The Fifth Leg- Animal Episodes (11-26 November)

Hello Blog-readers 

I do hope you haven't given up on me ?  I have been very delinquent about this final post from 2014 ...........I am still around, just in case you were wondering, and have resolved my 3G service provider issues, and am back on the air.  I wish I could say the resolution was amicable and economical, it was definitely neither.  

Given the delay in making this post, the most important of all tasks I have is to wish you and your loved ones a happy and prosperous 2015.  May the year bring you everything you need firstly, and most of what you want too !  As you know, our trip will continue this year, and we will combine adventures with visits to friends and family.

The animal episode in Kruger was an extremely busy time, and Tony and I experienced some wonderful sights in Kruger, and it is very difficult to pare down the experiences (and photos) to just a few - but lets jump right into it and see how we get on !

From Shingwedzi Rest camp, Tony and I travelled south to the Mopani Rest Camp, which overlooks the Pioneer Dam - also a bit of a birding spot, sorry - I know I promised animals !

We had booked a night at the Shipandani Hide there are two bird hides in Kruger Park which are kitted out for visitors to spend the night, with fold down beds, and a small braai (barbeque) area behind the hide for cooking.  We were looking forward to this experience, and expected to see and hear a lot of nocturnal birds.  

Black Crake

Burchell's Coucal

Things started off well at sundown, with sightings of Burchell's Coucal, and Black Crake (a very cute little chick !), in addition to the usual selection of herons, water thick knees (what a name for a bird!) and geese.

And as usual, our luck ran out as the sun was setting, and it turned out to be yet another dark and stormy night.  We hurriedly shut all the "windows" - mesh screens intended to keep out large and nasty animals.  And decided that this was not going to be a cooking night, because the wind was too fierce.  After a number of large mugs of wine, and some peanuts, we jumped into our fold down beds, for a good night's sleep. Have you ever tried to sleep with the wind blowing your hair around ?  Not easy, I can assure you.  Not only did we have a very restless and disturbed night, but we did not see or hear a single nocturnal bird, thanks to the gale force winds ! To add insult to injury, you have to vacate the hide 30 minutes after the rest camp gates open - so we had to be packed and gone by 5:00am  This was not our best night in Kruger Park, by a long stretch.

We left from the hide, and travelled to Letaba Rest Camp, dumped our trailer in their car park, stole a shower, and headed straight to Phalaborwa (outside the park) to do some shopping - again fresh fruit and veges, a few beers and a drop or two of wine.  Now we were set for the rest of our stay. On our return to Letaba, to make up for the previous night, we checked into a hut - with real beds and linen (!), pure luxury ! We also caught up on our housekeeping - laundry, packing our newly acquired groceries and tidying the Landcruiser and the trailer, putting things back in their proper places.  

After a fantastic night's sleep, we then drove further south to our next destination, Satara Rest Camp, one of our favourites - have a look at this reference, to see how it got its name.  We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset on our first evening at Satara, and things were looking up. Satara is in the heart of "big cat" country, according to the advertising blurb, and we certainly weren't disappointed.

Breakfast time for the king of the jungle - another hapless buffalo met its end.  And the hyenas got the left overs. 

And here we have the King of the jungle "on the job" - the lioness is in the grass somewhere under him.  And the satisfied grin on completion of the deed. This lion was completely oblivious to the fact that there were 10-12 cars full of people watching him in action.  But he will be made famous by the Australian lady who had a better vantage point than Tony and I, and had captured a couple of minutes of activity on video, and intended to post this to YouTube.  I wonder if she ever did ?

A couple of days later, we encountered a pride of lions who were recovering from a feast (buffalo, again !), and some of the younger members of the pride engaged in a bit of play fighting - here a sequence of photos of a young lioness and her brother.

 A little drink after a BIG meal - look at that boy's tummy !

You can't go to sleep now - lets have some fun.

Well, ok, if you are sure that's what you want,.

 Sis, go away, its been a long night, I need to rest.

 Bro, stop being so BORING ..............

That got you up again !  Lets play some more :-)

 And then of course, nothing can explain some of the choices animals make - there has to be somewhere more comfortable to lie than on the tar road ? Or the ditch this rhinoceros found comfortable ?
 

And I can't resist including some "aaawww, cute" photographs: 

Is it possible to take a picture of zebras that isn't appealing ?  Even the ubiquitous warthog has something going for it.  Okay, so his mother loves him.

And then there are the babies:

This hyena pup and its sibling were denned in a culvert under the road, and had been left by their mother who had gone off to find food.  The pups were told not to move, and they didn't, so it was easy to get some really good shots.  What a pity that they grow up to be not such nice beasts.

A mother white (square-lipped) rhinoceros and her calf.  We were amazed at just how many rhinos we saw in the park, given all the bad news about the prolific poaching activity.  The problem with the white rhino in particular is that it grazes in open grassland, and also has terrible eyesight, which makes it an easy target for poachers.  The black (hook-lipped) rhino browses in thick bush and is also much more aggressive, so more difficult to poach.


An impala doe and her fawn. Impala mother is able to delay giving birth by up to a month, in order to ensure good conditions for her new baby.  After the first rains of summer fell in mid-November many impala fawns were born - and the mothers and babies hang out together in nurseries, for safety and support. 


And the elephant calves who always look dwarfed by the adults' legs around them - but they are never short of nannies - mother, aunties, older sisters are always there, looking out for them.  These ladies very protective of their charges, and woe betide anyone getting too close.

After spending much longer than planned at Satara, Tony and I wanted to go to Lower Sabie for the next stop - but we could not get camping accommodation - it was the weekend, a concept which had lost some meaning for us in the month of travel.  So we opted to go to Berg-en-Dal, in the southernmost part of the park, where neither of us had been before.  What a pleasant surprise - great campsite, located in a mountainous area and completely different from Satara.  (I have left out the bit where we spent a night at Skukuza - what a shocker, I have no idea why people would want to stay there, it is busier than Sandton City Mall on a Saturday morning, and game drive vehicles travel in convoys!  Horrors! )

And it was from Berg-en-Dal that we had some of our best game viewing, despite the fact that it often involved lengthy drives.  One of the game guides we chatted to suggested that visitors were no longer satisfied with the Big Five, it is the Magnificent Seven they want to see - the Big Five plus cheetah and wild dogs.  We were lucky enough to have a fabulous sighting of cheetah, and a number of separate encounters with wild dogs. 

On one of our drives, we came upon a number of vehicles stopped for a cheetah in the distance.  We used this opportunity to have a cup of tea and a biscuit, and waited to see if it would come any closer.  Everyone else left except us - and when we were alone, the cheetah (there were actually 2 of them) sauntered up past our vehicle, and found some shade on the opposite side of the road.  Truly beautiful animals.

And then there were the wild dogs.  There is a pack of them that range around Berg-en-Dal, and we saw them on a number of occasions.  The pack was a lot smaller than normal,because the alpha female had a new litter of pups in the den, and she and the other females stay at home to look after them, while the male dogs go hunting.  It was the males that we saw after a successful hunt and feed, having a drink and resting in the shade.

Apologies for the bits of foliage and motor vehicle that get in the way of these photos -the dogs will just not pose in the right spots !!

 

We saw these dogs on our initial drive down to Berg-en-Dal, crossing one of the main tar roads.  Sightings are definitely a lucky matter of being in the right place at the right time.  A minute earlier or later  and we would have missed these dogs completely.

With very heavy hearts on 26th November, Tony and I made our way out of Kruger National Park, driving from Berg-en-Dal through Pretoriuskop to exit at the Phabeni Gate.  We were definitely not looking forward to engaging with the busy city life again.  But we had other exciting things to look forward to - catching up with friends and family for the festive season !

A few final photos from the last drive out of KNP.

The Baby Elephant Walk

Hippo scaling the rapids

The stately giraffe

 

Tortoise making an escape

African Wattled Lapwing

And the strangest beast of all

I will do a very short post on our "holiday" from the trip, and then we will be resuming The Great Trek before the end of January.

The Fourth Leg - Birding Days (1-10 Nov)

Tony and I were in a rush to get away from Nwanedi Game Reserve, and left early on 31st Oct, to travel in to Musina for some shopping - the usual stuff, fresh fruit, veges, wine, beer ........I think we ended up in the wrong end of Musina, we are not part of the demographic the Super Spar supermarket caters to.  So we got our stuff done in a big hurry (it was month end) and set course for our next destination - Pafuri River Camp which is 2 kms from the Pafuri gate to Kruger National Park.  

We turned up without a reservation on a very hot Friday afternoon, and were

accommodated by Koos and Hannetjie without a problem.  Most of their guests use the tented tree houses, and not camping, so space was not an issue.  What a spot this turned out to be - almost completely off the grid - no electricity, no cell phone signal unless you climbed up to Signal Hill.  And what a difference to our previous experience.  

For guests, there is a lapa available - and the bar and shaded swimming pool - temperatures peaked here in January at over 50 degrees C, so you really need a shaded pool and bar !

We got our camping spot in a secluded part of the property, with very own shower (gas) and loo (flush), set up camp and were ready to relax in this very rustic but perfect venue.

The Bathroom

The Bedroom

And the kitchen

Blue Waxbill

Violet-backed Starling

And now I have to admit that we did nothing very much in this beautiful spot - it was too damn hot.  We sat in our camp chairs and looked at birds. When it was very, very hot, we went to the bar, and looked at birds.  And when it got a bit cooler, we walked around the property and looked at birds. 

Collared Sunbird

Just in case you are wondering, I have not become an expert bird photographer overnight - I have lifted most (not all, but most) of the bird pictures from the internet  

After a couple of lazy days at Pafuri River Camp, it was time to move on to the meat of our trip - Kruger National Park !  We entered KNP in the northern end, at the Pafuri Gate and travelled to the Pafuri Picnic site - a magnet for birders. The picnic site is located on the banks of the Luvhuvhu River, and there are loads of enormous old trees which are home to a huge variety of birds.  This is also where we were greeted by a family of ellies having a little paddle in the river while chewing on an obviously tasty dead tree - the mud adds that extra relish !


At the picnic site, there were also a LOT of birders breakfasting heartily, with all their bird watching gear - the value of which could easily have paid for the upgrades to JZ's Inkandla home, and with money to spare for a couple of extra wives.  (Did you know that one of JZ's recent a matrimonial acquisitions is an ex-IBM employee ? )


But I digress - back to the animals and birds - how lovely is this mommy Nyala and her baby ?  This is when I knew we were in for an awesome journey through the park - lots of animals and beautiful birds. 








Eventually we managed to tear ourselves away from the picnic site, to travel to our first rest camp, Punda Maria - the name of his camp has an interesting provenance and is also one of the older and more traditional rest camps in Kruger.  

A recent addition to this rest camp is a hide with a flood-lit waterhole, which is a favourite sundowner spot for campers.  One evening Tony and I spent a LONG time in the hide, without seeing anything, and Tony was definitely getting restless.  Finally we were the only people left - when an African Civet sped past in front of us !  Wow - we left feeling very lucky to have seen this shy nocturnal animal !  As we started walking back to our tent, we heard some very BIG splashing noises and rushed back - to find 100's of Cape (African) Buffalo going for a floodlit skinny dip.  Don't you think that they look like cows with questionable hair dos ?  

Too soon it was time for a change of scenery, and we headed south to Shingwedzi Rest Camp, still firmly on the birding scene.  This rest camp was flooded in January 2013 when the Shingwedzi river burst its banks, and major rebuilding and renovations have taken place, so the camp was looking spick and span when we got there.  The camp site sported a resident Yellow-billed Kite which glided overhead all day, looking for scavenging opportunities.  On the less mundane side, we had sightings of a number of firsts for me - the highlight being the gorily named Cut-throat Finch. 

  
The Broad-billed Roller and Grey-headed Bushshrike also featured - again, so many birds that I had never seen!

Shingwedzi was also the scene of our first lion sighting of the trip.  The first few nights after we arrived, we could hear the roar of the lions as we went to sleep.  One morning, we realised that the lions had had a successful hunt. Two male lions had killed an adult buffalo on the sandy banks of the Shingwedzi river, and having breakfast by the time we arrived. 

The lions ate their fill, and left to sleep the rest of the day in the shade.  Then the next lot moved in - the crocodiles and vultures.  Have a look at the picture where one of the crocs has crawled right inside the carcass of the unfortunate buffalo !  Two days later, driving past the same spot, there was no trace at all of the buffalo - not a bone in sight.





 
And to end this birding episode, with our final bird identification challenge.  We found this bird and were unable to identify it - this time of the year there are lots of red herrings (mixing my metaphors now) - there are migrant birds, birds in the breeding feathers, and also a lot of immature or juvenile birds around.  So I pondered on this picture for some time before identifying it as a Western Osprey - an uncommon migrant, it says in the gospel according to Roberts.  



I am going to publish this post now, and return soon with the animal episode.  There has been a long break since the last post - I will refer you to the marvellous service provider who decided that I had used enough data for the month of November, and unless I coughed up exhorbitant amounts of cash, I would have to wait until December to continue the story of our travels.  (More details on request - I need to VENT !)