We headed north this morning with the plan of at least getting to the Olifants River. The bridge over the Letaba River is washed away and you cannot go past that point. We thought we would go as far as we wanted and then just turn around and head back. We were on the road at 5:40am. It was a slightly misty/overcast morning so the birds weren't yet as active but we managed to see a...

I see that the video link again didn't come through if you receive the blog by email. If you read it on the website (templetravels.co.za) then you'll find the video is there. Otherwise, you will have to satisfy yourself with this photo. We were a bit slow to get up this morning. We had planned to be out at gate opening (5:30am) but managed to only get out just before 6am. It was a clear morning...

We decided to have a bit of later start today as we headed to Satara. Some coffee and breakfast for me (too early for H for breakfast) and then we packed up and hit the road. It is about 90 kms from Skukuza to Satara and we expected it to take between 4-5 hours with some long stops at our favourite dams on route north. It was partly overcast for about half the drive which meant...

Gates now open at 5:30am and we were out slightly after that (5:35am). We thought everyone would be out by then but of the cars in our section (about 10 or so), we were the first to leave. At 10:50am, our one set of neighbours have not been seen. Not sure where they are but car hasn't moved. And it never moved the entire day. I saw them once when they came back from the shop...

We seem to be getting progressively later and later in getting up and out. Today we only managed to get out by 6am. It had rained overnight (lightly) and it was still heavily overcast and drizzling in the morning as well. Birding becomes more challenging in the rain. We headed to Shitlhave Dam to enjoy our coffee and rusks. On route we passed the spot where we had seen the birds that lead to the leading...

H and I are progressively sleeping in later and so leaving later. We would argue we are adjusting to the gate opening time changing tomorrow. We woke at 5am and left just after 5:30am. The birds were still pretty quiet as the sun only rises at 5:30am at the moment and it was a little overcast again this morning. We had decided to do the two dams as our morning drive - Mestel Dam first and...

Despite the encouragement from Brett and other drinking neighbours to leave at 4:30am because we would see nightjars on the road, H and I got up slightly later than previous day but still managed to leave at around 5:15am. We have gotten more efficient and into our rhythm. It was overcast which is never great for birding and the bush was very quiet for the first few kilometers while the sun was coming up. The sunrise...

Gates open at 4:30am until the end of the month. Sunrise is only at 5:30am so that means it is still pretty dark at 4:30am. We believe you need some light to see the game and the birds aren't really active either until around sunrise. We planned to head out at 5am but we were a little disorganized and only managed to get out at 5:10am. Our order of seeing animals this morning was (1) elephant...

The plan this morning was a quick bird walk around the property and then breakfast and then head out. It was a cooler morning (around 19 degrees C) and so it was a lovely walk around the country estate before breakfast. We added a few more birds to our trip list. Breakfast was a full buffet with the one of the biggest omelettes I have ever had. Glad we did the 30+ min walk before breakfast!...

As we get older it seems that we are starting to wake before sunrise - which was the case today. The gates only open at 7am in the park and we planned to leave as they opened. Waking up early gave us an opportunity to have some coffee and breakfast for me (too early for H) before we packed up the car and headed out. We decided to do the slightly slower option and to drive...