New blog for our 2016 trip to Kruger

We have set up a new blog for our 3 month Trip to Kruger starting 2 April 2016.
follow us at this address
New blog for 2016

Final Blog Post

Our 2016 trip to Kruger has sadly come to an end
We spent the night at Berg en Dal, had our last braai, I must admit that I have had enough braai's for awhile. Late afternoon I walked the Rhino Trail which goes round the perimeter of the camp, what a lovely walk through the natural bush and across a dry river, from the fence I saw Rhino, Elephant, Kudu and Impala. Left Berg en Dal via Malelane gate heading for Johannesberg.

Looking back we had a great trip the highlights being the Lion at the fence at Shingwedzi and the encounter with the Elephant while we had the caravan in tow.

This is the driest we have seen Kruger for a long time, waterholes that we were accustomed to having a lot of water in are dry or nearly dry. Artificial waterholes are closed or not working, it was heart breaking to see animals congregating in the heat trying in vain to get a drink. I hope Sanparks reviews its decision to close the waterholes before it is to late.

Then there is the relentless slaughtering of our precious Rhino. Please do what ever you can to support the Anti Poaching campaigns. In the time we were in the park we heard of at least 16 cases of Poaching, we also came across patrols and met some of the Anti poaching units, let me tell you that these dedicated people are doing everything they can, under extreme conditions, to save the Rhino. They need your support as they are fighting a very sophisticated enemy driven by greed and money.

Thank you all for following us, we had over 2000 hits on our site from the following countries.
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To the Forum members (yellow ribbons) nice meeting you
Special thanks to the Sanparks staff who were all very helpful and effiecient.
To all our friends we have made in Kruger who do something similar as we do, hope to meet up again next year. 

Bookings has been made and paid for next year we arrive 25 April 2016 and stay at Satara until the end of May, we still need to decide what to do in June.
Watch out for our new blog for 2016 we will put a blog address on this site once we have it.

This water hole is nearly dry and a mud pool.

Kumane

Ironically this is the last photo we took in Kruger 2015, this was on our way to the gate and the last animal we saw for this trip. Hope it survives.

Until next time

Andrew (rogie) and Lettie (oumie)

Last few days at Satara

Breakfast at Tshokwane with friends from Lower Sabie

Niel doing the Fry up

Saw this single Wild dog about 8 Km north of Satara. It ran up the tar for about 1 Km before heading into the bush. It was smelling all the time obviously looking for the rest of the pack. 

Crested Barbet eating the scraps from our Breakfast at camp

Single file of Wildebees on the S90








On the Final Morning at Satara we went to Girivana at 06h00 to have some Coffee and rusks and hoped to see some Lion.  Girivana has always been our favourite waterhole in Kruger, we always spend the afternoons there until 5 pm allowing ourselves 30 min to get back to Satara before gate close.
This is the first time that I can remember when we have spent 15 days at Satara without seeing a single Lion, is it because of the dry conditions, has their normal prey migrated to better pastures? I would like to hear some other opinions.
Normally the sightings boards are full of red dots indicating Lion sightings at Satara, but we were lucky to get one dot a day and then it was around Orpen.

Look at this series of Zebra we saw at Girivana on our last morning.
This was an hour after sunrise so the lighting was perfect

Is this an albino Zebra or just a very white version

Look at the eye compared to a normal one.

Also the top of the mane is white instead of black.

The ears are also whiter

A good pose and comparison












 

This Stallion would not allow this Mare, who had a limp, anywhere near the water to drink.

BBJ's at Girivana







After the early morning drive we decided to go back to Satara and break up camp,  move to Berg en Dal, a four hour drive away where we would spend the night, ready for an early start in the morning so that we get could get to Kim's house in Fourways before the notorious Johannesburg peak traffic started.

Satara 2 nd Time

We left Tsendze one day early, the cold front had come through with annoying winds blowing sand all over the place. Four days is adequate for Tzendze there are great river drives with great spots to sit and watch animals drink.

 We saw this small Elephant with a deformed back left leg, it was hobbling along with quiet a big herd near Tsendze

   We hope that it was born like that and not lost it in a snare or accident.

 Elephant digging a hole to get water in the dry part of the Tsendze river.

 Tsessebe which we saw in small groups on occasions

At Tsendze we saw mainly Buffalo and Elephant, plenty Buffalo seeing 3 to 4 huge herds every day and small  groups of Dagga boys. On the second night we heard Lion roaring close by, awesome. With no power to charge computers and cameras and everything flat we decided to head back to Satara.

We phoned ahead to see if we could get in at Satara, no problem as we were going onto the Private site courtesy of Willem who organized for us.We started breaking down camp at 09h00 we were on the way by 10h30 arriving at Satara about 14h00.

An uneventful drive until we crossed the high water bridge over the Olifants river where we encountered an enormous bull Elephant walking straight down the middle of the road. We stopped about a 100M away hoping he would move off the road into the bush. Two other cars were reversing towards us as they were in its path. I tried reversing slowly with the caravan which is a difficult task anyway without an angry Elephant pushing you. Both cars reversed past me and still the Elephant came. The one person in the car advised me to turn around as the elephant had pushed him back for a long way. How do you do a 3 point turn with a caravan in tow and an Elephant now only 50M away?  I could not reverse as I could not see behind nor could I could I keep a straight line at the speed required to reverse. The Elephant was almost on top of us when I decided to stop, close all windows and see what happens, I could do nothing else, Lettie was almost hysterical the only words coming out was “oh Shit”  Was this how our trip was going to end? A car with a tusk through it and an overturned caravan…..

The Elephant walked straight towards our car, stopped 5 meters away raised his trunk shook his head and moved next to my car, passing within 2 meters of the driver’s window. I saw the gap, foot down and before the Elephant could react I was past him caravan and all. A close encounter, after we recovered we suddenly thought why did we not video this, too late it is in the memory forever.

We had always spoken about this happening many times, what would we do if we were confronted by an Elephant while we had the caravan in tow and unable to turn around or reverse. Well let me tell you there is nothing you can do, pull aside leave the car running, close the windows, so he does not pick up your sent, and hope for the best.

Set up camp on the private site with the help of Bongani, everything charged, fridge working DSTV ready for today’s rugby.

How lucky we are to get this site, sitting here typing this with all types of birds swimming in the bird bath, Banded Mongoose and Squirrels scurrying around, Buffalo, Impala and Wildebees visible from the fence.

Last night was the coldest we have been in the Park when it dropped to about 7C daytime is about 23C clearing tomorrow.  

Our rusk bin is running low; we have 4 or 5 nights left before we start making our way home. Missing our family, friends, golf, painting, and my own bed.

 Some Visitors to our Site at Satara

Bird bath visitor

 Begging for money from VISA (my charcoal carry bag)

Latest Pics from Tsendze

While I still have battery power left

The answer to Spot The Animal in previous blog post.

 Have ago at an ID

answer in next post.

Tsendze rustic camp

Site no 6 our view from Van

What a lovely and peaceful quiet camp, no electricity, batteries and solar power only. Outdoor and indoor showers, really rustic, Communal deep freezes for our foodstuff and I am running the car fridge for the fridge stuff.

Run by Rodger and Elina great hosts who keep the camp spotless, they are on the Sanparks Forum and Facebook, do yourself a favour and follow them.

The battery on my computer is running low so will keep it short until we get to Satara on Saturday where we again have the private site. We can recharge our batteries and get the fridge going again and DSTV of course….. Rugby.

the Tropic of Capricorn

Caravan on one side and car on the other with Lettie on the tropic.

On the rock of the tropic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lion Kill

Last night we heard about Lions that had brought down a Buffalo near Babalala about 20 Km on the tar north of Shingwedzi. We left camp this morning at about 07h00 hoping to find the Lions still on the kill.

2 lions were still feeding and had moved the kill into a more open position for photographs.
We spent about 2 hours there, had coffee, before the lions left the carcass and moved deeper into the bush under some shade.

On the way back we saw this Pearl spotted Owl.

Spent the rest of the day slowly packing and cleaning ready to move to Tzendze tomorrow, no rush as we have a reserved site no 6 apparently the 2nd best in the camp, we will see tomorrow.

See if you can spot the animal in this photo

Spot the Animal No 1.

The answer will be in the next Blog post.