SA Diversity Tour (15-16/02/2014) Day 31-32

Satara Camp, Kruger National Park

It was a couple of days of lions, lions and more lions!! How fantastic! A little affection goes a long way.

 First we came across two adult females with four cubs of about 2 years old which the adults were teaching to hunt.

When in that area, the S100 is a gravel road one has to take. To me this is the best road in the Park. We came across this elephant and stopped ahead of him as I could see he wanted to get across. Instead, he decided that he wanted to follow us. The more I moved ahead, the more he came behind us. No in any aggressive way though, just a slow amble down the road. J I took the picture in the side mirror of the car and you can see how close he was. Please NEVER allow elephants to come so close to you unless you know them as well as I do.

A little way down the road, these two majestic Kudu were standing like statues. Of all our buck species, this is my second favourite with the Sable antelope being top of the list even if one hardly ever sees them.

The RainbowSkink male is one of our most beautiful lizards when fully mature. It reaches a length of about 30cm (12”). This is a juvenile which is changing to adult colours and almost as lovely.

There were thousands of White Storks feeding in the grasslands.

Although I try, I cannot capture birds in flight as my camera is never set for faster speeds. I will keep on trying though. LOL!!

Next we came across a pair of lions, probably a mating pair and I could not believe our luck at seeing a second lot of these beautiful carnivores all in one day.

A very unusual millipede – usually they have stripes running around the body and this was diagonally. A real beauty too.

A breeding herd of elephants were in a small river bed digging for water. Please see video by clicking on this link. One baby of about 4 years old was trying to stand up from where he was and I had to capture the sequence.

An even smaller elephant of about 2 years old decided to go and dig his own hole for water and all you could see was this small butt sticking up. LOL!!

In birds, it is normally the male (left hand side picture) which is more beautiful and has a coloured eye. Saddlebilled Storks are different in that the female has a yellow eye and the male a brown one. The male also has two yellow wattles below his chin to distinguish him from the female.

I cannot help but stop when I find a Chameleon. They are just so cute! I have eventually got Gaelyn as far as to hold one like this baby. Many Chameleons get killed on the roads as people do not see them so I take them and out them in a bush and out of harms way.

The stunning Bateleur hunts for insects.

A Klipspring on a rock in the typical environment and stance you see them in. They are one of our smaller species of buck standing less than 1m (3’) in height.

On the way back to camp, another lot of lions!! My goodness what a day this has been for seeing these magnificent animals!! This time it is a female with four cubs of about 2 years old which she is also teaching to hunt. The rain is starting to fall and it is getting to the time we need to be heading back to camp so we cannot wait around and see if the female captures anything. I hate it when I see something interesting like this and cannot stay around longer.

I had so many excellent pictures to show for these couple of days at Satara that I made many collages in order to show many of them else the post would have been too long. Never a day goes by that visiting Kruger National Park disappoints me. There is always SO much to see and photograph. Many sighting are just a glimpse of something disappearing into the bush/grass and I have to be satisfied with just seeing the animal and not being able to take photographs.

SA Diversity Tour (12-14/02/2014) Day 28-30

Lower Sabie Camp

What a horrible mess!! Because of the loss of photographs and considering that we are not too far away, we decide to go back to Kruger National Park for a week in order for Gaelyn to replace the photographs of animals which she has lost. We broke camp early and headed for Nelspruit to buy a new computer. We are basically still in the beginning of the tour and she needs it to download her pictures on. A great expense unfortunately but a necessary one. We also cannot replace the pictures of the many wonderful sightings of leopard etc. we saw there and I had not taken many, but I could at least give her what I had as a start.

We started off at Lower Sabie, one of my favourite camps and checked in for two nights and on the first morning, headed down to Crocodile Bridge in order to take the sand road towards Berg en Dal. Vervet Monkeys were playing on the road sign which is a pyre of rocks and having a great time. They are fun to watch. (See video: http://youtu.be/HrU8vdvZRrM)

What absolutely good luck and a marvellous start to our week!! We came across a mating pair of lions right in the road with only one car there so managed to get some fantastic shots of the mating ritual as well as photographs. Gaelyn had not seen this before, so I was pleased she had the opportunity to witness it herself. Please do watch this video: http://youtu.be/eM-3MaFhyt8. The pair leave the rest of the pride for about 3 days and female always initiates the mating. During the process, he gently bites her on the back of her neck. One of the interesting observations I made during this was that after they have mated, which takes less than half a minute, the female would always roll onto her back afterwards. I wonder if this is part of the ritual or maybe helps with ovulation? I am going to find out and will update this post when I do.

One of Gaelyn’s favourite animals is the Hyaena and there were many youngsters around for her to enjoy watching. Only problem is, we had to stop at all of them. LOL!! (Not that I minded but please don’t tell her that. J )

Steenbok are one of our smallest antelope and stand at a shoulder height of about 2’. They are very agile and fast in running away as soon as you stop to look at them so it was surprising to get this one standing around allowing us to get wonderful photographs.

Whitefronted Bee-eaters most catch insects and butterflies flying past and need to be very quick to catch them.

 Twig Wilters belong to the same family as stinkbugs and put out an obnoxious smell when disturbed.

Julia Skimmers are not easy to photograph as they are very leery of one getting to close. I love watching them skim across the water and if one watches long enough, you will see that they always go and land on the same place. Get near to this and sit quietly and they will return to it after a while which is the time to get that picture. J

Finding this giraffe was so funny. His crazy hairstyle on his horns when compared to what it should be, provided us with a good chuckle. LOL!!

 First there was one on the sandbank, then two, then three. LOL!! Serrated Turtles come out to bask in the early morning sunshine.

One pond was covered in White Waterlilies and the Carpenter bees were having a ball collecting pollen. Waterlillies are edible and prepared in many ways.

Because there are so many, one tends to overlook the beautiful Impala. They are fantastic jumpers and can cover a distance of 30’ in one leap.

Majestic elephants are my favourites. Although males can weigh up to 5 tons, they are completely silent when walking.

Butterflies were everywhere and this Common Scarlet is just one of hundreds of species found in the Park.

Besides the mating lion, twice coming across the scarce and rarely seen Black Rhino was a real treat!! Unfortunately I do not have the right lens to get good distance shots and this one was a way off, so the shots I took of him are a bit fuzzy. J

This was one of the smallest Tortoise I have ever seen and so cute too.

I found this scorpion but cannot find out what it is called as I do not have my books with me. They look kind of scary.

What a great few days at Lower Sabie with excellent sightings as always. A pity our time was limited and we had to move on.

SA Diversity Tour (9-11/02/2014) Day 25-27

It was a short trip from Sodwana to St. Lucia which is amongst my favourite places to be and the first day was spent setting up camp, buying a few supplies and taking a short walk on the beach. It was still overcast so we decided to take it easy and get some work done on the computers. Please see this post for more info and pictures of St. Lucia: http://natureswow.blogspot.com/2013/05/st-lucia-south-africa-travelogue.html

 On the way there I had noticed some Nguni cattle. They are very mottled, colourful and indigenous. The horns of slaughtered animals are kept and beautifully carved for sale at roadside stalls.

One had a beautiful white patch but a deformed horn.

 Going to the bathroom, this lovely, medium-sized moth was on the wall.

Early the next morning we left to take a drive to Cape Vidal which is situated about 20km’s away.

St. Lucia is surrounded by the iSimangaliso Wetlands and was proclaimed a UNSECO World Heritage Site.

It covers an area of 240,000 hectare and comprises of sea, wetland, marine and savannahs. It is a renowned area for nesting turtles.

Along the way, there are many species of birds and wildlife to be found.....

including the largest dung beetle I have ever seen!! It must be at least 5cm in length.

The coast along there is lovely and we stopped to watch the waves and people fishing.

Arriving at Cape Vidal, I see it is much changed since I was there many years ago.

As the day was hot, we stopped for an ice cream then down to the beach to wander among the tidal pools.

This is always such a fascination for me and the coral clinging to the sides of the rocks is beautiful.

Not knowing marine creatures, there were curious roundish ones and some lovely small fish.

On the way back I stopped to examine some dung and found this beautiful dungbeetle.

One our second day there, we went to Hluhluwe/Umfolozi Game reserve. I don’t know if it was maybe the time of year, but there was almost nothing to see so by lunchtime, we were ready to leave.

Stopping at the Wimpy in Mtubatuba, we had lunch and drove back to St. Lucia. Gaelyn went to get her computer out of the back of the truck and discovered that while we were eating, someone had stolen it and her vanity bag!! To make things worse, they must have had a key as they even lock the car behind them!! I was SO very, very upset on her behalf.

 Because of this, she had now lost all the pictures she had taken on the trip sofar. My heart cried with her. How awful I felt that this should happen to anyone let alone a very good friend like her!!

SA Diversity Tour (6-8/02/2014) Day 22-24

Jozini / Kosi Bay / Sodwana Bay

The road to Kozi Bay goes over a high mountain passed Jozini Dam which can be seen below.

There are many private game reserves in this area situated along its banks and a yearly Tiger fishing competition is held there.

Kosi Bay itself is unfortunately not available to anyone not driving a 4x4 vehicle so was not accessible to us although we stayed there overnight at a lovely caravan park and early the next morning, headed for Sodwana Bay.

For many years now, this Bay has been renowned for deep-sea diving and the excellent fishing so people flock there in droves all year long.

The weather had changed and it was overcast and rainy so the miles of white, sandy beaches did not lend itself to sunbathing however at low tide, there are many stretches of rock exposed which I found a delight to explore.

The tidal pools are full of tiny fish....

beautiful sea urchins....

and the most magnificent stones and shells.

There were a few Blue Bottles along the water line which people with bare feet have to watch out for as they STING!! J

The following day saw no improvement in the weather but we took chairs onto the beach and watched the boats taking people out to go diving and spent a relaxing day lounging around.

Of course we could not help but want to go exploring the rock pools again and after a long walk on the beach, made our way to the tidal pools again.

 We stayed at the Parks Board camping grounds which is huge and as there were not too many people there, we had a marvellous choice of prime spots to choose from.

Gaelyn did not want to go diving or swimming with the sharks (wonder why?) LOL!! Instead, we spent more time exploring the rock formations which look like mini mountain ranges.