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Day 2: Bird walk around camp, Letaba, 18/1/17

 

After brunch we thought we'd have a wander around camp with our cameras to see what bird life was around and to try and build up to a siesta!

 

Southern grey-headed sparrow

 

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Woodland kingfisher

 

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Southern black tit

 

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Violet wood-hoopoe

 

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Lesser masked weaver

 

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Red-winged starlings

 

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Golden-tailed woodpecker

 

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Violet-backed starlings - female (new for us)

 

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Male

 

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African spoonbill and yellow-billed stork

 

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And a couple of non-feathered friends

 

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We were very pleased and as people were arriving to check in and it was getting warm, we rewarded ourselves with an iced coffee at the excellent, but sadly now defunt Mugg and Bean. Where I got some really intimate portraits of the red-winged starling and the first time that I realised that the viewfinder on the 7D mark ii does not quite line up with the sensor....

 

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Time for a nap!

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Birdlife in the camp appears to be abundant @@Tdgraves! I think your Wood-hoopoe is the Green one, though

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Birdlife in the camp appears to be abundant @@Tdgraves! I think your Wood-hoopoe is the Green one, though

Of course it is - tired!

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Day 2: Evening drive Letaba, 18/1/17

 

Someone had put wild dog on the sightings board from the morning, so we figured we ought to investigate, in case there were no other chances. It had started to brighten up but was only 24 degrees. As we were loading the car, I saw this hadeda ibis on the central lawn area.

 

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So we were off, to the south. There was a little dam off to the side of the gravel road and the only reason we stopped was because I saw a ground hornbill walk into the bushes and hoped it would come for a drink. It was not to be, but we did have a nice sighting of a jacana.

 

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There was a male long-tailed paradise whydah bird displaying over the road, but every time we stopped, he'd vanish. I did manage to catch this transitional form though.

 

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and a far away Amur falcon.

 

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This steenbok wasn't keen on hanging around

 

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We started the day with a singing korhaan and found another one...

 

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LBR

 

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hoopoe

 

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Sabota lark

 

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And then we found the ground hornbills. Despite slowing down, we were the reason that they were not actually on the ground...

 

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I switched to trying to get this BIF, which I think is a Wahlberg's eagle

 

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And this is what the GHB thought of the BIF (courtesy of the OH)

 

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Not very much it seems!

 

Needless to say, we didn't find the dogs, but there were a few mammals

 

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this one was very determined about where ever she was going

 

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We have never had a successful wild dog chase, but always feel like we should try, as you never know when you'll next have a chance. Our previous sightings have always just been stumbled across.

Edited by Tdgraves
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The car

 

Before the next installment, a few words on the car. It was a Toyota RAV4. Avis now only seems to stock automatics and this is what we have had on our last two trips. When we arrived in Letaba, the OH noticed that one of the tyres was a bit flat, so he went and pumped it up at the garage. The next morning, it had gone down a bit more, so we pumped it up again before going on a drive and it seemed fine for the next few days, such that we stopped worrying about it. More on that later...

 

Having just read @@Towlersonsafari post about car alarms, I remembered that our one had also gone off at about 3am, I assume it must have been on the first night, with all the wind. It is very disorientating to be awoken on safari with such a loud noise :blink:

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Towlersonsafari

Do you think it was the wind or perhaps genets or similar jumping on the cars and exploring @@Tdgraves? We had our car from Bidvest and they did a manual Toyota Hi-lux with an option to use it for either 2x4 or 4x4 and then for the Cape part of the trip a Nissan x-trail manual 2 x 4-neither Jane or I have driven automatics and we thought that adding getting used to one on holiday was asking for trouble!

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Day 3: Morning drive, Letaba, 19/1/17

 

I had the 5D for the first time today and it was a sunny day, reaching 20 degrees before breakfast.

 

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It was pretty quiet, all we really saw were a few birds - Southern carmine bee-eater

 

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And a new one for us - dusky lark

 

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And courtesy of the OH, a sabota lark with breakfast

 

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LBR

 

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Swallows

 

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This grey hornbill was in camp on the way to breakfast

 

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So we packed up the room and had breakfast in Mugg & Bean before driving south to Satara. I spotted a couple of birds during breakfast:

 

Speckled mousebird

 

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This Brown-headed parrot was harder to spot, I could hear him, but the leaves were excellent camouflage.

 

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Do you think it was the wind or perhaps genets or similar jumping on the cars and exploring @@Tdgraves? We had our car from Bidvest and they did a manual Toyota Hi-lux with an option to use it for either 2x4 or 4x4 and then for the Cape part of the trip a Nissan x-trail manual 2 x 4-neither Jane or I have driven automatics and we thought that adding getting used to one on holiday was asking for trouble!

 

@@Towlersonsafari The only other time we drive automatics is in the states. Actually having an automatic on a game drive is really a good idea, as all you have to worry about is steering, which leaves more brain power for game spotting! The only time when it is a pain is on a motorway uphill, as rentals are always under-powered. The best ever was the IX35 we had for our first trip to the KTP which had cruise control, so then you didn't even need to engage right foot (didn't work on the corrugated roads though :(). We haven't had such a high tech rental since...

Edited by Tdgraves
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Day 3: Transfer to Satara, 19/1/17

 

As we drove south, it got even greener, which was heartening, as the area around Satara last year was just dead.

 

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We even managed to get a new species of bird - a white-winged widowbird, although it took a bit of perseverance as it kept flying off when we approached!

 

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We got to Satara a little early, but were still able to check in and unpack.

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Day 3: Evening drive from Satara, 19/1/17

 

As we were unpacking, the temperature was rising, up to 32 degrees. We decided to do a tried and tested route, along the S41 to the S100, but contrary to previous occasions, it was pretty quiet.

 

Wattled starlings

 

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Namaqua dove

 

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Red-billed queleas

 

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Emerald-spotted wood dove

 

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Swainson's spurfowl

 

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Burchell' starling

 

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Black-chested snake-eagle (I think, but it wouldn't turn around!!)

 

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And one we have never seen before in the KNP - a lannner falcon

 

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Rattling cisticola (I think)

 

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And finally a mammal

 

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And the last sighting of the day was this rather scrawny looking Natal spurfowl

 

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As we had a long driving day, we had dinner in the restaurant, which was ok

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Day 4: Morning drive from Satara, 20/1/7

 

We headed south to the S126 and I had the 7D. Some close up zebra were our first sighting

 

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And then a new bird - a monotonous lark

 

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Natal spurfowl

 

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It looked like we had just missed a leopard...

 

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and this guy had too!

 

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Lots more birds...

 

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Brown-hooded kingfisher

 

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And then a really good sighting of a black-bellied bustard displaying

 

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We stopped at a picnic site and found a buffalo weavers' nest

 

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Red-billed hornbill

 

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Southern white-crowned shrike

 

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this as yet unidentified raptor (any ideas gratefully received)

 

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Apart from this one!!

 

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And yet more birds....

 

Lesser grey shrike

 

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Swainson's spurfowl

 

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White-winged widowbird

 

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Red-breasted swallow

 

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We went up the S40 and completed the loop on the tar road back to camp.

Edited by Tdgraves
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@@Tdgraves - lovely images! My two cents on your unidentified raptor is that it is a juvenile Shikra i.e. before it's eyes turn red.

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@@Tdgraves - lovely images! My two cents on your unidentified raptor is that it is a juvenile Shikra i.e. before it's eyes turn red.

Thanks @@lmSA84 i had written it down as a little sparrowhawk when we were there, but looking at the book now, I didn't think it was, but couldn't find a better match...

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michael-ibk

The mating Cuckoos are just spectacular. And I really like the shots of the Impalas almost jumping out of the screen.

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@@Tdgraves

More wonderful images. The Roller is stunning. I agree that antelopes are under-appreciated - you show them well!

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Thanks for your kind words @ImSA84 @michael-ibk @TonyQ

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Day 4: birding walk around Satara, 20/1/7

 

I couldn't sleep after brunch, so I decided to have a wander around camp to see what I could see. As an aside, we were a bit shocked when we went to make brunch. There are leaflets in the room explaining about the problem animals (mainly vervets and honey badgers) and that food should be kept out of sight etc. Given that I could barely open the kitchen cupboard, I figured that our fruit would be safe inside. Au contraire. I think that these monkeys have superhuman (superprimate??) strength. They had got in and eaten half of my peaches, the evidence of which had been cleared up by the cleaners, but there was a half eaten peach by the perimeter fence :angry: . So what the leaflet should actually say is keep your food in your room or lock the cupboards with a padlock. On subsequent days they had been through the bin, making an unholy mess. SANParks is a bit to blame for this, as they have swing bins with no lids.....that's ok, we'll put a big bag of logs on top to act as a lid. Nope. Superprimate strength - just knock the whole thing over and spread said contents all over the kitchen floor. (For those of you who haven't been, these kitchens are on the porch/patio, outside of the building).

 

Anyway, back to the birding. It was getting very hot and after walking a few metres, I was already questioning my decision, however, I did spot a few things, although very few other humans! I did meet one lady who was also looking at the birds (and who had heard an oriole), but everyone else was resting.

 

Greater blue-eared starling

 

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Burchell's starling

 

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Spotted flycatcher

 

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a very brief glimpse of a cut-throat finch, which I have not seen before in the KNP

 

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a Southern masked weaver busily making his nest

 

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Long-billed crombec

 

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An extreme close-up of a woodland kingfisher next to the swimming pool (which looked very inviting)

 

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African hoopoe

 

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I resisted the temptation to buy an ice cream on my own and went to awaken the OH from his siesta so that we could one together. This meant no time for a swim before the game drive, but the pool looked pretty busy, given that it was now 34 degrees.

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Day 4: Evening drive, Satara, 20/1/17

 

It was hot and we thought we'd try our luck with the S100 again, but going on it first and then joining up with the tar H6, to allow a speedier return for gate closing time.

 

The first sighting was an elephant family at a waterhole. This was apparently very boring, as I lost count how many vehicles overtook us whilst we were taking photos :unsure:

 

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We passed a pond with some water lilies

 

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And then I spotted a far away raptor, which I later identified as a black kite

 

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Grey heron

 

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Green-backed heron

 

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We got to the end of the S100 and really nothing much had happened. We had already decided to turn right and others turned left. We had almost got to the H6 when the OH slowed down for this.....

 

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A very hot lion, right on the road. He had to flag down the oncoming vehicle, as it didn't appear to have seen her and was approaching at speed. So we were in the perfect position. The cars in the other direction started to accumulate, but could not move past.

 

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We took a few shots, but being in the direct sun with no air flow, it very quickly got extremely hot

 

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So we decided to move on and allow those stuck behind us to have a go.

 

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We then found a waterbuck

 

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and a brown snake-eagle

 

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these guys were our last spot of the day

 

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And back to light the braai....

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@@Tdgraves

Elephants boring? Never! And you took some great shots there. Love the lion photos, too!

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Day 5: Morning drive from Satara, 21/1/17

 

I had the 5D today and it was very cloudy when we set off and there was rain on and off for the entire morning. It was a mild 24 degrees. We decided to do the same route as last night, the S100, S41 and H6, stopping at the Sweni dam and the picnic site en route. I managed to get all the way to the picnic site without lifting my camera once, although the OH got these

 

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The dam was unrecognisable from last years' tiny puddle - it was wall to wall water, but not much in the way of game. We did spot a new species though, a grey-headed kingfisher. I had gone to the car to get the extender, before the other occupants of the hide realised it was there....

 

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As we went along the H6, the clouds got thicker and we found this very soggy and miserable looking martial eagle. It was probably the closest sighting we had ever had, so we stayed for a while, to see if it would fly off, which of course, it didn't :( .

 

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and one from the 7D

 

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A bit further down the road, there was a queue of about 4 cars from the opposite direction. This looked promising. We pulled up in front of them. A cheetah!!

 

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And it looked as if it was going to do something...

 

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So it was now walking in the direction that we had just come from and we were therefore facing the wrong way.

 

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When we were sure that it wasn't going to change it's mind, we turned around, getting overtaken by a couple of vehicles in the process. I jumped into the back seat to give myself more options if it moved. Another few cars had arrived from our direction as well, making the road rather full

 

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We had a relatively good position and view

 

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until this happened....

 

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It was clearly watching the other side of the road in a very interested way, however, one of the 4WDs that was right next to it decided that now was the time to do a 3 point turn, much to the cheetah and all of the other humans annoyance :angry:

 

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It actually worked out superbly for us, as it was now using our car as a blind and I think that the turning car had no better a view that had it not moved. Of course, if they had not moved, it may well have used their car as a blind....

 

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It was looking very keen

 

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Getting closer and closer to us

 

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Stalking forwards, really, really slowly

 

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In the end, it was just outside of my car window, so I thought I'd do close-ups

 

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As it crossed the road behind us, I barely had time to move across the back seat to the other window, let alone change the camera settings and this happened....

 

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No one could tell if it was successful, but I think the impala probably rumbled him too soon! Our best ever Kruger cheetah sighting and a hunt too! Not only that, we were in the prime position :D

 

I guess I'd better give a shout out to @@madaboutcheetah

 

and a couple from the 7D and different angle

 

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Big smiles all the way back to camp!!

 

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This is why it is always worth doing a game drive, even if the weather doesn't look promising. Interesting things can still happen...

 

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madaboutcheetah

Lovely!!!! and the Martial too!

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Lovely leopard pics and so green too. Total contrast for when I was there in early December

Any pics of the Sweni dam?

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@@Hads no pics of the dam I'm afraid, but it was completely full

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