Bombarded by beetles, mobbed by monkeys and the case of the secret squirrels- just another jolly time in the kruger November 2022

[Towlersonsafari]

We have just come back from our second trip to the kruger and a splendid time was had, with one new mammal species, lots of  good sightings, more bad photography and 2 relaxing mountain retreats at the end.. we met many elephants, one of whom shook a branch at us,a giant frog  beetle we called Mike (  not its proper name- the frog bit) and more african hoopes than was strictly necessary.

We stayed at the following;

pretorious kop 3 nights

Satara 3 nights

Letaba 2 nights

Bataleur 2 nights

serheni 3 nights

 

then leshiba mountain retreat 3 nights and tomjachu reserve  3 nights to end. all the tavel worked ok.We used lawsons although we could have doe it all ourselves- we like the comort that a local expert brins.also they lent us a cool box, flask and cups etc and gave us 2 water bottles and  lots of rusks. we woud probably star at somewhere like Tomjachu at the beginnin next time- to chill a bit after the flight

we met only friendly people, and used to plan routes in the kruger the 2015 kruger self-drive book which has good descriptios of roads.we probably spent to long on the morning trips and never got out first but it was such a joy to be "on safari2 aain on a trip planned for May 2020

 

 

 

[Towlersonsafari]

as a reward for our patience this is the first mammal we saw on our first drive

[Towlersonsafari]

And here is an elephant showing us his stick

[Tom Kellie]

~ @Towlersonsafari:

 

What a great first mammal image!

 

That sets a wonderful tone for your Kruger visit.

 

Thank you for sharing these photos.

 

After a two-year delay, how nice that your visit was such great fun!

 

      Tom K.

[Caracal]

11 hours ago, Towlersonsafari said:

as a reward for our patience this is the first mammal we saw on our first drive

 

A splendid sable is a fine reward. Great start - looking forward to more and wondering if there'll be a repeat of @Towlersonsafarion their knees looking down Aardvark burrows.

[Towlersonsafari]

Thank you @Tom Kellie and @Caracal-it was a very nice surprise to see a Sable  we watched it for about 20 minutes but it never gave a clearer view.  Sadly we did not stake out any Aardvark burrows this trip! 

[Towlersonsafari]

In fact the day before, when we were driving fromphabeni gate tp pretoriouskop we did see a lone lioness contact calling, but our first full day was the 8th.Each evenin we would use the map book and the self-drive guide to plan the route.I mostly drive as Jane does all the cookin and is a much better spotter.We drive at roughlyabout 30kmh on average on the tar and slower on the gravel and try and always fail not to drive too far. assumn one is an average spotter i think there is an awful lot of luck involved.We take breakfast -rusks and a flask of ea, with us and plan the route to involve a pcnic sie or rest camp-although today we were planning not to drive far.we drove round all the little loop roads such as the S14 and the fayi loop.

We are always a bit cautious with elephants and so when we saw a large male looking relaxed  nonetheless we did reverse a bit to an area where there was more space and just let him come to us. This photo I think illustrates the terrain around the camp

Edited November 29, 2022 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

when he got alonside us he was still calm and eating, and then we heard him break a branch and he decided to wave it at us.We moved slowly off. There is something magical and nervously exciting about elephants. along the fayi loop, jane  starte to earn her spotting stripes

[Towlersonsafari]

We stayed with her for about an hour, and it was a good 30 minutes before anyone else arrived- a day safari truck- who were very rateful as by then she had moved into a bush-it was a really good start with the sable , ele and the leopard-who was looking in the general direction of these

Edited November 29, 2022 by Towlersonsafari

[Atravelynn]

Great start on your jolly adventure.  You can never have too many hoopoes.  Eagerly awaiting the grand entrance of Mike.

[Matias Cox]

Spectacular sighting!!!

 

Sables are rare and nobody really knows how many are left in the Kruger, some say up to 300, but nothing is accurate.

 

It wasn't by chance, seeing him was a harbinger of a wonderful stay.

[Towlersonsafari]

thank you @Matias Coxwe were very excited to see it. a book "Shaping Kruger" sugests the decline is linked to the proviion of artificial water holes- an unlooked for consequence-allowing more access to Zebra etc  and more predator contact with Sable and Roan

[Towlersonsafari]

a wander round the grouns meant we saw a ver tame  bunch of Dwarf Moongoose, and what turned out to be very naughty vervet monkeys

[Towlersonsafari]

we also saw crested and black collared barbet,hoopoo, Black Headed Oriole, Striped Kingfisher and Grey Hornbill. Then a brief evenin drive alon the H1-1. We did say later- but could not et into position to photograph 3 cheetahs in a busy sighting and some hyena pups, but the star were 2 Jackel cubs, being looked after by the parents and there was only one other car with us

[Towlersonsafari]

the day was finsihed off with Zebra a too close Kudu and a fine herd of Gnu. what a wonderful first full day!

[Towlersonsafari]

The plan for the enxt day was to drive all day- stopping at Nkuhlu picnic site- aroute roughly like H1-3, s65,Hw-1, S21,S114  and back. We were licking our lips in anticipation

[TonyQ]

The jackal pups are lovely!

[Towlersonsafari]

We cannot rememeber seeing pups so young  @TonyQ.The next day we stoppd at 2 dams on the H1-3 Shithave and Transport Dam- the later seemed a lot more active with more visible hippos and fish eales and 2 quite active hyenas. We also looked for any Jason Stathams havin misread the name of the dam slightly. We came across several small erds of Buffalo

[Towlersonsafari]

we reall like nkuhlu picnic site, good food, nice view and a chance to relax and watch the local wildlife- we think Dusky flycatcher and chinspot batis

[Towlersonsafari]

there had clearly ben some rain in the south in the weeks before our trip, as there was green grass and some water holes with what seemed, in the heat of the day, very inviting-this was on the S21

Edited December 1, 2022 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

a quick break at the Stevenson-hamilton memorial allowed us a sheltering Klipspringer

[Towlersonsafari]

and at about 4.00pm-ish the most active lions of the trip-a pride of about 12-15 moved along the  H1-3 and very kindly spread themselves out so that the 10 or so vehicles had a lot of room to get some nice views-the most cars at any sighting I think that we saw

Edited December 1, 2022 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

tomorrow was the move to Satara., and the "monkey incident"!  would they steal our rusks? would i scare them off with my quaterstaff skills?  cna one really keep a straight face when ......mobbed by monkeys!

Edited December 1, 2022 by Towlersonsafari

[Towlersonsafari]

We were last in the Kruger in Feb2017 and we also stayed at Pretoriuskop then. It is a beautiful camp with large tress and access to different scenary than the rest of the South. it did seem a little more run down than last time-perhaps that was inevitable -and something got in on the last afternoon and left little presents on one of the beds, but we did enjoy are time there and would go back to that camp-perhaps, like last time, we would add Lower Sabie.

The journey to Satara was a long one but we stopped at Transport dam again,  Tshokwane picnic site and orpen dam (S32) along the way.

At transport dam- as well as at many other places, we saw Jane's favourite antelope the Waterbuck.We regularly saw bufalo and Zebra -in fact one of the most wonderful things about the kruger is the sheer diversity of life to be seen.Here are some of the things that caught our eye on the journey to Satara

[Towlersonsafari]

a nice Bushbuck and young Zebra