Kruger South to North September 2019: Rooineks and rare antelope

[Tdgraves]

7 minutes ago, Peter Connan said:

I love that sleeping hog!

he didn’t want to get up. I guess when you get to that size, no one wants to bother you!

[Tdgraves]

Day 12, Evening drive, Punda Maria, 12/9/19

 

As it was hot (34 degrees) and we had a long morning, we just drove slowly towards the gate, where there is a loop into a hill and back to camp again. It was pretty quiet...

 

 

 

but we did manage our only shot of a green pigeon!

 

 

 

Back for our last braai of the trip...

[Tdgraves]

Day 13, Morning drive, Punda Maria, 13/9/19

 

As we were leaving today, we decided to do the around camp 24km loop, but in the opposite direction. It was a balmy 21 degrees when we left and got up to 34 at about 9am! I had the 5D today. We saw mainly birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

our only owl of the trip

 

 

 

one of the areas' iconic birds, in camp

 

 

A couple from the OH
 

 

 

 

Under our tent...

 

 

 

Time to pack up and have a picnic breakfast at the day visitors site. It was really hot, so we just sat in the car. It was 37 as we left and when the gate attendants mention the heat, you know that it is hot! A different drive back to civilisation, the majority of which was not on the motorway. The first section was lots of settlements and speed bumps, but after that, we made good progress and managed to get to our B&B before dark.

[Tdgraves]

Day 14, Rietvlei Dam Nature Reserve, 14/9/19

 

When choosing a B&B, I found one next door to Rietvlei, which meant that we did not need to battle with the Friday night Joburg traffic, we could pop in for a few hours to kill time before going to the airport and the drive to the airport should also be better. The B&B is also a wedding venue, so has gardens with plenty of birds itself....

 

 

 

We checked out and went to the reserve, totally the wrong time of day, but who cares? It was very different to our last visit. Several areas had been burnt and the grass was all yellow. We did see lots of birds though, although not really from the hides. There were quite a few cars about, mostly at the picnic site, as it was Saturday lunchtime.

 

 

Stonechats were the most numerous of the birds we saw

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had lunch in their cafe and really did not have to hang around to fill the time, it was a perfect stop gap. The journey to the airport was a little busier than we calculated for, due to roadworks, but everything else was smooth as clockwork and in no time, we were back home, for a couple of months!! The End!

[Zubbie15]

Thanks for sharing @Tdgraves, I haven't in the past read too many reports from Kruger so really enjoyed following along with your trip! 

[Towlersonsafari]

hurrah! Thanks for another splendid Kruger report @Tdgraves  Have you ever seen Serval in the Kruger at all?

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @Towlersonsafari And @Zubbie15 (I pretty much write one annually, if you want to read more)

 

we have possibly seen a serval. Once on the S100, a small animal crossed the road some way in front of us, in the sun. Our initial thought was it was jackal, given it’s size, but it was walking like a cat. Unfortunately it soon disappeared into the long grass, so we’ll never know for sure!

[Zubbie15]

21 minutes ago, Tdgraves said:

I pretty much write one annually, if you want to read more

 

Thanks, my challenge is the more reports I read on this site, the longer my lay of places I want to visit! So sometimes I'm careful about starting to read about destinations I don't know too much about. 

[Dave Williams]

Finally finished reading the TR. Great stuff, nice to compare notes on our trip. Must admit though I have no regrets for cancelling our three night stop in Punda Maria and trading it for Olifants and Satara but I did note your glowing praise for the safari tent. Maybe next time.

The Coot shot is a real stunner too by the way.

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @Dave Williams 

[Peter Connan]

Thanks for another great TR!

[Tdgraves]

No problem @Peter Connan

[Kitsafari]

thanks for taking the time to do the TR. Very enjoyable, as always. 

 

 

[Tdgraves]

Thanks @Kitsafari