SOUTH AFRICA - MAY 2011   (Part 1)

After spending the first night of our holiday with friends in

Nelspruit, we drove north to enter the Kruger Park at

Phalaborwa Gate.  One of our first sightings was of this

elephant bull which chose to walk over rather than round

the Mopani bush!

We spent our first night at Letaba camp and were fortunate to

see 3 male lions in the riverbed in front of the restaurant.

Unfortunately it was dusk and light poor so I have no pics.  Next

day we drove to Satara where we spent the next few days and

these are some of the sights we saw along the way.

This young elephant tried to tell us how big and brave he was but

he turned and ran a moment later!

On the low level bridge over the Olifants River near Balule, we

saw this lovely Malachite Kingfisher.

We also saw a large group of ostriches which are fairly common

in the open areas north of Satara.

We were lucky to see a genet in camp on 3 of the 4 nights we

were there.  I didn't take pics as it was fairly far away and light

was not good.  On our first drive from Satara we went south and

virtually the first sighting we saw was of 8 lions which had been

lying in long grass.

It was just after 6am and was still fairly dark.  After getting up

the lions moved off.  A good start to our day!!  After a half an

hour or so we saw a jackal in the road and stopped to look at it -

well, we couldn't get past it!

Next I saw hyenas off to the left and then realised there was a

lioness lying right by the road. She was feeding on the remains of

a giraffe kill.

We watched for a while before she moved away.

Another sighting was of these dwarf mongooses on the road - they

are very cute little creatures.

We turned off onto a sand road and were rewarded with a couple

of good elephant sightings.

Next day we went to the Timbavati picnic site where we cooked

ourselves a scrambled egg and fried tomato breakfast under a

tree where this Scops owl was sleeping.

After leaving the picnic site we saw these two zebras fighting.

I don't think it was too serious as they eventually moved off to

rejoin the rest of the herd.

A Brown Snake eagle stayed long enough for me to grab a quick

pic

Back at Satara we saw another Scops owl in a tree close to the

parking area near reception. It was oblivious to all the people

looking at it and walking by.

This was our last night in the Kruger Park - next day we were

driving south to stay at our timeshare at Ngwenya Lodge on

the banks of the Crocodile River.  More to follow .......

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