(Have a look at the pictures!)
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
That day everyone had planned to sleep in and leave the camp at 9. Luckily I could convince 3 students to take off at 6 and drive along the Shingwedzi river because every morning in Kruger simply is a unique experience. We saw a few beautiful male nyalas and shortly after action came to town when a hippo mum fiercely protected her little one from a crocodile that seemed to wait for an opportunity to snatch it away. It took only 5-10 seconds and the hippo had apparently hurt the croc quite seriously by stomping on its back. Well, the way it swam away afterwards didn't look like it was in really good shape. :-|
We came back to camp at 8, had breakfast and took off to Parfuri gate at 9:15. On our way there We passed elephants a few of which were kind of nervous and started a mock charge. One of them was an elephant bull which missed one of his tusks, it must have broken off in a fight or something. A short stop at the infamous Parfuri picnic spot with its vervet monkeys and off we were through the gate and on our way back to Lajuma. We were quite agitated and stressed out because of all the driving out in the sun. I took a few more night shots at the Lajuma wilderness camp and went to bed at 1 wondering what the next day's talk with Retha regarding my travel plans would lead to...
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Mopani Main Camp, 6am. I was on time, waiting for everybody to come out of the cottages and pack their stuff into the cars. What I didn't know: while at the restaurant the night before all the others had agreed on leaving at 6:30. Well, that didn't really make my mood any better, which I went to start the day rather grumpy. Must be the bad communication flow when "newcomers" like me are involved. Or maybe I smell funny. Anyway...I sat in the co-drivers seat since Retha and her sister stayed in the camp, so we were to pick them up around noon. My special spotting position next to Ian wasn't exactly to the pleasure of the others, but I hadn't seen any thinking ahead the night before, so wtf...
So we took off to Satara, the surrounding area of which is supposed to be great for watching game including the big predators. And so it was. First of all we almost bumped into a young male lion which crossed the road right in front of us. I didn't take pictures cause all I would have got is a good shot of his bum. Which wasn't really what I was aiming for. There's also an abundance of elephants and we were pretty sure that we had spotted one of the rare and old big tuskers. We passed a few warthogs foraging by the road and then we got a glimpse at what Kruger can offer to the ones who are really lucky. People had spotted a leopard in the grass (have a look at the pictures, could you tell?). Since there was no hope for seeing him/her standing up anytime soon we took off again only to see a leopard in a tree a couple of minutes later. This one was high up in a tree approx. 80m away looking out for prey. Or maybe he was just trying to escape from the burning sun out there, cause at the time it had 34 degrees. Just imagine that some people come here for 20 years now and they have never seen a leopard. Yes, we were lucky!
The next thing we saw was actually a kill. It, however, was one on a rather small scale, because a ground hornbill, one of the huge and not too beautiful birds with the long eye lashes got a little quail from somewhere in between the bushes. One snap and the neck was broken. Poor little thing, but I guess Kruger is not a place for sentimental moods anyway. Besides that Arathusa Lodge and Nkorho Bush Camp in Sabi Sand Game Reserve have confirmed the provosional booking so I will spend my last 3 nights in the area with the highest density of leopards in whole Africa. :)
Another pretty cool sighting were a few tsessebes, a light brownish and very rare kind of antilope with short, curved horns. Well, they are extremely fast (up to 90km/h) and could easily outrun lions but sadly they're not the brightest of them all. Which means that sometimes they wouldn't realize that a lion's around until it almost gets them. In case you don't notice: one of the pictures was taken at the tropic of capricorn. "Was taken", because it was one of the rather rare occasions in which I gave the precious into the hands of another person to have a picture taken of myself. :) So that night we went to stay at Shingwedzi main camp, in which I only got one of the rediculously expensive BG2-bungalows for 465 Rand. Damn! But hey, this time I made it to the restaurant, had crocodile cakes and a good rump steak with spinach and butternut, a delicious local vegetable. And back I went to the honeymoon bungalow. The nightshots I took of the site are, however, amazing!
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
We took off from Lajuma at 7:15 in the morning and I was surprised that nobody (including me) was late. Funny how I always make it over here. Well, Ian had planned to be in Kruger at 11 and we almost made it - according to african time. Which means we were at Phalaborwa gate at 1pm. Bushes and animals went flying by since we had an appointment in the Letaba main camp. One of the scientists would hold a lecture about the elephants in Kruger. Over the years the situation has become rather problematic because Kruger now is home to at least 13000 individuals which according to some scientists exceeds the carrying capacity of the park by far. So there are actually ideas to start culling them again like they did in the 80's. On the other hand nobody's really able to make estimates regarding the actual carrying capacity there is in Kruger due the complexity of the ecosystem. Kind of a catch 22.
After the lecture we went to the restaurant to have some sort of a lunch. Well, the birds had lunch, too. As you can see on the pictures. I wonder why nobody from the staff keeps the visitors from feeding them. So from Letaba we would take off to Mopani, our rest camp for that night. Along the road we spotted a couple of elephants, one of which was especially playful, he would almost be posing for us. Just before we reached camp we saw a spotted hyeana with her pups, they often tend to raise their young in the sewer pipes underneath the tar roads. Same here.
So in the camp we were and everyone went to put their stuff into the rooms. I went to take a shower and when I came out, nobody was there anymore. Retha told me they planned to have a braai (barbecue) so I rushed to the shop to get some meat and guess what? When I arrived back at the cottage somebody told me that everyone rather likes to eat at the restaurant. Hm...nice to be stuck with braai meat and no coal. So I asked the neighbours whether they'd have some free space on their braai. I guess I was much better off with my blue bull steak and the baked potatoes anyway because last year we had to wait almost an hour to place our order at the Mopani restaurant. And the day after I got really sick. So that's that. :-S No more plans so I went to bed right after.
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
That day everyone had planned to sleep in and leave the camp at 9. Luckily I could convince 3 students to take off at 6 and drive along the Shingwedzi river because every morning in Kruger simply is a unique experience. We saw a few beautiful male nyalas and shortly after action came to town when a hippo mum fiercely protected her little one from a crocodile that seemed to wait for an opportunity to snatch it away. It took only 5-10 seconds and the hippo had apparently hurt the croc quite seriously by stomping on its back. Well, the way it swam away afterwards didn't look like it was in really good shape. :-|
We came back to camp at 8, had breakfast and took off to Parfuri gate at 9:15. On our way there We passed elephants a few of which were kind of nervous and started a mock charge. One of them was an elephant bull which missed one of his tusks, it must have broken off in a fight or something. A short stop at the infamous Parfuri picnic spot with its vervet monkeys and off we were through the gate and on our way back to Lajuma. We were quite agitated and stressed out because of all the driving out in the sun. I took a few more night shots at the Lajuma wilderness camp and went to bed at 1 wondering what the next day's talk with Retha regarding my travel plans would lead to...
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008
Mopani Main Camp, 6am. I was on time, waiting for everybody to come out of the cottages and pack their stuff into the cars. What I didn't know: while at the restaurant the night before all the others had agreed on leaving at 6:30. Well, that didn't really make my mood any better, which I went to start the day rather grumpy. Must be the bad communication flow when "newcomers" like me are involved. Or maybe I smell funny. Anyway...I sat in the co-drivers seat since Retha and her sister stayed in the camp, so we were to pick them up around noon. My special spotting position next to Ian wasn't exactly to the pleasure of the others, but I hadn't seen any thinking ahead the night before, so wtf...
So we took off to Satara, the surrounding area of which is supposed to be great for watching game including the big predators. And so it was. First of all we almost bumped into a young male lion which crossed the road right in front of us. I didn't take pictures cause all I would have got is a good shot of his bum. Which wasn't really what I was aiming for. There's also an abundance of elephants and we were pretty sure that we had spotted one of the rare and old big tuskers. We passed a few warthogs foraging by the road and then we got a glimpse at what Kruger can offer to the ones who are really lucky. People had spotted a leopard in the grass (have a look at the pictures, could you tell?). Since there was no hope for seeing him/her standing up anytime soon we took off again only to see a leopard in a tree a couple of minutes later. This one was high up in a tree approx. 80m away looking out for prey. Or maybe he was just trying to escape from the burning sun out there, cause at the time it had 34 degrees. Just imagine that some people come here for 20 years now and they have never seen a leopard. Yes, we were lucky!
The next thing we saw was actually a kill. It, however, was one on a rather small scale, because a ground hornbill, one of the huge and not too beautiful birds with the long eye lashes got a little quail from somewhere in between the bushes. One snap and the neck was broken. Poor little thing, but I guess Kruger is not a place for sentimental moods anyway. Besides that Arathusa Lodge and Nkorho Bush Camp in Sabi Sand Game Reserve have confirmed the provosional booking so I will spend my last 3 nights in the area with the highest density of leopards in whole Africa. :)
Another pretty cool sighting were a few tsessebes, a light brownish and very rare kind of antilope with short, curved horns. Well, they are extremely fast (up to 90km/h) and could easily outrun lions but sadly they're not the brightest of them all. Which means that sometimes they wouldn't realize that a lion's around until it almost gets them. In case you don't notice: one of the pictures was taken at the tropic of capricorn. "Was taken", because it was one of the rather rare occasions in which I gave the precious into the hands of another person to have a picture taken of myself. :) So that night we went to stay at Shingwedzi main camp, in which I only got one of the rediculously expensive BG2-bungalows for 465 Rand. Damn! But hey, this time I made it to the restaurant, had crocodile cakes and a good rump steak with spinach and butternut, a delicious local vegetable. And back I went to the honeymoon bungalow. The nightshots I took of the site are, however, amazing!
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
We took off from Lajuma at 7:15 in the morning and I was surprised that nobody (including me) was late. Funny how I always make it over here. Well, Ian had planned to be in Kruger at 11 and we almost made it - according to african time. Which means we were at Phalaborwa gate at 1pm. Bushes and animals went flying by since we had an appointment in the Letaba main camp. One of the scientists would hold a lecture about the elephants in Kruger. Over the years the situation has become rather problematic because Kruger now is home to at least 13000 individuals which according to some scientists exceeds the carrying capacity of the park by far. So there are actually ideas to start culling them again like they did in the 80's. On the other hand nobody's really able to make estimates regarding the actual carrying capacity there is in Kruger due the complexity of the ecosystem. Kind of a catch 22.
After the lecture we went to the restaurant to have some sort of a lunch. Well, the birds had lunch, too. As you can see on the pictures. I wonder why nobody from the staff keeps the visitors from feeding them. So from Letaba we would take off to Mopani, our rest camp for that night. Along the road we spotted a couple of elephants, one of which was especially playful, he would almost be posing for us. Just before we reached camp we saw a spotted hyeana with her pups, they often tend to raise their young in the sewer pipes underneath the tar roads. Same here.
So in the camp we were and everyone went to put their stuff into the rooms. I went to take a shower and when I came out, nobody was there anymore. Retha told me they planned to have a braai (barbecue) so I rushed to the shop to get some meat and guess what? When I arrived back at the cottage somebody told me that everyone rather likes to eat at the restaurant. Hm...nice to be stuck with braai meat and no coal. So I asked the neighbours whether they'd have some free space on their braai. I guess I was much better off with my blue bull steak and the baked potatoes anyway because last year we had to wait almost an hour to place our order at the Mopani restaurant. And the day after I got really sick. So that's that. :-S No more plans so I went to bed right after.
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