As we had seen the pride of 20 lions at Kanniedood Dam, we thought this AM we should head back there and see if we could see them again and maybe they had killed overnight. So at 5:30am that is the way we headed with the plan to drive the 6 kms quickly, check if we could see them and then head back to our favourite road for the balance of the morning drive. I was driving relatively quickly on a dirt road (but below the speed limit in case you’re wondering!) when I saw a leopard just lying there right on the side of the road. Slammed on anchors and that caused said leopard to get up and wander off into the bush. We got a great sighting though still and could watch it for a few minutes as it walked parallel with the road and then deeper into the bush. So much for driving the road to see the lions – which by the way we never did see.

We then took our favourite road north along the river and we saw tons of game this morning. No more predators but animals and birds aplenty. At the end of today we were over 100 birds and our likely best 2 days of birding are yet to come as we are heading further north tomorrow. Our biggest issue this morning was congestion Kruger style – giraffe on the road! It was overcast this morning and so much cooler for much longer. In fact by the time we got back (which was at around 10am) the temperature had only risen to 26 degrees C. Normally overcast conditions don’t make for good birding but this morning was the exception.

I needed to do some work this AM/early PM (bonus and salary time for my paying job and so that can’t get neglected) and Helen did some reading and then catching up on some sleep. We headed out again at 4:30pm – the temperature had risen to 33 degrees C by that point. While we saw the standard on the evening game drive (buffalo, zebra, giraffe, elephant, impala, waterbuck etc), we saw no predators. I reckon it was just to hot again – in fact in places the temperature was up to 37 degrees C.

Braai again for dinner – lamb ribs & chicken wings with stir fried veg, gem squash and a potato for me. In case you’re wondering why I give what I eat each night – it is especially for one of our readers who complains if I don’t tell her!

Until tomorrow …

P & H

Up at 5:15am (our routine now) and off at 5:30am when the gates opened. We tried a new road heading south. Game drive turned into Bird drive … very little game to be seen. New experiences don’t always turn out for the best it seems! Best part of the drive was stopping for coffee overlooking ‘Red Rocks’ which is a river pool where they used to pan for gold in the early 1900s before the KNP existed. We did see bushbuck for the first time on this trip though on the drive – so at least it wasn’t a totally fruitless drive. Also added some more birds to the trip list – we are now touching 90 for the trip (with 1 lifer). Just to put that into perspective – we saw 111 on the recent road trip over 10 days and we have seen 90 in 5 days in the Kruger (without really looking too hard). Last year over 2 weeks we saw 150 birds so I am hopeful that we will surpass that on this trip.

We got back before 9am this morning and spent the majority of the day in the camp. A trip to restaurant for a milkshake (for H) and coke float & waffle for me but basically the rest of the time in the comfort of the air-conditioned chalet. It is not as hot as yesterday. At one point on the evening drive the temperature was 40 degrees (compared to 43 yesterday) but it really didn’t feel as hot today as yesterday (maybe we are getting used to the heat).

We went out at 4:30pm for our evening drive along the river toward the Kanniedood dam (for those none Afrikaans speakers that means ‘Cannot die dam’). It is our traditional evening game drive road from Shingwedzi. The game was immediately obvious and plentiful – impala, waterbuck, elephant, buffalo, tssebee (yes our 2nd sighting of this rare buck and this time 5 of them), kudu, giraffe. My optimistic self kicked in and I was positive we would see some predators again. We did see a crocodile that had cleared eaten a whole buck of some sort – mouth open, buck mainly down but not fully down – first time I have seen that in all the years of coming to Kruger.

When we got to the Kanniedood Dam, sure enough, a pride of lions. At initial count we got to 8 but that steadily increased as we identified more. We drove around to the other side to see if we could get a better view and by the time we got there some zebra and waterbuck were headed down to drink and had piqued the lionesses interest. They drank quickly and carefully and headed back up. At that point it was clear there were 12 lionesses. We drove back around again thinking the view would be better on the other side actually and after watching for awhile a obstinacy (yes that is the correct collective noun … now you’re googling again … that would also be a good collective noun for my family) of buffalo came down to drink and that got even more interest from the lionesses.

At that point some of the lionesses got up and started to make their way toward the buffalo and the buffalo started to head out as quickly as possible. As we watched we counted lions and including the 3 that suddenly appeared out of the grass and another 2 that came out of the trees, we counted 20 lionesses in total! A massive pride – probably the biggest I have ever seen. We watched the pride give up interest in the buffalo and head back into the river area and then eventually we realised we needed to head back to camp as we would otherwise be late for the gate closing. A great evening drive that made up for the poor morning drive.

Dinner tonight was a braai – boerewors & pork rashers with gem squash (done in braai) and ratatouille.

Until tomorrow …

P & H

We were up at 5:15am as the gates now only open at 5:30am since we have moved into February. Our plan was to drive my favorite road in the Kruger – north from Shingwedzi along the river. We have seen everything there is to see in the Kruger on that road and so we had high expectations again today as we set off.

The road yielded a lot of game but unfortunately we only saw hyena this morning when it comes to predators. It was 24 degrees when we set off and when we got back at 9:15am it was already 31 degrees. It was clear it was going to be a scorcher of a day. We went out again for late afternoon game drive and it was a ridiculous 40 degrees when we left and the temperature rose to 43 degrees when we were out! As you can imagine even the animals were lethargic and definitely no signs of predators in that heat. They were under a tree somewhere taking a nap. Our birding list continues to grow and now stands at 77. I am sure it will grow more over the next few days especially as we are spending some time birding on the morning game drives now.

The most excitement today all happened in the camp actually. Midday H & I went to the river (camp overlooks the river) and we saw a waterbuck with a broken leg. First time I have seen that in a game park that I can recall. I guess she won’t last long as she really is prime game for a predator. The front left leg was flapping around though she still managed to limp to the water and we even saw her run on 3 legs at one point. But I still can’t imagine she will last long.

The other excitement happened with vervet monkeys. They are a genuine pest in the camp because they have figured out guests have food and even know how to open doors and fridges. I am pretty vigilant when I see them around. I had just started the fire tonight when a troop of them made their way through the camp. One of them jumped onto the sill and looked at himself in the window for about 5 minutes – pretty vain I know! That same one then wandered over the tree and looked confused at to how to climb the tree. The tree was right next to my braai. I went to take a swig of my Kudu lager and when I turned around the monkey was grasping into the fire and found the potato I had put in there and ran off with it! It must have seen H throw me the potato (wrapped in foil) and it must know that means food. It couldn’t even see up to the level of the braai so it just put it’s hand in and felt around (amongst the coals!) to find the foil and then grabbed it and ran. This all happened in a matter of seconds while I was taking a swig on my beer! Fortunately we have sufficient potatoes that it could be replaced and I was more vigilant to ensure it didn’t steal that one as well!

Dinner tonight was rump steak salad … as good (if not better) than the ostrich steak salad. Only issue was that I was expiring from the heat. It is still over 30 degrees and it is 9:25pm! I am pretty sure I sweated off a few kgs today!

Nice relaxing day even though we didn’t see any of the big predators. We did still see a lot of game including a massive herd of buffalo. There is always something interesting to see and experience in the Kruger!

Until tomorrow …

P & H

We were up at 5am and heading out the gates at 5:20am. Sunrise was actually 5:30am only – gates actually open at 4:30am in January but I saw no point in driving around in the dark. We decided to drive east toward the Mozambique border. The road is one of the best roads in the KNP for lion sightings and we were not disappointed.

Not far down the road we added buffalo – Big 5 number 3 and shortly after that we added Big 5 number 4 as well. About 10km in and we spotted a male lion walking east in line with the road. Not far down the road we saw a herd of impala and a confusion of wildebeest (yes that is the proper collective noun – you’ve learnt something today … now you’re all Googling it to …). They were very alert and all looking in the one direction and sure enough we then spotted the balance of the pride (females) walking along too. It seems they were on the hunt and some impala or wildebeest for breakfast would have been ideal. We watched them for 15 minutes but no action and the lions seemed to give up and head in the other direction.

The rest of the road yielded a lot of game including two cheetah. We stopped for coffee at the Nwanetsi picnic spot which overlooks the dam and while we were drinking coffee I managed to add another lifer to my list of birds – we saw African Finfoot. After coffee we stopped in at the Sweni bird hide where 2 years ago Helen had almost passed out. Fortunately this time was not a repeat. The bird life has been incredible so far. We saw over 50 birds in one day. Obviously things slow down the longer we stay here but this is probably the best start to a KNP trip I have had when it comes to birding.

We got back to the camp just before 10am in the end and spent the balance of the day in the camp just relaxing – napping, I did some work, Helen read etc. It was pretty hot again but not as hot as yesterday (around 32-33 degrees C today). We went out for a short evening game drive at 4pm and got back before 6pm. We added some birds to the trip list and while there was a reasonable amount of game – it was things we had seen already.

Started the braai (Ostrich steak salad for supper tonight) and while it was burning down, I noticed movement under our car. Shone the torch and out pops a spotted genet which then tamely walks away. We followed it for a bit trying to take a photo. I forgot to say that last night we also had a visit from a honey badger while we were eating and he/she reappeared again tonight while we were eating. Helen tried to get a photo of that too but unfortunately we missed it.

Pretty good day for our 1st full day in the game park. Looking forward to tomorrow!

P & H

H & I left for the Kruger National Park today. It is our 3rd year in a row that we have done a Jan/Feb KNP trip – it is becoming a ‘must-do’ holiday for us now. We are not generally given to tradition but this might just be one tradition we have to keep going forward. We left Cape Town on a 10:50am flight to Hoedspruit which is right in the heart of game parks. There is nothing better than getting onto a plane where the majority are foreigners and clearly heading for a ‘safari’. We landed at 1:10pm which was exactly on time. Helen got the luggage (which they simply offload into a shed of sorts) while I picked up the rental car.

It was 37 degrees C when we got into the car and headed to do some shopping in Hoedspruit so that we had food for next 11 days (KNP shops aren’t really great for food). After a quick shop at the very nice Pick n Pay, we followed another tradition and bought KFC for lunch (fastest drive through I have ever had anywhere) and then we headed to the Orpen Gate (about 50 kms away) to enter KNP. We entered the park at about 3:30pm and had another 50 km drive to our camp for tonight.

A few hundred meters from the gate we saw we zebra, wildebeest & impala and we already had the feeling it was going to be a good 11 days. 10kms from the gate we saw our first of the Big 5 – leopard. Not the one you would generally expect to see first but quite nice to tick that off about 15 minutes into the park! It was right on the side of the road and then decided to walk down the road. The only issue was that it did it in front of the car in front of us so we couldn’t always see it. It eventually headed off the road and went and lay down under a bush for an afternoon rest. At that point it was clear it wasn’t going anywhere so we headed off to the camp.

It is incredibly green and the bird life is unbelievable at the moment. We have also seen a lot of game already – wildebees, impala, giraffe, elephant (2nd of Big 5), zebra, kudu and baboon. While no lifers as yet, we have had good sightings of a lot of Birds of Prey already too. We arrived at Satara camp at just after 5pm and checked in for the next 2 nights. It was 34 degrees and very hot still so unpacking was sweaty business!

Braai (chicken wings and lamb chops) for dinner washed down with a beer for me and G&T for H (well actually those technically went down before we ate). Soon off to bed – for some reason being in the game park makes you need to get to sleep early.

Until tomorrow …

P & H