A second later the walkie talkie rang out with the words “civet”. We thought that a leopard had the disappearing award until we tried to photograph this chap after he went into the grass. We never saw him again.

2km before Mlondozi we found this rhino lying in the grass. I must admit that to me it looked like a large rock with a bird twitching on it (that was its ear). The sighting must have been as exciting for the kids who were more interested in bacon and eggs by now.




The usual Mlondozi zebra showed up just before the dam. The male was trying to get a little too friendly with a mare and I didn’t feel like explaining this to the kids, so it was off for breakfast. (I didn’t know at the time that I would have some major explaining to do later in the trip).




When we arrived at Mlondozi, which is a special place for us, we were amazed to see how full the dam was, which will be brilliant for the area in the dry months to come. There were 3 other people at the picnic site, a couple sitting at a neatly laid table and a tour guide slaving over 2 skottels. They kindly warned us about thieving monkeys that were trying to steal bread. Garth proceeded to let them know that they should be more afraid of our troop of kids then the monkeys.

We started the bacon on our hired skottel and tried to get the kids to sit quietly at the tables and wait. Halfway through cooking the bacon, we started chatting to the tour guide (to find out if they had any good sightings), when he asked if we had seen the cheetah on the side of the road, just before the picnic site entrance. Much to our horror, he showed us where they were, the telltale traffic jam still visible from Mlondozi (we drove straight past them on our way in). After a 2 second conference, breakfast became bacon rolls.

It turns out that our breakfast companions were correct about the monkeys though, because as soon as Garth and I were away from the table the monkey thieves ran straight across the table and stole 3 rolls out of Mel’s hand.

The remaining bacon rolls went down rather quickly and we were on our way.

We arrived at the cheetah sighting just in time to see her get up move around for about a minute and then disappear under a bush. We waited for half an hour hoping that she would reappear, but it never happened, so back to Lower Sabie for a toilet stop.








Chantal made a friend in the Lower Sabie car park. He kept chewing on a stick, dropping it and then picking up another one.




The drive down the H4-2 to the H5 was fairly quiet, which was to be expected in the mid day heat, but we found a few elephant and these 3 giraffe. The giraffe looked like a drill squad, all equally spaced and looking the same direction. A mother and baby were part of the gang.







The H5/S25 bridge intersection produced a few water monitors sun tanning and swimming.




The camp book in at Biyamiti went smoothly; we had the units with a view (6 & 7). In my opinion the best 5 sleeper units in the camp, with awesome views and bush either side so one is isolated from your neighbor and the kids had an open space of grass in front of the units to play.





The kids had fun exploring the fence line and sitting on the different memorial benches. The bird hide had a new snake skin wrapped around the rafters, which caused a commotion for the kids and adults, so the hide therefore was never visited again.



We left the kids to explore the fence line in front of our units and went to relax on the veranda. Suddenly a scream came from the fence line and all the kids were running back to us talking at once, but the two 4 year olds, who couldn’t run as fast, were lagging behind and crying. I found myself skidding on the veranda, because my first thought was snake bite, but luckily it was just a herd of elephant (and 1 buffalo) that had quietly moved into the river bed unnoticed by the kids till the last minute. There was no more exploring after that.

Afternoon Drive: To the Biyamiti Weir and back.

We left the camp just before 4 for a short drive to the weir. We had a few elephant and rhino sightings in the first 10 km, but just before the weir, Garth, who was travelling in front of us, shouted puff adder on the walkie talkie, but by the time I got in place it had moved off into the grass and we never managed a photo. I was desperate to find it, because to find a puff adder in the open gives you a completely different feeling in the pit of your stomach to one at a snake park, but he was gone (He might have been 10cm away with that camouflage).




A crocodile, Pied Kingfisher, Three Banded Plover and a Hamerkop waited for us at the weir. The wife is mad about the bird thing and is slowly converting me to show an interest, but I still found myself saying “Forget the bird, photograph the crocodile”.









Twice on the way back to camp we had to pull away rapidly from animals, a charging rhino and then a buffalo. Are all animals mad on this stretch of road?

Later, after the kids had gone to sleep, we were sitting on Garth and Mel’s veranda having a few drinks, when a visitor arrived.

He/she spent about half an hour coming and going, and then a second Genet showed up, but was too shy to come out the bush and visit.

June 11th Biyamiti to Berg-en-Dal

Morning Drive: S139/S25/Crocodile Bridge and Back

We decided to do a short morning drive and head back to Biyamiti for a 9am breakfast, before the 10am book out time.

A few km into the S25 the local hyena clan made an appearance




They settled in the grass right next to the side of the road and it was amazing to be a few meters away and watch the social interaction. Two of them kept fighting over something in the grass and this went on for 20 minutes, but we never saw what they were fighting over, but the 2 suddenly became best friends after the fight.




They then spent the next 10 minutes smelling every blade of grass, flower, etc.




The smaller scallywag seemed to stay on the outskirts most of the time. I’m sure that he was the same small guy that ran across the road in this area the year before.




Just before Crocodile Bridge we found wildebeest, elephant and buffalo.







We saw all the same guys (excluding the hyenas) on the way back to the S139 Biyamiti road, but 2km into the Biyamiti road one of the strangest things that any of us had ever seen began to take place.

The elephant on the Biyamiti road have always seemed a little strange and aggressive to us, that’s why Chantal, who’s terrified of elephants, insists that Garth and Mel drive in front when we on this road and fortunately they were in front today.

We approached an elephant herd crossing the road and I was instructed by Chantal to stop 10m behind Garth, who was right in front of the herd. A couple elephants, small and large continued to cross and took no notice of us.




Suddenly one started to walk down the road towards Garth and Mel. Chantal started shouting at me “It’s going to charge, reverse now”, but I decided to act deaf this time, as I was curious to see what was going to happen.

Suddenly the elephant started to do something that looked like break-dance. This of course got Chantal more excited, but I wasn’t going to miss this for the world.





None of us had ever seen this behavior before and weren’t sure what he was trying to do, but to me it looked like the elephant was attracted to Garth and Mel’s grey Discovery. He suddenly looked confused, stopped and walked normally off the road.

Mel was still crying from laughing when we reached Biyamiti.

Today was the opening of the soccer world cup, so someone suggested (Garth or Mel) that maybe he was a soccer supporter and was doing the Diski Dance. We posted the pictures on the forum later that night and thanks to Elzet and Sanpfan, we ended up with our first elephant soccer supporter.





We made quick bacon and eggs, ate, packed the cars and were on the road to Berg-en-Dal by 9:50am.

Mid Day Drive: S139/S23/S113/H3/Afsaal/S110 to Berg-en-Dal

The initial part of the S139 was very quiet, which was to be expected at this time of the day, but we did find this rhino a few km before the end of the road.




Then, just before the end of the road, a movement in a tree caught my eye, it was a leopard.





Chantal shouted on the walkie talkie to Garth and Mel, who hastily reversed back down the road to us.





After ten minutes with us the leopard seemed to get a little nervous, climbed down the tree and was gone. We now had 4 leopards in 2 and half days, but no lion, what was going on?

The usual bird locals were at the weir, so we moved on up the Biyamiti loop and found this Saddle-billed Stork hunting fish in the river bed.





We stopped at Afsaal for a toilet break and for the kids, Mel and Chantal to have their ritual pancakes. Everyone was a little disappointed that the Scops Owl was missing.




The first thing that I noticed when we arrived at Berg-en-Dal was how neat this camp always seems to be. The friendly Bafana dressed staff allowed us to book into the Rhino guest house 30 minutes early and we were off to unpack.

I felt a little like mutton dressed as lamb when I saw the Rhino Guest House, as it’s very larney with an awesome veranda and braai area.





We were originally booked into Tamboti for tonight, but Mel was keen to watch the opening world cup soccer match, so she paid the difference for the guest house. Thanks Mel.

Afternoon Drive: S110 Dirt/S120/S118/S114/S110 Tar

The pressure to find a lion was mounting and in the 3 years and 4 trips, that Chantal, the kids and I have been coming to KNP, there’s only been 1 day that we haven’t seen lion (besides this trip). Garth and Mel, who have been many more times to KNP, didn’t seem concerned and said that we had just been lucky on previous trips. Chantal said to me “I wish that you would just see a lion now, so that you can stop moaning and hassling”, but I think that she was even more desperate to see lion than I was.

Mel decided to stay and watch the opening game of the world cup, so Garth, Chantal, the kids and I bailed into the cars and off we went for a short afternoon drive.

The S110 was very quiet, except for the traffic, which cleared as we reached the S120 turn off, which is a road that Chantal and I had never driven before. The first part of the S120 (100m) seemed ok, and then I felt as if I was driving up a mountain pass and I don’t know how anyone can drive this road and look for animals, because I felt like Sarel Van Der Merwe, only doing 15km an hour. I would hate to see this road in the rainy season (Unless I owned a 4x4, then I would love it).

By the time we reached the S114 we still hadn’t seen anything, except for birds, and my face was getting sourer by the second. We did however see 3 rhino crossing the road on the S114.

It was just after 5pm when we reached the tar section of the S110 and the moaning in my car was at an all time high, we had given up the opening world cup game and seen nothing.

Halfway down the S110 section we found a car ahead that had stopped on the side of the road. I pulled up next to him and gave him a questioning look, he said “lion”. The mood immediately changed in my car, the walkie talkie was going Chantal was asking him “Where, where”. I think that he saw the desperation on our faces and said “If you pull up behind me I will move to give you a view”. I must say it’s nice to meet someone like this at a sighting; some cowboys lose touch with reality at a lion sighting.

Lying right next to the road, but down a bank, we found our lions. The male looked sickly and we wondered if he had TB.




It was 5:20pm now and we were running out of time, the Garmin was saying that we had to leave in 2 minutes, but as I looked up the others members of the pride, another 5 females, were coming down the road towards us.





Garth said “time to leave” and off he went. I was now torn between one last photo and gate closing, fortunately sanity prevailed, and so one last photo right next to the car and off we went. We made it by 1 minute. I don’t know how people time it correctly in situations like this without a Garmin.




We now had the big 5 and everything from this point on was going to be a bonus.

Things changed for Chantal and I a little later that evening, when our youngest, 4 year old Madison, developed a fever and was complaining of a sore neck. We had no idea what was wrong, so we gave her medicine and put her to bed. (last year June she got chicken pox the day we entered the park and in August she ended up at the Skukuza doctor with flu, so she had to make it 3 in a row)

June 12th Berg-en-Dal to Satara

We had a long drive up to Satara today, so the cars were packed early and we were off to Tshokwane for a late breakfast. Madison still had a fever and her face was starting to swell, so we gave her more pain medicine and crossed our fingers. It was starting to look more and more like mumps (kids in her class had mumps before we left).

Morning/Mid Day Drive: S110/H3/S112/S21/H4-1/H1-2/H1-3

We found our lions, from the night before, about 2km before the S110/H3 intersection. The male looked as if he had gone to a gym and health spa over night, because he suddenly looked far more impressive. I couldn’t help wondering if there were maybe brothers in the area and that this was the other guy.




There were cars in front of us, so we just had to be patient and wait to get closer, but 5 minutes later they both got up and walked over to our car. The male looked at me from half a meter away as he went past, and my window was going up/down/up, as I fumbled with the controls. They then decided to lie down right next to us.




We sat quietly and listened to them purring, which was an amazing experience and something that we had never heard before.

Then the tranquility in my car ended as Madison vomited on the back seat, which caused the older 2 kids to try and climb onto the front seats. The male lion also showed his disapproval.




A few seconds later they got up and settled 10m down the road.
Garth asked on the walkie talkie if we wanted to go back to camp and clean up, but I decided to suffer it out rather than lose out and I’m glad we did.

Remember when I said earlier in the report that I would have some explaining to do to the kids, well it happened.




The peanut gallery in the back seat all started talking at once “Daddy, what is he doing, why is he on top of her, why is he biting her, daddy he’s hurting her, why’s his bum moving, etc, etc”. Chantal and I looked at each other and I immediately saw that she wasn’t going to answer this one, so all I could come up with was “He’s a big bully”. Our small one with mumps then said “He’s a poofie lion”, so we left it at that for explanations for now.

They got up walked back towards us and lay down again. The female seemed rather tired after the deed




After a further 15 minutes the male obviously felt the urge again and started pawing the female on her bum, but she seemed to have developed a headache and moved off 2m into the grass.
The male followed her and started to announce his frustration vocally, but she continued to ignore him.

The smell in my car was starting to become an issue for me, so I announced to Garth on the walkie talkie that we were going to move on to Afsaal for the cleaning process. He replied “cool let’s go” and I followed them to the H3.

As we got to the H3 intersection another vehicle with a young couple in the front half drove into the S110 and then continued on the H3. Garth and Mel kindly waved them over and explained that their original instincts were correct. They thanked Garth and Mel profusely and turned up the S110.

We found this rhino on the way to Afsaal.

The cleaning and suppository process started when we got to Afsaal, I made a duck to the sighting board.


The road to Renosterkoppies was very quiet, but we did find this klipspringer and steenbok just before the water hole. What was strange for me was that the klipspringer was standing in the road, which is something that we had never seen before.





When we got to the waterhole there were 2 cars off to the left that were parked at a strange angle, although a slight detour to the left something told me to go and check it out. The vehicle occupants all had guilty expressions, but refused to volunteer any information, so after 5 minutes of looking around, I asked “What are you guys waiting for”. The driver of the 1st vehicle sheepishly said “There’s a lion over there just to the left”. I couldn’t believe that we hadn’t seen him.





I was keen to wait it out and see if the lion got thirsty, which he would have done shortly and we would have had a better view of him, but the usual kid’s patience span was being tested and tempers began to get frayed again, so we decided to head down the S21.

The first few km of the S21 produced a lot of general game, kudu, wildebeest, warthog and a tree of giraffe





They seemed to be standing guard and covering all directions of view.

The rest of the S21 was very quiet until the last 2km where we found a herd of elephant drinking at an unknown dam. (Does anyone know the name of this dam?)




Then one decided that it was time that we moved off, we retreated early, but he caught Garth and Mel, who hadn’t see him, by surprise and they had to make a last minute hasty reverse.




We decided to go right onto the tar and turn left up the causeway and found this Malachite kingfisher




We had more elephant, giraffe and warthogs on the way to Tshokwane.

The original plan was to hire a skottel and cook breakfast, but it was after 10:30am already and everyone was feeling lazy, so we opted for Boerie rolls, sarmies and chips.

Kumana Dam produced a large herd of buffalo, which eventually crossed the road in front of us and a large family of baboons just relaxing.







At Marheya dam/pan we found a large herd of elephants.




After drinking they all went for a swim, and then walked through the dam and up onto the road, which resulted in a standoff between elephants and Garth and Mel. Chantal and I were a long way ahead by that stage.




A few km later Chantal and I had a fight over the walkie talkie communications at an ostrich sighting that Garth and Mel had found and we had missed. This caused Chantal to look so far out the back of her window that she was virtually looking at the bush out the back of the car. A deathly silence filled the car for a few km and I was quietly contemplating how long the silent treatment would last, based on past experience and the level of offence, I expected a few hours, which is why I nearly crashed when Chantal suddenly screamed “lion go back”.

The only way that you could see the lion, which was on the underside bank of the bridge a few km outside Satara, was if you looked out the back of the car, so we parked at an angle on the road to get a view.




After a few minutes she got up and went down to the stream for a drink. She drank, no jokes, for what felt like 5 minutes, I eventually put my camera down and watched.





When she walked off towards the shade she seemed to be walking very slowly and battling, but we couldn’t see anything wrong with her. (We have since found a photo taken at the correct angle, which shows a large gash on the inside of her front right leg).




Satara was much warmer than it had been down south and the 2pm book in was packed. We eventually got our keys and were on our way to relax.