Lower Sabie
Both Lower Sabie
and Crocodile Bridge Rest Camps are very small and popular so it is advisable
to make bookings if you want to stay there, especially when camping. I have
stayed at each of these many times and the game viewing in these areas is
brilliant and wonderful for photography.
On our
first morning at Lower Sabie we came across a Tawny Eagle which had caught a
snake which looked to be about 5’ (1.5m) in length. When we first saw him, he
had obviously skinned it and was eating the meat surrounding the bones.
I did not
take many pictures while there as I wanted Gaelyn to get as many as she could
because she was on holiday and I would always get another chance at them. On
the main road to Skakuza one morning, I did however come across this beautiful
Carman Bee-eater which I could not resist. There is one bank in the river where
I know they make holes to nest in and stopped by to watch their activity.
Crocodail Bridge
Around
Crocodile Bridge you can see almost every species of animal found in the park
so one morning we decided to head for the Hippo Pool to see what we could find.
During our stay in KNP, we saw at least one pride of lions every day but our
mission was still to find a leopard. The water in the river was very high with only one hippo seen in the
distance.
In a
shallow cave above the water, there is a sample of rock art but over the years,
this has eroded and pieces have broken off the cliff leaving only this image
for us to see.
However,
the rock formations are worth looking at as there are some stunning places
where higher water levels have wash away the soft sandstone. We had EXTREMELY
good luck on leaving the pools as we found a leopard just busy climbing out of
a tree!! No time for any pictures but Gaelyn managed to get three which were
unfortunately lost a few days later when her computer was stolen.
Due to the
extremely hot midday temperatures sometimes felt at this time of year, we
always took a break during the hottest hours and this gave us time to catch up
with processing pictures to post.
Crocodile
Bridge is situated near the small town of Komatiepoort and was an ideal
opportunity to do some shopping and stop for a good breakfast at the Wimpy
there.
A fantastic
sighting for me was to find this Long-crested Eagle sitting on a telephone
pole. They are not often seen and almost never so close that I could capture an
image with my miserable 300mm lens so I was pleased to get half decent shots.
Then, after
two glorious and exciting weeks in the Park, it was time to head on down the road.......
List of
animals seen – too many to mention all but a few are: Lion, Leopard, Kudu,
Crocodile, Hippo, Elephant, Black and White Rhino, Buffalo, Hyaena, Rock and
Water Monitor, Wilddog, Hyrax (Dassie), 4 species of mongoose, etc. plus at
least 100 species of birds.
