My last night at Lower Sabie this time around and i sat up late…well, late for the bush …10.30!! It was a lovely still African evening with various animals making themselves heard above the regular heartbeat of insects and night birds, hyaenas, jackals, baboons and once or twice i heard the lion roar. The stars were out, the moon was rising and around the camp there was a slight murmur of other campers, most of which had arrived earlier in the day, and were cooking on their fires adding meaty aromas to the freshness of the regular bush smells after an earlier shower of rain.

I had intended to get up early and spend a couple of hours down on the Sabie for breakfast but eventually rolled over and dozed on until 5.45…a late morning for me!!

It was nice though, and once the coffee was brewed i slowly but surely packed up my camp in between regular rests with coffee, boiled eggs, rye bread and cherry tomatos. The baboons were making quite a racket for the first hour or so with their warning barks,and lions were roaring fairly close somewhere down on the river bed. As much as i was enjoying the whole scenario i was wondering whether i had screwed up by getting up and going out for a while..??…

A nice cool shower when i had finished and loaded up then i was on my way south by 9.30.

I stopped by the hippo carcass which had by now lost a considerable amount of weight!!..but there was still meat on it and a great many vultures were there as well as a couple of very fat hyaenas who were having tugs of war with the backbone and bits of meat. The teeth of the hippo which were now clearly exposed, were simply huge. I was not about to get out and measure them, but i reckon they must of been a good 12 inches long at least and as fat as my wrist.

Heading south west once the road left the Sabie i turned west after about 15 klicks onto the Randspruit track and then onto the dirt track running alongside the Bume river which i cruised quite slowly checking out a few old favourite spots along the way.

There was plenty going on. At one point as i headed down the Gomondwane road before turning west i had about 100 or so Impala heading full steam towards me at a stampede on the road, quite unusual as one would normally expect to see such a thing going across you as opposed to head on and i was wondering what was chasing them or had unnerved them. Having seen them before on many occasions when a cat is after them i somehow did not think it was that…although they were stampeding there did not seem to be the usual panic on their faces and in their movements…they were just running.

As i approached them…or should i say as they approached me they kind of melted into the bush on my left side and slowed down to a stop. For the next 200 metres or so i crawled along scanning both sides of me in case one of them had been brought down but i neither saw or heard anything.

However, a further couple of hundred metres down the road i did come across a bull ellie that was clearly very pissed off about something and i wondered whether it was he who had put the frighteners on the buck. He was going a bit berserk stamping the ground, kneeling, stabbing the ground with his tusk and generally making a commotion and i got some great shots of him twirling his trunk around and flapping his ears.

I was thinking that perhaps he was busy killing something as the ground where he was kneeling and stabbing was in a bit of a dip and i could not see properly. If i was not on the move myself i would of waited until he left and gone over to investigate. I checked through the binoculars and could not see any bloody mess at all and will examine the pictures thoroughly when i get home.

Mind you, i might just as well have gone over to look because he did actually move off after a few minutes and went off down the road in the same direction as i was travelling. He was just being a pain, i am quite sure he was blocking the road by walking down the centre and there was no way i was going to try and rush past him. So, after about 100 metres or more of trailing him i stopped and poured a coffee and just carried on tailing him for the best part of another kilometre before he got bored with the game and headed off into the bush.

When i started heading west the bush became a lot thicker as the bushwillow woodlands and thorn thickets take over. There are lots of small streams in these areas as there is a lot of granite and i started seeing several large to very large snake tracks crossing over the dirt track and sand in front of me. There was one in particular where i reckon at least 4 inches of snake was touching the ground as it moved…all guess work, but i figure that must make it in the region of 10 inches in circumference!! Even if it was a python that is NOT particularly small, and if it was a cobra or mamba it is massive.

Passing Muhlambamadvube water hole i reached the main road through the park and turned south to head down to Malelane and intending to stop at traders rest for some food of some sort.

Almost immediately i came across a couple of parked cars who pointed out a pride of lions all sleeping under the same bush just 3 metres off the road. I counted eight but there may of been more. They all looked so ‘cute’ sleeping there with some using each other as pillows. I took a couple of pics of a young male lion who had his eyes open and appeared to be watching me before continuing on. I was getting on for 1pm by now and quite hot so i could not see them moving for at least another three hours or so.

I did pull into Traders but breakfast was finished and i am not into burgers so grabbed a red bull and a couple of cabonassi sticks and decided i would get a decent lunch at Berg n dal.

I arrived at Malelane camp just before 2 pm but was really not impressed. There is nothing wrong with the camp itself but it is right on the southern fence of the park and i could see cultivated sugar cane fields on the other side and it just felt too close to civilisation. It was certainly not the ‘bush camp’ i had expected. I must of driven by it 100 times over the past 28 years but have never gone to look before. Oh well…now i know.

I knew there would be plenty of space at Berg n Dal so i headed straight up into them thar hills!!

Suddenly i started to feel that my safari was over, or rather coming to an end. Perhaps it was seeing those sugar cane fields and a few buildings in the land that lies between the park and Swaziland.
First thing on arriving was to check in and then immediately order myself a nice lunch in the restaurant overlooking the dam, i was famished and also starting to feel very tired.
During the course of lunch i checked my phone and as if on cue the messages started. 2010 was here and it was time for me to start thinking about it. I had originally hoped to stay on until the end of the month but it was clear now that it was nearly time to go. Joburg was calling.
With that in mind i went back to reception and cut my booking short but upgraded to a luxury chalet for the next three nights. What a pleasure, bloody expensive if you are on your own but hey!!…it was worth it just for the bed alone.

So, only two more full days. I did go out that afternoon for a short drive through the hills and valleys of the surrounding area and parked off on the Matjulu river at the point where a man made watering hole lies and just enjoyed my surroundings with a couple of beers as the sun started sinking.

That evening i made a nice chicken wing potjie that would last me over the three nights and relaxed in the luxury of my chalet. I think that in future when i end my trips like this i must arrange for a girlfriend to fly up and join me for a couple of nights.

The following morning i was out early and headed up to the mbiyamati weir and the track running alongside the river. By sunrise i was parked in the Mlambane river bed where i got some nice shots of the sun coming over the horizon. The sun was pale pink and i just knew it was going to be a scorcher, by 6am i had the shirt off already.

I moved on and stopped by the weir for a while for breakfast and coffee before pushing on alongside the Mbiyamati river. There were plenty of things to see apart from the natural beauty of the area but it turned out to be a real Rhino day, i just kept seeing them all day and i reckon i must of seen 27 in total, singly, twos, threes and fours. By the afternoon it was so hot that on one occasion i came across one bull rhino that was basking in a big puddle right next to the track. Normally they would move off if i approached or parked nearby but this guy was so hot and tired that he just lay there less than 3 metres from me.

Having gone back to camp at about 10.00am i took a good long walk around the perimeter fence and around the dam. They actually call it the rhino trail, and apparently before the camp was built it was in fact a path carved out by rhino. They say it is 3 klicks, it felt shorter but with the heat i was sweating heavily by the time i had finished and went for a nap to recover before showering and heading out into the hills again where i continued to see plenty of birdlife and more rhino. I swear, i don’t think i have ever seen even half as many rhino before in one day.

My last full day and i wanted to make the most of it so i was first at the gate and zoomed down to the crocodile river to get some more sunrise shots, but in fact it had clouded over and was actually a very quiet morning, the only decent sighting i had was an eagle owl standing in the road in my headlights before it flew off.

I could see bad weather rolling in over the mountains of Swaziland to the south and Mozambique to the east and wondered if that was the reason the river tracks seemed so quiet.
I Parked up down on the riverbed of the croc river under a giant fig tree where i had coffee and my usual ‘on the move’ breakfast. There was nothing moving at all and i started thinking there was going to be more floods this year over the next few weeks or so.

Turning north onto the Mlambane track i came around a corner to see four wild dogs walking through the grass. Excellent!!…i had not seem yet on this trip and was delighted. These days i see more leopard than i do wild dog, although i think the situation with them being on the endangered species list is not as bad as it was a few years ago.

They were four males and as i parked they also seemed to decide to park off for a while and rest up just in front of me. It was clear they had had some sort of grief earlier that morning or the night before as two of them had bloody wounds around their necks and all four of them seemed very weary. I also found it strange that they were not with the entire pack, perhaps they had gotten separated during a chase or perhaps there were many young which the rest of the pack were looking after…

One of these days i am going to go on a safari where i pick a pride of lions or a pack of dogs, maybe even a troop of baboons and just follow them around the bush to learn more about their ways and daily habits.

I ended up spending well over an hour with the dogs before they were roused and started moving off down the hill. As usual i followed on with my video camera until we came to a small dry river crossing where they disappeared off into the thicker vegetation of the riverine.

Back to camp at 10.30 i napped for an hour before having a cold shower and then breakfast/lunch down by the dam.
Red bull again to keep going and i was out again at 2pm. I followed exactly the same route as the morning and was pleased to see more animals around than earlier.

Sitting by a large group of impala and zebra another car pulled up and told me about a male leopard in a Marula tree just 10 klicks down the road. Sometimes other traffic can be quite useful!!.

I followed the guys directions and arrived at the spot which was easy to find once i was there as another few cars were already parked up. Fortunately for me there was perfect spot to pull into and i spent the last couple of hours with the leopard.
He was a beauty and after a half hour or so he started to move around quite a lot, grooming himself and generally getting ready for the night.

At one point a couple of louries flew into the top of the leopards tree and immediately the leopard started stalking the two birds who seemed completely unaware of the cat.

Watching his facial expressions through the lens was fantastic as he started slithering up the tree trunk. Never, ever taking his eyes off the two birds. This went on for a good few minutes as the cat came closer and closer, but eventually the louries who were in the very tree top became alert to the danger and flew off. All the same, it was easy to see why the leopard is such a reknowned hunter.

I took a stack of pictures and by 5.45 there were several other cars around including a few game viewing vehicles . I was probably in the best spot so i decided to do the nice thing and move on for a slow drive through the hills back up to camp, so someone else could get a better view.

It felt fitting to end my trip with the leopard and a final drive into the setting sun and i decided then that the following morning i would not go on a game drive but would rather call it a day now and head straight home in the morning.

As i had left the leopard there was a gorgeous woman in the game viewing vehicle from the ‘Jock of the Bushveld’ private camp. She gave me a huge smile as i left and my only regret is that i did not stop to say hi and make contact.

On the other hand it also reminded me of another very good reason to get on home to Jozi….chuckling to myself as i look forward to another type of ‘bird spotting”….

As i mentioned a couple of stories back i was parked up in the middle of a small tributary crossing that was like a little oasis on the savannah where i was catching up a bit with my typing for this blog.
The cheetah hunt and hippo carcass etc.

That morning had been very quiet. I went through to Mlondozi for a while before driving around a dirt track loop that almost goes up to the Mozambique border across the savannah. Side striped jackals in some wetlands where i had parked for coffee and a bit of breakfast.

On the way there i had stopped for a while to watch a small family of black backed jackals playing around. There were a couple of ostriches close by and at one point the female ostrich got a bit pissed at the younger jackals and fluffed her feathers up as she chased them off for a few metres. They just got out of the way a bit sharpish before carrying on playing as they were.

They came sniffing around the car after i had been sitting there for a while which was cute to watch.It always amazes me how bold most animals are once they realise i am not a threat and the big white beast (my landy) has not roared!!
Mind you, one has to be careful with some animals…especially hyaenas, and in some cases lions, as they will try to chew the tyres. The big guys can and will if they wish.

The highlight of the morning though was when i was driving back up the track from where i had stopped for coffee.

I saw a parks vehicle coming up behind me so i veered over and let them pass. Two girls and a male were in the back , the one chick had an antennae held high, the other a big rifle and the guy was just there.

Another klick up the road near a bunch of trees i saw they had parked up next to four bull ellies which were just 2 to 10 metres from them, everyone in the back of the bakkie were down low. I don’t blame them as the nearest ellie which was the biggest with tusks as thick as my thighs was towering over them!!

I had seen the ellies on my way down and stopped to take some pics but a couple of them in particular seemed very irritable so i had not hung around.

I pulled up about 10 metres behind them and battled not to smile. The one chick holding the rifle was facing me and i could read her mind which said…”it don’t matter how often this happens to me, these animals this close are terrifying…please go away from the car!!!”

Hats off to them though…, terrifying as it is they held their nerve superbly. The guy in the back had simply crouched down and was taking snappies of them…i swear he could of reached out and touched the nearest ellie with no effort at all. The guy either had very big balls or he was a visitor guest who did not really understand the position he was in.

A couple of the ellies started to move off and in fact came alongside my left before moving on behind me where they were started feeding on a bush. At this point the ranger who was driving started up and crawled past the other two before heading off westwards….leaving me behind. As they did so the big ellies walks into road behind them and starts approaching me…i’m sure those bloody rangers were having a good chuckle now that the tables had turned !!

I look in my mirror and the two who had moved first had now stepped onto the track behind me…there was nowhere for me to go!!

The big one got closer and closer and was clearly checking me out. As his trunk was within touching distance of my bonnet i tried to turn the ignition key a little and get my drivers window up without making any movement, but it all happened so quickly per se that i just had to freeze with my window wound all the way down. Apart from anything else i knew the breeze was coming through my passenger window so my scent must of been going straight up his trunk.

By now the big ellie had come to my side and i was half expecting his trunk to come through the window and grab me. I swear…you have no idea how big these beast are until they stand next to you…his tusks were massive and less than two metres from my car window as he stopped and stood staring at me for at least 30 seconds. I could hear him breathing quite clearly and was sure i could smell his breath. Life kinda slows down in those moments…but afterwards when you go over it everything seems so very fast and blurred.

My heart was pumping and i just sat there holding my breath silently apologising for chuckling at the girl rangers.
Deep down i kinda knew i was ok….I mean…the rangers would not of left me in that position if they were too concerned….would they??

But i tell you, something like that is about as hair raising a moment as you can get. I would defy even the craziest of ‘adrenalin junkies’ not to get a buzz from it .

I finished writing at 6pm which left me 30 minutes before the camp gates closed. The camp was only about 3 klicks away so i planned to crawl back with a final beer for the day, but first i thought i would just check round the bend in front of me which is the wrong direction for the camp, go to the top of the rise where the land drops down to the bed of the tributary and cast my eyes across the savannah as it continued to rise away from that point.

As i started up a lone Hyaena came walking round the bend with its nose to the ground and clearly following some sort of scent. She walked right past my landy and down to the puddle to my left where she drank before continuing on into the riverine bush that followed the water course.

I love sitting and having the bush come to me, it really is the best way to see things in the long run, and i got some nice shots of her walking towards me.

I drove round the bend and about 150 metres or so up the track i could see a little red car parked up, i checked with my binocs and indeed the driver was sitting up on the window in his door looking out to my right.

Obviously something so i drove up to check it out. Would you believe it …the two male cheetahs. My last evening in that area and there they were again. Unfortunately they were about 30 metres or so away from the track but i could see them reasonably well with the binoculars. This time they had a kill. I could not make out what it was because they had just about finished it off and it was laying in the grass (obviously…it was dead and mostly eaten!!), but i spent the next ten minutes or so watching them both lick each others faces clean from all the blood and stuff, before they both got up and started walking parallel to the track i was sitting on …unfortunately in the wrong direction for me.

Time was up, it was 6.20 and i had to go. On the one hand these moments which can and do happen often are very frustrating because you just want to sit and watch, but on this occasion i was ok with it as i had already spent so much time with them.
In fact it just seemed like the perfect way to say ciao to them and Lower Sabie, and i drove off into the setting sun as they both strutted off into the breeze.

Till the next time.

After getting back to camp from seeing the cheetahs again i decided that it would be a good day to drive down to Crocodile Bridge, leave the park, and on to Komatipoort for a few supplies to see me through next week. After rustling up a nice breakfast on the skottel, a short nap and long cold shower i was on my way around noon.

The plan was to go straight there at 40- 50kph (really fast!!) without trying to spot anything and then cruise back slowly with a few cold beers in hand.

That is pretty much how it went except for one stop of about thirty minutes when i came across a hippo carcass right by the side of the road that was already about a third eaten, a couple of hyaenas were on the carcass together with maybe 20 or 30 vultures and another 50 or 60 in the trees and surrounding bush.

I am not sure if i mentioned it but i had seen a big hippo the other morning with some terrible wounds that were clearly from a fight with another hippo. That was on the other side of the river and about 3 to 4 klicks away (in a straight line), i wondered if it was the same hippo or maybe his opponent??

This one seemed particularly massive, maybe because it was just 2 metres from me and stretched out on its side.

It is quite a sight, not to mention the smell and sound of vultures and hyaenas on such a large carcass i can assure you and i sat there for a while getting a few shots. I think i got a good one of a hyaena sitting inside the rib cage baring its teeth at the vultures that were getting a bit too close.

I knew i would see it again on the way back so i moved on and did all my shopping as planned . It is very weird to suddenly be back in civilisation again after over two weeks in the bush, even though it was only a sleepy little hollow like Komatipoort.

The tar road down to croc bridge is a lovely road to travel, and although it was pretty quiet on the way down there was a reasonable amount of game around on the way back, which i travelled at an absolute crawl whilst polishing off several cans of Windhoek.

Obviously the carcass was still there, hard to know exactly but there is probably over 2000 kilgrammes of meat on such a beast. Quite a few cars had gathered though so i did not hang around too long and carried on creeping my way along the Sabie at about 10kph.

I was about 6 or 7 klicks from camp when i thought i saw a bit of movement underneath the canopy of a large sausage tree with very dense foliage that was down the bank slightly so i pulled over on to the ridge of the bank for a closer look.
It was very dark inside so cracked another beer and sat there for a while peering under the foliage looking for movement.
What with a few beers inside me and my focus on the tree i did not really take any notice of a little blue car that pulled up on the other side of the road, especially as i was parked on the wrong side per se ( Facing anything oncoming). It was the main road close to camp so it was to be expected for one or two other cars to go by.

Anyway, i suddenly become aware of a noise beside me and i look up to see this chick ( maybe 35 – 40 years old) standing a metre or so down the bank in line with the front of my nearside, she was taking a photo of the tree i was looking at.

So now i felt a bit of a stupid and thought that there must of been something there, ie, the movement i had seen. It was obviously not the leopard i had thought it might of been because there is no way this chick would be standing there if it was, but i had no idea what she was seeing.

So i say to her while she is taking pictures on her snappy camera “ i guess you must of been born in the bush”, a statement as much as question. She says Ja…yes. Now i hear the accent and figure it does not sound right so i ask her “where are you from then”. She says” Hungary”.

Hungary i think to myself uh uh…something strange here.

So i ask her “ what are you photographing” So she says “ i saw you looking at something so i came to photograph what you are looking at. What are you looking at?”

I say “its a tree, a sausage tree”

“A Sausage tree’ she says.

I say “yes, a sausage tree” and with that she gives me this kind of mad grin like i am playing with her and walks quickly back to her car which is a good ten paces away and jumps into the passenger with me looking on in amazement.

I look over and see this guy sitting in the drivers seat holding his head in his hands and just shaking it from side to side as he kinda tries to bury himself deep into the seat before driving off without saying a word!!

I just packed up laughing, and carried on chuckling to myself for the rest of the evening.

Like i said about the bush, anything can happen at any time at any place. Don’t ya luv it!!!

Late Sunday afternoon now as i sit here on a dirt track where it crosses over one of the small flood tributaries that run into the Sabi river. Gorgeous little spot, like a little Oasis on the savannah plains. Thick bush all around but a clear view for 30/40 metres along the track in front of me before it bends round the bushes and fifty or so metres behind me before it goes over the rise. To my left is a little water puddle in the middle of well trodden mud and to my right a slight game track winds away through the grass, and a few larger tress on either side 20 to 40 metres away behind the bushes.

A 101 birds are singing, the cicadas are chirping and lots of other little insect noises. With an hour or so to go before the camp gates close i really don’t mind if i don’t see any mammals at all, it is just lovely to sit with a cold one and see out the day in the middle of such natural beauty.

Moving on from Lower Sabie camp tomorrow to Malalane camp which is very small and close to the Mbiyamati river. A truly beautiful river area where i want to spend the last week of this trip.

Friday was hot, very very hot. It was fairly obvious it was building up to a bit of a storm and at 2.00am on Saturday morning the clouds burst. Jeez it came down….like a sheet, real monsoon type rain. I was fast asleep but it woke me immediately it was so ferocious. I had gone to sleep with the awnings of the tent all open so i had no choice but to get up and batten everything down. It was still very warm though so all i had to do was slip on a pair of shorts and go out take a couple of poles and guy ropes down and zip up. Within 2 seconds i was completely drenched so i thought ‘stuff it’ whipped off the shorts, got a bar of soap and had an absolutely wonderful al fresco shower in between my tent and the trunk of the acacia. I am sure no one was awake or watching from other camps, but i did not really care and for about 2 or 3 minutes had a brilliant shower. Back in the tent, a quick towel off and within 15 minutes or so i was fast asleep again for another couple of hours!!

Like i have said before, anything can happen at any time at any place….ha ha.

I had spent pretty much the whole day up on the koppie overlooking the Mlondozi dam which had been lovely. I had seen lions again, quite a few ellies came down to drink, swim and play. A rhino spent half the day just laying half in the water and half in the reeds, many buck, warthogs, giraffes and other mammals were around and of course quite a lot of bird life.

I think though that the highlight of my game viewing for the day had been in the early morning on my way to the dam when i saw a hyaena make a couple of pretty stupid looking attempts to catch a hare. It was in the headlights of my car it was so early and this probably made it all the more comical, it certainly had me chuckling as the hyaena lunged a couple of times with the hare just making a couple of hops out of the way before the hyaena slunk away…humiliated. This all happened in less than a minute, but the picture will be etched in my mind for many years to come.

Friday evening was very nice and a pleasant change from the norm as i went over to the camp of a couple of people i had met the day before and sat shooting the breeze over a couple of beers. Thanks for a lovely6 evening P and G, i look forward to catching up with both again in Pretoria.

Saturday morning i only woke up at 4.20 but felt great and well refreshed after my ‘midnight shower’ and ‘delta’ sleep.
After brewing a pot of espresso i was out just around 5am, and headed north east along the tar road that runs alongside the west bank of the Sabie. After about 5 or 6 klicks i had the feeling that i was ‘on the wrong road’. It was particularly quiet and all i saw was one hyaena, so i did a u turn and headed back south so i could cross the river and make my way up to the dam again and see what was happening on the savannah along the way.

As soon as i had crossed over the fiver on the dam wall road i started seeing life again, Big bull ellie coming down the road towards me, mongoose, two honey badgers looking rather bedraggled but playing together on the side of the road, buck, a family of black backed jackals, rhino…
I wondered why it had been so quiet on the other side of the river, perhaps it is a sign of some flooding to come, we shall see.
I went up to the kopjie over the dam and sat having a coffee but there was nothing particularly exciting going on and it was still a bit breezy and cloudy so i soon headed back along the dirt track the way i had come thinking i would park near the jackal family and watch them playing.

I had not gone too far when i was a bit startled by a large secretary bird that flew across me at eye level just a few metres in front of the car. Another one of those split second sightings that will remain in my mind for a long time. He..or she did land in the grass a few metres to my left so i sat for a while watching her strut away into the bush with the lens trained on the face just in case she stopped and turned.

The rhino was still pretty much where it was on my way down and i expected the jackals to be near them so i was keeping a sharp eye to my right when suddenly i spotted the two male cheetahs again, i was so pleased, but felt bad because i had seen P and G up on the kopjie , but they had left 10 minutes before me and had obviously missed them.

I sat with them for close on an hour again. They walked around a bit and layed up in some long grass for a while when, as with the other morning, they both sat up on their haunches simultaneously staring out to the west which was upwind.
After a while they both went down again and as i could see nothing i thought it had maybe been something far off in the distance going in another direction.

Not so. A few minutes later there was a stampede of hoofs, the one cheetah came leaping over the tuft of grass he had been laying behind, virtually directly towards me anf the second one came running round the side of the grass heading for a point just ahead of me. The ‘stampede’ of hoofs was actually two warthog adults that had suddenly bolted just a couple of metres from me parallel to the car. They were virtually under the lens of my camera. If only i had the lens trained on the cheetah who had come leaping over the grass. I didn’t though, in fact i had relaxed totally and did not get one shot, but once again i shall hold the memory of the cheetahs face and body as it leapt in my direction for many a year, probably forever unless the image is surpassed.
Those warthogs can move it hey!!…jeez, even the cheetahs were too slow starting up and within less than ten paces they gave it up…the warthogs were gone. I shall also remember for a long time the sound of them galloping under me with a little squeal as they realised what they were walking into. Brilliant to see, hear, smell and feel. A truly sensuous ‘bush’ moment.

The cheetahs were clearly disappointed with themselves and after that they started walking off up wind which took them across the track in front of me. Again i followed behind them for a couple of hundred metres before they went off into the grass to my left. I could see they were heading for a fallen deadwood tree that was laying a metre or so above the top of the grass and figured they would climb up on it for a good scout around which is exactly what they did. At least this time i had got it right and positioned myself nicely in anticipation and managed to get some shots of them both standing on the dead tree trunk looking out over the savannah before they finally jumped down and disappeared altogether.

It was time for breakfast, and i headed back to camp, once again beaming like a Cheshire cat!!, a very happy chappie indeed.

It is Thursday now which makes it day 13 of this trip. I have not written since Sunday, largely because i have been giving up smoking….again!! which kinda throws me out of kilter. To be frank i am quite positive that giving up smoking throws me off balance so much that i become out of tune with the bush around me, my instincts fail and i turn right when i should of turned left …so to speak, and therefore do not see as much as i would normally.

It irritates the hell out of me that i am even smoking in the first place, i had given up for nigh on ten years when a bit of grief 5 or 6 years ago and i had a cigarette from someone, then within four days had bought my own packet….
Since then i have ‘given’ up at least once a year for a month or three but succumbed to the blasted little things every time, at least i have given myself a chance to detox although i will be trying my damndest not to start again this time around.

So, i have not smoked since 7pm on Sunday. I have bitten the heads off a couple of people who pissed me off though. Nothing to be proud of, but looking back there is a funny side to it…for me anyway!!

For the most part i have spent the last few days parked up at Mlondozi Dam. I did drive down to Crocodile bridge the one morning and traversed the Sabie River on another. Mainly birding, getting slightly sloshed and talking to myself.

Yesterday i was totally out of sync. I went up the tar road alongside the sabie then back down the Salitjie dirt track, turned left onto the Mlondozi track and up to the viewpoint above the Mlondozi dam for the rest of the day.
I learnt there that i had just missed a lion kill, a short while later someone else pulled in who had seen a cheetah kill right on the track i had just come down ( i must of missed it by no more than ten minutes) and then later someone who i had passed on the Salitjie road told me that moments after i passed they heard lions and saw four of them in the river bed on another kill…not my day clearly.

But Hey…no ciggies for nearly four days now and already i feel a different person and am sure i am over the worst of it although i have no doubt there will be some difficult times ahead. So, that being one of my reasons i have decided that i will be spending quite a bit of time at Mlondozi over the next few days, out of the way, a wonderful view , and with every chance of seeing everything there is to be seen in the bush, even if not providing the best photo opportunities.

This morning was fantastic, i was up at 3.30 and out of the camp by 4.30. Still dark but with the headlights on it can be great fun trying to see the reflection of eyes ahead. Predators often use the tracks and roads during the nights as ideal places to hide up and see anything coming from all directions.

I had already decided to spend the morning at the dam again so i turned south and then east over the sabie river on the dam wall road and cruised slowly through the savannah watching the clouds and sky changing colours through the whole spectrum of pastel colours as the sun was coming up to the horizon.

After a few klicks i was well pleased to see a porcupine in the road, a rare sight. He was close and i think i must of given him a fright as i approached as he showed me his quills in full, a spectacular sight which looked even more special somehow in the headlights. I tried a flash shot but don’t think it will be very good and by the time i had set the camera properly he had gone down into a ditch by the side of the road and into a culvert.

Another couple of klicks along and i turned right again onto the dirt track that leads to the dam viewpoint.

A few hundred metres down from there i was so chuffed to see a serval on the track about twenty metres ahead of me. He had obviously seen me before i saw him because he was already walking into the long grass and was gone within a matter of seconds, by the time i drew up alongside where he had walked there was no sign of him at all. Great to see all the same, and definitely not something you see everyday…nor every month, and for some visitors never ever.

A great start to my mornings viewing . The truth is that if i had not seen another thing for the rest of the day i would of been satisfied. That split second of seeing something here in the bush really does make all the difference.
Sometimes you can spend 12 hours out there in one day and see nothing, if you are on the way back to camp on those days and happen to have a screaming ellie run in front of you, or see a leopard or cheetah skip across the road, or see an eagle swoop down and take something, or even just see a herd of impalas running and leaping through the air it turns that day around in an instant and becomes a great day.

That anticipation is always there, Anything can happen at any time at any place.

After the serval i carried on down the track and at the point where the track splits into two and i was to turn left for the dam, there lying in the middle were two magnificent male cheetahs.!!

Absolutely awesome.

I guess this must of been getting on for around 5.15-5.20am by now and i sat there with them until almost 7am taking maybe 150-200 shots. They were stunning animals, perfect specimens . A couple of times they spotted something in the distance and sat up in perfect synchronisation, it was truly wonderful to watch.

Once again words fail me, i shall be uploading the pics asap.

Around 6.45 or so a couple of bull elephants came down through the bush from the right of me and when they were just 6 or 7 metres behind the cheetahs the cats both got up and started walking down the track together. I followed them for maybe 5 or 600 metres, videoing them the whole way, before they finally left the track and melted into the long grass after scent marking a tree and a few small bushes around it. They seemed to sniff around it quite a bit beforehand and i was sure they could smell another cheetah, maybe a female, maybe some competition…if i had to bet i would say another female.

I drove on up to the dam beaming like a Cheshire cat, where, apart from a four hour break between 11 am and 3 pm when i went back to sabie camp to shower etc, i spent the remainder of the day.

I had a constant fight with monkies who came down to steal my food when i was making my breakfast and then in the afternoon when i was making some sauce for pasta in the evening. Stones, a walking cane that i pretended was a gun, a cattie…nothing would deter them. Not only did they get some bread and then some onions and mushrooms but they also took my stirring ladle and a sharp knife, licked them clean and then hid them up in the tree…nightmare!!

It is not their fault really, it is because people feed them, but the problem is they can become very aggressive. When they attack they are not the cute little things they appear to be, and believe me they are so fast it is startling.
I have had one or two foreign tourists give me the evil eye when they see me throwing stones so i have to explain that rather have me throwing stones than the ranger coming and shooting them, which is invariably what will happen if they are allowed to get away with it.

Mind you, i felt quite bad towards the end of the day. There was me chasing them off all day and then around 5pm the one female came down to the tree shading me with a small baby that i doubt was even 7 days old, so i ended up taking dozens of pictures of the gorgeous little thing.

The whole day was lovely though, apart the sheer pleasure of being where i was i saw plenty of wildlife, lions, rhinos, ellies, hogs, buck, giraffe, eagles including a fish eagle swooping down but missing, numerous different birds…i could probably make a list of what i saw and experienced today longer than a foolscap page.
I also chatted with a lot of very nice people, south Africans, Americans, Belgian, dutch, English and more.

Another fantastic day in paradise!!

My last day in Satara during this trip. Back again in September to meet some friends from Spain who i know will be looking for leopards.

It is the right place for sure.

I was awake at 3.45 and nearly rolled over and slept in waiting till the sun came up. However, last night i had planned to take an early drive down to Nsimane Dam, which is close by, sit there for couple of hours till about 6.30 or so before heading back to satara, decamping and moving on to Lower Sabie nice and early.
I lay there thinking about it for a few minutes before verbally kicking myself up the ass, and jumping out of my bedroll. Good move!!

I was out of the gate at 4.35 and headed south before turning east onto the orpen road and cruising along at 25kph for the 7 klicks down to the dam.
I saw a couple of hyaenas lying by the side of the road, a few ellies and in my headlights for the first 20 minutes or so i picked out some eyes reflecting back at me that were mainly mainly impala but i think i may of seen a couple of genets too.

About 2 klicks from the dam i came across a leopard in the road who went straight into the grass to my left. I saw her again as i drew level but the grass was fairly long and apart from being able to see that she had sat down and then laid low as she could see me looking i did not stay long as i knew there was another car not too far behind and i figured she would probably not come out again.

Amazing really, i think that is about 4 or 5 leopard sightings in just one week. I have known weeks like it before but they are few and far between i can assure you.

Then just less than a kilometre further on i came across two lioness walking along the side of the road to my right about 20 paces apart from each other. They were very attentive and alert and i reversed with the second of the two for a good hundred metres, she did not seem to bat an eyelid at my presence and i thought they were hunting.

Another two cars were coming up behind me and once i knew they had seen the first lion i carried on towards the dam thinking i may get a nice sunrise shot on the rise just before reaching the water.

I had a quick scout around and could not see too much so i decided to go back a see if tghe lions were still around, the cars behind me were nowhere to be seen so i figured they must be.

I did manage to get a couple of shots of the sun as it came above the horizon but they were nothing i would write home about and was glad to see the cars parked up together as i came around the bend.

As i drew up beside them i could see why…there right next to road on the right hand side was a magnificent male lion just a few metres in. Then i saw another female that seemed lighter in colour than the first two i had seen and then i saw the zebra carcass just two paces away from me in the grass with flattened grass all around it.

I felt a bit silly as i had driven straight past it on my way down, but i forgave myself as it had still been quite dark at that stage even though it was just 10 minutes or so beforehand. Then i forgave myself even more because as i pulled over next to the kill 6 lion cubs came peering through the grass and one by one pounced on the dead half eaten animal. It was a wonderful moment to catch the delight in the cubs eyes.

I sat with them all for the next two hours while the cubs fed and hopefully got some good pictures, i’m sure i did…i must of taken well over a 100.

I realised whilst watching that the lions i had seen earlier were watching out for hyaenas. Lions do not like hyaenas at all as they will, at the slightest opportunity take the cubs quite easily if they are not defended properly. It was clear that even the male was watching out over them, especially when we first arrived until he was sure that we were not a danger.

As i was looking around i saw more lion in the surrounding grass in maybe a fifty metre circle around the kill, and although i am not completely sure how many there were in total i ended up estimating that were at least nine or ten adults, and there was i smack in the middle of them all watching the youngsters feed and playfully fight over one or two of the juicier pieces left.

After a while i made out the head of one of the big aunties just a few metres away from the kill very attentively keeping an eye over the young ones. After an hour or so one of the younger ‘teenage’ adults came back to feed again and when he first arrived the big auntie shot up and was back on the kill in a split second growling at the male teenager.

At first i thought she had thought it may of been a hyaena arriving, maybe she did, but then i got to thinking that this young male had not been allowed to feed properly because the big male had been on the kill, he certainly seemed pretty hungry.

Whatever, the big auntie did not attack him but stayed on the kill with the youngsters, feeding again on the neck of the zebra while the young male seemed to be feeding on the poor beasts throat. They were almost nose to nose and the big auntie was continually making deep growling noises that came from somewhere deep in her chest. There was no doubt that she was not going to have the teenage bullying the cubs in any way whatsoever .

I can still hear her deep growling now as i write , and the crunching of the bones as she gnawed at them in between tearing the skin and meat of the zebras neck.

It was a bit gruesome because as this was going on the head and eyes of the zebra were quite visible as his head was pulled about with his mane swaying bit with all the pulling and tugging that was going on.

A while later the big auntie became very alert and gently spoke to the cubs before leading them to a dense thicket bush about ten metres into the grass behind the kill. Looking over to my left i could see why, there may of been more but i could see the heads of two hyaenas peering over the grass about 40 metres away. Already in position in between me and the hyaenas were two other lionesses as protection, it was almost military like. Even the male lion who had by now wandered off 100 metres or more to the shade of a tree had raised his head…albeit momentarily.

No one must try and tell me that these animals are not telepathic in their communications.

With the cubs now back in the thicket the young male was left to carry on eating on his own. He seemed to be edgy about something though and after a few minutes dragged what was left of the carcass further in and wedged it under a small tree that was nearby…maybe he had spotted the vultures descending.

I left soon after, i thought about hanging around to see what happened between the hyaenas and vultures but i knew i had seen the best of it, there were by now several other cars around and i was keen to get decamped, showered and move on down to Lower Sabie.

After getting back to camp and getting everything done i eventually left Satara around 10.30 and headed south at a steady 50kph…It almost feels like racing..lol… and aimed for Tshokwane where i had a lovely breakfast/lunch of kuduwors, pap and sheba, just what i needed by that stage as i was ravenous, and washed it down with a glass of homemade ginger beer whilst sitting on the root of a lovely old tree on the river bank. Perfect!

Leaving Tshokwane i carried on south before turning east towards the Mozambique border and the south again along the high road over the Lebombo, and then down into the vast marula savannah lands and knob thorn running down to the great sabie river. Through the wetlands and riverine bush, across the big dam wall and i arrived at sabie soon after 1.30 pm.

Lower Sabie is one of the older camps in the park, situated on the banks of the Sabie river with many varieties of trees the birdlife is fantastic.
I found myself a nice little site under the shade of an umbrella thorn acacia tree and built camp to the accompaniment of at least a few hundred birds chirping in the canopies above.

A nice lunch at the tree restaurant overlooking the sabie and i parked off for the rest of the afternoon at the sunset dam which is less than a kilometre away, where i started writing here about the lion pride from this morning.

Early to bed last night and early to rise this morning which i have spent doing much the same as yesterday afternoon…without the driving.

I did park off at the dam earlier first thing,this morning which was a hive of activity, after getting some sunrise shots from the dam wall as i looked down the south side of the south eastern end of the sabie.

I came back into camp early, soon after 7am intending to make my self some food but i got tired of waiting for the bacon to thaw so ended up walking down to the tree restaurant again and having one of their omelettes as i looked out at hippos, birds and antelope.

I had my camera with me because on the walk down i had seen a big lizard nearby which i wanted to photograph, and it was good job too because on the way back i saw a kestrel take one of the weavers. I think it was a kestrel, it may of been a falcon, but i got a few lovely shots so i will know when i study them properly. The poor little bird taken which was a warbler of some sort i think hardly knew what hit him i am sure, but then it seemed to take ages for the kestrel to kill him which was harsh to watch, especially as i have lots of warblers and weavers in the garden at home and have been feeding them for quite a few of their generations.

Such is life!

Having enjoyed my day so much yesterday i thought i would do much of the same on my last day here at Satara. I have got a fair old drive tomorrow and decided to spend the morning parked up at Nsimane dam.

With that in mind i sat in camp drinking coffee until just after 5am and took a slow drive down there, it is only 10 klicks from the camp gates.

It was very quiet actually and i did not see much at all apart from a small pack of hyaenas that were running along at a fair speed which is quite unusual. I counted eight of them but there may of been more. They came onto the road behind me and i sat watching them for a while but i could not see any reason why they would of been running like that and have to admit that i was pretty baffled. They milled around by the side of the road for a good ten minutes before walking off into the bush at their normal pace and i really am none the wiser as i sit here in the evening thinking about it.

The only thing i can think is that they were playing, although they were all adult with a couple of them being quite big and definitely fully grown. Who knows, i doubt there is anyone who has every single answer to every single thing that happens out here, even the guys who have spent their whole lives here.

The moon has disappeared altogether now and the nights and early mornings are pitch black as it waits for the rise of the new moon which i guess will start to happen during the course of next week. It can be a bit scary at times even though i am behind the security of the camp fence. Even so, as i sit here now i can hear a couple of jackals howling and occasionally the hyaenas with their very wierd laughing that makes these dark nights very eerie indeed.

With my computer screen on in my face and a candle burning on the table beside me i could not even see my landy which is white and parked just 3 or 4 paces directly in front of me!!

However, when i logged off for the night and doused the candle i looked up and the skies were incredulous. There was no light at all with no other camps around me, it was truly velvet black, but up in the heavens it was all very clear to see, like watching a film of the stars at the planetarium in 3D. I could see many constellations very clearly and the milky way stretched right over the top of me, with the 3D effect it was easy to see how the stars just go on and on forever. A fantasmajikical sight, truly spectacular. Words fail me.

I was up around 4.30 but after a few minutes i decided to relax in camp for a change to chill and relax. As usual i made myself a nice pot of coffee and just sat back, watched the dawn come up, and spent the next couple of hours watching the early birds, the swallows and martins as they swooped out of their nests like paratroopers exiting the rear of a plane, blue finches, fire finches, oxpeckers, glossy starlings, various doves, hornbills, weavers, sparrows, louries and more.

There were also quite a few squirrels foraging around and through the fence i saw gnu, zebra, giraffe, hyaena and antelope.
A good long walk around the camp a couple of times, a big breakfast at the restaurant and of course another sleep. I am getting quite fond of these naps.

I eventually left camp at around 1.30 and headed straight for the Gudzani where i parked up for the afternoon and let the bush come to me, the very best way to see it all i reckon.

My highlight was a big bull giraffe that came walking right up to me. Nothing special in that particularly, but because i was parked down in the river bed and the giraffe was walking along the track towards me i started off by seeing his two ‘horns’ rising out of the ground, then his head followed by his neck until finally he towered over me probably 50 feet up in the air. It was like watching the animal rise up out of the ground. I took a few shots through the windscreen so as not to scare him and i am hoping they will be quite spectacular because of the angle involved…watch this space!!

Sometime around 4.30 i started crawling back to camp and half an hour later i came around a sharp corner to find two other cars parked up. I asked them what was going on and was quite amazed to hear they had been sitting watching another leopard sitting fairly low down in a nearby tree watching upwind for any approaching prey. Unfortunately for me he had just climbed down and walked off into the bush, however i turned to where the guys were pointing and was just in time to see his ass disappearing behind a thicket. Not really a sighting, but i think that is four leopards now in just one week. …maybe they have been breeding leopards for the tourists recently…lol.

Closer to camp i got some lovely shots of a breeding herd of elephants crossing over the track in front of me, two young ones with their tusks just starting to show just stood by the side of the road swatting and cooling themselves with big bushy branches they had just broken off.

A few klicks from camp i parked up for the last fifteen minutes on a small bridge that goes over a triubutary into the N’wanetsi and was lucky enough to have ten big bull buffalo come down drink right under me and hopefully have some good shots of them as well.

To finish off a chilled day i had a nice supper in the garden of the restaurant overlooking the water hole just outside the camp fence where there were a herd of impala milling around and a couple of warthogs to boot.

I had a great sleep last night and for the first time this week i began to feel like i had caught up properly. My own fault really for playing poker late into the night on new years eve and the night before…mind you, it paid for this trip!

I was up just after 3.30am and amongst the first people out of the camp gate at 4.30. the evening before had been clear starry skies so i was hoping to get my first sunrise shots of the trip, but it proved not to be as the clouds had rolled in again from Mozambique during the night. It was warm though and as the sun rose behind the clouds a thick mist also came rolling in over the bush giving it an almost ethereal effect, quite beautiful.

I headed north towards the olifants river intending to turn west then south at the Timbavati and follow the dirt track back down south. It is a beautiful route that i have not done in quite a long time and that is what i ended up doing.

The first hour or so was very quiet along the way and it was only when i got up to ngotso that i spotted a group of hyaenas over to my left fighting over what turned out to be the snout of a warthog. It was very funny to watch them squabble amongst themselves and after a while the biggest of them proved to be the winner. I could not help but laugh to myself as he loped off to a nearby bush with his prize as it looked like the tusks on the boars snout were actually coming from the hyaenas mouth…if i had arrived at that precise moment it would of looked like a whole new species discovered!!.

At Nogotso North water hole i found three large female lionesses, clearly waiting in ambush for some sorry creature coming down to drink. I sat with them for a while until the two closest lionesses, one by one, stood up and walked over to join the most distant which was a good fifty metres from me. One of the lionesses was heavily pregnant, and i have no doubt that she would be disappearing soon to give birth.

Whilst watching then i could hear a fourth lion roaring not too far away, i estimated about a kilometre, which i found strange as these three were, as i say, clearly in ambush mode.
I wondered whether it was deliberate ploy to frighten any animals nearby into the waiting clutches of the lionesses.

After thirty minutes or i saw i carried on north keeping a eye out for the fourth lion. I reached my turn off for the Timbavati track but decided to carry on for a short distance, and sure enough another five hundred metres or so i found the fourth…and fifth lion, it was mating couple, and the roaring i had heard was the male when he had finished his biz.

My estimate had been a bit out as they were just over two klicks from the first three, amazing how far away they can be heard. I believe that in fact their roaring can be heard from over 8 klicks away.

I sat for a short while until they had got at it again and then turned back for the timbavati.

It was as pretty a drive as i remembered and i had a thoroughly enjoyable crawl back down seeing plenty of game and birds, in addition to stopping for a boiled egg and rye breakfast at a place i call golden rock which is way off the track right down on the river bed with a rocky outcrop on the bfar bank. There was a big pool of water right next to me in the otherwise dry river bed and a perfect spot to see anything coming down to drink. Just a couple of waterbuck this time but a gorgeous spot to sit at.

About 20 klicks or so down i had picked speed up to about 30 kph or so and was driving along in a bit of a dwall with my mind floating off somewhere when suddenly, almost in my right ear came a young bull elephant tearing out of the bush and trumpeting very loudly as it ran across my path…jeepers it gave me a fright and i had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting him. I must of given him a fright too i suppose, and as i sat there recovering with my heart beating fast a second ellie stepped out behing the screamer and looked at me as he crossed the road as if to say…”twat!!”…talking about his mate that is…lol

I stopped in at the timbavati picnic spot for a freshen up and a coffee before carrying on south to the Nsimane dam on my way back to camp.

When i reached the dam i looked over to my right down the orpen road and saw a few cars parked up so i went down to see what they could see…can you believe it… another leopard in a tree with a kill, i was thrilled as always.

It looked like it could of been the same leopard i had seen on last Sunday on the other side of the dam, and once again after a few minutes he came down from the tree and disappeared into the long grass and bushes. I had a good look at the kill and could see it was an impala ewe but something looked strange and when i got my binoculars out i could make out that it was in fact two kilss piled on top of each other. The oldest, maybe a day or two was a young kudu ewe with the second fresher carcass being the impala with just one of hind quarters having been semi eaten.

As it was in the same tree, which i have never seen before i figured the poor impala must of walked virtually directly under the leopard whilst he was eating the first one. I was quite pleased with myself as just the day before i had been telling an Irish couple how opportunistic leopards are and that they will sometimes have two or three kills stored in different trees in the same area, and when i looked around i could see they had been in one of the cars i had first seen.

Back in camp by 11.00am i had another of my favourite omelettes with some rye toast, and after saying goodbye to one of my neighbours for the past four nights laid down for a very welcome nap which turned into a two hour sleep.

I was back out before 3pm and took the singita road again up to Gudzani dam and then back to camp at a snails pace alongside the n’wanetsi. It was a fairly uneventful afternoon apart from a bloody great wasp that came into the cab and after a few futile attempts to lure him out i had to ‘doom’ him…apart from not wanting to get stung i was not interested in him making me jump at some point and going off the road at some crucial point.

Having stopped at a favourite view point on the river i saw a croc and a hippo having a bit of showdown but nothing really came of it and as is normally the case the croc backed off..

It was still overcast as i made my flask of coffee for an early morning drive and i was looking forward to another cool day which it did indeed turn out to be.

Leaving camp a while before 5am i headed south with the intention of doing the n’wanetsi dirt track, but as i was about to turn left i noticed a couple of cars and a game viewing vehicle parked in the middle of the road a few hundred metres further on, and saw a couple of flashes going off in the early morning gloom, so i decided to check out what they were seeing.

As i approached i could see a whole load of various animals crossing the road, zebras, gnu, buck and a couple of giraffe nearby so i thought they were looking at them and was about to turn back when i noticed three male lions on a fresh zebra kill just 10 metres or so to the left of the road. I pulled up in a good spot and was watching the lions feast thinking i would get some shots in a while as the sun came up.

I recognised one of the lions as one of two brothers i have seen over the last few years, easily recognisable as they both have very sparse manes and was well pleased to see him again. I wondered where his brother was, perhaps off mating somewhere, perhaps dead…who knows.

After another five minutes or so a few more cars had arrived from the camp and it was beginning to irritate me so i was putting on a small lens so i could get a couple of quick pics and move on when suddenly at least ten more cars and viewing vehicles arrived with one or two getting quite irritated that they could not see so well.

I hate scenes like that,and it completely spoils things. It has been getting worse in the past ten years or so since the kruger started becoming so popular and to be honest there are times when i yearn for the 80’s again. Recently i had decided that i must adapt and move with the times and that i was just being grumpy and selfish, but scenes like this really put me off, it can be worse than a zoo on school day outings.

Gone are the days when driving through the gates of the kruger gave me a true sense of escaping into the widerness, technology first saw to that in the nineties, and now accessability and value for money sometimes makes me feel like i am in a holiday camp as opposed to the wild bushlands. Grrrr!!

Anyway, i started up and moved on before i said something to one of those clowns jostling for a view after taking a quick snappy of the kill.

In retrospect what i should of done was to forget the lions and start training my camera on some of the people and cars, if i could of put myself into the right frame of mind it would of been very entertaining.

I learnt later that a few morons actually started getting out of their car doors in a effort to get a picture and eventually the rangers came out from camp and rounded them all up dispensing some pretty severe fines.

Throw them out of the park i say!!….throw the worst of them to the lions!!!….lol

I was so cross with it all that i carried on driving south for a few klicks before i collected my thoughts and remembered that i had intended to crawl along the N’wanetsi dirt road. I did not particularly want to drive through that lot again so i continued and decided to take the singita road instead and spend some time in the sweni hide.

It was actually a nice drive and with all the commotion i had left behind i did not see another car for virtually the whole morning.
I came across a couple of jackals who seemed to be hanging out with a single hyaena, the hyaena was staring very intently at something somewhere in the savannah to my left , but after five minutes of intent searching i could not see anything and moved off to the hide.

I spent a very pleasant hour or so there on my own drinking coffee and watching quite a bit ofactivity, a couple of small crocs, goliath heron, blue crane, hundreds of queleas, green heron , and a few impala came down to drink opposite me.

Leaving the hide around 8am i headed north again alongside the mdzani. It was a comparatively quiet drive although there was some game around and it was not until close to 10.30 when i was back on the tar road heading south to camp for breakfast that i saw anything exciting.

About 100 metres or so in front of me as i was driving down i saw a tawny eagle come streaking out of the sky and take a glossy starling virtually over the road. By the time i reached the spot he had settled on a small tree to my right and i sat for 15 minutes or see watching him eat his breakfast. I felt quite sad actually because while he was eating the starlings mate was perched in a tree nearby making pretty woeful noise as his or her mate was eaten. Such is life out here i guess.

Mind you, when i think of what i had witnessed earlier it reminds me that us humans are far worse than any creature killing to survive.

Back at camp i rustled up a nice fat omelette for myself and decided to take it easy for a few hours which is exactly what i did. Nice walk around the camp, snoozed for almost a couple of hours, showered and had a much needed shave and even spent some time chatting with a couple of other campers nearby. Lovely folk from Louis Trichardt and Komatipoort.

I went in to the camp office at one point to try and buy a pass for the Mananga trail which is for 4×4’s and only 6 vehicles allowed on any given day but unfortunately with the recent rains the trail was closed.

Much later that afternoon i drove down to the sweni river and parked up in some shade in the middle of nowhere where i caught up with my scribbling a little bit whilst watching impala and waterbuck grazing. Lovely, not a single car passed by.

By evening the skies cleared completely and the stars came out in all their glory so i decided to sleep early and be out in the morning at 4.30 to get some sunrise shots.