Category: South Africa

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Kruger National Park – Day 5

Days 1, 2 and 3 here, here and here

Day 4 here

Day 5 started at 6:00, going a few kilometres north from Lower Sabie.  We spent time at two dams next to the road, being entertained by numerous birds: various kinds of egrets, herons and storks, Hamerkop, Weavers, Kingfisher and an African Fish Eagle. 

The Saddle Billed Stork did not like the others encroaching on his fishing spot and kept chasing them away.

A brief return to camp for coffee was followed by a drive to the south. We encountered a male lion in hot pursuit of a lioness, who appeared to be doing her best to ignore him.

Further south we also saw a cheetah in the distance, not interested in coming closer, so the best I could do was a landscape shot with a cheetah as part of the landscape.

We saw another Fish Eagle and a Tawny Eagle along the way, as well as many elephants.

We returned to camp for lunch and to download photos, of which I had about 1500 from the morning, in order to clean our cameras’ memory cards for the afternoon session.

In the afternoon we went north again, seeing birds, giraffe, buffalo

and eventually ending the afternoon with a big yawn or two.

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Kruger National Park – Day 4

Days 1, 2 and 3 are here, here and here

This was a transit day between Satara and Lower Sabie, taking the scenic route, which meant that we were on the road for 8 hours.

Birds, elephants, landscapes and a few antelope made up the photography of the day.

A Scops owl, very well hidden in a tree and pointed out to us by the SanParks staff member at the picnic site:

A few more attempts at photographing birds in flight, again with limited success, included a Bateleur and Wahlberg’s eagle.

Other bird sightings included a Namaqua Dove, Red Billed Oxpecker and Crested Barbet

An amazing sight, was that of a Lilac Breasted Roller busy anting, a behaviour I have never seen before or even heard of.

The scenery along the way was truly beautiful.

The number of elephants was amazing, especially the number of little ones. We even saw one that must have been no more than a few hours old, still very unsteady on its feet and with blood still visible on the mother’s hind legs (my photos unfortunately not really worth posting, but Liana’s video to follow and will be linked here). And where there are elephants, there must be dung beetles.

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Kruger National Park – Day 3

Day 1 is here

Day 2 is here

Day 3 was an early start, queuing at the camp gate at 5:30 to be on the road at sunrise, exploring the area north of Satara, towards Olifants camp.

This turned out to be the day on which we found Wild dogs, after a long search, despite having been informed of their exact location. We eventually found them late morning, resting in deep shade among the trees, very hard to spot. As a result this was not an ideal photographic opportunity, but managed to take a few pics, just to document that we had seen them.

Much of the morning and later also the late afternoon was spent trying to photograph birds in flight, with limited success.

First, a pair of Fish Eagles at the viewing site at Olifants rest camp

Several attempts at Lilac Breasted Rollers (Troupant)

White-browed Coucal (Vleiloerie)

Southern Ground Hornbill

During the course of the day, we also saw quit a few elephants, a hyena, Kori Bustard, Red crested korhaan, Waterbuck, kudu

and a bit frustratingly, given my dislike of baboons, probably my best photo of the day, a troupe of baboons in a tree at Olifants bridge.

We also managed to get a family portrait of some lions in the grass,

saw some elephants crossing the Olifants river

and played around with some landscape and sunset/sunburst photos.

We ended the day with some venison sausage and chicken kebabs on the braai.

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Daytrip to Addo Elephant National Park: 19 November 2022

One of the advantages of living in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) is that it is just 40 minutes’ drive from our front door to the gate of Addo. We decided to do a day trip and picnic at Addo.

We spent more than an hour watching the elephants at Marion Baree Waterhole. One group was standing in and around the waterhole, with another group some distance away and a few lone elephants occasionally arriving and others departing.

There was constant interaction between the elephants around, with a few playful tussles.

One tussle appeared to be a little more serious, with one elephant appearing to be trying to prevent another one from getting to the water.

Some warthogs also tried to get to the water, but kept getting chased by the one of the elephants…

…who then also got chased by a new arrival

On our way home, a lone elephant to see us off