Our usual morning drive started just after 5:30am. We headed north (could only go north or west given where we are) on a dirt road up to a dam and a bird hide. The terrain is very open and teeming with wildlife. At times you can see impala, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest and numerous birds without having to turn your head even. In addition to the game, the BBJs (big brown jobs aka birds of prey) were numerous. On almost every tree there was a raptor to be seen. It got exhausting just checking we hadn’t seen them before and eventually we just gave up. It was a really interesting drive even though the road was VERY muddy and slippery in places. On the road to the waterhole we encountered a hyena. They always seem to be sniffy the air and looking at your quizzically.

The bird hide was a very nice hide but unfortunately not productive at all. It faces east so you are looking straight into the rising sun. And the pond it looks out over was covered in algae and so there didn’t seem to be any bird life at all. It was a pity because it is a really nicely constructed bird hide.

We then headed west on another dirt road and again the game was quite substantial. We also saw numerous cars and quickly discovered it was a leopard and her cub. The mom was lying under a tree and we could get a clear sighting of her. We never saw the cub. The problem with those sorts of sightings is that H and I get irritated with the game trucks and other cars all trying to vie for the best position to see the leopard. We decided not to stay and let another car have our spot and we headed back to camp.

By this point in the morning (just after 9am) the temperature was already 28 degrees and we could tell it would be a scorcher today. The mercury hit 34 degrees later in the day and even when we were eating dinner tonight it was still 30 degrees C. The UV index was 12 – I thought the scale only went to 10 but it seems that 11+ was created for ‘extreme’ conditions. The weather app we use showed 34 C, feels like 43 C – and they were right it did feel like 43!

We spent the rest of the morning in the camp. I went to throw out some rubbish at lunchtime and guess what I encounter in the bin area again but ‘Mr Green Snake that I have no time for’. Having witnessed the ranger remove it with his non specialised tools, I found the same implement leaning up against a tree and tried the same process. This time the snake decided to take itself off toward the fence and I encouraged it along. It did leave at pace which made me realise how quick snakes can be and scares me even more now! I am hoping it is not back again tomorrow at lunchtime … seems to like the bin spot… might be because it is cooler in there.

We did go out for a late afternoon drive but it was still very hot and so predators are unlikely to be active. Throughout the day (including at the camp) we added some more birds and the list is now up to 155. It was important to pass 150 because M&O were here earlier in January and they got to 150 (#notatallcompetitive).

It was a 3 out of 5 Big Five day though as we did see buffalo, elephant and leopard. Braai for dinner which caused me to no doubt lose weight because of the additional heat!

Until tomorrow … P & H

Today was changing camps day. The next 3 nights are at Crocodile Bridge where H and I have not stayed before. We have avoided it because it is right on the edge of the park (at the gate actually) and you can see civilization from the camp. But we decided to give it a try this time for something different.

The shortest route is about 120 kms and we took a slightly longer route – maybe 130 kms. It was mainly dirt roads the whole way – heading east most of the time as Crocodile Bridge is at the far south east of the Kruger (near Mozambique border). The roads we took are not roads I have driven much (if at all) and it really was quite an enjoyable drive. While we didn’t see any predators, there was a lot of game and birds to be seen. The behavior of animals is always intriguing. An example being the photo below.

We stopped at Afsaal (one of picnic spots) and had breakfast. Our breakfast was Roosterkoek filled with scrambled eggs and bacon. At the picnic spot right behind our table we noticed some fresh cat spoor (see pic). After googling it was clear that it was a leopard spoor. I am sure he/she was long gone by the time we were eating breakfast. We arrived at Crocodile Bridge at about 12:45pm and fortunately they allowed us to check in and get our hut.

It was pretty warm by this point (32 degrees) so being inside with air conditioning was what was needed. I was sitting inside catching up on email correspondence when I heard H shout and ran out to find her saying ‘snake, snake’ and I said ‘where’ and she replied ‘in the bin’. The bin is actually in a locked small enclosure next to the braai. On closer inspection I saw Mr Snake who had fitted itself between the bricks. Thin green job. I hate snakes and only green snake I know is a green mamba (which I know is deadly). Figured the only thing to do was go get a ranger. When I got to reception the lady there told me she too is petrified of snakes. The head ranger of the camp was in Skukuza for the day (not going to leave that snake there for the balance of the day!) but fortunately they found another ranger who was off duty but came anyway. He didn’t have his snake grabber tongs so he just improvised. He did ID the snake as Green Spotted Bush Snake (fortunately not venomous at all – he said the bite would be painful though). Removed snake to over fence and saw it slither off into the bush hopefully to not make a reappearance anytime soon.

We spent the balance of the day in the camp as I had a meeting late afternoon. The wildlife came to us though including an elephant right up against the fence near our hut. The fence is pretty flimsy but fortunately the elephant had no intention of coming into the camp. H spent most of the afternoon bird watching and messaging me occasionally to tell me all the things she had seen. I managed to catch up on a few of them and so we are now on 144 birds for the trip. H did see what would be another lifer for me – Grey Waxbill – so I am hoping I will see it in the next few days while we are at the camp. Right on the edge of its range.

Braai of ostrich steak (for steak salad) for dinner. Fortunately we started
earlier tonight because at 7:20pm a thunderstorm passed by and it was a deluge for a few minutes. We were already finished eating by that point so definitely better timing than last night.

Until tomorrow … P & H

We decided last night that we would head to the Transport Dam which is about 25 km from the camp this morning. We figured we would just stay there for an extended stretch and see what was coming and going. The drive out was incredibly uneventful. It was unfortunately very overcast and also raining so the bird life was even lacking. We only saw hyena (one walking down the road and a mother and child in the den) until we got to the waterhole. At least at the waterhole there was waterbuck and impala. We spent a good amount of time there and an elephant also came and went and then we decided to head back to camp but on a longer route back.

As we were heading back to the main road, one of the cars that was earlier at the dam was parked off and we saw they were watching a leopard in a tree. He wasn’t active except that after a few minutes he went higher up the tree and found another comfortable branch to sleep on and went back to napping. Really nice sighting and reasonably close to the road.

The return trip was much more fulfilling from a game perspective as we saw elephant, wildebeest, zebra, impala, waterbuck & baboon. We also added a few more birds to the trip list though today was a poor day for birding due to the overcast conditions and rain.

We spent the rest of the day in the camp, did some camp birding (list up to 134 now for the trip) and H had a late afternoon run around the camp. I started a braai early because I feared that it might start raining again. We almost made it before it started to pour down with rain. We did a boerewors braai. We had to finish off the wors in the pan on the stove as the heavy rain eventually put the fire out completely. The rain was like a waterfall coming off the hut’s thatch roof. Just running out to get the wors off the braai resulted in me being soaked (my shirt is still wet!).

I’m sure it will be an early night again!

Until tomorrow … P & H

After the long drive yesterday we decided we would just do some short drives today and otherwise relax in the camp. I woke up before my 5am (probably got to do with fact that I was asleep before 10pm) and H woke up shortly after 5am. We headed out around 5:30am just as the sun was rising.

We headed for Mestel Dam which is north of the camp. We had coffee there and had seen some nice bird life but the game was pretty sparse. At that point we only had seen impala and wildebeest and in the end we only added elephant to the morning drive and no other game. The grass is very high and unless something is in the road or walks across the road as you drive by, I reckon you won’t see it. From some research I found out that Pretoriuskop is the highest camp (in terms of altitude) and has the highest rainfall. That explains the high grass and very thick bush.

The bird life though is pretty good and despite the poor occurrence of game, we did quite a few birds to the trip list which now stands at 126. In addition, on the morning drive we added number 499 on my lifer list – European Honey Buzzard. You might ask what happened to 498 because I was on 497 yesterday. When I got back to camp and was updating my list, I noticed I had missed off one bird on my masterlist so I was actually on 499 after the morning drive.

We went out again at 3:30pm. The entire day it was overcast though it never rained. The temperature was also pretty mild for this time of the year – peaking again at 28 C. This evening’s drive was even worse for game viewing. We saw one old bull elephant and some waterbuck at the Shitlhave Dam. However, the big thing was that about 3-4 kms from camp I spotted a Eurasian Hobby which took me to 500 birds!

It was a much longer process though than it took to write! I saw the bird, looked through my binoculars and said Eurasian Hobby but H never believed me. She thought I had confirmation bias because earlier in the day I had a Whatsapp conversation with my one son (M). I had said it was going to be tough to get to 500 because I had seen all the common stuff so it was going to have to be something harder to ID. My son has recently been to KNP (earlier in Jan) and had seen the Eurasian Hobby so he said all I needed to do was see that. So H simply didn’t believe me and thought I was partly joking. We basically spent 10 minutes making 100% sure it was the Eurasian Hobby – didn’t want to get to 500 with a false ID! I had my doubts I could get there during this trip but I am very pleased I did. To get to 600 is going to be somewhat harder though and will definitely require a pelagic.

Beautiful evening tonight. Not a breath of wind and the clouds lifted/broke slightly so we had an amazing pink sky and sunset while I made the braai. Chicken sosaties on the braai along with some potatoes in the coals. Lovely meal to finish a relaxing day.

Until tomorrow … P & H

We changed camps today. It is about 150 km we needed to cover. You can only check in at 2pm and so we thought if we left around 7am and had breakfast and lunch on route we would arrive at roughly 7am. What we didn’t factor in was H waking up before 5am and I woke up at about 5:30am. We were up, packed and ready to leave by 6:30am and so we headed out figuring we could stop at all the dams on route.

The bird life was amazing for at least the first 2 hours. At some point I remarked that we had hardly seen any game but it really didn’t matter. It was again a mild morning (20 degrees) and it was overcast as well so it stayed cool (rising to about 24 degrees) until mid-morning. It also rained a bit during our drive down but nothing substantial – just a light drizzle.

The bird of the trip so far is Red-billed Quelea. They are amazingly abundant and found in large flocks. We reckon we saw one flock that could easily have been 5000 or more. Colonies apparently can be up to 1 million in size! There are 35 million (yes you read that correctly) in the Kruger Park alone. It is the most abundant bird in the world with an estimated population of 1.5 billion. They are considered pests in some places as they eat crops like locusts would. In most countries were they are found, they have to do controlled killing to ensure that they don’t become too abundant. In SA they apparently kill around 100 million a year (not kidding!). This morning they were in abundance – maybe the terrain, maybe the timing of our drive. Both H and I wondered how long it was going to take for one of them to fly in through the window!

We stopped at Tshokwane Picnic Site for breakfast. It is about half way between Satara and Skukuza (which is really the ‘capital’ of the Kruger). We have stopped there numerous times previously and they make a nice breakfast of egg, bacon and cheese in a jaffle (google a jaffle if you want to know what it is).

I subscribe to a rare bird notification list and I had seen that two days ago a sighting of African Pygmy Geese was seen at Leeupan and that was on our road today. So we pulled in there to see what we could see. What a good decision. The bird life was abundant. We got numerous trippers and most importantly we added two lifers taking me to 497 lifers now. We saw Lesser Moorhen and we had an excellent sighting of it. It is quite rare and so I am really happy to have been able to see it. We also added Burnt-necked Eremomela to the list. After 2.5 days our trip list is now 103. I suspect that is the best we have been after 2.5 days versus other trips.

On the animal side, we had two sightings of hyena today – both in their dens on the side of the road and both teenager pups. We also added duiker to our list. Still need to add leopard and rhino but we have plenty of time to still do that.

We arrived at Pretoriuskop just before 2pm. We spent the balance of the day in the camp as I had to do some business meetings (what would a holiday be without business meetings!). The good news is that the wind finally died down and it was a perfectly still and beautiful evening. As I had meetings we went simple and had pasta for dinner tonight.

Until tomorrow … P & H

Gates open at 4:30am at the moment but the sun only rises at 5:23am so we really didn’t see the point of heading out earlier than that. We woke at 5am and we headed out at about 5:30am. We aimed to do our favorite route – head east toward Mozambique and the Nwanetsi picnic site. The gravel road takes you along the river – you have the river on your right and the open savannah grasslands on your left. You then turn south for a few kms to the picnic site. After a quick stop there we go to the Sweni Bird Hide and then head back west along the tar road back to the camp.

The road was as rewarding as we generally experience it. Elephant, waterbuck, impala, kudu and baboons. Lots of birds despite the wind blowing quite strongly again. Unfortunately no lifers but the trip list currently stands at 84 species after 1.5 days.

Just after we turned south heading to the picnic spot we saw impala and zebra running for their lives. This wasn’t a casual ‘lets stretch our legs’ type of run – it was let’s get out of here as quickly as possible. It was clear a predator was after them and the only question we had was which one and where was it. Suddenly onto the road trotted a pack of wild dogs. We haven’t seen wild dog for at least 2 years. Unfortunately they didn’t actually seem to be hunting. We were the only car to see them before they eventually trotted back off into the bush.

About 3-4 kms further down the road we saw another pack of wild dog. This one was bigger and so we reckon that they probably belong to the same pack but just got separated. There are only around 300 wild dog in the park. In 2000 they surveyed and found only 177 in 25 packs which means an average of just over 7 per pack. The one group we saw were 5 and the other was around 7-8 so it could in fact be two separate packs that we saw. Either way, I don’t recall being in the park and seeing wild dog twice in my entire lifetime let alone seeing them twice on the same game drive!

We got back to camp just before 10am and had the whole day ahead of us to do nothing. H caught up on some sleep, I managed to do some work that needed catching up and we did an hour bird walk around the camp and added about 10 birds to our trip list. It wasn’t overly hot again today (around 28 C) so even the walk was relatively pleasant. We headed out again late afternoon for a short drive to two dams. The game seemed to have gone into hiding as we hardly saw any game – some waterbuck, impala and elephant. We did have a few nice sightings of birds.

Braai again for dinner – barbecue chicken with gem squash and sweet potato all done in the braai and then off to bed. H is already asleep as I type this and I reckon I won’t be far behind her!

P & H

It’s our annual sojourn to the Kruger Park. Despite Covid, we have managed to get to the Kruger Park at this time of the year for the last 5 years now. We started for our 25th wedding anniversary and now it has become a tradition for us.

We flew into Hoedspruit airport and arrived just after 1pm. We headed straight into Hoedspruit to do some shopping. Helen broke with tradition and didn’t have KFC for lunch but I stuck with it. We then headed in to the Kruger. Before we reached the gate even we had seen 2 of the big 5 – elephant and buffalo. We entered at the Orpen Gate and headed east toward Satara Rest Camp which was our first overnight stop.

The road was teeming with game including large herds of impala, zebra and wildebeest. We saw numerous herds of elephant and more of the standard animals like waterbuck, kudu and vervet monkeys. We ticked off a number of birds as well – we would expect that though at the start of the trip. The highlight of the drive was that about 10 km short of the camp we saw a cheetah walking through the grass and then it crossed the road in front of us and continued walking away from us. A really good sighting. Then a further 2-3 kms down the road a lioness came walking down the road and she walked right past my window. We followed her down the road until she also headed into the long grass and we couldn’t see her anymore. Perfect timing and perfect start.

We got into the camp just before 6pm, checked in and started a fire for our first braai (ostrich steak). Fortunately the wind died down a little when I was braaiing because it had been blowing very strongly since we entered the park. The temperature is relatively mild at the moment – it was 28 degrees when we arrived and dropped to about 23 when we were eating dinner. I believe it is cooler in the KNP than it was in Cape Town yesterday (which is very unusual).

While we were washing up after dinner I noticed an African Wild Cat sitting right near our hut. It was clearly looking for food. It didn’t seem to be perturbed by us or our torch and so I managed to get withing 2 meters from it to take some photos.

The travel and fresh air caught up to us quickly and we headed to bed. A great start to our trip.

P & H