Olifants Camp to Letaba

We decided to take a leisurely drive to Letaba as we only had a short
way to drive to Satara today.   In 2006
as we crossed a ford a group of turtles came rushing out of the water to greet
us looking like aliens demanding to be taken to our leader and this time at the
same spot the same thing happened.  Only
this time there was a baby crocodile with them.   The croc was ever so tolerant of the turtles
clambering over his back and seemed unfazed by people too.  We believe that people have been feeding
these creatures and that is why they mass out of the water to beg for
titbits.  

At Letaba, we looked for the pearl-spotted owls but
they don’t seem to be there anymore.  The
bushbucks were grazing in the camp but the redheaded weavers were conspicuous
by their absence.  The one interesting
creature we observed was a leguaan. He was digging in the leaf litter and
relishing some delicacy – possibly a beetle of some sort.  

On a bridge en route home, we stopped to observe
peregrine falcons fighting with yellow-billed kites.  It was quite exciting. We are not sure what
the conflict was about.

Soldier Ants are fascinating creatures – they march
like a regiment and nothing seems to stop their set path.  Today we observed a line of them crossing the
road and as it was a small regiment, we could see where the line began and
where it ended.  Yes – even ants are
fascinating and worth stopping for.

Interesting birds we saw today were wattled
starling – hundreds of them – southern black tits and arrow-marked
babblers.   Little swifts, white-rumped
swifts and Horus swifts were flying under the bridge and out again.  At our camp at Satara, Little Swifts were
nesting in deserted swallow nests under the eaves of all the units.

Just before we entered Satara, we observed a
spotted hyena slinking along away from us. 
He then changed direction and headed toward the camp fence.  There was a herd of impala grazing nearby and
they did not like his intrusion.  When he
got too close they scarpered and pronked off to a safer distance.

Friday
16^th January 2009

Satara to Skukuza

We left Satara and 20 past six and made our way to Skukuza. We followed
a route that took us to Orpen Dam and on the way; we saw buffalo, waterbuck,
kudu, giraffe and many interesting birds including large flocks of white
storks, which are more plentiful than I’ve ever observed in Kruger before.

Today we saw Ground Hornbill on two separate
occasions but quite soon after each other. 
The first observation at 9:20 a.m. on the H1-2, about 45 km from Skukuza
we saw two adults with juvenile.  They
were quite a way from the road and the long grass prevented us from taking good
photographs but we saw them beautifully.  
Then at 9:50, 19km from Skukuza we saw another ground hornbill very
close to the road and got lovely photographs.

We arrived at Skukuza at 11 and had breakfast there.

Our highlight bird of
the day was a dark capped yellow warbler at 14h55.  We saw it clearly but it flew off before we
could get photographs.

We arrived at
Berg and Dal at 15: 30. We checked into our family cottage number 19 and then
went for a sunset drive with Lourens Botha.

Berg and Dal – Sunset Drive

Our young guide,
Lourens, was fantastic.  He clearly loved
his job and made the drive interesting and fun. 
He gave titbits of information all the time and we learned that you only
need worry when an elephant stops flapping his ears and stares at you and that
when he is stressed he will become wet on the side of his face where he has a
sweat gland.   He stopped the van next to
a tree and showed us where a hornbill nest was. 
We observed it for a while and saw how the female, holed up inside,
pushed out a wing of an insect and other scraps she needed to discard.  We hoped the male would appear but after 10
minutes, he did not so we moved on.   The
daytime animals and birds that we saw were giraffe, zebra, rhino, elephant,
violet-backed starlings, dung beetle, hamerkop, malachite kingfisher,
green-backed heron and black crake.  The
latter we saw when Priscilla looked down from the top of the new bridge to see
the old bridge and there on said bridge walked a little black crake!

When it became
dark, we saw scrub hare, water thick-knees, spotted thick-knees and spotted
eagle owls on the road.  The owls were
fascinating and we observed them catching insects.   We also saw a Eurasian nightjar but it had
been knocked by a car and had an injured wing. 
Lourens picked it up and showed us its colours and its wide gape.  He was clearly upset that a careless motorist
had been too unobservant to watch out for nightlife on the roads.  It would have been a staff car.

The sunset drive
was a lovely end to our holiday in the Kruger National Park.  

Wednesday,
14 January 2009

Orpen to Satara

We were all up early and ready to leave by quarter to six this
morning.  

There were herds of impala, wildebeest and zebra
right outside the camp. Silke and Kerry had told us that they’d seen a mother
cheetah and two cubs on Monday evening and Tuesday morning.   We knew they would be close to the camp gate
but after a few kilometres there was no sign of cheetah.   Priscilla said, “I’m so disappointed to miss
those cheetahs,”

“What are those?” I said and lo and behold, the
distant silhouettes I spotted turned into a mother cheetah with a cub that must
have been about six months old.     We
watched them for about 20 minutes.  The
mother was clearly introducing her son to hunting and he boldly confronted a
wildebeest who just appeared annoyed and butted him away.   He then decided that Mom was fair game and
pounced onto her back only to be shaken off with an annoyed look.  Eventually after they’d crossed the road back
and forth, a few times, they went behind the bushes and we decided to move
on.   We saw Kerry and Silke at the scene
and then again at Satara and they told us that they’d spent two hours with the
cheetahs. 

Although the scrub hare is a nocturnal creature,
the overcast weather makes him bold and at around 7 o’clock we saw one silently
grazing at the side of the road.  He was
amazingly confiding and did not scamper off into the bush when we stopped to
take photographs.

At 7:40, we turned onto the tar road H7 and not far
along saw, a camper van stopped ahead of us. 
They pointed into the bush and we observed a clump of lion dozing behind
some bushes, which camouflaged them very well. 
We might have missed them had we not been pre-warned.   It was fun seeing them interact with each
other but they were in doze mode so we didn’t pay them a long visit.

We saw a fair amount of game including elephants,
waterbuck, kudu, herds of giraffe, kudu, buffalo, zebra and wildebeest and of
course lots of birds too.   There were a
number of raptors sitting on top of trees the highlight of which was an African
Harrier Hawk.  The mammal highlight of
the day were two little jackal cubs who we thought should have been with Mother
but were out playing on their own.  After
a while, they scampered off, probably to where she had breakfast waiting for
them.

We had our breakfast at Satara and our waiter
greeted us cheerfully – “You are  bird
watchers.  After breakfast I show you a
scops owl in a Marula tree!’  And true to
his word he took us some distance from the restaurant near the eco information
centre and showed us exactly where a Scops was having his daytime sleep.  He was more interesting that the one at
Afsaal as he had his little tufts up and seemed to be not quite as fat!

There had been quite a bit of rain and there were
puddles everywhere but who would expect to see a turtle in one of them?  As we left the Satara car park Earl just
managed to avoid riding over the tiniest one I’ve ever seen and Pris got out to
rescue him but he swam too fast for her so we decided to let nature take its
course.   He’d survived thus far perhaps
he’d find a bigger pond soon enough!

The rest of our trip to Olifants was lovely.  We drove quickly along sections that were dry
and supported little game but in the greener parts along the river there were
herds of giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, buffalo, impala and kudu.   The bird-life was interesting and we saw
large flocks of white stork, marabou storks, wattled starlings and carmine
bee-eaters.   The different raptors we
saw included Eurasian hobby, black-breasted snake eagle, Walberg’s eagle and
tawny eagle and of course there were lots of vultures around.

Crossing the bridge over the Olifants, we saw
African pied wagtails and a pied kingfisher at the edge of the wall.  

Our accommodation is in hut 10 and 11 with the most
magnificent view of the River.   We
observed hippo on the banks and Earl called our attention to a ground hornbill
in a tree. All we could see was its wing hanging out of the foliage but it was
unmistakable.  A little later, he flew
out and settled in another tree on the opposite bank.

Thursday
15 January 2009

Olifants River Walk

We packed up, had breakfast at the restaurant where we saw hippos having
a confrontation and then went on a river walk with our guides Pilot and
Bridgeman.  They took us to the starting
point in an open land rover and we spotted a few interesting animals on
route.  Heather desperately wanted to see
the Pel’s Fishing Owl and it was to a place it is often seen that we were
headed.  Earl spotted it in the tree and
I got to see it fleetingly fly out but it took cover in the thick foliage and
would not come out again – so Heather will have to wait for another opportunity
to get this elusive bird!

Monday,
12 January 2009

Skukuza to Orpen

We left Skukuza just after 6 o’clock.  We were enjoying our bird watching having
seen pied wagtail, boubou, marabou storks and blacksmith lapwings, when a car
waved us down to tell us to look out for lions on the road.  We were amused to find that this is literally,
where they were – a pride of five, lazily lying in the middle of the tar fast
asleep at half past six in the morning. 
They did not flick a tail or bat an eyelid, clearly exhausted after a
night of hunting.  

A little later we came across another group of lazy
lions also thinking the tar road made a comfortable bed!  Earl tried to wake one up but she didn’t even
lift her head!

Our most exciting event was when Heather called out
– Stop – Sable antelope – Earl reversed quickly and we all managed to get a
good look at this magnificent creature before he disappeared into the bush.

Waterholes, dams and rivers are often interesting
places to park off and this morning next to the Skukuza river we saw a
knob-billed duck in a tree, a yellow-crowned bishop – a lifer for us all – and
a bird half hidden in a tree which Priscilla drew our attention to.  After careful observation when it showed a
bit more of itself, we were delighted to discover that it was a dwarf bittern.

One of the birds that I most look forward to seeing
in Kruger is the endangered beautiful black and white Saddle-Billed Stork.  with their enormous slightly upturned black
and red bills made beautiful by their yellow saddles. The males have black eyes
and the females’ are yellow.  We spotted these
lovely birds just outside Nhlanguleni Picnic Site where we stopped for
breakfast.

We had a good day of game viewing today and saw
elephants with babies, herds of buffalo – though some has snotty noses, zebra,
wildebeest, giraffe, and kudu.  We also spotted
interesting little mongooses and steenbok from time to time.  The birdlife was good too and interesting
birds we saw were lesser grey shrike, melba finch, coqui francolin, purple
roller, carmine bee-eaters, green pigeons, double banded sand grouse, red-crested
korhaan and cardinal woodpecker.

We checked into Orpen at around about 5 o’clock and
were delighted with our family cottage. 
It had a lovely outdoor kitchen. 
Orpen is a small camp with only 15 cottages and the best pool in the
park. 

We thought we’d animal proofed our fridge but
during the night a honey badger managed to push it into a position where he
could open it and stole eggs and bacon from the fridge.  He also over-turned the bin and nibbled the chicken
bones. I heard the noise but when I shone my torch I could only see the bin and
didn’t realise he’d raided the fridge until the next morning.

Tuesday
13 January 2009

Orpen to Timbovati

We decided to have a late start today and after a leisurely breakfast of
bacon and eggs cooked by Earl after he’d bought a fresh supply from the shop,
we left camp at half past eight.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our morning of birding and
the first highlight was seeing Senegal lapwings.   It was also interesting observing how the
bird postures were different in the wet and we were amused by a black eagle who
sat in tree with wings spread out to dry.

We stopped at Timbovati picnic site at about 1
o’clock and had some coffee and rolls. The picnic sites in the park are usually
well looked after and have clean loos and boiling water for your tea or
coffee.   This one was no exception. 

We met two young girls, Kerry from Johannesburg and
her friend Silke from Germany.  They’d
worked together in Ireland and now Silke was having an African experience.  She wasn’t too interested in the bird life
but was desperate to see Lions.   “You
come to Africa to see a lion,” she argued, “Who’s interested in stupid birds!”

We weren’t far down the road when we were waved
down and informed of a pride of lion about 10km further on.  We had not intended to ravel all the way along
this road but decided to in order to see the cats.   Sure enough there they were – Mom, Dad and 3
cubs having a siesta.  However, they were
a bit more interesting than the lot lying on the tar road yesterday!    I felt bitterly disappointed that the girls
had taken a different road and we didn’t take their cell phone numbers! After
observing the pride for a while we turned round and travelled back to the road
we intended taking back to camp.   As
luck would have it, we saw the girls at the crossroads and waved them down,
told them where to find the lions and then exchanged cell numbers.   They had about 20km to go to find the
pride.  We continued on our trip, enjoyed
our bird watching, and hoped desperately that they would get to see their
lions!   That evening I received an
S.M.S.  “Saw the lions – made our trip!
Thanks. Love Kerry and Silke.”

We braaied steaks for supper and put scraps and
bottles in the bin after making sure the fridge was badger proof.  We wanted to get up to see the badger if he
paid us another nocturnal visit but he didn’t!

Saturday,
10 January 2009

Berg en Dal to Afsaal

We left Berg ‘n Dal at 5:45 this morning.  The first thing we spotted was a marabou
stork at the top of a tree.  Another
highlight was seeing a spotted hyena that seemed a bit disoriented and was
crossing from one side of the road to the other.  He disappeared into the bush and we thought
he’d happily re-join his mates.  We
continued to the water hole then returned along the same road and there he was
again doing the same criss-crossing of the road before going off into the bush
again.

Interesting birds this morning were a group of
double-banded sand grouse with their beautiful yellow eyes.

We had a lovely experience when we stopped on a
bridge and scanned the river.  A big
brown bird flew straight at us,  It was a
hamerkop and he landed right next to the car and began to look for something to
eat.  We got stunning views of him and
another flew over too.   When he flew off
a little three-banded plover dropped down and then we moved on.  A few meters down the road and I spotted a
paradise whydah but he flew off before we could get photographs.

At Afsaal, we had toasted sandwiches for breakfast,
Priscilla charged her camera batteries at the shop and I downloaded my
photographs onto the computer in case I ran out of space.   

All we saw after that was black saw-wing swallows,
zebra, wildebeest, impala elephants and waterbuck!

We arrived at Pretoriuskop at 12 and checked into
our two bungalows. It was a relief when a thunderstorm broke this evening as
everything cooled down but it put our braai fire out and we had to cook our
meal on the brand new stove – which had a non-functioning hotplate.  The newly equipped cupboards were also short
of a dinner plate!

Sunday
11 January 2009

Pretoriuskop to Skukuza

We left Pretoriuskop at 06h00 and drove the whole day until 17h00 with a
stop at Afsaal for breakfast at half past eleven.  The weather was cooler with quite a bit of
cloud cover and some rain.

Earl needed to deflate the tyres and as we drove to
the petrol station, I spotted a woodpecker on the ground.  Heather, Priscilla and I got out of the car
to photograph it and got some lovely shots of the Bennet’s on the lawns and the
Cardinal in the tree.

The next exciting spot was when Priscilla saw a
pearl-spotted owlet in the fork of a tree.  
Owls camouflage so well that it’s always a thrill to be able to see one.

We have been lucky spotting birds of prey and today
we saw Brown Snake Eagle, Eurasian Hobby African Harrier-hawk and Lizard
Buzzard.

Other thrilling bird sightings were pygmy
kingfisher, common scimitar-bill and ground-scraper thrush.

Several cars stopped to tell us that the road was
blocked by a fallen tree but we continued as we were seeing lovely
birdlife.   When we got to the tree, we
called Skukuza to inform them

Just before 14h00 we turned onto S4. We were
travelling quite quickly to make up time lost on the blocked road and there had
been no exciting spotting for quite some time. At times like this it can become
quite boring in the car and one can lose concentration. Priscilla had fallen
asleep, Earl was concentrating on his driving and it was left to Heather and me
to spot!  I was praying for some
excitement when suddenly there she was – a leopard in a tree!  I yelled – Stop – Leopard.  Earl screeched to a halt and shouted – where,
where?   I already had my binos trained
on the animal, Heather saw it immediately and said, Right here in this tree.,
Priscilla had a rude awakening from her doze and we all just stared at the
beautiful creature.   She was looking
into the bush – scanning for prey, we presumed, and then as quick as a flash
she slid down and slunk off into the bush. 
We could see some impala a distance away and guessed she would circle
them and approach downwind.   Had we come
two minutes later we would have missed her. 
It was so interesting to see her in the most unlikely tree but she was
using it to scan the area not to devour her kill.   We continued on our way, basking in the
afterglow of a wonderful experience.

At Skukuza, we were assigned Family Cottage 223,
which was comfortable but the air-conditioners were very noisy!

The kitchen was well equipped and while Priscilla
and Heather went to use the inadequate launderette, I cooked a casserole for
supper. 

Wednesday,
07 January 2009

Kruger National Park

Whenever I go to The Kruger National Park, my whole being is recharged,
my senses are keener and I glow with happiness as I embrace another world, an
Eden, Paradise in Africa.  As we entered
Crocodile Bridge Gate at 12:30 this afternoon, I went straight into ‘wild’ mode
and drank in the sounds, sights and smells of my favourite place in the
universe!

Within the first 10 minutes of entering the park, vultures flying
overhead alerted us to the possibility of a kill and sure enough more gathered
in a nearby tree and a traffic jam of cars marked the spot where a lioness was
guarding her giraffe carcass.

We didn’t stay at the kill long as it was crowded with other observers
and we felt we’d seen enough. 

Today two birds of prey caused great excitement
among us.  First, a brown snake eagle,
its yellow eyes and yellow legs – un-feathered, makes it not a true eagle in
spite of its name.  We continued to see
this bird quite often during the rest of the trip.   Then there was the king of prey birds – the
martial eagle, which we found beautifully perched in a tree

Iconic in the park are the woodland’s kingfisher
and lilac breasted roller – both beautiful birds which we never tire of
seeing.   The woodland’s call fills the
air, summoning one to find him and giving one great pleasure when one
does.   The lilac-breasted roller is a
show-off and poses conspicuously on branches close enough for wonderful
photographs. 

 We arrived
at Biyamati and checked into cottage 12 at lunch time.    The yellow-billed and red-billed hornbills
are quite tame, They have discovered that they can peck insects off the
windowpanes. This is cute but annoying if you want some peace and quiet! Other
birds we saw in the camp garden were cinnamon-breasted bunting, grey-headed
sparrow and go away birds

Thursday,
08 January 2009

Early Morning Start

The first exciting sighting was when Heather
spotted Small Buttonquail scurrying along the edge of the road and into the
long grass.  It was a real privilege to
see these birds as they are shy and run for cover as soon as they feel
threatened.   Some birds are camouflage
experts and I was almost fooled by one doing an impersonation of a stick. As we
crossed the ford where it was lurking I yelled, “stop’, and made Earl reverse.
The stick turned out to be a beautiful Little Bittern.

Another of the highlights of the day was seeing
elephants with babies rolling and spraying each other in a mud puddle. One of
the youngsters was very cheeky and mock charged us.   One of the big bulls also looked quite
aggressive and waved his trunk at us.  

We stopped at Afsaal, a rather commercialised
picnic site for lunch and Priscilla showed us where they have a resident Scops
Owl in a cordoned off tree.   After
lunch, we made our hot way back to camp but stopped frequently to see birds and
animals.

Friday,
09 January 2009

Biyamati to Berg en Dal

The first exciting spot of the morning was a martial eagle.   However, this was topped by the cute little
harlequin buttonquail we spotted running along the side of the road.  These birds are difficult to spot as they
disappear into the grass so quickly but we got good views of them and were able
to take some reasonable photographs.

In an open clearing near a water hole, I spotted
something in the grass, which I thought might be a korhaan, but turned out to
be an African Wattled Lapwing.   Nearby
were some smaller wattled birds and I said, “Hey it’s got babies.” Much to my
embarrassment Earl pointed out that the babies were actually wattled starlings!   In the same area, we watched lesser-striped
swallows, red-breasted swallows, lilac breasted rollers and European
bee-eaters.  We had quite a feast of
birds all at once.

The bird and animal abundance died down as the day
grew warmer but we did see squirrels, tortoises, steenbok, kudu, elephants and
impala from time to time. 

We arrived at Berg en Dal at about 11 o’clock, and
checked into a comfortable if somewhat dark family cottage. At 4o’clock we went
out again and  saw elephants, rhino,
purple indigo bird and black fly-catcher. 
On our way home we stopped to look for owls in a tree that I thought
would definitely have one but instead we saw a green pigeon!