Africa Wild

Hey Guys, I have to get this going at some stage, but I’m going to wait for leachy to catch up when I hit the 22nd in the report

The Toti Browns are back again.

This was the 3rd trip to KNP this year for Bushcraft, The Cow, Hawkeyes, Bushpig and Albert.

The September holidays produced the normal booking mission to get family type accommodation in the camps we wanted, but after changing many times and watching the online availability daily, we managed to put something together.

The trip ended up as below:

19th Nkonkoni Camp Jozini Dam
20th, 21th, 22nd and 23rd Skukuza
24thand 25th Satara
26th Talamati
27th Satara
28th Biyamiti

We once again had to put together a tricky shopping list because of the faulty Swazi border post officials and strangely it was the South African side who wanted to check this time

We were in the park last year October and had a viciously hot day once, although generally it was hot to mild, but this time we had varying weather every day.

We struggled for certain animals and never found dogs, cheetah or jackal, which was our first failure for all 3 ever as we normally find at least 2 of the 3, but we did smash it in others areas and broke 2 personal records for a 8/9 day trip, so it wasn’t all bad, however there were no firsts, which are always cool to add.

The odd medical issue raised its head again and my poor car got drilled because of it, but nothing too serious.

We also got to meet a few awesome wildies and have a social, which is always great fun.

In summary, things are crazy at work again; therefore I will update when I can, so I hope all ride the wave and hang around during the quiet times, as there are many of the usual and new scraps and a few long lips, so those may entertain if the pics don’t.

To be continued

19th Home to Jozini Dam

We decided to pull the rats out of school for break up day and the Cow had the day off, so I did some ducking and diving at work and we were on the road to Jozini just after 1pm.

I was panicking about the abnormal loads that were scheduled for the same route to Jozini and expected to arrive very late, but fortunately for us it was a very hot day and the first massive truck had overheated before Imfolozi, so it was parked off next to the road and the second had pulled off just before Phinda.

We slowed to check out a lone buffalo, impala and warties on the way to check in, but never stopped as my beak was out because it was 41 degrees and a beer was calling.

The Cow went to book us in at reception and get ice, but to my surprise emerged with the check in aunty who informed us that there were no other people, so she was going to duck, which immediately resulted in my teeth hanging out despite the heat.

We quickly unpacked and I went on an exploration mission with Bushpig and Albert while the Cow and Hawkeyes relaxed at the unit.



About 10 minutes later Bushpig had found a swimming pool, so the irritating nagging started, therefore I ducked back to our unit for rescue, but Hawkeyes also got wind of the pool and charged off to get her costume.



This set the Cow in motion towards the unit also “Don’t mess the bags up, look at what you have done already, who’s going to clean this!!!”

I used the opportunity to grab another dop and cruise off on my own mission with the camera.

First up were some warties who I managed to sneak up on and then followed by a few nyala.







I was soon bored of the nyala and had run out of dop so returned to the unit for a refill, but found the Cow with a pelican in her tiger dress, which I’m sure she wears just to irritate me and the rats all standing outside looking for me.

The Cow started “Don’t suggest the pool and duck off, you are walking all of us to the pool!!!”



I pleaded my case which got the Cow to cruise off with the rats while I poured a refill before joining them.

I got to the pool 10 minutes later and found the clan excitably splashing around, so commented “This must be a cool spot for snakes, etc to come and drink”, which evacuated the pool immediately and resulted in another greasing from the Cow.

After I inspected everything and said that I was only joking, which I really wasn’t, the rats all bailed back in.

Hawkeyes is going to kill me for posting this pic, but the others still think it’s cool to be photographed jumping in your costume.



Half an hour later we were back at our unit and soon the rats had been shipped inside for a bath, which caused another commotion as Bushpig had switched on the bubbles in the fancy bath jacuzzi type thing, which set Albert off shrieking “It’s blowing bubbles at my bum!”, which set the Cow off “Who’s blowing bubbles from their bum!!”, which caused even more shrieking, so I again used the opportunity to pour another dop and duck off down to the hide.

Admittedly I felt rather alone on the path down to the hide as the odd wartie took off out the bush on the way, which nearly caused me to dive into the bush in the opposite direction and I felt even more uneasy when I arrived to total silence as I expected an elephant to burst from the bush at any minute, so stood still watching the scene for a few minutes before venturing into the hide.



After 10 minutes I was again feeling uncomfortable as all the dops were starting to put pressure on my bladder, but I wasn’t ready to cruise yet, so started plotting to hang over the side of the hide.

I then got paranoid that maybe the aunty at reception was wrong and that there were others in camp as the hide that I was in had a clear view of the hide on the other side of the dam, so I strained my eyes to see into that hide and eventually decided it was safe and continued with my plan.

3 seconds later something bashed into the floor of the hide, which resulted in a near self induced rain shower as I bailed for the exit, but the drama continued as I ran through the hide exit as a giant legavaan emerged from under the doorway and I nearly stood on its head, so resorted to a massive frog jump, which gave the legavaan a bigger fright and it bailed full speed for the dam while I did a second precautionary frog jump up the pathway.

I quickly put things away and ducked behind a bush, where I sat for 30 seconds to make sure that nobody had spotted this commotion and then sheepishly wobbled back to our unit, but couldn’t help laughing half the way back.

I rapidly poured another dop and ducked to the boma to start a fire.



Eventually the Cow and rats arrived, but as it was still so hot, it wasn’t that pleasant in the boma, so after half an hour all ducked to the veranda of the unit where it was cooler and I was left to run and turn the meat every 5 minutes.



I soon got bored on the veranda as there was no fire to look at, so started playing with the camera and attempted to do things that I have seen my boet do, however I’m really clueless with all these fancy settings and this frustration nearly resulted in a flattened camera, but eventually I worked out that I needed to drop the shutter speed to around 15 seconds and not hold the camera.



After supper we all bailed into the unit and jammed the aircon on full blast.

To be continued

20th Jozini Dam to Skukuza

We woke to the sound of a massive truck in the distance, so I immediately started to flap about the abnormal loads and announced in panic “They have travelled through the night #$%^$”, but they hadn’t and all I had heard was a normal truck braking

We arrived at Komatipoort just after 11am and still had to do all the meat and dairy shopping for the trip.

I’m sure regular readers are aware of the pelican I get in a shop and the rats are generally the same, so we didn’t let the Cow get distracted and we were soon on our way to the park.

Before I continue, I will omit all rhino sightings with the exception of 1 later this day. We did however find rhino every day that we were in the park, which was cool.

The first thing I did was fuel up in Croc Bridge and organized all the cameras.

The rats all had the Africa Wild checklist booklet with a page per day, so that mission also started. I have to say that these are wonderful for kids and the rats loved filling them out each day and they tried to beat each other for spotter of the day also, which created more involvement from them on the drives. Thank you Flutts

Eventually all were organized and we decided to duck up the H4-2

Our first major sighting besides the usual suspects was around 10km from Croc Bridge, but it wasn’t what we expected and as it’s my personal favourite I was stoked because it immediately relieved the pressure to find leopard



It was fairly difficult to get pics as they were low down in the tree and we could just get above the grass and bush on the side of the road.

A few discussions then took place as to whether this was a mom and large cub or a mating couple, but if it was a mating couple the chap seriously wasn’t keen, so we decided it was a mom and cub.



The temperature now was around 40 degrees, so after 20 minutes with the leopards we were all roasting, so decided to continue on.

Just past Gomondwane we found the next of the big 5 having a snooze in the shade next to the road and then just before Lower Sabie some ellies having a swim.







It had been a fairly relaxed drive to Lower Sabie and the roads were very quiet, so sightings were peaceful with only a few cars stopping; therefore I was initially confused, but then realised that it was only the start of the school holidays and the gang were probably still on the way, which unfortunately was the case.

Sunset Dam produced the normal locals and a poor dinged up hippo who was hanging around on the other side of the road. You will notice that he didn’t even have ears left, so he was in the very bad state.



The rats were starting to get rather dramatic about the hippo, so after a few more pics we moved on.

We normally take the S79 N’watimhiri causeway as part of our route, but as it was boiling we decided to check out N’watimhiri Dam instead and just before the dam we found these faulty individuals kissing and then scraping





The dam produced 2 saddle bills cruising around and plenty hippo, so we stopped for a few minutes



We had noticed 2 cars stopped 30 meters further up the road and the occupants didn’t seem to be looking at the dam, but we didn’t think too much of it, that’s until one of the rats and I can’t remember which one or if it was all together shouted “There’s a leopard in that tree!!”, which immediately set me off up the road and a leopard was cooling off at the top of a long narrow tree, which amazed me as it didn’t look very comfortable.





The leopard seemed to decide that he was happy with this strange position and went to sleep, so we continued on towards Skukuza

The rest of the drive to camp produced all the normal locals including plenty bushbuck next to the road, which always seems to be the case on the H4-1



To be continued

Richprins wrote:Good heavens! The leopard whisperer!

I think that first is a mom and large cub, BC!





The hippo looks like it was tackled by lions overnight, concentrating on the spine area, as they do!

When they are wounded they normally don't go into the water...I wonder if it lasted another night?
Maybe post it under the hippo thread?


Greta pics indeed!

Howzit RP

Yip, lucky with the leopard this trip

I have some close up pics of the hippo’s back and definitely lion

20th Jozini Dam to Skukuza continued

We got the specific GC4V that we had requested which was cool as it’s the biggest of the GC4V’s, so I unpacked in a good mood and then dived for a large G&T.

The rats conned the Cow for a swim, so they ducked off, the Cow spotted a kingfisher, so charged off and I got into a game of hide and seek with a wartie behind our unit.





At around 4pm we were all back at our unit and planned the afternoon drive.

I won’t go into the detail of this drive or which road we took, because I specifically want to show a particular sighting, which will be the only rhino sighting I will mention on this TT.

We had been on the road for about 10 minutes when the Cow spotted a movement in the bush next to the road “I think it’s a rhino”, so I stopped and instantly shouted “Black rhino!!”, which got all in the car more interested.



I issued the silence command to the rats as I know how temperamental these guys can be and we reversed a little to give him space. A few minutes later he popped his pip out the bush in front of us.



The rhino parked off for a few seconds and then started to give us the hairy eyeball. A few seconds later he started towards us, which had me flapping to put the car in reverse as I had forgotten under pressure that that our “new” bakkie was an automatic.



Fortunately the rhino decided that our car was bigger than him and chose to back off into the bush and out of sight.

We were pretty stoked as we have never seen a black rhino in this area, so we were all jabbering away when 100m later someone in the car shouted “Lion!” and there was a lioness cooling off in a riverbed.



We didn’t hang around with the lioness as we were roasting in the car again.



Next up was a rather nervous boon at the top of a tree who was intently looking at something and a little further the reason for the boons attentiveness.





The traffic started to get a little hectic around the leopard and we couldn’t get a clear view, so decided to head back towards camp.

We stopped on the way back to take pics of a legavaan, more boons and then a hyena hiding out just before camp, which I could probably post under the “what is it” section of the forum.







My teeth were hanging out as we pulled into camp because we had only been in the park just over 6 hours and had spotted plenty already, so the G&T started to flow at an enthusiastic pace, which is never a good sign for the next morning, but I didn’t care at that stage.

To be continued

Thanks Twigga

More below


21st Skukuza

We woke to a change in weather and the wind was howling, so the plan was to do the H1-2/H12/H4-1 down to Lower Sabie and then return on the H4-1 to Skukuza for breakfast rather than having breakfast at Mlondozi.

The H1-2 portion was relatively quiet and only produced the normal locals, a mongoose family, the resident croc at the Low Water Bridge and then nyala on the H12 portion.







We stopped at Nkuhlu for the loo and a wobble around, but soon continued on towards Lower Sabie as it was unpleasant in the wind.

About 6km before Lower Sabie we found the resident Lubyelubye lion gang having a snooze, so as soon as we hit signal I sent Heksie a message as she was heading that direction and I know how much she loves lion.



Nobody needed the loo again when we arrived at Lower Sabie, so we decided to head up the H10 towards the Mlondozi turnoff with the hope of finding a cheetah.

The H10 Bridge produced an ellie family having a drink, but it was a major mission holding the camera still in the wind, so I’m surprised the Cow got this pic as I gave up. Check the chop on the water.



The H10 to the Mlondozi turnoff produced the odd lone ellie, zebra and ostrich, but not the cheetah we were trying to find.





When we hit the H10/H4-2 intersection we decided to cruise for a few km down towards the S28 turnoff which is prime leopard territory and 3km later we found a few cars and this chap cooling off on a rock.



The junior leopard didn’t seem that bothered and went to sleep, so we decided to relax a few minutes to see if he would eventually make a move. The traffic coming up the road from Croc Bridge continued to grow and eventually that side of the sighting was gridlocked, but this didn’t seem to bother the leopard who just continued sleeping.

I was now starting to get highly excited as some idiots have no idea or consideration for others and just park 4 deep in a row blocking the entire road. Fortunately we had a view, although obviously not the best spot, but we were about 10 meters from the gridlocked gang and what amazed me is that others just kept passing me and forcing their way into the gang on the wrong side of the road and then stopped and switched off.

Suddenly the little leopard jumped 1m in the air and then ran around the rock in circles trying to bite his bum, which had my rats howling with laughter. Something had obviously stung the leopard on the bum, but this allowed us to take a pic through the twigs.



The leopard then moved to another spot on the rock and went back to sleep, so we decided to turn around and head back towards Skukuza for breakfast, before we got parked in also.

Just before Lubyelubye a car past us heading towards Lower Sabie and I recognised the driver, Heksie and her mom, so I waved frantically out the window and we both reversed until we could chat.

Heksie informed us of a leopard at Lubyelubye rocks and I informed her of the leopard just south of Lower Sabie, but warned about the traffic chaos. Heksie said that we should take the little dirt loop just after the bridge and it was fairly peaceful as there were only a few cars.

We chatted a little about the braai we had planned for lunch the next day with leachy and then said our goodbyes.

The traffic had obviously changed in the time that Heksie and I had chatted because it was total chaos at Lubyelubye when we arrived and there were about 20 cars squeezed into the little loop including 2 OSV operators who were trying to push in.

I decided to enter the loop from the other side and try and get a sighting without getting jammed in the scrum, but there were plenty branches, etc in the way, so we snapped 1 long range proof pic and reversed back to the tar.



As we turned on the tar there was suddenly a massive commotion in the dirt loop scrum and we vaguely spotted the leopard cruise off behind the rock and towards the river, so the gang was now trying to get out of the loop and onto the tar.

We parked off out the way and watched the commotion unravel until there was nobody in the dirt loop, but the bridge was now gridlocked. The leopard was long gone, so the gang were all looking at each other and eventually slowly drove off in different directions until we were the only car left.

I then started plotting that this leopard wouldn’t stay down at the river and that he would return under the bridge and into dense bush as per his normal pattern, so we decided to drive back into the dirt loop.

10 minutes later there was still nothing happening besides the odd car that pulled in and stared at us, but they soon left.

5 minutes later there was a loud crash in the bush next to us which nearly caused a small panic but it was just a hippo cruising around.



Another 5 minutes went by without movement and the rats were starting to get noisy in the back, so my pelican was growing and I was about to start the car when something caught my eye “There’s the leopard!”, which set the Cow off “Where!” and then Bushpig started “THERE!! I see it”, which got the rest in the car move excited “Where’s there!!”

The leopard then decided to move around Lubyelubye rock and out of sight, so I started flapping with the car keys, which got the Cow going again “What are you doing now! Where’s the leopard!!”, which pushed my buttons “There, are you lot blind!!”

I eventually got the car started, roared onto the Lubyelubye Bridge and started shrieking “There, take pictures, give me the @#%$% camera!!”, but nobody else could see it, so the frustrated Cow also got wild “WHERE!! TALK PROPERLY TO ME!!”

While this was going down a second car had arrived and pulled up next to us and the driver was chirping out the window “What do you see”, which wasn’t the best timing “There’s a leopard sitting in the middle of the rock in front of you!!”, which again got the Cow going “HEY BE POLITE!!”, but I had already grabbed the camera and was taking pics.



2 seconds later I heard the Cow “THERE!! It’s in the middle of the rock below us!!”, but I knew that I would face repercussions for my outburst later.

To be continued

Once I start I battle to stop, it must be that hamster which RP talks about

Leachy hurry up, we are about to meet

21st Skukuza continued

My adrenalin was pumping as there’s nothing better in my book than a surprise leopard sighting with only one other car around.

The leopard parked still for about 1 minute, gave a yawn and then started to sneak off, but towards us, so I was shrieking again “Take pics, video!!!”







The leopard made his way onto the grass path which leads under Lubyelubye Bridge, so I was again flapping “Hold the camera, I need to move”, “WHY!!”, “It’s going to walk under the darn bridge”.



I positioned the car so we could see over the other side of the bridge and the leopard participated by cruising out directly under us.

He stopped on a rock for awhile and then ducked off into dense bush.



I now expected a lashing for my outbursts, but everyone’s teeth were hanging out, so I decided to move swiftly on towards Skukuza and change the subject as there was a small traffic jam up ahead “The lion from earlier are still sleeping in the riverbed”.

The lion hadn’t moved so we just slowed and then continued on much to the surprise of others at the sighting.

As we approached the S79 the normal decisions had to be made “Tar or dirt”, “dirt today”.

The S79 didn’t produce much except a giraffe in the road who dwarfed a few impala.



The rest of the drive back to camp didn’t produce much, only the normal locals, a few buffalo and nyala, but the Skukuza area seemed very quiet.





To be continued

21st Skukuza continued

After a late breakfast we decided to cruise around camp looking for the best BE3 units, which is what we were forced to book for a trip next year as the family stuff was gone before bookings opened.

The Cow got excited about a bird in a tree, but was having difficulty getting a pic, so we all had to wait while she sneaked around the tree.

I think it’s a Turaco.



Next up was the kingfisher mission.



We eventually found the 2 x BE3 units that we preferred, recorded the numbers and ducked back to our unit.

It was now 2:30pm and the rats were hassling as they were bored because of the bad weather, so we decided to duck out for an early afternoon drive and since the Skukuza area seemed quiet, we chose to head down towards Lower Sabie again.

The Skukuza area produced the normal locals and a Tawny and then just past Nkuhlu a few lions appeared in the riverbed.





Just before Lubyelubye we found a massive traffic jam for a lion sleeping next to the road, but near the second little dirt loop, so the gang were all trying to force their way into the loop. I plotted joining the crowd to get a better view, but instantly decided it wouldn’t end well, so took a “bum view” pic which doesn’t really flatter the male lion and moved on.



Just past Lower Sabie we found the little leopard from the morning sleeping on another rock, so snapped a pic and turned to head back towards Skukuza.



Sunset Dam produced a Marabou Stork on the way back, which has never got the rats excited before, but since it was part of the ugly 5 detailed in Flutts’s booklet, we had to take many pics of it.



2 new lions had arrived at Lubyelubye rock, which was causing another traffic drama, so again we snapped a quick pic and moved on.



The rest of the drive back to Skukuza only produced a Bateleur as something different.



Back in camp I noticed that we had new neighbours in the GC6 unit across from us and there was no volume control, so every minute increased the size of my pelican, until at around 7:30pm I lost it and shouted across camp “The entire camp doesn’t need to hear your conversion”, which immediately got the Cow busy trying to shut me up, but it worked and I never heard them again.

I think that I must be a nightmare neighbour for those who want to have a “social” in Kruger, but when RP, destroyer and I sat up until 1am “talking” in July, we spoke quietly and I doubt that we worried anyone except our own heads the next day. There’s no need to scream, shout and laugh so loud that hyena respond, but find that my opinion is in the minority nowadays in Kruger, especially in holiday season.

To be continued

again cats... Lions and Leopard

and a Turaco, Purple-crested Turaco

I'm green of...

all the luck

22nd Skukuza

I woke feeling rather fresh as I hadn’t got excited with the G&T the previous evening, so I was immediately hassling all to move their bums towards the car.

Heksie, her mom and leachy were pulling in at lunch time for a braai, so I was also flapping about taking the correct meat out, etc and just generally putting all under pressure.

Just before we got in the car my phone beeped and Heksie informed me that she had left directions to our unit for leachy on his car. I then tried to also send leachy directions, but later found out that he didn’t have his phone on or with him.

The phone beeped again and the pressure increased as Heksie informed about something in a tree just outside Lower Sabie.

We eventually left camp at around 6:20am, but I soon realized that it was a seriously cold day and ended up wrapping spare clothes from the rats around myself, which is a lesson learnt for about the 30th time by me.

The Skukuza area was again very quiet until the H12 Bridge where we found a hyena family returning to their den.



It was quiet again until Lubyelubye where we found 2 lions having a snooze in almost the same spot as the previous day. Amazingly while we were there many just drove on, so either they couldn’t see them or weren’t interested.



We then decided to pull into Lower Sabie as a few were caught short for the loo, but as we drove in the gate a chap drove in behind us from the Croc Bridge side and started flashing his lights, so I stopped and he kindly informed about a leopard who was cruising around just south of Lower Sabie, so I thanked him, but insisted that we still needed the loo. It must have been the same leopard that Heksie informed about that had bailed out the tree.

I rushed the gang to the loo and a few minutes later we were back on the road.

Around 2km south of Lower Sabie we found a few cars scattered along the road, but most were moving slowly, so we slowly approached the mix and the timing was perfect because the leopard appeared in the open just as we arrived, but she was initially rather nervous, because others on the scene had obviously been slowly driving along trying to follow or spot her, so as we stopped others piled in around us.



I thought that she would duck in seconds, so the normal shrieking for cameras, video, etc took place, but she settled down and parked still for a few pics.





A few minutes later she decided it was time to move again, gave a stretch and continued with her morning patrol.



I quickly started the car and moved forward to follow her, but she suddenly hit the deck and that’s when we spotted a herd of ellies heading towards her. This got the Cow going “There’s ellies coming, move!!”, but there’s no way I was going to move.

Then the ellies suddenly smelt her and all the trunks shot up in the air, which only excited the Cow more “They are onto her, they are going to charge!!” and a few seconds later they charged the leopard.





This caused massive commotion as the leopard ran towards us and I initially thought that she was going to duck under our car, but the ellies were in hot pursuit, so the Cow had gone into begging mode “Please, please!!”, however the crowd had grown behind us and a few cars had parked in front of us, so we couldn’t go anywhere even if we wanted to.

Fortunately the ellies lost interest and crossed the road in front of us and the leopard found a new bush to hide behind just to the left of us.



The traffic had become seriously hectic and many were trying to push in next to us, so I signalled to a few cars that if they made a gap for us that we would leave to give them a spot and shortly we were out the scrum, but I watched the commotion behind us as 5 cars tried to pull into our spot.

We stopped about 200m down the road as I didn’t know what to do next as we needed to start heading back towards Skukuza to get things ready for our meet, but there was no way through the scrum that had developed up the road, so we switched off and waited to see if a gap opened up, but after 20 minutes the scrum just doubled in size, so we decided to drive all the way down to the S82 and take that route back towards Lower Sabie.

The S82 produced a giraffe, a Marshall, an ellie having a snooze and a few buffalo.







The rest of the drive back to Skukuza produced the lion from earlier and the normal gang, but nothing that we took pics of.

leachy, Heksie and her mom arrive next

To be continued