Shingwedzi Day 2 and then home February 14, 2021
Only 3 people decided to head out for the morning game drive - H & B decided that a sleep in was necessary but S, K and I headed out. I'm pleased we did because we saw another lifer (Monotonous Lark) which took my lifers for the trip to 4 and my total lifer list to 479. S is not far behind me on 469 having closed the gap over the last 7 days by seeing...
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Shingwedzi Day 1 February 13, 2021
Young male lion from previous day It was overcast for the most of the day and the temperature never got much above 27 degrees. It was actually relatively cool at times especially when driving with the window open. We did head north for our morning drive. Unfortunately, due to the heavy recent rains up north, some of the dirt roads are still closed. That included the river drive that H and I love to take when...
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Olifants to Shingwedzi February 12, 2021
The Kruger never disappoints. The drive from Olifants to Shingwedzi (our camp for the nest 3 nights) was one of those memorable ones. We left at 6:30am and the drive was similar in distance that we did from Lower Sabie to Olifants. We saw a reasonable amount of game on the drive up towards Letaba but just outside Letaba (about 5 kms from the camp) we saw lion on the side of the road and covered...
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Olifants & the BIG birthday February 11, 2021
50 years ago, my wife was born to D&B. The reason we are doing this trip at this time (and thankfully we could despite Covid), was to celebrate H's 50th. H had chosen Olifants as the camp she wanted to be at because she loves the view so much. We left at 5:30am for the morning game drive. As a once off special we all loaded into the same car so we could be together for...
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Lower Sabie to Olifants February 11, 2021
On Tuesday we changed camps from Lower Sabie to Olifants. It is a 140 km drive, and while that doesn't seem very far when you can drive 60, 80 or 100 km/h, it is about a 5 to 6 hour drive when you're driving at 30-40 km/h. We headed out at 6:30am driving north. We saw a reasonable amount of the standard game but nothing special. We stopped for breakfast at Tsokwane (a picnic spot) and...
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Lower Sabie Day 2 February 9, 2021
Sunrise from our bedroom We decided that we should drive south for our morning drive for two reasons. Firstly, we would shortly be heading north so this was really our only opportunity to head south. Secondly, we could check to see if Crocodile Bridge gate was open for M&O who were arriving later from Cape Town.  We saw a reasonable amount of game heading out of the camp but no predators. Lots of elephant & buffalo....
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Lower Sabie Day 1 February 8, 2021
I was up very early (3:10am!) and simply couldn't get back to sleep so I did some work and just enjoyed the calls of the wild until the sun rose and we went out for our morning drive. Everyone was ready promptly at 5:30am. We decided to head over the Sabie River (which has fortunately stopped flooding - it was 2 days ago still not possible to cross the low water bridge) and then head north...
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Satara to Lower Sabie February 7, 2021
We left Satara today for Lower Sabie. Given the length of the drive and that you can only check in at 2pm, we decided to get up later than usual (6am) and after packing up we headed out. The drive was only 130 km but when you're driving at 35km/h, it does take quite long. It was overcast the whole day but it never really rained at all (some very light drizzle at one point). That...
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Satara Day 5 February 5, 2021
We headed out a bit later today and decided to drive east again on the road to the eastern boundary. Just before the turn we saw something lying in the road and drove down to see what it was and it turned out to be a dead lioness. First time in my life I have seen a dead lion. Unclear what killed it - could have been disease or an injury. Nothing was noticeable except that...
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Satara Day 4 February 5, 2021
We woke up yesterday to an absolutely stunning sunrise. There isn't quite anything like a bushveld sunrise and sunset. Hard to explain, hard to capture on a photo - must be experienced yourself. We headed out south from the camp and we saw a few cars further down one road (we weren't planning on going that way) so we went down to see what that they were looking at. There was a flattened out patch where...
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