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.

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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.